New Members Induction Ceremony cum Hydro Hotel Visit

Date : 5th April 2009
Venue : Hydro Hotel,
Batu Feringghi, Penang

Members of Gurney Toastmasters enjoyed the best of Hydro Hotel's Buffet Sunday Hi-Tea, especially the pudding! ehem..and we meant it!

It is a 'ritual' for a new member to be inducted into the family of any Toastmasters Club. (Normally, induction is held on a yearly basis during Joint Installation Banquet dinner but we do have our own induction at the club level. )

This time round, our induction coincides with the F1 Sepang Race 2009 and we were so spoilt to be inducted at Hydro Hotel by the poolside.

Three new members, one 'used-to-be' member and five Gurney Toastmasters members gathered for a Sunday Buffet Hi-Tea with a plan, not to take over Hydro Hotel but to spread the goodness of Toastmasters in the hotel itself! Nothing was hard to do as the General Manager himself was inducted that day.

Programme of the day :

2.30pm START : Hi Tea @ Coffee House next to Poolside.

Wonderful environment and lots of varieties of food. Everyone was happy and relaxed catching up and getting to know one another more.

4:00pm Hotel Tour to the Meeting Room, Business Centre, Rudi's Office, Lounge etc.

4:30pm Meeting started by Ai Li, TOE.
Welcoming speech by Sam Koay, IPP
Word of the day by Rudi

- "AUF WIERSERSEHN!" (German : until we meet again)

Humour session by Sam & Muthu.

Assignment speech by Soo Huey

- "What have you missed today?"

5.00 pm Table topic session with 8 participants
Speech evaluation for prepared speech by Yap Heng Weng
Table topic evaluation by Muthukumaran.

he, he commented that he never had evaluated 8 table topics before in his entire history with Toastmasters! Everyone had fun and was actively participating :)

Induction Ceremony by Cheah Ee Liang (Area S3 Governor)

- Announcement of new members with Mentor
Chan - Dylan (Mentor)
Rudi - Ai Li (Mentor)
Weng Keong - Sam (Mentor)
Kyle - Joanne (Mentor)

5:45pm Meeting ended. Closing speech by Dylan.

It was indeed a great induction ceremony for the new members and a great gathering for all!

WH Yap (Renesas Toastmasters Club) , Soo Huey (Achievers Toastmasters Club) and Ai Li

Kyle Lee (new member), Lynda and WK Wan (new member)

Jyh Woei (new member) and Sam

We had a few comments from the guest who joined us in the gathering and as usual,

"Gurney Toastmasters Club is ALWAYS THE MOST HAPPENING CLUB ~ EVER!"

* We wish to thank Muthukumaran (Penang Advanced Toastmasters Club), WH Yap (Renesas Toastmasters Club), Penny Ooi (Maverick Toastmasters Club), June Lim (YMCA Toastmasters Club) and Cheah Ee Liang (Area S3 Governor + Renesas Toastmasters Club) for making the event a more successful!

Division S International Speech and Table Topic Contest 2009

After several undefeated challenges from Club contest to Area then it is the time for Division Contest!

Every contestant in this contest is already winners! Some won the mind of the judges, some won the hearts of their admirers, some won the attention of the girls and others that were present, took home something priceless - the experience!

Division S International Speech and Table Topic Contest 2009 was held in Penang Adventist Hospital's Nursing College Hall. And mind you, it was so packed that the hospital might even consider to extend the hall!! :)

Both contest was participated by Champions of each Area, in total 7 Areas in Division S. That means, each contestants will need to face their competitors from 7 different background and experiences!

Gurney Toastmasters Club was representated by the President, Joanne Tan, who won the Area S3 Table Topic Contest and was the 1st Runner Up for the International Speech Contest. She represented the Area S3 to compete in the Table Topic contest, and mind you! It was a real tough topic!


"A Word A Day, You Will Learn A Whole Dictionary Someday" Do you agree on the idea, and why?


Stood tall with nothing but butterflies and words...flabbergasted with the topic, she carried on by saying that Toastmasters programme is already a dictionary itself! With every meeting's "Word Of The Day", it sure has helped her through many speechless moments. And eventhough a dictionary is worth a great study, but a teacher would worth more than what she needs. And she quoted her friend from US, Mr Solomon Olin, a tourist who was a great teacher to her throughout his 2 months, as he stayed in Penang, he taught her the meaning of being a human and how to be successful in mind, body and soul. Her last sentence was "It is never easy to learn a dictionary, but it was never easy to learn to be a meaningful human being. Thanks to the dictionary for the words and meanings, but thanks to people we meet for their guidance and great moments shared, priceless!"

Our Winner, the Division S' 1st Runner Up in Division S Table Topic Contest 2009.

Ushering the 'Chai' to Gurney Toastmasters!

With everyone all ready to usher in the year of Ox this Chinese New Year, Gurney Toastmasters are still in the mood of having their speech done and a traditional reunion with everyone in the 'family'.



We have been practising our tradition of having a reunion dinner together, if not, a reunion for all the members, past and present.



This year, with no exceptional reasons, "yee shang" was the main attraction! Supporting Gurney Hotel in their quest for charity, we purchase the "yee shang" for a great celebration after the meeting.




Wikipedia.com :


Yusheng , yee sang or yuu sahng (simplified Chinese: 鱼生; pinyin: yúshēng) is a Chaozhou-style raw fish salad. It usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. Yusheng literally means "raw fish" but since "fish (鱼)" is commonly conflated with its homophone "abundance (余)", Yúshēng (鱼生) is interpreted as a homophone for Yúshēng (余升) meaning an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.








At the same time, we have 2 new members that decided to join our Gurney Toastmasters family. What a great celebration indeed!



New members profile :





Kyle Lee

Profession : Engineer
Reason of joining Toastmasters : To learn and improve communication skills

Chan Jyh Woei

Profession : Senior Account Officer

Reason of joining Toastmasters : To improve communication skills and brush up on his leadership skills too

* More about members feature up next , stay tune!!

GurneyTMC Caring Project

To many, Chinese New Year celebration is about having a great family dinner together in our cozy dining room with lots of fish, chicken, meat, vegetables and of course, great drinks!

To some, it's that time of the year where holiday begins with $$ and this is especially meaningfull for kids who love the feeling of 'ang pow' filling up their pockets and bags.

To children at the Children Protection Society, it's a whole different story.

With a little thought of sharing and a little effort to keep the spirit of giving and sharing a great Chinese New Year, Gurney Toastmasters Club members initiated a visit to the Children Protection Society (CPS). The centre, located at Scotland Road, Penang, is a shelter for children who were abused, tortured and even abandoned by their parents, and loved ones.

With approximately 30 children under the care of 2 house mother, the centre provide shelter, food and studies for the children aged between 5 till 18 years old. These children are from all over Penang and are from different races, but living together means a lot to them as support for each other are very strong can easily be found here, at the Children Protection Society. Don't be surprised when you meet some of very intelligent and active children there!!

We were there last night from 8pm till 10.30pm, to offer our help in terms of entertaining and guiding the children towards a better education journey. We separated the children into 2 groups, the primary school and secondary schools.

Sam, Ai Li and Benjamin Liaw (PAH Toastmasters Club) took the lead in providing education and motivation talk to the secondary school children while Joanne, Dylan, Wooi Fun (Intel Toastmasters Club) and Denise (Intel Toastmasters Club) brought some joy with games to the kids of those in primary school. We were glad that Mable, our long-missed member showed up with some dictionaries and even Mr Khoo and wife (Penang MCA Toastmasters Club) came with balloons sculptures to captures the heart of everyone there!

Thanks a million to everyone who offered their heart and hands to help cheer the children at CPS last night, 23rd January 2009. With this, i attached the pictures for your viewing pleasures and of course, with hope that you, would offer your love to those in need, especially during festive seasons like this.

* Gurney Toastmasters Club would like to extend our deepest appreciation to everyone that sent who send their love and support for this project by sponsoring money and food for the orphans.

To all the staffs at UMW, thank you for sponsoring in kind of purchase of dictionaries, reference books, motivational books and chess games.

To Joan Chan (Penang YMCA Toastmasters Club), thank you for your monetary support and advise for the project.

To KK Chee (Butterworth & Penang Advanced Toastmasters Club), Past District 51 Governor, thank you for your kindness in communicating with Tan Mark Bookstore which leads to the sponsoring of books and very useful workbooks for the children.

To Tan Mark Bookstore Manager, thank you for your kindness and support towards the project.

To Mr Soon Guan Pin from Thye Sun Hup Kee, thank you for sponsoring MILO drinks, water tumbler and exercise books for the children.

And here are the pictures!!








Sam giving motivational talk to the children in the secondary school.

Looking like a teacher, Sam!!

Joanne, Dylan and Wooi Fun helping out Ming in his charade acts.

Joe, one of our favourites, he's a life-wire!!

Q&A Session

Dato' Khoo (Penang MCA Toastmasters Club) with his balloons scultures!!

Some of the slides for the motivational talk by Sam , speech about encouragement, displine, confidence and future..

Joanne, Dylan, Wooi Fun and Denise in the secret talk with the kids..on the deepest darkest secret.

*The most heartache talk is from Joe, he was abused by his uncle - with belt and long stick.

Dylan in his 'too-too train sentence' game..

Check out Chun and Wooi Fun ! Priceless smile!

Chun, 7, a great fan of Nicholas Teo...sang us 'Tong Hua' at the end of the game.

The girls, Meena, Huey Ling, Letchu and Banu in their Tamil song..cute!

Sam and Ai Li helping out and briefing the kids on the books, which will be placed in their 'mini library' created by us.

Some of the books, games and MILO sponsored. Thanks a million to all the sponsors!!

Presentation of the sponsorship...

Ang Pow session!!

Balloon pic with the kids!!

Last but not least, a picture for all!! It is indeed a great memory and a great way to start a new year of the Ox!!

Halloween Toastmasters

Organized by Farlim and MCA Penang Toastmasters Club, the joint Halloween themed meeting was held on 28th October 2008 at Northern Tower, Penang. The meeting was attended by Joanne, President of Gurney Toastmasters Club, as the 'devil'...

The themed meeting was a well-done job as it has a great arrangement of programme and the atmosphere of all participants make it a success!

Lights were off with a masked skeleton hanging at the white board, with creepy music from famous ghost story, craved pumpkin, funny looking hotdogs and biscuits as well as reddish syrup served as drinks...indeed, interesting meeting.

The table topic was very exciting as it represent Halloween with treat or trick style, members will have to choose their sweets and speak from the title attached to the sweets. And not to forget, Christopher Choong with his noisy sound effect each time an applause...

Christopher and KhooBY with the 'bloody eyeballs' drinks..

President of MCA Penang, Khai Shing.

Huan Chee Giap with his speech on CPU.

Carmen and her speech on the importance of taking care of our ears.

Last but not least, a picture with all the 'ghost' of Halloween!!

From Left : Andy Lim (Farlim Toastmasters Club), Christopher "Hotdog Ghost" (Penang Advanced Toastmasters Club), Joanne Tan "Red Devil" (Gurney Toastmasters Club) and Eleanor Ooi "Black Widow" (Voices Toastmasters Club)

Hari Raya Bersama Gurney Toastmasters Club

It's a multinational country, and multi-cultural celebration...so, we decided to have out Hari Raya Aidilfitri meeting on the very first day of Hari Raya itself, 1st October 2008.

Gurney Toastmasters Club has always been popular for organizing interesting themed meeting and this great celebration was not an exception eventhough it was the first day of the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.

The festive celebration meeting was attended by non-malays but the meeting was so much about different culture of Malaysia. The table topic was about the Malay culture and even, the food served was more of Hari Raya kuih-muih than normal cakes and cookies...

Ms President as a nyonya :)

Sue wont the Best Evaluator award while Chris won the Best Table Topic award presented by the president.

Area S Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contest

Gurney Toastmasters Club was represented by the champions of the club in the Area S3 Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest, Joanne Tan for her "Are You Man Enough?" humorous speech and James Leong for the Evaluation Contest.

Although Gurney Toastmasters Club was merely a club of 2years old, we have managed to produce great challenger, good competitor and guess what, interesting play of fighting spirit!!

The Area S3 & S7 contest was held at Dell Penang's cafeteria and the turn out was massive to witness the champion to represent the Area for the Division Contest.

Humorous Speech Contest

Joanne Tan : Gurney Toastmasters' Champ, Area S3's 1st Runner-Up...

From Left : Contest Chair, Area S3 Governor, Champion "Super Muthu", 1st Runner-Up Joanne Tan and Organizing Chair...

Evaluation Contest

James Leong : Gurney Toastmasters' 1st Runner-up, Area S3's 1st Runner-Up..

From Left : Area S3 Governor, Champion Christopher Choong, 1st Runner-up James Leong, Contest Chair, Organizing Chair...

Who say Toastmasters don't know how to party??

It was rainy season, and we actually planned for a poolside party with pirates theme, but then again, better not get ourselves wet, else, everybody else might end up knowing a feverish Toastmaster than a real Toastmasters.

So, members of Gurney Toastmasters Club gathered and planned for a party for everyone, especially to promote the club and to promote the benefit of public speaking and communicating.

"Cowboy Party" was the theme, 6th September 2008 was the date and 50 people was the turn out. Unfortunately, we are only able to share a few pictures as the cameraman was unable to upload the photos taken on that night to the President. The party was held at 1 Persiaran Gurney multipurpose hall and was attended by toastmasters and residents of the apartment.

Anyway, it was a potluck party with Division S Education and Training Director Christopher Choong, was specially invited from speak on the importance of listening and speaking as well as the confidence of public speaking.

*Pictures will be uploaded once received. Apology.

Cameraman, Joseph Chen from Sungai Ara Toastmasters Club.

Sam explaining about Toastmasters to guest.

Hooi Koon and Ying Ying, our long lost friend.

Good luck to Ying Ying on her new journey in career in Kuala Lumpur!!


The 3 musketeers!
Dylan, Kent and Chris as the wired cowboys!

One for all, all for one!!