Ta-WOW!

The much anticipated Toastmasters International District 87 Division K 15^th Semi-Annual Convention finally took off on 9^th October 2010. About 100 delegates from Toastmasters all over Sabah and Brunei attended the two day one night convention in Tawau.

Hosting club Tawau Toastmasters Club was both happy and excited to receive all the delegates as it was the first time the literally small club took the challenge to host such a prestigious convention. Clubs in Division K are given the chance to host the convention which is held twice a year.

The courage of Tawau Toastmasters Club was acknowledged by both Convention Organising Chairperson Rosslin Peter Rosen and Division K Governor Datin Grace Chiu during their speeches. Rosslin says that Tawau Toastmasters Club is small in size and the members too are busy with work and family commitments. However the members have finally decided to put aside their personally matters and concentrated fully on the preparation of the convention since May this year. With limited, but not less committed, members many have to take up more than one role to ensure the success of the convention.

Division K Governor congratulated Tawau Toastmasters Club for taking up the big challenge to host the convention which has been held previously in Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Brunei. She also thanked the delegates for their support. The Toastmasters convention is always to place to better one’s public speaking and leadership skills besides fellowship.

Division Governor also thanked District 87 Governor Mohamad Ariff Azahari who was the Guest of Honour as well as a workshop speaker. Mohamad Ariff flown in from Kuching, Sarawak. Two other workshop speakers were Dr Sarjit Singh Sidhu from Darul Aman Toastmasters Club in Kedah and Ray Chia of Kota Kinabalu Mandarin Toastmasters Club.

The All-In-One Workshop was held on the afternoon of 9^th October 2010. It was so called All-In-One as the workshop was conducted in English and Mandarin. All the speakers stressed on the importance of developing EQ or Emotional Intelligence, the need to express ourselves before it is too late and the need to understand our own characters to better improve ourselves.

Earlier before the workshop Division K Council members met to discuss matters regarding Toastmasters clubs in the division. Also present were District Governor Mohamad Ariff Azahari, Lieutenant Governor Marketing Richard Gontusan and District Secretary Ivy Fung. Division Governor Datin Grace Chiu who chaired the meeting with the presence of Assistant Division Governor Education and Training Lee Chye Ewe, Assistant Division Governor Marketing Randy Wong, Secretary Ling How Kee, Public Relations Officer Shane Ho, Area Governors and advisors.

During the meeting, Datin Grace also announced the successful chartering of UMS Toastmasters Club which adds the number of clubs in Division K to 24. More clubs are on the way and it shows that more and more people are paying more importance on communication and leadership skills.

A fellowship night themed with “Floral Night” followed in the evening to welcome all the delegates. Delegates and guests dressed in the floral attires limited only to their imagination. The function was aim to foster better camaraderie as well as exchanging views with fellow Toastmasters members.

While delivering his speech as Guest of Honour, District Governor Mohamad Ariff Azahari congratulated both Division K and Tawau Toastmasters Club for successfully organized a convention in such a grand scale. He has made many observations on the strengths of the convention in what he called the Ta-WOW (Tawau) factors.

He even went as far to suggest that the local authorities should promote Tawau using the Ta-WOW factors and adopt the Ta-WOW tag which has become very fond and familiar with the delegates.

Mohamad Ariff later presented the District 87 Star Pins to early achievers in the Toastmasters program. Tawau Mandarin Toastmasters Club which has recruited 14 new members in a short period was also honoured. President Wong Nyuk Lin received the special award.

Floral Night guests and delegates were later entertained with dances performed by V Young and Magunatip Bamboo Dances. They were also invited to join the dances. With this warming up everyone were dancing away to the variety of music and songs and not forgetting getting to know each other at the same time. Experience Master of The Ceremony for the evening Lee Chye Ewe ensured everyone was well entertained and had a wonderful night of joy and fun.

The highlight of the convention was the Division K Evaluation & Humorous Speech Contests which were held on the following day. Representatives were winners from the Area Contests which were held much earlier. Annie Cheng was the Speech Contests Chairperson while Datin Betty Hiew was the Contests Organising Chair.

Rozana Yunos and Zainal Bostaman, both from Brunei Speakers’ Club, won the Evaluation and Humorous Speech Contests respectively. Liew Hon Min of Tawau Toastmasters Club came in second place for Evaluation Speech Contest while Jess Ambrose of Kota Kinabalu Advanced Toastmasters Club was at second place for Humorous Speech Contest.

Both Rozana and Zainal will represent Division K to the District 87 contests to be held on 28^th November 2010 in Jakarta during the first District 87 Semi-Annual Convention. Toastmasters from Indonesia, Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak are expected to attend the district level convention.

On behalf of the Organising committee, Rosslin wishes the Division K speech contest representatives all the best and thank everyone for your support and participation which helped made the convention a successful one. She also thanked the generous sponsors, advertisers and donors.

Photo Albums:
1. Tawau 2010
2. Area K5 Speech Contests
3. Workshop
4. Floral Night 1 
5. Floral Night 2
6. Division K Speech Contests