Meeting at the New Rel Lab Office

Attending today's meeting were: Gerry Ong, Mic Tuason and Les Aquino. Discussed briefly was a meeting to be scheduled in mid-December which will be the venue for an initial convention of those interested in joining Toastmasters. The media campaign was also briefly discussed and that in addition to that, officers will also be talking personally with the engineers with potential of joining the club. Here's a sample of the flyers and will be the first to be posted:

Meeting at Alfie's Room

Attending today's meeting were: Alfie Suarez, Dan Benig, Gerry Ong and Les Aquino. The survey drafted by Dan was sent out yesterday and the results were discussed today. The survey questions are as follows:

1) How do you find the OSPI Toastmasters club as a learning program?
2) What factors (or roadblocks, if any) keep you from participating actively?
3) Given a choice what schedule would you prefer for club meetings and why?
4) How can OSPI Toastmasters become more relevant to your own needs or your organization’s?
5) In what ways do you think you can contribute to help the organization succeed?

The replies/feedback to the above questions were assessed and it was concluded that the answers be best addressed in an initial meeting or convention of potential toastmasters members. Alfie also mentioned that joining the Toastmasters club and the sessions will NOT be a mandate of company management. So, the club is pretty much "on it's own" to revive the club and the sessions. It was then agreed that the club embark on a media blitz to campaign and promote the club to those who would be interested. Les accepted the job to spearhead the media blitz.

Meeting at ER Room

A meeting was held to discuss possible action items regarding the problems plaguing the club. This was brought about by the still unrenewed club dues for October. An email was sent by Area Governor Bobbie Galang on this.

Attending the meeting were Officers Gerry Ong, Mic Tuason, Dan Benig and Les Aquino. Also in the meeting was HR Mgr Alfie Suarez. Some of the items discussed was whether how better can the club serve the needs of employees. Gerry mentioned of an impression that those who can afford to attend Toastmasters meetings are those who have a light workload.

Agreed upon were the following:
1. Gerry Ong to ask Area Governor what will happen if membership dues are not immediately renewed.
2. Dan Benig to draft a survey form that will be sent out to previous and current toastmasters.

When Dan asked on how much support or influence can the club get from the Department Managers, Alfie said that the managers are a mixed group. Essentially, one-third of them do not and will not probably support Toastmasters. Another one-third do not know much about Toastmasters and these are the new managers. And the last third are a bit more neutral and may likely be swayed into supporting Toastmasers.

Evaluation at KCPI

KCPI once again invited Les Aquino to guest evaluate at their club. Unfortunately, Area Governor Lolet didn't make it so Les took the General Evaluator role. He also gave his 3rd advanced speech from the Entertaining Speaker manual - Make them Laugh, entitled "Motel 101". His speech was evaluated by Area 75 Quartethlon champion Leonor Cristobal. For his evaluation, Les took on TM Jun's 4th basic speech entitled "XXX".
Below is TM Felix leading the Word-of-the-Day segment.

Pres. Jess delivering an Impromptu Speech on the Table Topics segment.

It is this club's 19th meeting but these guys are definitely getting better and better.

Evaluation at NXP Calamba (formerly Philips)

Les Aquino was invited by Area 77 Governor Khris Albano to be a Guest Evaluator at the NXP (formerly Philips Calamba) Toastmasters Club meeting. He was later joined by ex-ONer Dr. Noy Josef. Les evaluated 2 speakers:

1. SP#3 - "Show of Hands" by Marifel Espedido
2. SP#3 - "The Boss" by Delia Aquino

Dr. Noy evaluated Emily Domingo for her SP#2 - "God's Precious Gift". The meeting started promptly at 6pm and opened by Club President Delia Aquino. The meeting ended before 8:00pm.

ON Semi TMC Sees Action in Division K Quartethlon

Ernesto "Jun" Lomuntad Jr. from Area 76 won the Overall Championship while Voltaire "Volts" Victoria became Runner-Up in today's Division K Quartethlon. This means Jun advances to the District level (Philippines) competition on October 7 in Antipolo. Congratulations, guys!

The Division Quartethlon was held at the Forum Hall of the Casino Filipino in Paranaque and started at 8:30am. In Impromptu Speaking, the table topic was:

If you were at a party abroad, who would you be most interested in talking to: a billionaire, a hollywood actress or an Olympic gold medalist.

Norrie chose the billionare (Microsoft's Bill Gates); Les chose the athlete (Ian Thorpe, Olympic Swimmer); Jun chose the athlete (Lance Armstrong, Tour-de-France Cyclist); and Volts chose the actress (Marlyn Monroe).

In the Evaluation Speech Contest, the test speaker was Aret Esconde from DHL and the title of her speech was "A 15 peso ride and a Free Movie". Her speech was about her observations in an MRT ride. It was humorous and all the evaluation speeches were good. Les won the Runner-Up Award in this category.

Here are the contestants (area champions) in today's division contest (left-right): Les from Area 78, Volts from Area 77, DivGov. Rema, Jun from Area 76 and Norrie from Area 75.

Here's the awarding for the Evaluation Speech Contest (left-right): Bobbie, Khris, Rema, Jun, Les and Lolet.

Here's a part of the audience that attended the event (Seated left-right: Grace, Mabel, Aret Esconde (Test Speaker) and Irene; Standing left-right: Volts, Khris, Lolet and Les)

Overall, the competition was very close and was definitely a good show. Chief Judge was Christine Temblique DTM and the other judges included Raul dela Vega and Jimmy Pamintuan.

Demo Meeting at Amkor Technology Philippines

A Demo Club Meeting today was held at Amkor Technology Philippines, formerly Amkor Anam Philippines Inc at 5 to 6pm. The venue of the Demo Meeting was at the Bayanihan Conference room at P2. Lee Manalaysay from Organizational Development HR welcomed the guests. The Demo meeting was held to enable the Amkor audience to appreciate what goes on in a typical Toastmasters Club meeting. By having themselves participate in some of the segments like Impromptu Speaking, they get a feel of what it's like to run a Toastmasters meeting.

The theme for the day was "Learning the Basics". Dr. Noy was the General Evaluator of the meeting. Les delivered his speech "That Extra Mile" as a demonstration prepared speech. Brookes Loomis DTM was the Toastmaster of the Day and his wife Dina Loomis DTM evaluated Les's speech. Gov. Beth Pableo ATM-S was the Table Topics Master.

In the Table Topics portion, several Amkor employees were asked to "volunteer". Greg Fisher talked about his greatest fear while Joel Gonzales talked about his unforgettable experience.

A part of the audience that witnessed a Toastmasters Demo Meeting. In the foreground are Greg Fisher (left) and Joel Gonzales (back to camera) from Amkor. Others seated in the front row are: Dina Loomis (wearing hat), Brookes Loomis (in blue shirt) and AreaGov. Beth Pableo (rightmost)

Dr. Noy giving his evaluation as a General Evaluator to the Amkor audience. Behind him is the chart showing the several Impromptu Speaking formats: PREP (Point Reason Example Point), SMG (Story Message Gain), PPF (Past Present Future), AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action) and PROBE (Praise Request Options BestOption Explain). These formats were earlier explained by AreaGov. Beth Pableo.

Before the meeting closed, Brookes asked for 4 volunteers to give their Icebreaker speeches in the next meeting. He said that in his experience with other clubs, it is rare that all 4 will be able to deliver and with that note, he challenged the group to prove him wrong. What a challenge indeed!

Club Meeting - Farewell to Dr. Noy

Today we had our farewell meeting for Dr. Noy. We had 3 guests from Meralco South: Area Gov. Bobbie Galang, Aldo and Edu. Breakfast was courtesy of Dr. Noy. Toastmaster of the Day was Maricel. Table Topics Master was Mic Tuason. Les was the Grammarian and Edu from Meralco gave the Timer's Report.

DTM Dr. Noy delivering his farewell speech entitled "From Curing to Caring" while Maricel listens.

Our three guests from Meralco South listening intently to Dr. Noy's speech (left-right): Edu, Area 78 Gov. Bobbie Galang and Aldo (Area 78 Runner-Up).

Bobbie gave a surprise roast-of-a-toast for Dr. Noy that sent him reeling from laughter. In the business matters portion, Club President Gerry Ong and VP Education mentioned that a change in the club meeting's schedule is in the offing. Folks from RDC and some engineers were requesting a change because Wednesday's morning slot (7:00am) is much too early especially for those who stay back at the office every night.

Good Luck Dr. Noy and God Bless !!!