Happy Independence Day!

On August 18^th, 2011, Professional Toastmasters Club conducted its third and last meeting of Ramzan. Our venue was Beach Luxury Hotel and time was 6:00 p.m. The theme was ‘Independence Day’ and colour for the meeting was green.

The Presiding Officer was TM Shahrukh. The Toastmaster of the Evening was Madam TM Neel. Table Topics Master was TM Jaan Ali. General Evaluator was TM Sameer Dodhy. And Table Topics were evaluated by TM Panjwani.

Roles were performed by TM Izhar as the Timer, TM Fazal as the Grammarian, TM Fahim as the Ah-Counter and TM Ibad as the Word Master and the Vote Counter. The word of the day was Virile.

Table Topics were related to the theme of the day. TM Fahim was asked to speak on the topic: Why guns to express our feeling? He explained the reality of the trigger happy nations and how few bad apples are to be blamed. TM Izhar was asked: Why patriotic on 14^th August only? He beautifully related to the topic and explained that every right has a corresponding duty attached to it. TM Fazal was asked to speak on the topic: Why silencers are removed from the bikes on the eve of 14^th August? He explained that the true reason behind such an action was to get attention. TM Sameer was asked to speak upon: How will Jinnah see Pakistan today? He beautifully recalled Jinnah’s address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan which is now known as the vision of Jinnah. TM Ibad was asked to express his views on: Where Pakistan will be in next five year? And TM Pajwani was asked: How to control the rising prices? He explained that income is not increasing while prices are. Therefore, the buying power is not strong.

In the prepared speeches session there were two speeches. First speech was delivered by TM Farid and it was evaluated by TM Fazal. He presented his final project (speaking after dinner) from The Entertaining Speaker manual. The title of his speech was, ‘Message on your wedding day.’

The second speech was delivered by TM Sahahrukh and he was evaluated by TM Izhar. He presented his fourth project: keep them laughing, and it was from the Humorously Speaking manual. The title of his speech was, ‘I will get on to it.’

There was a presentation by TM Sameer on How to be a distinguished club? He shared with us how we can gain points and progress as the distinguished club in accordance with the standards of the Toastmasters International.

The winner of the Table Topics Session was TM Sameer and TM Ibad was the runner-up. The winner of the Prepared Speeches session was TM Shahrukh and TM Farid was the runner-up.

Our second meeting in Ramzan and the celebration of the Bangkok declaration

We had a wonderful meeting of Professional Toastmasters on August 11th, 2011. Meeting started at 6:00 p.m. This was our second meeting in Ramzan. The theme of our meeting was, ‘The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’ and the celebration of the Bangkok declaration of August 8th, 1967. There were three guests out of the total attendance of 18.


The meeting was presided over by our Club President, Madam TM Dr. Avan. The Sergeant-at-Arms of the meeting was Madam TM Neel who observed the Toastmasters pledge. Toastmaster of the meeting was TM Maneckji and Table Topics Master was TM Panjwani. The General Evaluator was Madam TM Neel and Table Topics Evaluator was TM Adnan.


Table Topics were related to the ‘Leadership Skills.’ The roles were performed by our members as well as guests. TM Junaid was the Grammarian. TM Jaan Ali was the Ah-Counte. Ms. Sarah, our guest, was the Vote-Counter. Timer was TM Farid. And Ms. Rubab, our guest, was the word-master. Word of the day was ‘Sacrifice.’


There were two speeches in the Prepared Speeches Session. First speech was delivered by TM Nadym who presented his project four from the Competent Communicator’s manual. His evaluator was TM Fahim. The title of his speech was ‘Selling.’

The second speech was presented by Madam TM Dr. Avan. She presented her first project from the manual, Interpersonal Communication. The title of her speech was, ‘so easy to talk to.’ She performed a simulation exercise with TM Khalid. The scenario was that Madam TM Dr. Avan meets TM Khalid at a friend’s birthday party and invites him to join Toastmasters.



Our guest Mishal, who is only eight years old, presented her own evaluation by scoring every speaker on the scale of 1 to 10. She also volunteered to present the award to the winner of the Prepared Speeches Session.



The winner of the Table Topics was TM Jaan Ali and TM Fahim was the runner-up. The winner of the Prepared Speeches was Madam TM Dr. Avan and TM Nadym was the runner-up.

After the meeting, TM Jaan Ali, along with rest of the members, celebrated TM Maneckji’s birthday.

Toastmasters is a practising ground.

Our first meeting of Ramzan was on August 4th, 2011. It was a one hour meeting. Attendance was impressive. Around 20 people were present out which six were guests. Our Sergeant-at-rams, TM Neel observed the Toastmasters pledge. The Professional Toastmasters Club also observed a moment of silence in the memory of Late-TM Hassan Javed Khan. He died last year in Air Blue incident. He was the treasurer of the Karachi Toastmasters Club and Prime Minister of the Youth Parliament. May Allah bless his soul. For the firs time, the logo of Professional Toastmasters Club was printed on the agenda.



Toastmaster of the meeting and the Presiding officer of the meeting was Madam TM Dr. Avan. Table Topics session was performed by Madam TM Hera and General Evaluator of the meeting was TM Jumani. Table topics were evaluated by TM Sajjad.

The theme of the meeting was Ramzan and Madam TM Hera made five flash cards and they were placed on the table, upside down. Speakers were invited and asked to pick a card and then the assigned topic was explained to them. TM Jaan Ali was asked to speak on, ‘why generosity in Ramzan only.’ TM Fazal was asked to speak on, ‘overeating in Ramzan.’ Young TM Taimur was assigned the topic, ‘Rise in temper in Ramza.’ TM Emaan was to speak upon the topic, ‘Inequality highlighted in Ramzan.’ And TM Panjwani was given the last topic which says, ‘Getting late for Iftar.’



There were three speeches in the Prepared Speeches session. TM Panjwani presented his speech from the advance manual of Public Relation. He presented his Project one and his evaluator was TM Shahrukh. The name of the project was ‘The Goodwill Speech’ and the title of his speech was ‘Toastmasters.’



Madam TM Neel presented her Ice Breaker from the Competent Communicator manual. Her evaluator was TM Nadym. Her opening was very powerful. She said, ‘around 20 years ago, there was a lady expecting a child on 28th of October. But on 8th of October, there was a Piya-Jam-Hartal (Shutter-down Strike). That impatient child could not wait anymore and came ten days earlier. That child has been impatient ever since then.’ TM Nadym adored her approach and said that this kind of approach disarms the listeners.



TM Fahim presented his project one form the advance manual of Speaking to Inform. His evaluator was TM Avan amd someone rightly pointed out that past president was being evaluated by the current president. The Title of his speech was, ‘Writing to Succeed.’ He mentioned six principles of business writing which are:
a) Focus
b) Purpose
c) Meaning
d) Substance
e) Structure
f) Clarity

Our General Evaluator, TM Jumani quotes TM Jamil that Toastmasters is a Practising ground. He was right because here we have more opportunities to learn, grow and morph.



Guest comments were by Nayab, Emaan, Elena, Sarah, Mairah and Steve.



Winners and runner-ups were presented with the certificates. Winner of the Table Topics was Emaan and runner-up was TM Taimur. Winner of the prepared speeches was Madam TM Neel and runner-up was TM Fahim.

morph into something very special.

On July 28^th, 2011, attendance was very thin but every present member and guest did his best to make this meeting a success. TM Neel started the meeting by observing the Toastmasters pledge. Toastmaster of the Meeting was TM Shahrukh and Table Topics Master was TM Fahim. Table Topics were evaluated by TM Fazal.

Dual roles were performed by most of our members. TM Jameel performed the roles of Grammarian and Ah-Counter. TM Fahim performed the roles of Vote Counter and Timer. And TM Fazal was the Word-Master. Word of the day was ‘Hope.’



In the Table Topics Session, TM Fahim played 23rd July highlights of Football match between Malaysia and Singapore. He divided the audience in to two groups. One group supported the Malaysian team and the other cheered for the Singaporean team. The supporters of the Singaporean team were asked to support the policy of encouraging and bringing in the foreign talent. Malaysian supporters were asked to speak on the policy of the Malaysian team of encouraging the local talent. TM Neel, TM Stevie and TM Jameel were the supporters of the Team Singapore. TM Fazal, TM Jaan Ali and TM Shahrukh were cheering for the Team Malaysia.

There were three prepared speeches. First speech was delivered by TM Fazal. He repeated his speech which he presented in the humorous speech contest and won the second place. His speech was evaluated by TM Steve. The title of his speech was, ‘Life is a box of chocolate.’

The second speech of the programme was presented by TM Jaan Ali. He presented his project three from the Competent Communicator manual. The title of his speech was ‘Forgetting Thankfulness.’ His speech was evaluated by TM Fazal.

The last speech was delivered by TM Shahrukh. He repeated his Project three form the advance manual, Humorously Speaking. The title of his speech was ‘something lost and something found.’ He was evaluated by TM Jameel.

TM Jameel was the General Evaluator and he pointed out many areas of improvement which will help us improve the performance of our club. Some points which are worth mentioning are:
a) The proper place of the Toastmaster of the Meeting is among the audience and not at the back of the speaker.
b) Toastmaster of the meeting should first readout the objectives of the speech, mention the time to the timer, announce the name the speaker and then announce the title of the speech.
c) The General Evaluator should evaluate the evaluators.
d) In Table Topics session, always, first invite an experiences Toastmaster so that the rest can learn from him.
e) And the evaluation session should also be timed.

Our guest Stevie Davies also shared his thoughts with us. He said that in communication, words are 7% but the body movements are 72%. He agreed with the use of exaggeration in a humorous speech and that the Toastmasters will help us morph into something very special.


Winner of the table Topics Session was TM Shahrukh and TM Jameel was the runner-up. Winner of the Prepared Speeches was TM Jaan Ali and TM Shahrukh was the runner-up.