Oasis Meeting Notes 14th Jul 2014

A New Beginning

It’s that time of the year at Toastmaster’s where there is buzz about the “New”. We at Oasis Toastmaster’s definitely are in the midst of this excitement. The “New” is “The Beginning of a New term”, “ The New Excom Committee”, “ The New Goals to work out”, “The New Accolades to be won”.

Embarking on a new journey brings a sense of mystery, along with deep seated emotions of thrill, anxiety, gratitude and last but not the least fear. At Toastmaster’s these emotions are dealt with ease. The sailing is smooth, because each time a toastmaster looks behind, he finds his anchors. A great club, mentors all supporting one another for mutual success.

Oasis Toastmasters stands testimony to this factor of mutual support. This year’s Excom began their new term with the able support of the previous Excom.  14^th July 2014, marked the beginning of the “New”. The Excom committee pledged to lead on under the able leadership of President Wilson Yau.

The year ahead beckons us Oasisians to take that leap and soar high towards our goals. It holds it challenges, the going may get tough but as a team we are ready. So plan on – make that speech, take on that role, grow your communication and become that leader. It’s simply because the time is Now or Never.

- By Priya Gururaj, SAA and Editor, Oasis Toastmaster's Club

Great Trip of Hangzhou Toastmasters Convention, 2012

As more and more people join and become fellow members of our Greater China Toastmasters District 85, this term is the last chance for all of our fellow Toastmasters from all over the China district, North and South, to compete head to head within a local district convention.   From next term (2012-2013), the greater China Toastmasters district will become the North China district 85 and the new South China district 89, which Macau and Hong Kong will be part of from there on.

And maybe that is why, we have over 700 representative participants from toastmasters clubs of all over China, Macau and Hong Kong, came to this Toastmasters District 85 Convention 2012 in Hangzhou.   During the 3 days from the 11th May to the 13th May, amount the 70 or so Hong Kong Toastmasters members who joined the convention, over 10 of us fellow Oasisans were glad to be part of this historical event.

As you might know, our President, Mr. Steve Yu is busy taking care of his little new baby these while, we had to go without him this time.  Our Hangzhou Convention 2012 go team includes……Immediate Past President: Derek Wong, Treasurer: Edward Ng, VPM: Wilson Yau, SAA: Kit Ng, co-VPE: Jeff Chan, seasoned member and our mentor: Grace Cheung, Grace’s friend Caroline Li, highly potential new ex-com: Iris Lui, Raymond Lee, our contestant: Angela Kwok, who represented Division H to compete in Table Topic Contest, and your humble reporter, me.

It was an eye opening event with so many people from all over different parts of China, with people whom we can call fellow toastmasters, even though you have never known the people, or even never visited that part of China in your life.  I found that the convention being such a huge occasion, to be a good place to meet friends and to make friends from other clubs from Hong Kong, or just about from anywhere from China.  We were also glad to meet the toastmasters again from GEM, Elite, with whom, we Oasis had a joint meeting in Guangzhou in Oct, 2011.

Apart from attending the winning speeches and workshops from other divisions from China, one of the most valuable experiences in this convention was participating in the workshop hosted by Keynote Speaker, Mr. Dana LaMon.  Mr. LaMon lost his ability to see when he was four.  But in return, his conversation could convince people that he is not a handicap, but a man of "Yes, I can."  His speech is humorous yet powerful, and interestingly enough, his key point of the one speech that we attended was, “Life is too short to waste time in Toastmasters.” !?   (Want to know more?  Please wait for the DVD, LIVE in Hangzhou Convention 2012.)

Furthermore, one new experience was working in Credential Desk with other members from all over China.  You could see our team spirit from our picture below.  They were all so nice and helpful.

After the convention on Sunday, Oasisan Edward Ng organized a lunch for over 20 toastmasters from Hong Kong.   When we raised our glass for a toast before we dig in, we suddenly found that we were surrounded by fellow toastmasters all over the restaurant.   We laughed as we had a loud toast from a roomful of toastmasters, and that was some nice experiences I would say.  Oh yes, we 700 or so toastmasters helped and promoted the local economy of Hangzhou in these few days.

Where is the next destination of Fall Conference 2012 and Spring Conference 2013? Chengdu and Guangzhou.

Hope to see more Oasisans join the coming conventions.  Let’s explore more in this community.  Don’t miss it!


Betty LAW
Co-Vice President, Public Relation
Oasis Toastmasters Club (2011-2012)

Sharing from Calvin Yau

I will use the following words to describe Oasis Toastmasters Club.

                                  

First is Warmth and Unity. After taking part in several meetings, I feel the very warm atmosphere in the Oasis Club. I feel that Oasis club treasure the value of guest. During the break of each meeting, I will not feel lonely as there are some members will take the initiative to talk with me .I also see that some members also actively chat with the new guests, helping them to know the clubs more.

At the dinner time, I also see that many members were willing to stay to chat together at the dinner table, that shows that they have the sense of belongings in the club .I appreciate that when there were the birthday of members or some members need to leave Hong Kong for a long time, there would be the celebration or farewell at the Dinner. This shows that the Oasis is just like a family. The members and guest can feel the sense of belonging to the club. No wonder the Oasis is the club which have the second largest additional members among English Toastmaster clubs in Hong Kong in the past year.

Second is Energetic, I see that the presidents as well as the oasis members are energetic in the meeting. The opening remark of president-Steve was powerful and energetic .Also the club updated the beautiful and professional webpage frequently and brings the latest news to the outsiders. This shows the energetic performance of Oasis Club. Also, the holding of different workshops let the guests and members know more about team building skills. That is great.

Third is Creativity. I remember that the prize given to the past president, Derek was a beautiful poster .The poster included different members’ comments to the presidents. I am surprised with the great artwork done by the committee members. I am sure that Derek loved it so much.

Forth is Quality. There are different Stars in the Club in speech and Evaluation like Grace, Derek, Ivy, Jimmy, Steve and other members. I learn a lot about the presentation skills from them.

Fifth is Continuous progress. The club is well prepared to accept the opinions of different members and guest. I suggest if possible each meeting includes different levels of the speech. For example, at a meeting included speech of both CC project and AC project. This can suit the needs of different members and guests.

I am sure that under the leadership of Steve and the great participation of committee’s members, the Oasis will become the biggest and the best English Toastmasters Club in this year.

Calvin Yau (Jimmy's Twins Brother)

A letter from Beijing, Pan Wong

It has been a month since I’ve moved to Beijing. Thanks for the advanced technology in Internet and software “freegate”, so that I can access Facebook and keep contact with my friends in Oasis. I am here in Beijing yet my root still lies in Hong Kong.

Beijing is a huge city that we HongKongers could never imagine. We spent lots of time in transportation which I think is not effective. The only benefit that is the price of Beijing MTR is very low – RMB2 for every station no matter how far you travel. This city is as hot as in HK but a little bit difference. HK is hot and humid that we could easily get sweat, just like we are living in an oven. On the other hand, Beijing is hot & dry. It is rare to get sweat here even you have been walking for 2 hours under the sun. What makes me hurt is the strong sunlight and we could easily get sunburn due to the latitude of this city. Sun glasses and sun scream is a must for living here.

If HK is an oven, BJ would be a roaster.

The mindset of Beijingers, especially the officials is different from that in our place. In Hong Kong, service-orientated attitude is very important but it is completely not the case in BJ, let me give you an example. Once I went to the railway tickets for my colleagues which required the identity document of the passenger. The ID number of the passenger is printed on the ticket to avoid speculation. I bought tickets for 4 of my colleagues and prepare all the related documents. I needed to buy 4 sets of round-trip tickets (totally 8 then). However, the officers only agreed to sell me the 4 tickets to the destinations and asked me to come back 10 minutes later to buy those for coming back. I was puzzled and wondered if there was any technical failure. After he sold me those 4 tickets he was off-duty --- I realized that he found my case too troublesome which required him to enter the ID number for 8 times that would delay he to off-duty. The story didn’t end. Then the other officer sold me the rest of the 4 tickets and I found the number format she entered was different from the previous tickets. I required her to change but her reply was logical:  The previous tickets were sold by the other officer and he was off-duty, so it was none of her business and could not make any change. Should I persist a change; I would have to go to another box office. I said hello to her mum with Cantonese but went to the other window to line up for the change. In another occasion we went to the government department for enquiry at 11:50 am. The official said they were having lunch break (should start at 12:00!!) and we should come again at 1:30 pm (No service during lunch break). Without further reply, she set back and went for lunch. There was still exactly 10 minutes before the lunch break.

Such cultural difference here some time makes me frustrated but I like it. If we agree with what they do and further lower our bottom-line, what’s the difference between HK people and mainland Chinese? In recent years there’s a trend that we Hong Kong people should comply with China in order to get a share in such a huge market which sounds correct. Yet, some fundamental values and behavior shape our attitude and frame the Hong Kong spirit – Professional, Integrity, Faithful, Service-orientated...etc. If we give up such values, we lose our value. I hope when I return to Oasis and you won’t find me becoming a mainland uncle J

Pan Wong

Oasian at Beijing

Thank You Very Much, by Derek Wong, President

Dear Oasians and welcome guests

My president term is almost come to an end. This year, many wonderful events have been organized by Oasis, allow me to recap them to you and give my heartfelt appreciation to all hard working team members.

Regular meetings

1st Quarter VPE "Summer Fiesta" - June Ng

2nd Quarter VPE, "5 Senses" - Grace Cheung

3rd Quarter VPE, " Life" - Jimmy Yau

4th Quarter VPE, "New" - Steve Yu, Grace Cheung, June Ng

Membership

VPM, Steve Yu, 16 net membership growth

Member recognition program held in 1st and 3rd quarter

Sent follow up email on next day after meeting

Joint meetings

VPPR, Jimmy Yau, Jeff Chan

Joint meetings with Hong Kong Toastmasters Club, Shenzhen New Experience Toastmasters Club and Kowloon Putonghua Toastmasters Club.

Web-masters, Teresa Lee

New website built to promote club activities, please visit, www.oasistoastmasters.org.hk

Facebook account, Oasis blog, Wilson Yau

A platform to share our words/feelings and promote club activities

Secretary, Mandy Lam

9 editions of Oasis Updates have been issued and circulated to members and guests

New master email list has been updated

Treasurer, Edward Ng

Balanced budget and healthy financial have been kept and all renewal membership fees were collected and/or followed up before end of April

Chief Mentor (buddy), Grace Cheung

Assigned buddy to all new members

Chief CL Mentor, KF Tam

Evaluation on CL manual

General evaluators invitation - Tony Cheung

Invited all GE for more than 10 months

Special events

Ghostmasters Meeting and WOW party on 30 October 2010 (Joint Meeting with NETM) - organized by Jimmy, Jeff, Steve

Christmas party on 20 Dec 2010 - organized by June Ng and Kit Ng

Speakathon and workshop by Cecilia Yeung on 15 Jan 2010 - organized by Jimmy Yau and KF Tam

9th Anniversary Party and Speakathon - organized by Wilson Yau and Betty Law

Team building camp on 3 July 2010 - organized by Grace Cheung

New members orientation - organized by Grace Cheung, Cherry Cheung, workshop speakers Talis Wong, K F Tam, Teresa Lee

Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests - organized by Nadine Wong and Bosco Chan, guided by Teresa Lee

International Speech and Table Topics Contest - organized by Jess Cheuk, Leo Kwok, guided by Cherry Cheung

Workshop speakers - Tina Wong, Jacky Lai, Katy Mok, Donald Yee

and many more...

Thank you very much for giving me this wonderful, memorable and fruitful year. I learnt not only how to lead but also to lead effectively and successfully.

Next Monday, 27 June, will be my last Oasis's presidency meeting day and new officers installation, please come to enjoy this beautiful moment with us.

Best wishes and happy toastmastering

Derek Wong

Outgoing president

Oasis Toastmasters Club

Celebrating 10th anniversary

New Member Corner, Susanna Ng

SUSANNA SMILES J  by Susanna Ng

Hello, members of Oasis! I’m a new member of the club and I’d like to introduce myself to you here. The title of my article is ‘Susanna Smiles’. Yes, I’m going to tell you why this person, Susanna, always smiles.

Susanna loves English very much. Ever since she was a teenager, she was told that English was going to be very important in her future life. She loved the articulation of the English sounds, especially listening to people from the BBC. So she listened to the BBC world news as early as she was in Form Four and Form Five. Of course she wouldn’t understand a lot of the content. But when she picked up a piece of news she understood she smiled.

In her career as an English teacher, she always smiles too. But behind her smiles, every morning she wakes with a tired face. (Nowadays, almost everyone has heard about how difficult a teacher’s life can be.)  You know what she does to make herself look better. She puts on make-up. It works magic. She looks refreshed and confident again. Then she looks into the mirror and she smiles.

The third thing that makes her smile is listening to intelligent and witty people speak. Very often these people either open up your mind to a higher level of thinking or they entertain you with their humorous jokes. Whenever Susanne luxuriates in this marvellous feeling, she gives a sigh of deep satisfaction and she smiles.

Susanna loves to listen. Beautiful songs, music, poems or humorous speeches are all wonderful food to her ears. She always laughs heartily whenever she’s treated to a feast of such food. And when she remembers all these fantastic things, she smiles.

Being an English teacher, she loves to teach young people how to enunciate English words clearly and carefully. She believes that young people are easier to mode. Sometimes she plays with the sounds she is going to teach and her students are often tickled pink. Whenever her students can pronounce a difficult word correctly, she smiles.

Last but not least, Susanna smiles when she goes shopping. She loves shopping for all sorts of things, clothes, shoes, earrings, necklaces etc. When she tries these things on one by one, she smiles! If they are the ones which she thinks are meant for her, she’ll welcome them home with BIG SMILES!!!

Members of Oasis, now that you’ve learnt more about Susanna, would you like to join her in some of her favourite activities? Do you like singing or going to concerts? How about shopping?