A Club Coach

I just couldn't wait to put on the club coach pin I received from the headquarters this afternoon. I wore it with excitements to show off to my Toastmasters friends at the 4th planning meeting of D67 Spring Conference 2014 at Mackay Hospital this evening, January 29th.

Just about I was at lost what to do next to inspire Aloha Toastmasters Club members to work as a team to become a distinguished club, I received a package from the headquarters, including a congratulatory letter as Club Coach from Sally Newll-Cohen, Chief Operations Officer, a handbook and Item 299 CD "How to be a distinguished club" from the successful club series, How to rebuild a Toastmasters Club--a step-by-step guide, Distinguished club program and club success plan--how to be a distinguished club, #123 CCP Club Coach Pin. I was so much motivated to shoulder my responsibilities as Club Coach and exert myself to take the challenge.

The 4th planning meeting of D67 Spring Conference 2014

LTET Eric Liang joined the 4th planning meeting of D67 Spring Conference at MacKay Hospital Tuesday evening, January 28th.

District 67 Mid-year Training

Second Venue Scouting of D67 Spring Conference 2014

Seven excellent companions met up with Mr. Gee, CPC contractor of lighting and sound track this evening, including Lawrence, Douglas, Kendrick, Judy, Michelle and me.

Div C & H 2nd Officers Training

The 2nd Division C & H Officers Training took place at Room B205, White House, Tatung University Sunday afternoon, January 19th. It was exciting to know that revitalized education program will be in place from the second half of this year. DG Joy Tsai asked all participants to suspend ordering old CC and CL manuals. DGET Eric Liang commented on the new modernized Toastmasters curriculum with five levels. It seems that a new ear begins at the 90th anniversary of Toastmasters International. I'm feeling excited not knowing exactly where I'm going!   

A total of seven members from Grand Toastmasters Club participated in the training to support President Sharen Chan who has led Grand to be No.1 Club in District 67 up till now. We took a group photo with Division H Governor Lawrence Huang. It feels good to be a Toastmaster member who belongs to a healthy club mixed with senior members and junior members.

After the intermission, President Sharen Chan and MVP Gina Cheng from Grand, President Kelly Hsu and Erica Liu of Innovative, President Sophia Yang of CECI took a long coffee break at the Subway across the street from Tatung University. As we were puzzled by the five levels of new education system, Tim Wang googled the 5 level of leadership, L1 highly capable individual, L2, contributing team member, L3, competent manager, L4, effective leader, L5 executive.

Then Kelly shared her opinions about Wacom Bamboo. As I can home-based artist, I can reach paper, brushes, pencils easily, I still enjoy sketching in the natural way. But, maybe one of these days, I shall lay my hands on i-pod to try a few illustrations!    

First Encounter with CDE TMC's Officers

What an encounter with seven club officers of CDE Toastmasters Club this afternoon.

Aloha Toastmasters Club

European Union & Taiwan

I love listening to stories. At the first MOFA Toastmasters Forum in 2014, Professor Dr. Paul Joseph Lim, MOFA Visiting Fellow, gave a retrospective review about the relations between European Union and Taiwan in the past sexagenary cycle (甲子).

Dr. Lim started his presentation by showing the last slide of his conclusion. What if this? And what if that? It was an interesting way to arouse the interest from the audience. The Powerpoint presentation was full of heavy slides of lines of words. I didn't get intimidated, as I went through same periods in history of 50's, 60's, 70's, take EEC--6 countries, Maastricht Treaty, GATT, WTO for example.

Dr. Lim advocated that Taiwan should come out of the box, shift the mindset of mainstream cross strait relationship to avoid the zero sum game. Taiwan should take initiatives to cooperate and collaborate with European Union member county to jointly invest in the third country. The bilateral trade investment can serve as a jumping board for Taiwan to gain international recognition and to make a mark in the world map.

It was the first time I heard that ROC was pronounced as Rock, as compared with PRC. Yes, ROC rocks. I was born and brought up in ROC. Hooray, Taiwan, ROC on!

Journey of the Ducks

I was feeling excited the night before my encounter with the giant rubber duck in Keelung harbor Tuesday morning, January 7th. Like a preschool kid, I thought about what to wear, what to say, when I saw the dream duck.

It was a blissful duck journey. I took Bus 1550 near Daan Park at 9:50, arrived at the Keeling Harbor at 10:30. I shouted when I saw the rubber duck in the sun. If possible, I would dive into the harbor to touch the duck. It was the scenario of my childhood playing with a rubber duck in the bath tub.

I took the Keelung harbor boat tour in the afternoon. It was the first time I saw the beautiful Keelung harbor. I met many tourist on boat, including those from the US. Then I learned about the journey of the ducks, the ocean container liner wreck with 29 thousands ducks in January 1992, survived in the ocean tide.

Many thanks to Florentijn Hofman, a Dutch artist based out of Rotterdam, who takes the iconic rubber duck (that children around the world can identify), and takes it to a massive scale.

I can't agree with Hofman no more that, "The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn’t discriminate people and doesn’t have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!"

How can a giant inflatable rubber duck not brighten one’s day? It’s big, happy and awesome! I love the giant rubber duck!

Toastmaster’s World

I was really taken by surprise
When I visited a Toastmasters club
All the people spoke so well, and they all looked so confident
And I wished to be a member of this group.

After coming three times as a guest,
I applied and was accepted by the club,
So now I am a member of a Toastmasters club,
Learning speaking skills and leadership as well.

I'm in the Toastmasters world,
Having fun making speeches,
Learning leadership while gaining speaking skills.
And I've found many friends, we learn together side by side,
We all belong to the Toastmasters world.

Timer, ah-counter, grammarian

There is always something useful to be done
And when I do not have a job I must be ready to perform
As I may be called for Table Topics too.
When I made my C1 speech oh man!
I was nervous but it worked to break the ice
And every time I made a speech I get some feedback from my friends
We learn by doing, as there are no teachers here.

From CC to AC, I stood tall and spoke up aloud
From CL to AL, I helped myself by helping others
BSS, SCS, HPL, one step at a time, in Toastmasters I grew
Member, president, area, division, district governor, in Toastmasters where leaders are made!
I made it to DTM, What a moment in time!