Evaluation Workshop - A Day of Learning and Growth : December 6 , 2025

On December 6th, our Toastmasters club held a special Evaluation Workshop meeting that brought together members for an enriching learning experience focused on one of the most valuable skills in public speaking: delivering constructive and motivating evaluations.

The Power of "Evaluate to Motivate"

The session opened with an insightful presentation by Kazu, titled "Evaluate to Motivate," which set the foundation for the day's activities. This keynote emphasized the importance of delivering evaluations that not only provide constructive feedback but also “push” speakers to continue improving their craft.

Test Speech by Eri

Eri delivered the test speech that would serve as the focus for our evaluation practice. Prior to the meeting, Eri kindly shared her evaluation form, including her project and speech purpose, allowing all participants to better understand her objectives and prepare thoughtful feedback.

Hands-On Practice in Breakout Sessions

The heart of the workshop was the practice breakout sessions, where every member had the opportunity to deliver their own evaluation speech. Participants were divided into four breakout rooms:

• Breakout 1: Rene, Tenten, Takashi and a guest
• Breakout 2: Anne, Mune, and Hiko
• Breakout 3: Marylin, Tamiko, and Kazu
• Breakout 4: Eri, Kankan, Ma-chan

Each group practiced delivering evaluations while sharing observations about what they found effective and any points for improvement. Each member had their own perspective of what part of the speech they liked best. This session provided valuable insights from different angles and experience levels. After an intensive 30 minute practice session we had a nice 10 minute break with an impromptu jam session of ukulele and flute recorder playing.

The Evaluation Session

Following the break, the workshop transitioned into a dynamic evaluation session that demonstrated the multi-layered nature of feedback in Toastmasters. Tenten provided feedback on Kazu’s opening presentation, while three evaluators, representing their respective breakout rooms, evaluated Eri's test speech. In a unique feature that demonstrated the profound (Word of the Day) depth of our learning process, four additional evaluators then evaluated the evaluation speeches themselves, creating a rich learning loop that benefited everyone present!

Supporting Roles

The meeting ran smoothly thanks to our dedicated meeting role takers who kept us on track as Kankan served as Timer, Ma-chan served as Ah-Counter, and Eri took on the triple role of test speaker, Grammarian and Zoom Master. Thanks to their dedication, the workshop remained sharp throughout the session.

Closing Thoughts

This special meeting reinforced a fundamental spirit of Senri Toastmasters: evaluations don't just critique—they motivate, inspire, and help fellow members reach their dream to become better speakers and communicators.

We look forward to seeing how the skills practiced during this workshop will enhance the quality of evaluations at our regular meetings.

(Anne)

The 208th Regular Meeting: November 15, 2025 “Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice”

１１月のミーティングでは、Toastmaster of the Day（司会） が “Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice” にふさわしいデコレーションで暖かかつ華やかな雰囲気、また様々なミーティングの機会に Spice や Role でたとえ話をすると言うユニークなスタイルで進行しました。

At our meeting on November 15th, the Toastmaster of the Day created a warm and splendid atmosphere with decorations fitting for “Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice”! And she led proceedings with a unique style that included using metaphors based on Spice and Role during various meeting opportunities.

ミーティングの進め方についてはミーティング紹介の記事をご覧くださいませ。
ミーティングでの役割についてはロール紹介記事をご覧くださいませ。

For the details about how meetings are conducted, please refer to the article of the meeting introduction (Link in Japanese).
Also, for information on roles within meetings, please refer to the role introduction article (Link in Japanese).

さて今回はミーティングの中での一幕を紹介しながら、どういう雰囲気なのかの一端をお伝えします！

Now, let me share a glimpse of the atmosphere by focusing three points with introducing behind the scenes from one of our meetings!

1） Teamwork
華やかな会場のセッティング、オンラインとオフラインを繋ぐ機器の設置・準備。これらは一人ではできません。千里トーストマスターズクラブの Motto である “Teamwork を” 発揮してみんなで準備しています。電子機器が苦手な人も大丈夫！気が付けば皆配線や装置に詳しくなっていきます👍

1） Teamwork
The beautiful venue setup and setting up the equipment to connect online and offline participants —these tasks can't be done alone. We're putting the Senri Toastmasters Club motto “Teamwork” into action, so we prepare together. Even if you're not tech-savvy, no worries! Before you know it, everyone becomes familiar with the wiring and devices.

2） Grow Together
トーストマスターズクラブの特徴は、先生やトレーナーがいない事。会員同士で Evaluation を行い、お互いを高めあっていくことです。Evaluator は、スピーチの内容を Evaluate し次のスピーチに生かす Tips を得ます。General Evaluator は、ミーティングの進め方や、会員の動きその他全体を見ながらクラブの発展に貢献します。こうしてお互いに成長をしていくのがトーストマスターズクラブの醍醐味です。

2） Grow Together
The feature of the Toastmasters Club is no teachers or trainers and members evaluate speeches each other for mutual enhancement. Evaluators assess the content of speeches and speakers gain tips to refine future speeches. General Evaluators contribute to the club's development by overseeing meeting procedures, member’s active participation, and overall operations. All of these foster our mutual growth and this is an essential element of Toastmasters Club.

3） Exercise Your Brain
Table Topics session（即興スピーチ）では、お題が出されて、その場で考えます。誰が当たるかは直前までわかりません。このセッションでは皆が何を話すべきか頭をフル回転させながらミーティングに参加します。

3） Exercise Your Brain
At the Table Topics session (impromptu speech), Topicsmaster will give you a topic then you will think and create a short speech on the spot. But you don't know who will be called on until the very last moment. That’s why during this session, everyone practices thinking quickly and coherently about what they should talk about. This is exciting!

千里トーストマスターズクラブではこのような雰囲気でのミーティングをしています。興味がある方は是非クラブのホームページにアクセスしてコンタクトしてみてください👍

Senri Toastmasters Club provide supportive meetings with such a nice atmosphere for developing our member’s achievement. So, if you would be interested, you can visit our club website and feel free to contact us anytime!

(Kazu)

Table Topics Competition & Grammarian Workshop : November 1, 2025

Great job!
At our special meeting on November 1, I served as the Chief Judge of the Table Topics Competition and the General Evaluator of the Grammarian Special meeting. This has been a hectic few weeks, but it has surely been rewarding. In this entry, I want to focus on what goes on behind the scenes of a Toastmasters speech competition.

In Toastmasters, we run our speech contests by ourselves, led by two main players: Contest Chair and Chief Judge.

Contest Chair  &  Chief Judge

 This time, our President, Eri, served as the Chair, and I served as Chief Judge. We first solicited competitors, and five members signed up for the English Table Topics Competition and three for the Japanese one. Then, we had a Zoom chat to list the tasks to cover: to assign members to roles, recruit Toastmasters guests to help run the competition, and prepare the necessary documents. I contacted 12 Toastmasters members outside our club, and four of them agreed to help. I appreciate their help.

Next, we sent the competitors and judges the documents they had to complete and submit, collected and checked the documents, and conducted briefing sessions for competitors and competition officials. I joined the competitor briefing as the Zoom Master because, in the Table Topics Competition, every competitor except for the first one is taken to another room so that they won't hear the topic beforehand. As we held this competition online, we wanted to have the competitors experience what to do when they come back from the breakout room to the main room. In addition, I conducted the judge briefing, where I explained the judging criteria, which are significantly different from those for the International Speech Contest. I also had briefings with counters and timers. They took their roles very seriously and performed almost flawlessly on the competition day, with some slight hiccups when collecting the judges' ballots.

On the competition day, the Contest Chair opened the competition with well-prepared opening remarks, which boosted our morale. The competition went exceedingly smoothly, with some hiccups when collecting the judges' ballots. The Japanese Table Topics Competition, which followed the English one, ended exactly when it was supposed to end. Great job, everyone!! And congratulations, Yuriko and Hiko, on your victory in the English and Japanese Table Topics Competitions, respectively!! They won a chance to represent our club in the Area C3 Table Topics Contests on February 28, 2026.

English ＆Japanese session winners

After a 10-minute intermission, we held a Table Topics Session, where we had three members pay attention to the speakers' language usage as Grammarians. During the Table Topics Session, members who competed as competitors in the first half served as the facilitator of the session and functionary role-takers to provide members who helped run the competition a chance to practice impromptu speeches. After that, we enjoyed the distinctly different reports from three Grammarians. I was really thankful as the Chief Judge, General Evaluator of the event, and Vice President Education of the club, for all the participants' tremendous contributions. Great job, everyone!

Author: Tenten, Vice President Education

The 207th Regular Meeting : October 18, 2025 – A Meeting Likened to an Orchestra

The 207th regular meeting likened to an orchestra was a showcase! This became eventually possible through the creative imagination and mimicry of playing certain musical instruments by the Composer of the Day, Hiko. He has assigned instruments for main role takers in the meeting sessions. He tried to have an instrument coming from the orchestra’s - string, woodwind, brass, and percussion. It was great! The audience mindset was transported to the scenario Hiko was creating.

In like manner, the General Evaluator, Rene was named as the Concert Master. The Composer and the Concert Master along with the vivacious and well engaged role takers opened an orchestrated meeting.

The “overture,” My Senri Experience was delivered by the timpanist, Jinyoung Seo. His “lyrics” expressed his admiration and reasons why he joined the club. He was moved by the kindness, transparency, and continued passion of members to learn and to improve.

The “prelude” in the form of Prepared Speeches was indeed awesome! The audience was able to listen to 5 great speakers who delivered magnificently. The audience heard various topics ranging from benefits of swimming, conquering fear of heights, Osaka Expo family experience, the formidable quiet strength of a father, and the Expo Ring’s positive energy. The audience was absorbed listening to each speech stamped by the speaker’s unique delivery style, coordinated body movements, and clear organization.

The “postlude” in the form of Evaluations was likewise amazing! The audience was able to hear 5 impressive evaluators who used the “Sandwich Approach” in giving their constructive feedback. The evaluators did not only give praises, recounted some incidents in the speech, gave suggestions for improvement in the form of word usage, vocal variety, gestures, and body movements but always tied up the speech with its project objective. The audience got a lot of ideas on how to evaluate effectively by listening to the 5 evaluators.

The “encore” in the form of Table Topics was led by Takashi, the clarinetist. His timely topic “Gender Inequality” was triggered by the news of Japan’s first female Prime Minister. He asked speakers to comment/share experiences on “gender inequality” at the workplace, at home, and in society. It was fascinating to note how each speaker handled or reacted to the inequality issue brought about by sexes.

As the “imaginary orchestra music” slowly faded . . . the curtain call had a lot of applause, the 207th regular meeting was a success! The meeting was captivating and was well orchestrated. Indeed, it was a display of teamwork and the unstoppable dedication to improve in public speaking.

Written by Rene

The 206th Regular Meeting : September 20, 2025

We had six speeches today, including “Here’s My Trick” by Anne.

A variety of stories, from social ettiquette, film and novel, recorder, Anpanman, to exercise.  We truly enjoyed the diverse flavors of speeches. Once again, we realized that every member has their own drama and their own perspective in daily life. The stories were as varied as autumn leaves, changing color from the foot to the top of a mountain. It’s amazing that today’s meeting theme was "Autumn Imagery."

This was followed by  Table Topics Session, hosted by Sora, which focused on the autumn equinox, “お彼岸” in Japanese. It was a rather unique theme. When we heard about equinox customs in China and Mongolia, we were intrigued by the differences from Japan’s. Additionally, many speakers seemed to be a little bit perplexed but nostalgic.

Toward the end of the meeting, we held our usual business session consisting of reports from officers. There was the report about meeting feedback that was shared by members about the meeting itself. Sharing both constructive suggestion and praise helps boost motivation of members.

And tonight, how about enjoying moon viewing with a strong beer in hand?

Hiko, General Evaluator

”Vocal Variety Special" : September 6, 2025

Our meeting today specialized in the theme “Vocal Variety.”

Thanks to our wonderful host, Temma-san (in a Toastmasters club, we called this role the “Toastmaster of the Day”), we gained precious theory on how to boost our vocal variety skills and immediately applied them in the later session with the participants.

He secretly shared the tips.
First, use your pause for engaging the audience and adding emphasis.
Second, utilize Pace, Pitch, and Volume for emphasis and depicting scenes or characters well.
Third, by differing your tone, you can depict the emotions effectively.🎵Are you curious about more details?

Then please reach out to the Senri Toastmasters Club.  You can, for sure, hear how to nicely deliver with “Vocal Variety”. Of course, there are other areas of public speaking that we work to improve. If you are interested in, please feel free to join the meeting!!

Jinyoung, General Evaluator

”Vocal Variety” & "Moments of Truth" Meeting: August 30, 2025

今回のミーティングは「Vocal Variety Presentation」と「Moments of Truth Discussion」の二本立てで開催されました。

 前半の Vocal Variety Presentation では、Tentenさんによる、Vocal Variety（声の多様性）に特化したキーノートスピーチが行われました。自身がコンテストに出場した際の経験を踏まえ、パブリックスピーチにおけるVocal Varietyの極意を、非常にわかりやすく紹介してくださいました。特に「Pause（間）」「Pace（速度）」「Pitch（音程）」「Volume（音量）」「Tone（音色）」の5要素に分けて説明されたことで、聴衆にとっても整理しやすく、すぐに実践できる内容となっていました。

 後半は Moments of Truth セッションです。これは年に一度、クラブの課題についてメンバー間で討議する重要な機会です。事前に役員によるアンケート調査が実施され、ミーティング当日はその結果をもとに議題が設定されました。「新会員を迎えるにあたり、クラブをどう改善していきたいか」「メンバーがより成長を実感するために何ができるか」などのテーマについて、数人ずつのグループに分かれて意見交換を行い、各グループの代表が内容を全体に共有しました。

 私たちはスピーチクラブですので、共有の場もまた、限られた時間内で要点を伝える練習の機会として活用しています。限られた時間で深い議論を行うためには、やはり準備が重要です。今回は、役員の方々が事前にアンケート結果や説明資料を配布してくださったことで、活発な意見交換が実現しました。

 「段取り八割」という言葉がありますが、まさにその通り。役員の皆さんの準備のおかげで、非常に充実したミーティングとなりました。

 ご興味のある方は、ぜひ一度クラブにご訪問ください。会員一同、心よりお待ちしております。

 This meeting featured a two-part program: the Vocal Variety Presentation and the Moments of Truth Discussion.

 In the first session, we enjoyed a keynote speech by Tenten, focused on Vocal Variety. Drawing from his own experience competing in speech contests, he shared practical insights into how vocal variety enhances public speaking. His explanation was especially clear and actionable, as he broke down the concept into five key elements: Pause, Pace, Pitch, Volume, and Tone. This structure made it easy for the audience to understand and apply the tips from now on.

 The second session was our annual Moments of Truth session—a valuable opportunity for members to discuss the club’s strengths and areas for improvement. Prior to the meeting, club officers conducted a survey, and the results were used to shape the discussion topics. In small groups, members exchanged ideas on themes such as “How can we improve the club to better welcome new members?” and “What can we do to help members feel a stronger sense of growth?” Each group then shared their key points with everyone. 

 As a public speaking club, we also treat these sharing sessions as opportunities to practice delivering concise and impactful messages within a set time. 

 To establish deeper discussions within limited time, preparation is essential. Thanks to the officers’ efforts in distributing survey results and materials in advance, we were able to have a lively and productive exchange of ideas. 

 Generally speaking, “Preparation is 80% of success.” This meeting was an expressive example of that. The officers’ thoughtful planning made it a truly fulfilling experience. 

 If you're interested, we warmly invite you to visit our club. All members look forward to welcoming you!

Kamayan, General Evaluator