The 218th Regular Meeting: September 19, 2026

As the seasons shift from summer to autumn, we always find something new in the coming days. In the same way, our meetings continue to advance, and we learn and develop new skills at every session.

This meeting had the regular lineup of programs. Therefore, we also had usual role takers. Here, I would like to focus on the role takers’ activities rather than speakers.

We have a variety of roles that contribute to the success of our meeting:

Toastmaster of the Day by Kama-yan: He kept the meeting energetic with warm and encouraging comments for all speakers and role takers.

Topicsmaster by Renelyn: She created an engaging theme, “Autumn,” with topics such as “A Horror Movie,” perfect for enjoying an autumn evening.

Timer by Ma-chan: She delivered precise and calm time announcements, giving a professional atmosphere to the role.

Vote Counter by Yasuko: She presented the voting result after two rounds of voting were declared invalid.

Grammarian and Word Master by Yuichi: He selected “Integral” as today’s word. Although it sounded solemn, many members successfully incorporated it into their speeches. He also provided wonderful words/expressions as well as examples of usage to be improved.

We continue to brush up our skills in each role and we always seek useful and effective approaches from various aspects.

It is unfortunate that I cannot cover the great efforts of the four Evaluators and three technical role takers—Zoom Master, PC-Stage, and PC-Projector—who also contributed significantly to the success of the meeting.

(by Hiko)

“Moments of Truth” Special Online Meeting: August 29, 2026

“Moments of Truth” – this was how the Senri TMC August 29th online meeting agenda was named. It pertains to the 6 categories that assess the impressions and experiences of guests and members alike as to the club’s functionality and quality. This assessment tool, “Moments of Truth” has (1) First Impressions (2) Membership Orientation (3) Fellowship, Variety, and Communication (4) Program Planning and Meeting Organization (5) Membership Strength and (6) Achievement Recognition.

Being led into 2 breakout rooms, members enthusiastically and actively participated in the discussion on two aspects - “Enjoyable, educational meetings” and “Positive and helpful evaluations.” Members decisively pointed out the club’s strengths, the needs for improvement, and the current practices that have been a part of the club’s image and legacy. Being completely aware of the “strengths” gives way to a positive outlook and energized motivation. Offering constructive feedback and addressing the “needs” will surely pave the way to personal growth and achieved goals.

The meeting didn’t end with only decisive outcomes and choices. “Decisive” was also the Word of the Day as introduced by Tamiko. Oh… what an apt word for this special meeting!!!

And lastly as a regular treat, members did hear from engaging speakers and supportive evaluators.

Speaker Marilyn’s speech content had a balanced comparative speech structure of toastmastering and her new passion for the woodwind instrument - recorder.

Speaker Hiko did give us a backgrounder of “Moments of Truth,” a guided evaluation on each category, and targeted recommendations.

The reliable Evaluators Kamayan and Yuriko cited motivational comments with specific points and concrete examples but not forgetting to give one or two recommendations for speech refinement.

The “Moments of Truth” meeting was foremost educational, enjoyable, and realistic as to how the club caters to guests and members’ expectations.

(by Rene)

The 217th Regular Meeting: August 8, 2026

Kan Kan delivered a speech based on a project, "Understanding Your Leadership Style."

Kan Kan delivering her speech online

"Leadership?" you may wonder. Yes, we learn leadership in Toastmasters by taking leadership roles in our meetings and in our daily activities. That is why some of the "Paths" in our education program, Pathways, have this project.

In this project, we respond to a survey with 48 questions. Kan Kan's results showed she has a strong tendency toward affiliative and altruistic leadership styles. After introducing this result, she went on to tell us a story of her helping a new employee by reaching out to her with small talk and offering assistance with her assignment. She wanted to help her because she remembered how insecure she was at the beginning of her career. She just wanted to make her new colleague feel a little better. She then told us that leadership does not have to be "big and lofty." It can be just being ready to notice someone's stuck and offer help.

With this simple yet strong message, she incorporated a lot of beautiful phrases such as "everyone else was buried with work," "I wanted someone to point me in the right direction," "I reached out because I'd been in her shoes," and "That's not I'm after right now." This was a great speech by "Kan Kan, an ordinary person still figuring things out."

A scene from the hybrid meeting

Another aspect of leadership visible in this meeting was a suggestion provided at the previous meeting. At the last meeting, the General Evaluator, Jinyoung, raised an issue that it is sometimes difficult for online members to find the timing signals, especially when the Timer is at the venue. We came up with some ideas and incorporated one of them. The idea was to have the Timer stand much closer to the camera than before. With the timing signals occupying a larger part of the venue pane on the Zoom screen, it should have made it a lot easier for online participants to spot them.

The timing signal shown closer to the camera

This is another way to demonstrate leadership in improving our meeting and our club. Thanks to Jinyoung's initiative, our meeting is now more online-participant-friendly.

(by Tenten)

The 216th Regular Meeting: July 18, 2026

Today's meeting was a series of “firsts” for our club; the first meeting of the Senri club’s 2nd term, our new president “Hiko’s” debut, 1st speech of “Yuichi”. It was one of the most meaningful meetings I’ve ever attended.

Our new president, Hiko, kicked off the meeting with great energy. I’m confident that Senri Toastmasters will navigate this new chapter successfully under captain Hiko. I can’t wait to see the promising future of the club.

T.M.O.D (Toastmaster of the Day, facilitator of the regular meeting), Yuriko, successfully led the meeting. She introduced each session with kindness and shared thoughtful comments on every speech. Thanks to her leadership, all participants fully enjoyed today’s meeting, I’m sure.

A Toastmasters meeting typically consists of three parts: Prepared speech, Table Topics, Evaluations. Here are some highlights from them.

First, Prepared speech session.

Three speakers (Yuichi, Kama-yan, Ma-chan) shared their own stories:

• Yuichi : His curiosity about things and reasons for joining our club
• Kama-yan : His experience as Table Topics Master at our last special meeting with wonderful episodes
• Ma-chan : The journey of pursuing her dream of becoming a medical animator

Every speech was unique and resonated with all of us.

We had other role takers; Table Topics Master “Tami”, Grammarian “Anne”, Timer “Mats”, Ah-counter “Yasuko” and others.

Thanks to their contributions, the meeting ran smoothly.

In particular, Table Topics Master “Tami” showed remarkable growth, facilitating confidently with clear comments. I always admired her efforts to improve her English and public speaking skills. And the kind and professional report of Grammarian “Anne”, the brief report of Timer “Mats”, happy welcoming to Ah-counter “Yasuko”, made the meeting special.

However, there was a technical issue related to offline mic low volume. While our officers fixed the problem quickly, it seems we need to double-check mic volume before the meeting in advance.

Overall, the meeting was fantastic as always. I hope we can keep this atmosphere for a long time.

(by Jinyoung)

The 215th Regular Meeting: June 20, 2026 “General Evaluator’s Reflection”

We were very delighted to have a new member, Yuichi, in today’s meeting. As the General Evaluator, I felt it a pleasure to have had a tense but lively meeting.

Smooth Start & Progress

Our Toastmaster of the Day, Renelyn has a long career as a Toastmaster. She started the meeting smoothly and concluded it humorously.

Prepared Speech Session

The three speakers’ speeches made us think about and realize the meaning of our being a Toastmaster. They were worth listening to repeatedly. Their passion to be a Senri Toastmasters Club member is so great.

Evaluation Session

All the evaluators engaged us with resonating comments. For example,

“The body language like gesture or eye contact made the speech more remarkable.”

“Real leadership experiences created the speaker’s motivational technique.”

“The necessity of mentioning some more specific changes with Maho san in your speech.”

We took it to heart.

Table Topics Session

TT master, Kazu was joining from India. Like Japan, India is now in the monsoon season. He said, “There’s heavy rainfall today, too, and it’s a miserable situation.” He gave us the topic of “rain.” It was a timely one. This topic brought out a wide range of vivid experiences or stories from the audience, which elicited laughs.

Other Roles & Reflection

From an overall perspective. As usual, we’ve learned a lot of valuable things about skills, words & phrases & expressions and the fun of inspiring each other. It’s thanks to each role taker’s supporting this meeting, what we call, “our teamwork.”

However, we’ve left an unsolved issue. That’s ‘how reducing filler words improves speech clarity and confidence’ (proposed by the previous GE, Anne). Let’s set this as our next goal again.

(By Tami)

Table Topics Special: Speak, Learn, and Repeat — June 6, 2026

This meeting was held entirely online and focused on Table Topics Speech (TTS). A TTS is a short speech for one to two minutes. Its most striking feature is impromptu delivery; the speaker must respond to a topic given on the spot. It felt as if we were thrown into a TTS boot camp.

Idea Shaped into a Clear Program

Kama-yan, Toastmaster of the Day, introduced a new idea of the combination of TTS and evaluation. He successfully shaped it into a clear program:

Participants’ TTS → Immediate Evaluations → Participants’ TTS on the same topic → Second Evaluations

Through this cycle, we could see the improvement from the first attempts to the second. It was truly the process of “Speak, Learn, and Repeat.”

Before and After

It was the evaluators who led the first speech to a more organized and more empathetic one. We could see the improvement from before to after.

The first evaluator, Jinyoung, delivered crystal-clear evaluations, accurately identifying the core message of each speech.

The second evaluator, Tenten, offered persuasive and instructive evaluations.

Generalizing: elevation of specific facts into universally understandable truth.

The impact of one word: how one well-chosen word can open the world the speaker is leading us into.

Calm Voice Magic

TTS is one of the most challenging activities for many Toastmasters. Eri, Topics Master, introduced each topic and appointed each speaker with a gentle, calm voice that created a relaxed atmosphere for everyone.

Teamwork

This busy and complex program succeeded because of strong teamwork: two Grammarians, two Ah-Counters, two Timers, and two Vote Counters. Everybody appreciated their precise and supportive performances.

We were able to enjoy another meaningful meeting.

(By Hiko)