Special Meeting: Education Series – Presentation and Table Topics Contestant Practice | February 7, 2026

Participants at our February 7 meeting

On February 7, our Toastmasters club held a special meeting, titled “Better Speaker Series; Presentation and Table Topics Contestant Practice.” It aimed at our skill up in presentation and Table Topics speech, and especially for two Table Topics contestants.

Prepared Speech Session

This session opened with a presentation by Hiko, whose title “Knock Out Impromptu Speaking” had a playful atmosphere. The presentation, however, was based on the serious research, so the visual aid greatly helped the audience to better understand it. We look forward to members’ knocking-out speeches.

The second speaker was Ten Ten, who presented on “Your Body Speaks.” He said, “Your body speaks far louder than your words, therefore your speech can be improved by the repetition of training and your body language becomes natural. You’ll get the freedom to speak naturally.” This may come from his hands-on practice. His presentation had a profound meaning.

Table Topics Session

Sora’s choice of topic was timely. Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games began on February 6, 2026. She gave her own comment to each speech and enriched this session.

Evaluation Session

The two evaluators, Rene and Kazu, greatly attracted our attention in their comments including suggestions. How to project the speaker himself with the visual aid and what is the good priority to beginners. These suggestions benefited us, too.

Table Topics Contestant-Practice and Feedback Session

Given topics, the two contestants (one is in English and the other in Japanese) delivered impromptu speeches twice. To each speech, other members gave feedback speeches. In a tense atmosphere, this pattern was very fruitful and beneficial to both the contestants and the members giving feedback. A chance like this is rare but desirable for all the members.

As a general evaluator, I report that the special meeting ended meaningfully, thanks to the great control of the Toastmaster of the Day, Marylin and all the other members’ dedication.
(Tami)

Education Series Special Meeting : "Successful Club Series" － January 31, 2026

Spotlight on Marylin's Speech: What will improve your skills

The January 31 Serni Toastmasters meeting featured three strong Prepared Speeches, but the one that left the deepest impression was Marylin's What will improve your skills. Her message stood out because it reframed something familiar —Toastmasters roles—as a powerful engine for personal growth.

Marylin explained that every role in a meeting carries a specific learning purpose. The Toastmaster of the Day builds facilitation and leadership. The Evaluator sharpens analytical thinking and constructive communication. The Timer and Grammarian strengthen observation, precision, and awareness. Rather than seeing roles as routine assignments, she encouraged members to view them as structured training modules designed to develop different skill sets.

What made her speech compelling was the clarity with which she connected these roles to real-world improvement. She emphasized that growth does not come only from delivering speeches. It comes from participating fully in the ecosystem of the club, observing others, supporting the meeting, and reflecting on what each role teaches. Her examples illustrated how even small responsibilities can lead to meaningful progress when approached with intention.

Her delivery was calm, thoughtful, and grounded in experience. The audience was reminded that Toastmasters is not just a place to speak, but a place to practice leadership, listening, and collaboration in a safe and supportive environment. By the end of her speech, members were inspired to take on roles more actively and to appreciate the hidden learning opportunities embedded in every meeting.

Marylin's message set the tone for the rest of the session, offering a foundation of “learning through participation” that resonated throughout the meeting.

(by Mune)

Club International Speech Competition (The 210th Regular Meeting): January 17, 2026

We held our Club Speech Competition again this year. The meeting began with an “Induction Ceremony.” Our new member, Shunya, joined us just as the new year began. A university student, he is now the youngest member of our club. We recited our Club’s Pledge, welcoming both the fresh member and the new year’s start.

 After the ceremony, we moved on to the Senri Toastmasters Club Speech Competition, featuring both English and Japanese speeches.

Each speech made us laugh, surprised us, and had us nodding deeply in agreement. According the characters in their stories, their vocal tones shifted dramatically, and the directions of their faces were swiftly changed—almost like watching a performance of “Rakugo,” full of humor and heartfelt moments. I deeply regret that I can’t clear their details because they were conducted as part of the official Toastmasters International Speech Contest.

Following the Award Ceremony, we held the Evaluation Session for the one competitor whose speech was delivered as part of Toastmasters International Pathways project.

As the Competition Chair, I want to express my sincere gratitude. This event would not have been possible without our teamwork.

Thank you to all officers for your cooperation—our Timers for their precise time management, our Ballots Counters for their smooth coordination, and our dedicated anonymous judges, including those who joined us from other clubs.

(Hiko)

The 209th Regular Meeting: December 20, 2025 “Christmas Words & Phrases”

On December 20, 2025, Senri Toastmasters held its 209th regular meeting with the heartwarming theme, "Christmas Words & Phrases". The afternoon kicked off with a delightful live performance of "Jingle Bells," filling the room with festive magic. Fittingly, our Word of the Day was "delightful," which perfectly captured the spirit of the meeting.

Highlight 1: Managing a Difficult Audience
A major highlight was Hiko's project, "Managing a Difficult Audience". This project focuses on addressing common behaviors of difficult audience members in a calm and professional way to prepare for presentations outside of Toastmasters. Hiko managed these interruptions very politely and carefully. While he was a bit hesitant and it took some time to settle the disruptors, he remained calm throughout the process. The evaluator of Hiko’s speech, Kazu, provided an excellent suggestion: once you handle a disruptor, you should directly return to the main part of your story to maintain the flow. It was a valuable lesson for us all!

Highlight 2: Effort Blossoms in "My Senri Experience"
Another highlight was the "My Senri Experience" shared by Takashi. His story was highly relatable and filled with humor, drawing plenty of laughter from the audience. Takashi has been working hard behind the scenes as our Sergeant-at-Arms, taking English pronunciation lessons, and even studying abroad this past summer. All that effort truly blossomed in this speech. If he had been a speaker in the Prepared Speech session, I definitely would have cast my vote for him as the Best Speaker. It was wonderful to see his dedication pay off!

Inspiring Speeches in Brief
The Prepared Speech session was filled with a variety of wonderful presentations. Maririn showcased tactful vocal variety while sharing fond memories of the Expo, while Tenten delivered a motivating speech on taking an active role in the organization of our meetings. Kankan shared a resonating story about overcoming obstacles with the support of the person beside her, and Tamiko, our club’s "Queen of Humor," delivered a relatable and delightful presentation that left everyone in stitches.

In my General Evaluator report, I commended the delightful atmosphere created by our Toastmaster of the Day, Rene’s thoughtful decorations and her preparation. We closed the meeting with a warm "Happy Holidays!" I look forward to seeing everyone next year. Have a wonderful holiday season and a great New Year!

(Eri)

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