The highlights from 175th regular meeting on 18th February 2023

 Valentine’s Day comes right before Spring every year. Somehow, whether you choose to give chocolates or not, it still feels like a fresh new start. 

 Today’s TMOD Eri chose the meeting theme,” Valentine’s Day”. It was a fun and appropriate way to show appreciation to the members. The warm introductions and pretty decorations sparked club morale and fostered a caring environment. This lifted the mood and we all felt comfortable to present our speeches, table topics and evaluations without becoming too nervous. 

The Agenda: Three Prepared Speeches. 

1) “The Story of John Manjiro” by Yoshiko, illustrated the dramatic life of a young boy who was rescued at sea at the age of 14 and later become the first Japanese to wear a necktie and ride on a train. 

2) “My Online Mentor” by Momo, presented a speech about the importance of having a mentor. When the pandemic broke out, meetings began to be held on Zoom. During the transition, she was able to continue to attend meetings thanks to mentoring from Marilyn. 

3) “Stamped As My Own” by Rene, spoke about leaders who inspire people. In doing so, she gave examples of famous leaders of whom have left an inspirational impact on her life. Especially notable were: leaders must serve as a compass, leaders must take accountability, leaders must have empathy. The passage was strong and emotional. 

 *Special thanks to our Grammarian, Table Topics Master, Toastmaster of the Day, Evaluators, Timer, Ah Counter, Zoom Operator, VPE. Hope I didn’t miss anyone! ☺ 

Thank you and LOVE to everyone for a fun and enjoyable 175th Valentine Meeting Please inquire from our website if you are interested in being a guest!

Nanea

Special Meeting : Judge Workshop and Mock Contest on 4th February 2023

 スピーチに情熱を注ぐ我々にとって、コンテストは年に1度の特別なイベントです。今回はコンテストスピーチに対してクラブの方にJudges／審査を学んで経験してもらおう！という趣旨で特別例会を開催しました。

私自身は、Workshopで､ Judges／審査の心構えとポイントを解説させていただきました｡日頃から､人に伝えることで自分の理解も深まると言われますが、まさに準備を通して私自身もJudges／審査の重要性をよく理解することができました。ワークショップの中では審査基準とともに①Judges／審査になると、自ずとコンテストスピーチを集中して聞かなければならないので学びも多くなる。②自分がスピーチを実践するときに審査基準を理解しておく事はとても有用。という事を伝えさせてもらいました｡ 

そして､実践編ではエリアの英語スピーチコンテストに出場予定のMaririnとTamiさんからコンテストスピーチをしてもらい､ 残りの参加者全員が審査員になって評価いたしました｡ 

スピーチをContent, Delivery, Languageに分解して点数をつけていくプロセスについて、今回初めて実践されたメンバーも多かったと思います｡

スピーチ終了後はコンテスタントを交えて､Breakout Roomにてお互い意見交換しました。

やっぱり今回もあっという間に時間が過ぎていく充実したSpecial Eventであったと思います。 

Kama-yan

Highlights from the 174th Regular meeting on 21st January 2023

  “Senri TMC - JUMP HIGH in 2023”

The 174th Regular Meeting of Senri TMC had a big leap just like this year’s animal, Rabbit. Taking this in regard, the meeting theme “rabbit” was chosen by versatile Toastmaster of the Day (TOD), Kiyo. She asked each role taker how they connect with the word – theme, “rabbit.”  Role takers had different answers ranging from pets, Easter bunnies and eggs, stuffed rabbit toys, etc. The audience enjoyed listening to these different “rabbit encounters.” The audience composed of members online and on the venue had a wonderful teamwork carrying out their roles – passing the baton from the spheres of digital to analog and vice versa. The meeting was also graced by a male guest, Mr. T.K.

                                   Let us . . .      H  O  P       meeting sessions . . .

The Prepared Speech Session

There were three speakers – a neophyte, a budding one, and seasoned speech – maker. Their speech titles were “Guten Tag”, “Let’s build a nest egg for the future”, and “Step Up”, respectively. The new member, Speaker Yasuko in spite of her injury delivered her Ice Breaker in a relaxed and newly gained confidence. Yasuko knew that the club members were there to listen with their (“rabbit like long”) ears as she recounted her experiences in a foreign country, how such exposure led her to seek and to aim to be a teacher for kids. The second speaker delivered and awakened our minds to a realistic scene of what the future holds with our finances. Kirinne had not left as hanging as to this issue. There was relief when Kirinne expounded on her three valuable solutions to . . . “build a nest egg for the future.” The third Speaker Tenten was eloquent. His speech’s content and message focused on his experiences as he dealt with other toastmasters’ clubs. His vision and the reality of the clubs’ situation struck him, gave him challenges that paved to the “step up” he had gained.  The club members voted Krinne as the Best Speaker for this session.     

     

The Evaluation Session

The General Evaluator (GE) Rene talked about the indispensable part that “Evaluation” plays in Toastmastering. She reiterated that offering useful positive feedback will help speakers become less self - conscious and be aware of their speakers’ skill level – their strengths and what has to be improved. The evaluators tried to be objective as possible not withholding their praises as to delivery, content, organization, voice, style, etc. But at the same time citing specific ways to improve. There were 3 evaluators’ namely, Kamayan, Nanea, and Momo.  As an added bonus to learn the merit of evaluation, the second evaluator, Nanea was evaluated by another member, Maririn.  As evaluators, we should be reminded that a healthy evaluation helps preserve or enhance the speaker’s self – esteem as they continue their journey in the Pathways of Toastmastering. There was no voting for Best Evaluator.

The Table Topics Session

Table Topics (TT), or Impromptu Speech Session was led a new member Kaz who was in control of his new role.   He has prepared well tying up his prepared topics with the speakers’ goals in 2023. We can simply term these topics as “one’s resolution for this year.”  The TT speakers were Kamayan, Munesan, Tami, Maririn, T.K. (guest), and Mika.  The topics they have chosen ranged from Health, Hobby, Travel, Toastmasters, Work and Language. Each speaker bearing their topics in mind freely talked about how they wanted to resolve this year. TT speakers talked about their concerns, their plans, their memories, their mottos, and their objectives in life that will bring about the answer to their resolutions. TM Maririn was voted as the Best Table Topics Speaker in this session.

Other Role Takers:

Grammarian and Word Master (WM), Tami who introduced the word “utilize.” The WM wrote the word, gave some derivatives, and gave several sentences to show its usage.  She has encouraged everyone to use the word of the day as much as possible in their speeches. Her comments on the use of English during the course of the meeting were very educational.

Vote Counter, Tenten took note and counted all the participants’ vote for the main sessions.  

Ah Counter, Tami did a great job watching our verbal crutches such as “ah”, “um”, “y” know” etc. It needs a lot of concentration especially that the audience are in two different spheres. 

Timer, Mika did a remarkable job keeping track of the timing rules all throughout the meeting and the “extra side roles”.

Zoom Master, Maririn was indeed reliable in handling online technology and some issues with zoom like lagging or freezing. 

We did a rightful and timely leap, we were on track with our club’s goals, and we are continuously learning and growing communicatively in a conducive atmosphere.  Thus, we, the members of STMC club will surely leap higher in 2023.      

Thanks to everyone . . .  the 174th Meeting was a big success!!!  

by ~ RENE ~