Yukimasa-san, who was kindly accepted the role TMOE again as well as Timer, informed us of the meeting theme “Determination” with the following message via emails: When we hear the number of 40, we may hit upon the quote, "At the age of 40, I had no delusions." At the age of 40, we may make some determination or commitment to ourselves. So, I would like to make the theme as "Determination". What will you stop doing? How will you set yourself? How will you tidy up your mind? It can be a good time to stop to think about something in our mind.
Thanks for the reminder. While looking at the great poster Megumi-san created, I’ve decided to engage in tenacious efforts aimed at making a prepared speech more often.
Now let’s start with small talk session! A few members had suffered from their poor health condition but to our relief they were getting better. 2 members showed their wonderful works of card games and picture cards with some instructions and demonstrated how to use them respectively. Very interesting!! A member from Tokushima highly recommended us to go to her hometown, where people are getting excited already for the Awaodori Festival in August. Other members shared their happy stories about their family members with us. Lastly, a guest from China introduced herself and answered questions from Aaron-san, who voluntarily supported her. Thanks, everyone!
Before we go on to the main sessions, I would like to introduce our meeting helpers tonight. First, Word of the day was introduced by Mikiko-san. She chose “tenacity”. It means persistent determination, or persistence of purpose. The example sentences are: he has a spirit of tenacity; I got over the difficulty with my characteristic tenacity; a man can achieve nothing great with tenacity; yarn has high-tenacity.
And Hideki-san took the role of Ah-counter. Thanks!
Now we’ve started the first main session, prepared speeches! The first speaker was LanAnh-san! Her speech title was “It's your right and it matters.” from Competent Communication Manual. Her speech objectives are to collect information from numerous sources; carefully to support the points and opinions with specific facts, examples, and illustrations gathered through research. She made a speech about a hot topic. More and more people are keen on the internet and getting involved with social media platforms. She warned us that accessing to the internet can lead to leak of personal information. It’s like someone has been always watching you. It is terrifying indeed. She gave us a lot of data and information to support her idea. We should be more mindful of accessing the internet and use it wisely.
The second speaker was Marama-san! Her speech title was “You are beautiful inside and out”. She is the national champion at the Toastmasters speech contest. We were very lucky to listen to her speech even though it was online. As soon as she started to talk, she became an actress. I mean, her facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice and others drew a lot of our attention. Awesome! Everyone felt like watching her on the stage. Not only her performances but also her speech content impressed us so much. Her encouraging messages gave us even a rejuvenated sense of confidence.
The third speaker was Masashi-san! His speech title was “Toastmasters and me” from Leadership Development. His speech objective was to deliver a speech on any topic as an introduction to the club using any style that appeals.
He started his speech making a firm statement that Toastmasters changed his life completely. He shared his personal experiences of Toastmasters while working in Japan and in the US. He was a member of a Toastmasters club there! Since he has joined several clubs before, he is an experienced speaker! Such a talented man like him had a problem. It was about effective usages of Power Point. He described how to overcome his problems, which wowed us. In the end, he talked about his dream to bring an innovative idea for our club. We can’t wait!
Next, Table Topics session conducted by Yuki-san! Unlike regular meetings, she was supposed to be evaluated by Table Topics evaluator Kazuko-san during the regular evaluation session. Cheers for her!
#1 If you got the 3 months off for holidays, what would you do?
Aaron-san would go to different places in the world. Not just visiting toastmasters club worldwide. He would appreciate culture and nature, enjoying local food and some activities like scuba diving in the ocean and relaxing with someone he cares for.
#2 If you got the travel ticket, where would you like to go?
Mikiko-san would like to go to Australia, where one of her friends live there. She had a lot of precious memories in the past. And she talked about what they are like. One of the most intriguing things was that they built their own house. I want to see it!
#3 If you got $100,000, what would you do?
It was my turn to speak. But I thought the money was 100,000 yen, not dollar. I just talked about my dream to see my host family again with the money. Anyway, if I got $100,000, I would spend half of the money for my kids and the rest for donation to disaster-stricken areas.
#4 If you invited the important guest, what would you serve or cook?
Hideki-san usually cook for his family and curry and beef bowl, a bowl of rice topped with cooked beef and onions, are popular among them. He is wise enough to buy expensive ingredients like beef on sale and stock them on the refrigerator available for use at his convenience.
#5 If you had a pet, what would you have?
Yuan-san prefers to have a dog as a pet. They are more active than cats. If possible, she would prefer to keep a small dog to easily take care of.
All the speakers made it, and the best table topic speaker was ……Aaron-san! Congratulations!
The last session was evaluation. 4 evaluators did a very good job. They mentioned how wonderful each speech was in terms with nonverbal communication as well as verbal communication. And the best speaker was ……Yumi-san! Congratulations!
Last but not least, after the main sessions were over, Yukimasa-san introduced our club mentor Mikiko-san as the great contributor to our club. Mikiko-san, we really congratulate on your achievement with tenacity.