Ginza! 24th March, 2019
Toastmasters Club held their latest regular meeting on Sunday, 24 March at Kyobashi-Plaza-kaikan, in Ginza. We were treated to the special ceremony, an excellent workshop and four beautiful speeches with the guests.
1. Introduction Yuko, President of the Club, welcomed guests and club members with an opening speech "Start with why" which helps us achieve WHAT we want in Toastmasters, and passed the floor to TMoD TOMOMI who explained the running order of the meeting and offered a warm welcome to our guests including Joshi (from India), Masa, Yuku (Pioneer TM) and Siah(Sunrise TM), and gave them an opportunity to introduce themselves and make a short greeting.
2. DTM (Distinguished Toastmasters) Recognition Ceremony The special DTM recognition ceremony was held for Yuki and Yossy who have recently earned their DTM awards. The ceremony began with the warm-opening remarks by the facilitator TOMOMI, followed by the interview session. In the session, they were given an opportunity to speak about something important to them about their Toastmasters journey. Some of the questions were;
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Q：Please share your Toastmaster journey to DTM.
[Yuki] Yuki joined TM (Visionaries TMC at Musashikosugi) in 2011 and completed 4 speeches in a year. After one year break, he was invited to Area Contest by Drian and came back to Toastmasters. He then became an active member of Leadership TMC and Tozai TMC and in that time, he successfully advanced to Division Contest. After a six-month break due to his hectic work, he received ACS(Advanced Communicator Silver) and ALB (Advanced Leadership Bronze) designations in 2016, then served as Area Director in 2017. He accepted Division Director and finally concluded all TM projects in 2018.
[Yossy] Recommended by some BBT Bond members, Yossy joined TM (Hachioji TM & West TM) in 2008. After completing ten speeches, he was transferred to Pennsylvania, USA where he kept his TM activities. After returning Tokyo, he became a member of Sunrise TM and held several leadership roles afterwards, some of which; President, Area Director and Division Director. After delivering 40 speeches and organizing high performance projects, he finished all TM project in 2019.
Q: Please share the biggest challenge that you faced with the Toastmaster projects.
[Yuki] It was to establish a new Toastmasters club which took 1.3 year to get chartered.
[Yossy] It was to plan "High Performance Leadership" which requires to have a vision, goal-setting and team-building. He arranged "Takao Mountain Beer Party" and "Leaderships Worskshop" and has recently helped to set up KOFU Toastmasters.
Q: Please share the secret behind the success of the new clubs.
[Yuki & Yossy] The key to success of new clubs is constancy to mission, vision and fixed-schedule regular meeting. For example, mission of "Diversity TM", which Yuki set up, is "Bring chances to everyone, everywhere" while KOFU Toastmasters is constantly scheduled on every second Saturday afternoon.
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Congratulations Yuki and Yossy! It was an honor to meet these Toastmasters and follow their journey as they finished their goals on the way to their DTM awards.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What is DTM? The Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) award represents the highest level of educational achievement in Toastmasters. To apply for the DTM award, complete the appropriate section of the Education Program/Pathways and ask your VPE(Vice President Education) to submit it online to World Headquarters. The average time to achieve Distinguished Toastmaster is 6-9 years. FYI: https://www.toastmasters.org/educ…/distinguished-toastmaster ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. Workshop Drian led the introductory business workshop titled "Master Mentor", simplifying the process to optimal conditions for achieving a meaningful mentorship. Highlighting that successful master mentors will accelerate the advancement of their mentees and elevate the quality of mentorship, he invited us to consider mentorship is a powerful framework for conveying positive values such as integrity and compassion. We learned that after receiving the support of an motivated mentor, mentees will get a direct transmission of the importance of integrating human connections in our approach to our life.
4. Song of the Day Sugar selected "Bridge Over Troubled Water", composed by Simon & Garfunkel in 1970. Inspired by a single line from a gospel song, this song has been covered by everyone from Elvis Presley to Aretha Franklin! We read it aloud, line by line. It was a very good exercise to say the address aloud in a way we can fully understand. Well done, Sugar!
5. Prepared speeches The first speaker Yuko delivered a speech titled "Hats Man", Special Occasion #2, speaking in praise and honor to DTM Yossy, addressing areas concerning his accomplishments which include anecdotes illustrating points within the speech. Next to speak was Shinsaku, sharing his trip to Nepal where one of the shopkeepers tricked him into buying costly goods unnecessarily. In the end, this trip gave him the great opportunity to learn about the value of the cheating story, that is, he came to think that being tricked is OK as long as it touches him. Third speaker Drian performed the Area Contest speech, appealing his fight with rules on apartment and continuously making us think about the necessity of rule-following when we have someone to protect. Last to deliver was Yuku, delivering Area Contest speech titled "I believe in you", impressing the audience with her persuasive and heartfelt performance.
After the prepared speeches, General Evaluator Paul invited three brilliant evaluators: Siah for Yuko, Yossy for Shinsaku and Hiromi for Drian followed by an open evaluation to Yuku. Finally, Paul evaluated our meeting.
6. Awards Best Evaluator Siah Best Speaker Yuku
7. Next schedule
The next meeting will take place at Kyobashi-Plaza-Kuminkan, on Sunday, 28th April, at 14:00. Yuko will do TMoD. Come over to practice your public speaking!
DTM Ceremony Yuki(right) & Yossy(left)
Best Evaluator: Siah (&TMoD TOMOMI)
Best Speaker: YUKU (& TMoD TOMOMI)
The next meeting will take place at Kyobashi-Plaza-Kuminkan, on Sunday, 28th April, at 14:00. Yuko will do TMoD. Come over to practice your public speaking!
