No.457 regular meeting was held on Saturday, January 28 at Tsujido Library. President Chen called No.457 meeting to order. The day was “Chinese New Year” . We said “Happy New Year” at the start of the meeting and we welcomed a guest. This is her 2nd visit.

TM A.M. was introduced to explain “Word of the Day” he selected for the day. The word was “Curious(adj)/Curiosity(noun)”.

Then President Chen introduced TM Y.U. as “Toastmaster of the Day(TMOD)” to start the main program and TMOD introduced his supporters – Grammarian, Ah/Uh Counter, Vote Counter and Timer. They explained their roles for the benefits of guests.

Then TMOD introduced Joke Master President Chen to have the audience relax by telling some funny stories. He gave 5 funny stories with cartoons. All stories were short comical stories. We enjoyed the session very much.

We moved to Prepared Speech Session. As usual, we had five speakers.

The first speaker, TM M.K. delivered the speech titled “The Irreplaceable Existence” based on the Manual “The Entertaining, Project: Resources for Entertainment”. His speech was about the face. If each part, such as the mouth, nose, eye, eye brow could speak, what would happen next? He used pictures and vocal variety very effectively. We enjoyed his speech.

The second speaker TM H.S. delivered the speech titled “ I have been continuing on different stages” based on the Manual “Story telling, Project: Let’s Get Personal”. Her speech was about her challenge for continuing participating in International Exchange Festival as a dancer. She has been participating in it since 2006. “Continuing is a power!”

The third speaker TM T.K. delivered the speech titled “My Posture” based on the Manual “Competent Communication, Project: Your Body Speaks”. He is anxious about his posture because his wife said “You look like an old man”. He explained his challenge to improve his posture. His speech with a lot of gestures was easy to understand.

The fourth speaker TM T.O. delivered his speech titled “Let’s enjoy STMC Activity” based on the Manual “Public Relations, Project: The Radio Talk Show”. This was a special speech. He hid behind the white board(see the picture)

and gave a speech from there. He introduced STMC Activity with a clear voice. We enjoyed his speech as if we were listening to the real Radio Talk Show.

The fifth speaker TM T.I. delivered the speech titled “Special award Presentation” based on the Manual “Special award Presentation, Project: Presenting an Award”. His speech was also a special speech. In his speech, he celebrated 50th celebration of a company and awarded TM A.T. as a special sales person. TM T.I. explained how TM A.T. dedicated and contributed to the company with dignity.

Next session was Table Topics Session conducted by TM A.S.. She prepared the following four questions calling for “quick thinking and speaking skills”.

Q1. January is the start of the New Year. Do you have any plans or anything new?
A1. TM A.M. answered waking up early, taking a walk near the park, and doing physical exercise.

Q2. Do you like January?
A2. TM T.A. answered she dislike coldness but January is the month of celebrating New Year, enjoyable month since she was a child. And She likes Japanese sake.

Q3. Do you enjoy winter sports or do you like watching winter sports ?
A3. TM H.M. answered he is interested in playing snowboarding but he is now practicing playing surfing. He enjoys surfing every week and he also enjoy the view of Fujiyama from the beach.

Q4. Looking back to last year, what was most impressive or depressing?
A4. TM E.M. answered nothing was depressing for him and impressive thing was visiting Singapore 2 times last year to see his children. His grandchild had learned some words. He was happy to see the growth of his grandchild.

After Intermission, Evaluation Session was started by General Evaluator TM Y.W. with five evaluators. The evaluators provided their personal opinions and suggestions to the prepared speeches based on the speech objectives in the Toastmaster’s Manual.

Finally, TMOD announced the following Award Winners.

The TMOD Award: TM A.M.

The Best Table Topic Award: TM H.M. This is his first award! Congratulations!!

The Best Evaluator: TM Y.T.

The Best Prepared Speaker: TM K.T.