Seventeen members gathered at Tsujido Library Hall and President N.N. called the meeting #480 to order at 14:10
As Word of the Day, Ah-Uh Counter TM A.S. introduced “Succinct (səksíŋkt) and Succinctly”.
Business Session
President N. N. announced 2 topics.
1. International Speech Contest
* Area Contest on April 1 in Odawara.
* Division Contest on April 15 in Kawasaki.
2. The Pathways Briefing Session
Its introduction and training will be conducted at the regular meeting on March 24.
Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD)
I, Y.W., introduced 4 assistants, Grammarian TM M.H., Ah-Uh Counter TM A.S., Vote Counter TM Y.H. and Timer TM Y.T. I omitted explanation of every roll and responsibility because of no guests.
Joke Session
Joke master TM M. K. told some funny and witty stories including kind of a nonsense-type riddle.
Prepared Speech Session
The 1st Speaker TM A.M. delivered his actual business speech as his practice. The title was “Case Study: Smart City”. It was based on Project No. 3 “The demonstration talk” from the manual “Speaking To Inform”. I am sure Toastmasters would be a good practice place for him. After 1-minute silence for attendees to write any feedback to him, he himself conducted his Q&A part. I believe this will also be helpful for his actual business speech.
The 2nd Speaker TM T.K. sent me an apology mail with his voice data file 3 days before the meeting because he would not be able to attend the meeting. We all felt his sincerity to minimize any negative impacts on the meeting. I conveyed his message through my PC. His speech was titled “Watching Sumo gives me so much fun” and based on Project No. 6 “Warm up your audience” from the manual “Humorously Speaking”.
It was the first experience for us, but it may be a better way for inactive members and absent members to join regular meetings virtually. After 1-minute silence, I omitted the Q&A section.
The 3rd Speaker TM M. I. delivered her speech titled “Once in a blue moon” based on Project No. 4 “How to say it” from the manual “Competent Communication”. She joined our club recently, but I felt she had a great confidence to deliver any speeches in front of many people. After 1-minute silence, she also conducted her Q&A section.
The 4th Speaker TM T. O. delivered his speech titled “Smoking of a member in our high school baseball club” based on Project No. 5 “The Crisis Management Speech” from the advanced manual “Public Relations”. He conducted 5 minute-Q&A part included in the project, and the common Q&A part of 1 minute as well.
Table Topics Session
Table Topics Master TM E.M. gave 5 unexpected questions to 5 members. Some of those were about the Olympics and Chinese New Year holidays. He called on one speaker before he had shown us the question due to little room to call on any other speakers. This irregular way was accepted favorably.
Evaluation Session
After a 10-minute intermission with background classical music, the Evaluation Session started.
General Evaluator TM N.N. introduced one comment from another club’s president that our evaluation would be helpful for members to improve their speaking skills thanks to a plenty of suggestions.
Four evaluators, TM K.T., TM J.Y., TM T.K. and TM T.I. delivered their fruitful comments to each speaker.
Grammarian pointed out some cases of our mispronunciation and unnatural intonation, “Evaluation”, “Image” and so on.
Award Presentation
TM J.Y. got TMOD Award because she delivered her evaluation as if the speaker, TM T.K., were there. TM M.H. kindly recorded her evaluation and would send it to the speaker later.
TM Y.H. got Best Table Topics Award.
TM K.T. got Best Evaluator Award.
TM M.I. got Best Prepared Speaker Award.
At the end of the meeting
President N. N. asked all the attendees to give any comments. TM J.Y. raised one question : The phrase “… gives me so fun” (shown on the program) might be strange. We concluded “so much fun” would be preferable.
I thought any happening would make our meeting more interesting and improve our adlib skills.
By Y.W.
The Award Winners
Interview