On March 10th, 17 members gathered at Mina-Park for the #481 regular meeting presided by TM K. K.
    We had three guests including Area Governor.

    In the Business Session, President N. N. reminded us of Area Speech Contest to be held on April 1 in Odawara. Our representative speakers are TM N. N. and TM Y. W. Ten of us are expected to attend and some are taking various roles.
    TM Y. W. introduced what he had learnt in Officers Training to invite more visitors and emphasized the important elements of the Web page: attractive photos of the meeting, keywords easy to be picked up and interesting meeting minutes.
    TM L. C. announced the procedures for the coming presidential election.
    VPM N. S. conducted TM T. S.’s induction into our club.

    After the Word of the Day “inspire” was presented by TM N. S., Joke Master TM M. I. presented a few jokes to let the audience relax. One of those was about national traits of Americans, some others and, of course, Japanese.

    In the Prepared Speech Session, four speakers gave speeches as follows:
    The first one titled “If you can’t stop laughing or crying” was made by TM J. Y. It was from Competent Communication manual and based on its project #7 “Research Your Topic”. Her intention was to illustrate three major causes of such phenomena, though the countermeasures were not shown.
    The second one made by TM M. K. was “It’s important to participate”. It was for the project #5 Speaking After Dinner in Entertaining Speaker manual. He talked about the spirit of Olympics as in the title and encouraged us to participate as various sorts of volunteers.
    The third one was by TM Y. W. It was for the project #5 Your Body Speaks in Competent Communication manual and titled “Toastmasters”, in which he described what he has gained through Toastmasters activity and how it helped him in his business career. This is to present at the coming Area Speech Contest and he requested comments and advice from the audience for further improvement.
    TM L. C.’s speech “Why don’t you run for the next President?” was the fourth one. The project #9 Persuade With Power in Competent Communication manual was the issue he should have worked on. In this speech, he wanted, in view of recent passive atmosphere, to encourage the members to assume the responsibility in operating our club.
    TM L. C. won the best speaker award for his sincere, enthusiastic and persuasive speech.

    In the Table Topics Session, Table Topics Master TM T. K. presented five topics, which were about heavy snow, Olympics, a figure skater, Dan・sha・ri and foreign tourists’ interest in traditional Japan. TM H. S., Guest TM T., TM T. S., TM N. S. and TM H. M. each made prompt speech on the given topic.
    TM N. S. received the best speaker award for her clear and decisive speech about Dan・sha・ri.

    In the Evaluation Session, four evaluators, TM Y. H., TM H. S., TM T. O. and TM M. H. gave positive and instructive comments on the prepared speeches, respectively. 
    TM M. H. won the best evaluator award for her detailed evaluation of TM L. C.’s speech.
    General Evaluator TM T. I. assessed the overall atmosphere and proceedings of the meeting as friendly and smooth. He suggested that more members join in setting tables before meetings.

The award winners:
    For the TMOD award TM T. S. was chosen in view of her double roles on her first day of role taking.
    The best Evaluator   TM M. H.
    The best Table Topics Speaker   TM N. S.
    The best Prepared Speaker     TM L. C.

                                                                                                     By K. K.

The Award Winners
  

Some Speakers