The Regular Meeting No. 503 was held on March 23 at Tsujido Library with 17 active members and 3 guests including one foreign married couple.
                                            
President T. Ono called the meeting to order at 14:10 just on time..
Following his brief talks about the blooming cherry blossoms and retired Ichiro, the Word of the Day “Hilarious” was introduced by Grammarian TM A. T.

<Toastmaster of the Day>
Toastmaster of the Day TM T. O. introduced his 3 assistants, Grammarian TM A. T., Vote Counter TM Y. H. and Timer TM T. A.
Since we had 3 guests, the 3 assistants explained their roles briefly for the guests.

<Joke Session>
Joke master TM K. I. told two funny stories about old man and lady who wanted him (hypothetically a candidate for a politician and a gynecological doctor) to cure their alcoholism.
                                                                                          
<Prepared Speech Session>All four prepared speakers made their speeches under the new education system “Pathways.”
TMOD TM T. O. asked 4 speakers to answer his question in advance to introduce each speaker to the audience. The question is “What’s your motto?”

The 1st Speaker is TM K. K.. whose motto is “Don’t make too much effort.”  
He delivered his speech titled “The Background of My English” based on No.1 Project of Level 1 (L1-1) “Ice Breaker” from the Path “Team Collaboration.”

His English owes much to on-the-job trainingWhen he took a taxi at a station in his first visit to US and said to the driver “Holiday inn, please”, the driver didn’t catch him, and he had to repeat the phrase several times in different ways. Finally, the driver replied “Oh, Holiday inn”. That was his starting line.

He is a chemical engineer. He doesn’t have serious problems, as far as the conversation is mostly about technical matters. But in social talks and daily life conversation, it doesn’t go such a way.
However, he learned from his limited experiences. The key elements for conveying his idea correctly are to be “Simple,” “Straight or Clear,” and “Exact or Accurate.”

The 2nd Speaker is TM S. H., whose motto is “Time is more important than money.”   
She delivered her speech titled “Do You Believe in Fate?” based on No2 Project of Level 1 (L1-2-1) “Evaluation and Feedback” from the Path “Dynamic Leadership.”

One day in February she took entrance examination in private university and she was disappointed in her terrible performance on the math test. While having lunch alone at the university’s courtyard, a young man spoke to her, but she didn’t know him. He said they learned at the same class in the preparatory school, but she didn’t remember him.

He is her husband now. She feels it’s a fate. (“縁” in Japanese) She claims that all phenomena in the universe can’t be explained by science and technology.
She concluded there are many things around us that are still unexplainable, but they will be proved, using mathematical formulas someday.
                     

The 3rd Speaker is TM T. O., whose motto is “Don’t take it seriously, enjoy an ordinary life.”
He delivered his speech titled “My partner” based on No. 2 Project of Level 1 (L1-2-2) “Evaluation and Feedback” from the Path “Presentation Mastery.”  

Until 35 years old, he hadn’t thought about marriage seriously. But at the age of 35, he sometimes felt lonely. So, he started “Kon-Katsu.” At first, he joined a group dating, but it was totally restless and difficult to know each other in a short time. So, he changed “group dating” to “Internet service searching a partner.”

To begin with, he filled up his profile in Internet like age, income, etc. And he filled in some questionnaires like “What is your favorite animal?” He met more than 10 women, but no one got along with him. But finally, he happened to meet a beautiful woman. He didn’t need to put on airs and could be natural in front of her.

A half year later, he proposed her, and she accepted. He got married her.
Congratulations on your marriage.
At the very end he showed one wonderful photo with his beloved wife and a cute pet on the screen.

The 4th Speaker is TM L. C., whose motto is “Don’t give up.”
He delivered his speech titled “Introduction of China Travel Destination” based on No. 2 Project of Level 2 (L2-2) “Connect with Your Audience” from the Path “Innovative Planning.”  

He thinks that there are three reasons why people feel worthy to travel to China.
Firstly, China is near to Japan and prices for food, transportation, and hotel are reasonable.
Secondly, it is a good thing for you to understand your neighboring country.
Thirdly, China has a variety of attractive travel resources.    

And he, showing photos on the screen, recommended the places for the different purposes to travel, natural sightseeing, history and culture exploration, enjoying delicious foods, and so on.

As he has not been to most of the places, he recommends that he just imagines they are attractive spots and also, he is planning to visit there in near future.

<Table Topics Session>
Table Topics Master TM K. T. took up 6 questions (topics) on this season.
                                                                                    
     1. Do you have any plan of Ohanami, enjoying cherry blossoms?
         Even if you don’t,  do you have any favorite spot for Ohanami? Or, please tell
         us your thought about Ohanami. 
     2. Are you still attracted to Somei Yoshino, or do you like other kinds of cherry
         trees?   (like Jindai Akebono which is stronger to diseases.)
     3. Are you allergic to the pollen, and if you are, how do you cope with it? If you  
         don’t have such problems, how about your family members?
     4. Now if you are a Buddhist, what did you do in this Ohigan? Or, perhaps you
         may not be a Buddhist. You may be a Christian. Then please tell us your
         thoughts of Ohigan, or how you want to be buried in future.
     5. Please tell us your feelings about Uguisu, and perhaps about this urbanization. 
　　　(Many large houses with gardens and trees have been flattened, divided to
          small blocks and small ready-built houses have been built.)
     6. March is the season of transfers. Have you ever experienced such a transfer? 
          Please tell us something about it.

<Evaluation Session>
After 10-minute intermission, the Evaluation Session started just at 4 o’clock.General Evaluator TM M. H., who is the most suitable member for the club slogan “Be positive. Be active” presided at the Evaluation Session smoothly.

4 Evaluators, TM Y. U., TM H. S., TM N. N. and TM T. K. did appropriate, encouraging evaluations. 

<Award Presentation>
TMOD Award was given to TM K. T. because of his taking the role of Table Topics Master in place of TM Y. W.
Best Table Topics Award was given to         TM A. T.
Best Evaluator Award was given to               TM N. N.
Best Prepared Speaker Award was given to TM L. C.
                                   

At the end of the meeting President T. O. asked 3 guests for short comments.
All of them gave their impressions of the meeting.
They seemed to have enjoyed the meeting.
Happily, they expressed their intentions of joining STMC .

                           By T. O.        Photos by M. I.