President N. N. called the Meeting No.483 to order and welcomed two guests.

    TM N. N. presented “Word of the day: “Awesome (adjective) and Awe (n)”. Two speakers used this word.

Business Session
     * VPPR TM Y.W explained the new idea, in order to put the proper photos of speakers at the meeting on STMC Home Page, that the photographers will take those during the 1-minute silence.
     * VPE TM Y. T. announced the meeting of Moment of Truth to be held on June 23. The detailed information will be sent by e-mail later.
     * STMC Presidential Election
       On behalf of the presidential election committee, TM N.N. announced that only TM T. O. to run for the presidency. TM T. O. delivered his speech for running for the election. After that, TM Y. Watanabe made a supportive speech for TM T.O. Finally, TM T.O. was selected as the President in the next term by a unanimous vote.
                                            

     TMOD: TM T. I.
     Grammarian: TM Y. T.
     Ah/Uh Counter: TM N.N.
     Vote Counter: TM T. O.
     Timer: TM M. I.

Joke Session
    The Joke Master is TM H.S. She introduced two jokes.

Prepared Speech Session
    First Speaker: TM T.S.
    TOMD asked all speakers to answer his question “What is your most memorable event in April? Her answer was “It is having entered the university and started the dorm life. ”The title of her speech was “All I need is love”.
    Second Speaker: TM K. K.
    His answer was “Strolling in the sea of cherry blossoms in Ninna-Ji. There the height of the trees is only 2 – 3m. The title of his speech was ”Cherry Blossoms in Japan”. 
                  

    Third Speaker: TM M. H.
    Her answer was “I have experienced entrance ceremonies on various occasions in my life, and the most unforgettable one is that of the primary school. I was born in March and the smallest one in the class – People before me stood tall, and they had such a serious look during the ceremony. I later learned these people are called ‘teachers’”. Her speech manual is Pathways, Icebreaker.The title of her speech was “Being Fresh”.
    Fourth Speaker: TM Y. W.
    His answer was “As I have many memorable events in April, I can’t decide one.Thus I’ll select the oldest memorable event that I was so crying for my mother after I took the bus to the kindergarten for the first time.His speech manual is Pathways, Icebreaker. The title of his speech was “The child is father of the man.”
                            
                                                                                    
Table Topics Session
    The Table Topics Master is TM T. K. He asked the following 5 questions concerning High School.
     1. What kind of sports did you concentrate on at your high school?
     2. Who is an unforgettable teacher?
     3. What subject did you concentrate on except sports?
     4. What is an unforgettable experience?
     5. Do you meet with any class mates?   

     TM T. O., TM A. T., TM T. A., TM H. S. and TM M. K. made wonderful prompt speeches, respectively.

After 10 minute- break, Evaluation Session 
    The General Evaluator was TM E. M.
    Four evaluators evaluated each speaker’s speech.
    TM K. I. evaluated TM T. S.’s speech.
　TM A. M. evaluated TM K.K.’s speech.
　TM Y. H. evaluated TM M. H.’s speech.
    TM Y. U. evaluated TM Y. W.’s speech.

 

 

Award Presentation  
     The TMOD Award:                       TM T. O.
                             for accepting the unexpected change of the role to Vote Counter.
    The Best Table Topics Speaker:  TM A. T.
    The Best Evaluator:                      TM Y. H.
    The Best Prepared Speaker:       TM M. H.
                                       By T. I.

                    

District 76       Division E     Area 57
2018 Japanese & English International Contest

Date/        Sunday, April 1,2018
Venue/     Odawara Citizen Exchange Center UMECO
Host/         English Contest       Shonan TMC
                 Japanese contest    Odawara TMC
Among the attendance of about 50, from Shonan TMC were 10 including two Contestants and some in charge of certain roles.
                                  

2018 Japanese speech contest

12:15         Japanese speech contest call to order     Contest Chair TM Hironori Saito
                 Opening remarks                                  Area 57 Director TM Chiharu Tanabe
12:30         Japanese speech contest
                 The first contestant                TM T. A.        (Southern Beach TMC)
                 The second contestant          TM S. I.         (Odawara TMC)
                 The third contestant               TM T. I.         (Mishima TMC)
                 The fourth contestant             TM M. S.       (Mishima TMC)
                 The fifth contestant.               TM M. N.       (Southern Beach TMC)
                 The sixth contestant               TM K. S.       (Odawara TMC)
     The six contestants all gave wonderful and impressive speeches.    

     They were given the Participation Awards by Contest Chair and interviewed by
     TM N. Z.

       The winners were:
                 The first place            TM T. I.          (Mishima TMC)
                 The second place      TM M. S..       (Mishima TMC)
                 The third place           TM T. A.         (Southern beach TMC)

   After the Host Club President’s closing address the Japanese contest adjourned. .

2018   English Speech Contest

14:45           English Speech Contest Call to Order      Contest Chair       TM M. K.
                    Opening remarks                                       Area 57 Director  TM C. T.

After the explanation of contest rules and Contestants qualification report by Chief Judge TM T. O’s, the speech order was announced .

15:00       English Speech Contest
                                               
               The first contestant                   TM M. M.           (Mishima TMC)
                  Speech Title; Watching over me
                               Summary     Life is tough .So it was nice to have someone 
                                                   watching over you. She noticed she could also be
                                                  the one to watch over someone . But It doesn’t mean
                                                   giving a hand totally, but keeping a warm watch
                                                   over someone.
                The second contestant             TM N.N.           (Shonan TMC)
                   Speech Title; Teachers
                               Summary     He has taught a lot of students but he has also
                                                  learned a lot from his students. Students can be
                                                   teachers. Life itself is the Best School for anyone.
                                                   We can enrich our life by this unfinished learnings.
                 The third contestant                 TM Y. S.           (Southern Beach TMC)
                    Speech Title; Around you
                               Summary     She talked about her experience while diving. It was
                                                   the moment she noticed there were people
                                                   protecting her and that we are surrounded by kind
                                                   people loving each of us, respectively. They are all
                                                   around us.
                 The fourth contestant                 TM S. Y.         (OdawaraTMC)
                    Speech Title; Bloom your flower
                                 Summary   He talked about the key conversation with his
                                                   boss which broke through his stressful business
                                                   situation and made him positive.
                                                   His message was “Bloom your flower!”
                 The fifth contestant                     TM Y. W.        (Shonan TMC) 
                    Speech Title; Toastmasters
                                 Summary   His speech was about his experiences at Shonan
                                                   TMC ; how he felt attending the regular meeting
                                                   for the first time and came to find out it’s the best
                                                   place to learn persuasive speech in business, which
                                                   he proved himself in his successful business career.
                 The sixth contestant                    TM K. C. T.     (Mishima TMC)
                     Speech Title; Jupiter
                                 Summary     With his tenor’s voice, he sang the first part of the
                                                    song “ Jupiter”,   Ayaka Hirahara’s most popular
                                                     song. Life has ups and downs and even inside
                                                     himself he feels angelic side and demonic side of
                                                     mind. But listening Jupitar has always been his
                                                     motivation to keep his self-esteem.
               The seventh contestant                  TM S. N.         (Southern Beach TMC)
                   Speech Title; Next is my turn
                             Summary     He talked about his father, very classic authoritative
                                                 type, respected as a leader by neighbor.. But for him
                                                 he looked too judgmental. Now that he has his own
                                                 child, it is his turn to aim his own idealistic father, but
                                                 from his wife’s point of view he tends to be too sweet.

Interview session

     Every contestant was given the Participation Award and was interviewed by TM M. I..
     To the question; what inspires you most? A contestant said seeing new world, 
     meeting new people, these are my inspiration. Another said inter-cultural activity
     is my interest. One said toastmasters activity itself is his inspiration. They all really 
     are  Mr. and Ms. Toastmasters.   
                         
                                                    

16:30         Contest Chair announced the contest result and Area 57 Director TM C. T.
                  handed the Awards.       

                 First Place                TM N. N.                    (Shonan)
                 Second Place           TM M. M.                   (Mishima)
                 Third Place               TM S. N.                    (Southern Beachi)
                                   

                 Congratulation!
                 TM N. N. (Shonan, English) and TM T. I. (Mishima, Japanese) proceed 
                 to the Division Contest as our representatives on April 15th.

President of Shonan TMC, TM N. N. made the host club President’s address and the contest  ended in a friendly atmosphere.

Thank you for the wonderful contestants and all the role takers and supportive audience.  

                                                                               By M. I.

    President N. N. called the Meeting to order and welcomed two guests. TM M. I. presented “Word of the day: “Outstanding (adjective)”. The speakers used this word quite often in their speeches.

Business Session
    TM Y. W. introduced our renewed Home-page design with a lot of photos.
    TM L. C. reported the status of the preparatory works for the presidential election.  
                                                                                     
    TMOD: TM H. S.
    Grammarian: TM A. M.
    Ah/Uh Counter: TM M. I.
    Vote Counter: TM T. I.
    Timer: TM T. O.

Joke Session was skipped to spare the time for new Pathways system introduction.

Prepared Speech Session
    The number of speeches was limited to 3 due to the same reason as mentioned above.
    TMOD asked all speakers to answer to her question: “What color do you like and why?”
    First Speaker: TM K. I.
    His answer to TMOD’s question was “I like black color. Because it may have the meaning of steady, firm, rigid and unbendable”. The title of his speech was “Lady Macbeth”. It is one of four great tragedies by Shakespeare. It was not easy to perform; however, he gave his speech smoothly and naturally.
                                                                                    
 Second Speaker: TM N. S.
    Her answer was “I have never selected purple for my clothes. However, I like purple because my deceased mother loved purple very much and wore purple kimono or clothes very often”.The title of her speech was “The Great Dictator”. She interpreted and presented a famous speech in the movie with her changing wonderful voice volume.
                                                                                    
    Third Speaker: TM Y. U.
    He said “I like green color, because I feel something calm when I meet green”.The title of his speech was “The roast to a lady”. He picked up one of our members and starting with roast, ended up with his praise and respect to her.
                                                                                    
Table Topics Session
    Table Topics Master was TM A. S. She raised 4 following topics.
                   
    1. The year 2018 started with a very cold winter. Now we feel the season is moving on to spring. What are the things that make you feel “Spring has come!”?
    2. This Wednesday, we had a surprising snow fall. Did it affect your holiday plan? If so please tell us about it, and if not, tell us about your experience concerning the snow fall?
    3. March is the time of Graduation Ceremony in Japan. You’ve experienced many graduations so far. So tell us about graduation that you remember most.
    4. Now is the season of cherry blossoms. Do you have any special Ohanami plan? If so please tell us about it. If not, please tell us about the Ohanami you remember most?
    On those topics, TM M. H., TM M. K., TM T. A. and TM A. T. made wonderful prompt speeches, respectively.

After 5 minute- break, Evaluation Session 
    The General evaluator: TM J. Y.
    Three evaluators evaluated each speaker’s speech.
    TM Y. W. evaluated TM K. I.’s speech.
    TM T. K. evaluated TM N. S.’s speech.
    TM E. M. evaluated TM Y. U.’s speech.

The Award Presentation  
    The TMOD Award: TM Y. W. for introducing the new home-page design.
    The Best Table Topics Speaker: TM A. T.
    The Best Evaluator: TM E. M.
    The Best Prepared Speaker: TM N. S.
             Awards Winners     

Special Session : Introduction of the new educational system “Pathways” by T. A.
    The outline of “Pathways” was concisely explained in about 40 minutes and a few questions were replied briefly.
    The details may follow in VPE’s e-mail later.

                                                                                       By H. S.

    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