Toastmasters Area 61 Joint Meeting

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We held the second Toastmasters Club Area 61 Joint Meeting on January 22, 2011, at the Hiroshima City International House.

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There are 5 English Speaking Clubs (HTC, Aki, Kure, Iwakuni, Quantum) and 1 Bilingual Club (Momiji) in Hiroshima and neighboring cities.

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About 70 toastmasters and guests enjoyed speeches, workshops and entertainments at the Joint Meeting

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The chairperson, TM Hisamatsu (Momiji) called to order. Her cheerful manner made a　warm atmosphere.

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We started preparation and briefing at 11:30. Members at all clubs could confirm the main purpose of the event and roles of each club. At 13:00, TM Matsuda (HTC) began a warm up session, asking all participants to assemble two circles and make a 1 minute introduction changing partners. This session helped participants to get closer and relax.

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Area Governor TM Hirao made an opening address. He thanked all the people for their cooperation and asked them to support the charter of the Momiji Bilingual Club officially.

Note : Momiji TMC got chartered in February 2011

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Then LGM Suzuki made a presentation titled, “What is Toastmasters?” He talked about the history, values and mission of TMCs. He persuaded the audience that to play roles as positive as to work on each speech projects is the key and mission to be a competent toastmaster.

SPEECH AND EVALUATION

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From 13:30, TMOD Uemoto (Aki) started the formal speech and evaluation session. We had 5 English representative speakers from each club and 1 Japanese representative speaker from the bilingual club. Speakers had precious opportunities to have evaluators from different clubs. Therefore, though it was not held in contest style, all the formal speakers and evaluators prepared well and made speeches sincerely. We enjoyed the various projects and styles.

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The 1st speaker, TM Tanimoto’s (Kure) speech project was “Folk Tale.” She acted the folk tale out in a fabulous way and showed excellent entertainment skills with vivid vocal variety.

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The 2nd speaker, TM S. Morikawa’s (Momiji) speech project was “Organize Your Speech.” She asked TMs to cooperate to lead her students to contribute to globalize Hiroshima using English and TMs experience.

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The 3rd speaker, TM Minokami’s (QTC) project was “Get Comfortable with Visual Aids.” He shared a strategy to control our thoughts and feelings to realize our potential.

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The 4th speaker, TM Kohzawa’s (HTC) project was “Organize Your Speech.” He told a way to use our precious time wisely as a group using an interesting mathematical formula.

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The 5th speaker, TM Awa’s (Aki) project was “The Abstract Concept.” She suggested that we should not sacrifice ourselves too much, but rather take care of ourselves as well as others illustrating a Japanese famous folk story, “Yuzuru.”

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The Japanese speaker, TM Echigo’s (Momiji) project was “Ice Breaker.” He spoke about his change in attitude towards pictures. He used to take pictures of products in a stylish way to get people’s attention, but now he believes pictures of people working passionately are more attractive. All the audiences nodded and reacted well to support the speakers and TM Uemoto gave warm and inspiring comments for every speech. We enjoyed good cooperation.

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At the evaluation session, TM Hotta was the General Evaluator.

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Every evaluator gave good encouragement and constructive advice to improve speeches. TM Marunaka (QTC) applauded TM Tanimoto’s splendid performance.

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TM Forsyth (Kure) gave his word to cooperate TM S. Morikawa’s project.

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TM Kamimoto (Aki) acclaimed the good combination of TM Minokami’s speech and visual aids.

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TM E. Morikawa (Momiji) introduced TM Kohzawa’s mind map script as a smart way to brush up on the organization of a speech.

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TM Matoba (HTC) praised TM Awa’s good illustration and commented about making a speech credible.

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TM Yanagida (HTC) talked about TM Echigo’s good skill to make his speech short and effective in an admiring tone. Through their evaluation speeches, we celebrated each speaker’s success and we learned good ways to improve speech skills.

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From 14:40, TM Fujiyama (HTC) and her team served delicious sweets and a light meal at coffee break. We enjoyed talking with people in different clubs and many audiences gave feedback to speakers. Then representatives of each area introduced their clubs on the stage and invited audience to visit them.

COFEE BREAK COFEE BREAK COFEE BREAK

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At 15:10, TM Yoshina (QTC) and other QTC members entertained us with “Joyful Time.” TM Hirao did magic tricks with his humorous talk.

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TM Oishi taught us a basic belly dance for physical exercise.

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TM Pahm talked about a funny story of his unique experience of the toilet. We shared a good laugh and relaxed.　

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TM Pahm talked about a funny story of his unique experience of the toilet. We shared a good laugh and relaxed.　

WORKSHOP

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At 15:50, TM Tran (Kure) held a workshop and taught us how to use our emotions to make a speech delivery more attractive using “gestures”, “vocal variety”, and “giving our mind to be here”. He used pair work and helped us to experience how these three key essences influence the audience.

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At 16:40, TM Imamura, a member of Kitakyushu TMC made a special presentation. He introduced a book, “”Dear Miss Breed” which he translated and published. It was about an American librarian who sent books to give hope to Japanese Americans in despair in internment camps during World War Ⅱ. We were moved with this real and touching story.

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At 16:50, TM Ota (HTC) made a closing address. He told us that the cooperation and communication of different club members would activate and improve both each member and each club activity.

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After that, we took group photos. At: 17:00, TM Hisamatsu celebrated the success of this joint meeting and called an adjournment in a joyful manner.