Pictures from the March 18th, 2017 Area 72 International Speech Contest

Kochi Toastmasters Club 131st Regular Meeting Minutes

Date and Time: 19:00-21:00, Monday, March 27th 2017

Location: Room 2, Sogo-Kenkyu Building, Kochi University

Attendees: TM Shinomiya, TM Nagasaki, TM S. Nagano, TM Hayashi, TM Tomonaga, TM Tsuchihashi, TM Hashimoto, TM Adachi,  TM Kunisawa, TM Sawada, TM Kumon, TM Cooley, TM Y. Nagano, TM Miyoshi, and TM O`Dowd

Absentees: TM Kitaoka, TM Wong, TM Rai, TM Machida, and TM Kamisaka

-Opening address by S. Nagano, President of Kochi Toastmasters Club:

President S. Nagano called the 131st regular meeting to order. She also expressed her gratitude for every member’s contribution to Area 72 International Speech Contest.

-Introduction of a Guest:  The guest, Mr. Yamaguchi, was introduced.

-Address by TM Shinomiya, Toastmaster of the Day, greeted everyone present at the meeting.

Word of the Day: Word Master: TM Tomonaga: She chose the word 'strive'.                                                                                                                                       -Introduction of Evaluation Team:
-General Evaluator: TM S. Nagano

-Timer: TM Sawada      -Vote-Counter: TM Kumon
-Ah-Counter: TM O’Dowd  -Grammarian: TM Cooley

- Table Topics Session】  Table Topics Master: TM Kunisawa:

During the session, TM Kunisawa had the participants describe something to do with spring memories or experiences. The list of speakers was as follows:

Speaker 1: TM Hayashi, what to do when spring comes

Speaker 2: TM Kumon, a song she thinks of when spring comes

Speaker 3: TM Nagasaki, his memorable dating in spring

Speaker 4: Mr Yamaguchi, what he has decided to do start doing in spring

Speaker 5: TM Tomonaga, a memorable person in spring

Speaker 6: TM O’Dowd, a movie she thinks of when spring comes

Speaker 7: TM Hashimoto, her favorite spring food

-Timer’s Report & Voting

-Intermission

-Formal Speech Session:

 Speaker 1: TM Miyoshi:  (CC #3 Get to the Point, 5-7 min) Title-Let’s use our body

 She injured her right knee at the age of 13.  Since then she has been troubled by various symptoms for a long time especially in winter. But after retiring, she started to play tennis almost every other day  and began to ride a bicycle to the tennis court.  In 2 years, her knee has almost recovered.  To use parts of our body moderately is the most effective way to recover from injuries and make them function well.  "Use it or lose it" 

Speaker 2: TM Adachi: (CC #8 Get comfortable with visual aids, 5-7 min)  Title- Lifelong Learning

She has been learning stained glass for more than 5 years. She has learned many things.

Trials, errors, and improvements are important in making something. Five students are learning together. They have the same hobby, but their aims, interests, and ways of learning something are different. But they enjoy refreshing as well as making something with stained glass together.

 Speaker 3: TM Tsuchihashi: (The Successful Club Series, 10-15 min) Title- Narikiri-meijin

She gave an educational speech focused on enhancing the quality of club meeting. In her presentation, she suggested that to make regular meeting high in quality, assigned members should check their roles, read CC manual and practice like a Narikiri-meijin before a meeting.

-Evaluation Session  General Evaluator, S. Nagano
    Evaluator 1: TM  Hayashi
    Evaluator 2: TM  Y. Nagano
    Evaluator 3: TM Hashimoto(Written Evaluation Only)
     -Timer’s Report & Vote
 -Reports :
    Ah-Counter, Grammarian, Word Master
    General Evaluator’s Comments
    Sharing 
   Address by Toastmaster, TM Shinomiya
-Award Presentation: Best TT Speaker: TM O’Dowd, Best FS Speaker: Since two of the three were disqualified, no one was selected. Best Evaluation Speaker: Since there were only two speakers, no one was selected.
-Business Session 

•    President S. Nagano appointed IPP Tomonaga to the club officers’ nomination committee chairperson and TM Tomonaga accepted. TM Tomonaga selected TM Nagasaki and TM Adachi for the committee members.

•    TM Nagasaki suggested changing the day of the meetings from the 4th Monday to the 4th Sunday of the month and it was accepted.

The regular meetings have been rescheduled.

    Time:  15:00-17:00

    Venue:  Eikokuji Campus, Kochi University of Technology

The upcoming meeting dates:

April 22 (Sat)

May 27 (Sat)

June 24 (Sat)

July 22 (Sat)
Roles for the next meeting:

TM of the Meeting: TM Nagasaki

Table Topics: TM Sawada

General Evaluator: Adachi

Time: TM Kumon

Ah Counter: TM Miyoshi

Grammarian: TM O’Dowd

Speakers:

TM Hayashi

          TM Tomonaga

          TM Y. Nagano

          TM Shinomiya

Speech Evaluator:

TM Cooley

TM S. Nagano

TM Wong

TM Nagasaki

-21:00 Adjourn

Agenda: 132nd Regular Meeting

DATE&TIME: 15:00-17:00, Saturday, April 22, 2017
VENUE:　Room A327, Education & Research Building
                 Eikokuji Campus, Kochi University of Technology / University of Kochi

*Be sure to exchange your CL Manuals before meeting starts

15:00  Call to Order by President
           Introduction of the Guests

15:03  New Member Induction & Mentor Assignment Ceremony

15:10  Greeting by Toastmaster:  TM Nagasaki
           Word of the Day: Word Master: TM S. Nagano
           Introduction of Evaluation Team
             General Evaluator: TM Adachi
                 Timer: TM  Kumon                  Vote-Counter: TM Yamaguchi
                 Ah-Counter: TM Miyoshi         Grammarian: TM O'Dowd

15:20  【Table Topics Session】  Table Topics Master: TM Sawada
              *Timer’s Report & Vote

15:40  Intermission

15:50 【Formal Speech Session】
   Speaker 1: TM Y. Nagano 
     (CC #4 , How to Say It, 5-7 min)
     Title: Unexpected Visitor
   Speaker 2: TM Hayashi
     (AD#11, Technical Presentations#1 The Technical Briefing, 8-10min)

   Title: The value of Japan’s Radio Exercise)

   Speaker 3: TM Shinomiya
　　(AD #, ,min)
　　Title: 
   Speaker 4: TM Tomonaga
     (AD#7 Technical Presentation,#2 the proposal,

     8-10minutes for speech and 3-5minutes for Q&A)

     Title: Step out of our comfort zone

       *Timer’s Report & Vote

16:30 【Evaluation Session】   General Evaluator
    Evaluator 1: TM Cooley 
    Evaluator 2: TM Nagasaki 
    Evaluator 3: TM Wong
    Evaluator 4: TM S. Nagano
      *Timer’s Report & Vote

16:45 Report
    Ah-Counter, Grammarian, Word Master
    General Evaluator’s Comments
    Sharing
    Award Presentation: President
    Address by Toastmaster

16:55 Business Session: VPE
      1  Club Officers
      2  Role Assignment
17:00  Adjourn

【IMPORTANT】Regular Meeting Rescheduled

The regular meetings have been rescheduled. Our regular meeting will be held on the 4th Saturday. The meeting time and venue will also be changed:

    Time:  15:00-17:00
    Venue:  Eikokuji Campus, Kochi University of Technology

The upcoming meeting dates are:

April 22 (Sat)
May 27 (Sat)
June 24 (Sat)
July 22 (Sat)

リレーエッセイ I ♥ Toastmasters ｢スピーチコンテストってすごい！｣

トーストマスターズクラブでは年に2回春と秋にスピーチコンテストが開催されます。
その際コンテストを主催するホストクラブになることがあります。コンテストによって内容が変わることがありますがホストクラブになるとコンテスト実行委員長、コンテスト委員長、審査委員長、会場係、会計係、インタビュアーなどさまざまな役割をクラブ内で担当してコンテストを運営します。

私も先日3月18日の『エリア72国際スピーチコンテスト』で日本語コンテストの審査員長をさせていただきました。真剣にスピーチをする出場者の順位を決定するための重要な役割です。いろいろな方に情報メールを送ったり集計をしたりとても責任があるので（なんで引き受けたんだろう。。）なんて弱気になることも。。でも大丈夫！コンテストを成功させよう。出場者に気持ち良くスピーチをしてもらおう。などなどコンテストにかかわる全員の気持ちが一つになって連帯感が生まれます。終わった後には『上手く行ってよかった。』コンテスト前とコンテスト中のハラハラドキドキがしみじみした安ど感に変わります。そしてコンテストが終わった後でみんなでお疲れさん、乾杯！！のビールの美味しさと言ったら。。もうハマります。それを楽しみにコンテストのお手伝いをしているようなものかもしれません。

コンテスタントで出場した経験はまだないですが出場経験のあるメンバーによるとものすごいプレッシャーと闘い、それが終わった後にはすごい経験値が上がるそうです。

通常の例会とはまた一味違う経験のできるコンテスト、ぜひ経験してみて損はないです。
そして何よりも優れたスピーカーの極上の素晴らしいスピーチを生で聴ける絶好のチャンス♪やっぱりスピーチコンテストはすごい！

(友永　紀代)

Kochi Toastmasters Club 130th Regular Meeting Minutes

DATE&TIME: 19:00-21:00, Monday, February 27th, 2017,
VENUE:　Room 2, Sogo-Kenkyu Building, Kochi University

Atte      Attendees: TM Shinomiya, TM Nagasaki, TM S. Nagano, TM Hayashi, TM Tsuchihashi,              TM Hashimoto, TM Adachi, TM Wong, TM Kunisawa, TM Y. Nagano, TM Miyoshi, TM O’Dowd, TM Cooley, TM Sawada, TM Kamisaka, TM Kumon and TM Tomonaga

Absentees: TM Rai, TM Machida and TM Kitaoka

-Call to Order by President: TM S. Nagano congratulated TM Wong on successfully conpleting the Kochi Ryoma Marathon. In addition, she informed the attendees that during this meeting the in-house speech contest would also be held.

Introduction of Guests:  There were no guests.
 

-Greeting by Toastmaster:  TM Adachi, the TM of the meeting, greeted everyone present at the meeting. She also explained that before having the Speech Contest, there would be a formal speech session to let TM Kamisaka give her 5th speech.

-Word Master: None

-Grammarian and Ah- Counter: None

-General Evaluator: None

-Timers: TM Hayashi and TM O`Dowd  

-Table Topics Master: None

-Speech Evaluator: TM Tomonaga
 

-TM Hayashi and TM O`Dowd explained the timing rules for TM Kamisaka`s speech.

 

-TM Kamisaka gave her 5th speech in the CC Manual: 

In her 5th speech from the CC Manual which focused on body language entitled “Kochi my second home”, she talked about coming to Kochi six years ago to study in university and how the experience allowed her to learn many things. For example, the difficulties encountered while living alone such as dealing with the NHK man and being unable to resist the extremely delicious food from Kochi. She also talked about the best things about coming to Kochi which were noticing an improvement in her English skills as well as meeting and becoming friends with a slew of amazing people from all over the world. Most importantly, Kochi has become her second home and she will miss everyone who made her time there so special.

-Evaluation Session: Evaluator : TM Tomonaga

-In-House English Speech Contest:

-Roles of members:

TM Adachi and TM Kunisawa: Contest Chairs

TM Tsuchihashi: Gave Opening Address

TM Nagasaki: Chief Judge

TM Hashimoto, TM Tomonaga and TM Shinomiya: Judges

TM Y. Nagano and TM Miyoshi: Tally Counters

TM Hayashi and TM O`Dowd: Timers

 

-The rules were explained and then the speech order was determined for the three contestants. Here was the order:

1. TM Sawada “Let`s enjoy Japanese home cooking”, a speech talking about how difficult it is to actually cook authentic Japanese home cooking.

2. TM Wong “What was I thinking”, a speech about climbing a volcano in Chile called Villarica and what the experience taught him.

3. TM Cooley “Half of what you see”, a speech about the spread of fake news and how to combat it.

-Before announcing the winner, TM Nagasaki had the members do an exchange talk session which involved a small brainstorm and presentation session about topics relevant to becoming better Toastmasters.

-The winner of the In-House English Speech Contest was TM Cooley. She received the first place certificate from TM S. Nagano. TM Cooley will represent Kochi Toastmasters Club at the Area Contest in March.

 
-At the end of the meeting, TM Kamisaka, who was attending her final meeting, thanked everyone for making her feel welcome at the club. She hopes that we will come visit her in Hiroshima in the future.

 

Business session:

TM Nagasaki suggested changing the day of the meetings from the 4th Monday to the 4th Sunday of the month for spring meetings. This will be discussed further and a decision will be made soon.

 

Roles for the next meeting:

TM of the Meeting: TM Shinomiya

Table Topics: TM Kunisawa

General Evaluator: S. Nagano

Time: TM Sawada

Ah Counter/Grammarian: TM O`Dowd

Speakers: TM Adachi

                 TM Miyoshi

                 TM Tschuchihashi

Speech Evaluator: TM Wong

 

 

 

 

Kochi Toastmasters Club 129th Regular Meeting Minutes

DATE&TIME: 19:00-21:00, Monday, January 23rd, 2017,
VENUE:　Room 2, Sogo-Kenkyu Building, Kochi University

Attendees :　TM Shinomiya, TM Nagasaki, TM S. Nagano, TM Hayashi, TM Tsuchihashi, TM Hashimoto, TM Adachi, TM Wong, TM Kunisawa, TM Y. Nagano, TM Miyoshi and TM O’Dowd, TM Cooley, TM Sawada

Absentees : TM Rai, TM Machida, TM Kumon, TM Tomonaga, TM Kitaoka and TM Kamisaka

Guests : TM Marc Yoshikawa  and Mr. Yamaguchi(3)

 

-Call to Order by President : President Sachi Nagano called the 129th regular meeting to order. She also asked the members if they had a good start to the new year.

-Introduction of Guests :  The two guests were introduced.

-Greeting by Toastmaster:  TM Adachi, the TM of the meeting, greeted everyone present at the meeting.

- Word of the Day: Word Master: TM Y. Nagano : He chose the word 'give-in`.                                                                                                                                       -Introduction of Evaluation Team :
-General Evaluator: TM Wong

-Timer: TM Hayashi     -Vote-Counter: TM Miyoshi

-Ah-Counter: None   -Grammarian: TM Kunisawa

- Table Topics Session】  Table Topics Master: TM O`Dowd

During the session, TM O`Dowd challenged the participants to answer her difficult  questions. This required the participants to think on their feet and use humor or draw on personal experience.   The list of speakers was as follows:

Speaker 1: TM Kunisawa, `If rain had a smell, what would you want it to be?`

Speaker 2: TM Wong, `Explain how Australia is better than New Zealand`

Speaker 3: TM Yoshikawa, `If  you were a famous song writer, what would your next big hit be about?`

Speaker 4: TM Miyoshi, `If  you had a statue made of yourself, what would it look like and where would you put it?`

Speaker 5: TM Tsuchihashi, `If you could change the ending of any movie, which would you choose ?`

 

-Timer’s Report & Voting

-Intermission

-Formal Speech Session :

 As each speaker was introduced by the Toastmaster of the meeting, TM Adachi also told the attendees each speaker`s New Year`s Resolution.

 Speaker 1: TM Hashimoto, her New Year`s Resolution is to make as many speeches as possible. She redid her first speech from the `The Entertaining Speech Manual` in order to give a more polished version of this speech. Her speech titled `My Prayer` talked about the different reasons people pray as well as her reasons for doing so. She went on to explain how, while at a temple in Kyoto with her perceived soul mate, she struggled to come up with the perfect prayer to write and instead wrote a prayer motivated by greed that seemed to indicate she was attracted not by the person she was with, but by his money. Overall the lesson she learned from that whole experience is that doing something without a conscious effort will not be rewarded with a positive result.

Speaker 2: TM Y. Nagano, his New Year`s Resolution is to go jogging at least once a week. He gave his 3rd speech in the Competent Communicator Manual. The skill being emphasized was being clear and succinct in order to `Get to the Point.`  In his speech titled`Just Stand by`, he talked about how when he receives a message, there is no wording nor any letters and so he has difficulty understanding the meaning. Using a story about spending time at the house of his wife`s family as an example, he was able to show us how he can perceive the meaning of a message through a series of events he is a part of. At the same time, he hoped that through his story, we can all learn that sometimes it is better to `Stand by` than to react.

Speaker 3: TM Shinomiya, her New Year`s Resolution is to do whatever she wants to enjoy life to its fullest.  She gave her first speech in the `Story Telling Manual`. The skill being emphasized was to tell a folk tale in way that is both entertaining and creates vivid imagery to the person listening to the story. She chose a folk tale about a mischievous little fox named Gon. Gon was always playing tricks on people. Until one day after inadvertently causing the death of Hyoju`s mother, he tries to rectify the situation, by bringing gifts to Hyoju`s house. Unfortunately, Hyoju thinks Gon is trying to trick him once more and shoots and kills Gon.

Speaker 4: TM S. Nagano, her New Year`s Resolution is to swim a 100 km in a year. She gave an Advanced Communicator level speech in which the skill being emphasized was to give a fact finding report. She chose to talk about the secret and often misunderstood world of lottery and gambling. For many people, playing the lottery is not perceived as gambling, but rather as a moment of pleasure that is heightened by the possibility of winning lots of money. Unfortunately, the reality is that when you play the Japanese lottery system, you have less chances of winning than many other lottery systems around the world. This is something that not many people know. TM S. Nagano, not only gave an  in depth analysis of the lottery system by backing up her information with statistics, she also was able to answer with confidence the questions she was asked during the Q and A session.

 

Evaluation Session】   General Evaluator
    Evaluator 1: TM  Tsuchihashi

    Evaluator 2: TM  Sawada
    Evaluator 3: TM Cooley
    Evaluator 4: TM Nagasaki

  -Timer’s Report & Vote

 -Reports :
   , Grammarian, Word Master
    General Evaluator’s Comments
    Sharing 
    Address by Toastmaster
-Award Presentation      Presided TM Nagano announced the winners: Best TTSpeaker: TM Wong, Best FS Speaker: TM Y. Nagano and TM S.  Nagano, Best Evaluator: Since two of the four were disqualified, no one was selected.  TM Shinomiya also received an award for her contribution to District 76.
-Business Session : Next meeting we will have the In-House International Speech Contest 
-Adjourn