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