Ashikaga TMC 100th Commemorative Meeting and Party

Mieko Arakawa
2019年6月15日
読了時間: 4分

(I write a blog in English today)

Today, we had a big event!

Ashikaga Toastmasters Club happily held the 100th Regular Meeting today, and we celebrated it with inviting honorable guests.

TM Negishi welcoming and introducing guests

Ashikaga Toastmasters Club was chartered in 2011. We hold a regular meeting once in a month on every 3rd Saturdays at Ashikaga Shogai Gakushu Center. We are the group to give English speeches and try to improve both English speaking skill and the leadership skill by managing our monthly regular meeting. Toastmasters club is a non-profit organization first founded in California, USA, and now have clubs in all over the world including Japan.

Ashikaga club now has 20 members from different ages, careers and backgrounds.

We enjoy monthly meeting by listening to 5-7 minutes prepared speeches and also 2-3 minutes impromptu speeches by attendees. We use English in our meeting.

Since 2011, we've continued to have meetings every month, and fortunately had the 100th meeting today in June 2019. This fantastic work was accomplished by every member's cooperation and dedication, but we cannot forget specifically TM Negishi who has lead our club and devoted herself selflessly. She is the founder of Ashikaga Club.

Anyway, thanks to TM Negishi, we have opportunities to practice English speeches, and to listen to others' stories based on their own valuable experiences.

Let me move on to the report of today's meeting.

Today, we have 5 honorable guests,

Division Director TM Inagaki,

Mr. Kitamura (Former Principal of Ashikodai High School)

TM Nakajima (Gunma club)

TM Harada (Gunma club)

TM Bob Ishida (Gunma club).

And we have a new member, TM Haruyama!! Welcome TM Haruyama!! Let's enjoy together!!

TOD Hiroshi Kobayashi introduced every role taker.

Table Topic Master Yamaguchi gave us 5 questions such as

1. "What is the difference before and after joining Toastmasters club?"

2. "What will you do in 10 years?"

3. "What is the impressive things in Ashikaga club?"

4. "Any athletic meeting memory?"

5. "Any enjoyable plan for the rest of a year?"

1. TM Shimakura answered. Before joining this club, she hesitated to read mails in English. But now, English mails are coming everyday basis from toastmasters, so it became natural to read them in English. Also, she earned a skill of writing in English.

2. Mami Kobayashi answered. I'm pregnant now and soon getting a new born baby. My life will change a lot and will be busy obviously. But I wanna enjoy new life with my family, and try to raise good kids. Hopefully I'll still be a member of Toastmasters.

3. TM Negishi answered. Everything in here is impressive. She enjoys Toastmasters a lot but it's a busy work. She doesn't sleep much, and that's why she is getting more weight. "If you sleep less, you will eat more, and get fat." That's what she said.

4. TM Hatcho answered. He does exercise in daily basis, and his favorite exercise is Zumba dancing. He loves to work out and to keep his body healthy.

5. TM Kano answered. He has a busy schedule recently because his mother is in need of nursing. He commuted to his parents house to take care of his mother. But he loves cooking, and cooking makes him happy. He recently made Hijiki Gohan, and that made his family's faces smile.

Next is the Prepared Speech Session.

First, TM Arakawa gave us a speech, and her title is "From 2 Men's Lives."

Two English teachers she met in Philippines gave her some thoughts about living. Both of them are from foreign countries but they've decided to live in Philippines. TM Arakawa wondered why at first, but gradually she understood that they've found out their happiness in Philippines.

TM Arakawa is a good story-teller. She always gives us a speech with lots of stories with details and her skill of description is excellent.

The second speaker was TM Fukuda. Her title is "On the 100th Commemorative Meeting of Ashikaga TMC." Her speech objective is mastering the toast. Perfect timing to challenge the project.

She successfully achieved the goal of this project by introducing guests and told us her own thoughts about 100th meeting. It was funny how she described TM Negishi as "demanding."

But sometimes a leader must have aggressive attitude to make everyone go forward, and TM Negishi is a type of the person. TM Fukuda made us laugh with the anecdote, and we cheerfully toasted.

We also had a great chance to listen to TM Bob Ishida's excellent speech in the workshop session. He is very talented and experienced speaker who once became a champion in a speech contest. His way of delivering speech is totally different from our usual style. The eye contact, the pause, the pacing of speech, the posture and gesture, and everything else is expressed in calm and confident manner. We've learned a lot from his speech. Thank you, Bob.