Blog for the meeting on August 1st.
The meeting started with our president’s remark about the book “The Old Man and the Sea,” which, inspired by one of the speeches made in our July club meeting, she re-read after a long interval. Inspiration is a chain reaction so that her remark will again make many members look at this classic book and give them a chance to learn life lessons. TMOD is TM T who talked about life goals. He says that we can change our goals anytime if we have strong will to do that.
■ Today’s word： “enthusiastic”
TM Y chose this word inspired by the Olympic games currently held in Tokyo. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes fascinate us with their great performance.
Even though it’s not an easy word to pronounce, many members used it in their speeches.
■ Prepared Speeches
Prepared speeches are made based on Pathways’ learning paths created by Toastmasters International. Achieving the purposes of the speech project is the main target of the prepared speech. Today, we had three speakers.
[1st Speaker: TM S] Speech Title: Second Foreign Language
Recently, he moved house and in the new place, he wanted to start something new. That’s why he started learning Portuguese. There are many Portuguese in his neighborhood, and he hopes to converse with them. He found that learning a second foreign language also helps understand English better. He recommended us learn second foreign language.
[2nd Speaker: TM M] Speech Title: Inauguration Speech for Area Director
She is appointed as our Area Director this term. This is her inauguration speech to our club members, The designated time is three to four minutes, but she repeatedly expressed her love toward this club and the Toastmasters. We were impressed by her speech.
[3rd Speaker: TM F] Speech Title: Do you know about the pathways Path and Project Matrix?
Her project purpose is to practice the skills needed to address audience challenges. Some members intentionally interrupted her speech and she successfully coped with the difficult situation and got her speech back on track. The members were able to learn about both the pathways and the special delivery techniques.
■ Table Topics Session
Table Topics session is an impromptu speech session. Speakers learn his/ her speech title on the spot and start making their speeches. Today, TM H from Indonesia generously took on the Table Topics master’s role and everyone enjoyed her choice of speech topics.
■ Evaluation session
In the evaluation session, speech evaluators describe today’s speakers’ good points and areas for improvements. Evaluators always encourage speakers and give them constructive advice to improve their speeches further. Evaluators had to work hard because they had to evaluate special types of speeches in today’s meeting.
■ Award session
The best speakers from Table Topics, prepared speeches, and evaluators are selected and awarded at the end of the meeting. Today, some of the speakers were disqualified because they exceeded their designated speech time.
Congratulations on today’s excellent speakers !
