Evaluation Selection
This "regular" meeting was special in terms of content. We focused on evaluation speeches. In Toastmasters, there are five different kinds of contests, and this program year, District 76, the district we belong to, holds a series of "Evaluation Contests." The contests The first round is the club selection, which can take the form of a contest or any other form each club sees fit. At Shin-Osaka Leaders, we decided not to hold the contest, which we think has some limitations on the educational value. Instead, we held an event to select our representatives to compete in the upcoming Area F-3 Evaluation Contest on October 29.
The event started with President Yuki's test speech. After a five-minute preparation time, when everyone prepared for their own evaluation speech, all the competing evaluators except for the first one were brought into a breakout room and the first competing evaluator, Anh, delivered her evaluation speech. She is relatively new to the club and does not have much experience as a speech evaluator. Yet, she gave a well-organized evaluation speech with two solid suggestions for improvement. The second evaluator, Maya, also a new member, followed with her heart-felt evaluation speech in an orderly manner, and we welcomed the last competing evaluator Mit to deliver his. He used his time effectively to cover three points to commend and one suggestion for improvement. He concluded his evaluation speech with a brief summary. Those three evaluation speeches were delivered in the Evaluation Contest style, where each evaluator is required to think about the speaker's speech purpose. Then, the last evaluator, Yi, evaluated the speech in the meeting style, where the evaluator is informed of the speaker's speech project and purpose.
We went into breakout rooms to share our thoughts on those evaluation speeches and that provided a lot of insight for the attendees on how to deliver an effective evaluation speech.
After the breakout session and the Table Topics session (for practicing Impromptu speeches), the winners were announced. Maya and Mit were selected to represent us at the Area Evaluation Contest. Congratulations!
Farewell chat
In Toastmasters, members pay their membership dues in September and March for the next six-month period. This means that the meeting was the last one for outgoing members. At this meeting, one of them, Yi, was present and we stayed after the meeting for a farewell chat. We all showed our appreciation for the valuable feedback Yi has provided over time and for her well-crafted speeches. The chat was originally meant to be brief, like 10 to 15 minutes, but went on for about an hour, when the Zoom host had to leave. We all miss Yi and other outgoing members, who are leaving the club for positive reasons like being busy at work with increased responsibilities and stepping onto the next chapter of their life. While it's sad to see them go, it gives us pleasure to know that what they've learned with us has had a positive impact on their lives.
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