{"id":1007,"date":"2026-05-28T06:54:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/?p=1007"},"modified":"2026-05-28T06:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:54:06","slug":"2026-5-27-otmc-meeting-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/2026\/05\/28\/2026-5-27-otmc-meeting-report\/","title":{"rendered":"2026\/5\/27 OTMC Meeting Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Toastmaster of the Evening<\/strong>\u00a0was Rintaro. While keeping in mind the previous meeting&#8217;s theme of &#8220;Recover,&#8221; he introduced our new timely theme,\u00a0<strong>&#8220;Mid-Year Check-In&#8221;<\/strong>. With June just around the corner, his theme served as a great wake-up call to reflect on the first half of the year and review our progress. &#x23f0;&#x2728;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Table Topics: Shaking Up Our Yearly Goals &#x1f3af;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Table Topics Master&nbsp;<strong>Marie<\/strong>&nbsp;challenged the speakers with sharp, thought-provoking questions regarding their goals for the year\u2014asking whether they are on track, what their biggest achievements have been, or conversely, what they haven&#8217;t accomplished yet and any regrets they might hold. &#x1f9e0;&#x1f9d0;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Two Guests<\/strong>\u00a0stepped up courageously, taking on the challenge and delivering impressive impromptu speeches on the spot.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Isha<\/strong>, joining online for her second visit, shared her wonderful story about why she chose Toastmasters and what brought her to Japan. &#x2708;&#xfe0f;&#x1f31f;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Paul<\/strong>\u00a0explained how he successfully obtained a bartender qualification last year and shared insightful tips on how to maintain a healthy relationship with alcohol. &#x1f379;&#x1f943;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Joju<\/strong>\u00a0touched everyone&#8217;s hearts with a deeply relatable episode about his intense regret over missing his daughter&#8217;s school sports day (Taiikusai). &#x1f3c3;&#x200d;&#x2642;&#xfe0f;&#x1f4a8;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Prepared Speeches &#x1f3a4;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two powerful speakers delivered deeply engaging and contrasting presentations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Tetsu<\/strong>\u00a0(our immediate past President) reflected on his year of leadership based on his recent 360-degree feedback. He candidly shared how he initially struggled with how to bring out his own &#8220;color&#8221; after watching three legendary past presidents. Ultimately, he embraced the concept of creating a\u00a0<strong>&#8220;Safe Place&#8221;<\/strong>\u2014a supportive environment where members can safely challenge themselves in public speaking and beyond. It was an incredibly encouraging speech for the incoming Executive Committee (EC) members! &#x1f6e1;&#xfe0f;&#x1f4bc;&#x1f680;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Naoko<\/strong>\u00a0delivered a powerful speech titled after the famous Japanese drama,\u00a0<em>&#8220;\u9003\u3052\u308b\u306f\u6065\u3060\u304c\u5f79\u306b\u7acb\u3064&#8221; (The Full-Time Wife Escapist \/ Running away is shameful but useful)<\/em>. She openly shared her past struggles with workplace power harassment and detailed exactly how she broke through that painful situation. Her story deeply resonated with anyone who has faced similar hardships and provided valuable, practical insights for the future. &#x1f338;&#x1f4aa;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Important Announcements &#x1f4e2;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the end of the meeting, the nominees for the next Executive Committee (EC) members were officially announced.&nbsp;<strong>The election will be held on June 10th<\/strong>, so please make sure to attend and cast your vote to support the future of our club! &#x1f5f3;&#xfe0f;&#x1f91d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#x1f3c6;&nbsp;Tonight\u2019s Winners&nbsp;&#x1f3c6;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The votes were close, but tonight\u2019s standout performers truly achieved a spectacular&nbsp;<strong>transformation<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Best Table Topics Speaker:<\/strong>\u00a0Joju\u00a0&#x1f947;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Best Evaluator:<\/strong>\u00a0Tomoko\u00a0&#x1f9d0;&#x2728;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Best Prepared Speaker:<\/strong>\u00a0Tetsu\u00a0&#x1f3a4;&#x2728;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5658-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1005\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5658-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5658-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5658-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5658.jpeg 1477w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#x25b6;&#xfe0f;&nbsp;<strong>Catch the replay:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/tKk4uFEqwGs?si=fXCgcnlrDTa7Oovj\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/tKk4uFEqwGs?si=fXCgcnlrDTa7Oovj<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toastmaster of the Evening\u00a0was Rintaro. While keeping in mind the previous meeting&#8217;s theme of &#8220;Rec [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_5658.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1007"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otemachi.blog\/toastmasters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}