Toastmasters International District 76 Japan(English Site)

First of all, I would like to thank you all for your continued support and dedication to District 76 for the first half of this term.

The period was, as you are well aware, very challenging for clubs in Tohoku and even in Kanto area due to the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and Tsunami. However, we Toastmasters in District 76, regardless of age, gender and nationality, worked hard together and got good results with a resilient spirit by always thinking positively that every cloud has a silver lining. Let’s congratulate the first 6 months and let’s make the latter half more fruitful and productive! 

Highlights of the first half:

Contingency Plan: Learning from the experience of the natural disaster, District 76 at the beginning of this term created the “Contingency plan for speech contests when a natural disaster occurs” as a risk management for the first time among all Districts with the approval of Toastmasters International. I hope this will be shared with the other districts as the best practice to assure safe and trouble-free speech contests.

CC Award: As for the number of CC achievers, being one of District 76’s goals this term, the district is the top runner right now among 6 Districts in Region 13, in terms of the percentage of CC achievers against the district’s goal. I thank you very much for your understanding of the significance of achieving the goal, kind support for the CC Campaign and continued support of club members and District Officers. However, the current status is that we have achieved only 40% of its goal. Let’s keep working hard together to fully achieve the goal and break the finishing tape in this race as the first place winner by the term-end on June 30, 2012!

Club Officer Trainings: The first club officer trainings were held in 6 Divisions in the summer by using standardized materials for the first time in our 57 years’ history, accordingly record-breading number of participants, nearly 70% of all club officers participated in these trainings. Non-club officers also participated in them. They learned Toastmasters’ educational programs in details not only for themselves but their club members. I hope more officers will participate in the second training to be held in January and February 2012 and deepen the understanding of unique and valuable educational programs.

Evaluation contests and the Fall Conference: Evaluation contests held in each club, area, division and district were conducted in a professional manner, and we learned a lot about evaluation, the heart of the Toastmasters’ educational program. The Fall Conference was very successful thanks to great efforts of members of two organizing clubs. Six finalists in English and Japanese contest respectively did an excellent job. The special guest DTM Balraj Arunasalam, International Director, gave us a wonderful and inspirational keynote speech and told us diversified educational programs, which broadened our horizons and we were convinced that we would be able to turn a page to the next Chapter of District 76. It was very impressive that participants in the conference said in one accord “How happy it is to be a Toastmaster!”

Link up with the world: Currently, there are toastmasters clubs in 116 countries in the world. Their members work hard every day with same objectives as ours. How wonderful it is to be a Toastmaster to work together with members around the world to develop our communication and leadership skills while having fun. How lucky we are to have encountered this superb organization in our life!  Let’s make good use of chances.

Fellow Toastmasters, let’s make the coming 6 months enriched and fruitful and achieve our own objectives and dreams by regularly attending club meetings. Because having members’ goals and dreams fulfilled through Toastmasters was the very objective of Dr. Smedley who established our organization 87 years ago.

I hope that you will enjoy another great year in 2012, and let’s make things done!

Best regards,

Kazuko Kawauchi