Becoming a Fantasista!

On October 25, 2010, Toastmasters International gave full-fledged status to Fantasista club, and we made our debut as the 100th Toastmasters club in District 76. We celebrated the charter ceremony on December 18 with many Toastmaster friends.Taking this opportunity, I express my sincere appreciation especially to DTM Matsumoto, our district governor who made every effort to participate in our ceremony although her extremely busy schedule.

“Fantasista” is an Italian word that refers to an outstanding soccer player who captures the fans with his unexpected and unpredictable skill and inspires with his creativity. Hidetoshi Nakata is a good example. He inspires others when he occupies the moment of the game and threads a quick pass through a bunch of opposing players to his teammate.

We named our club after this. As soon as a Fantasista enters into a room, he/she fills the room. As soon as a Fantasista says a few words, he/she touches hearts of the people. We are here because we want to be Fantasista!

We kicked off the Number ZERO meeting in Shinjuku on November 15, 2008. Though members wanted to be Fantasista, and they wanted to form a dream-team, each of us had slightly different ideas which sometimes created conflicts, which sometimes slowed down our momentum, so our clubs operation was not as easy as we had expected. We didn’t use the Toastmasters’ standard meeting framework and created our own meeting framework, which sometimes created confusion and friction.  Those hardships were real tests for us.

But those hardships made us stronger. Those difficulties made us wiser. And those adversities made our solidarity stronger.

Whatever challenges we faced, we have never given up because we didn’t doubt that we wanted to be Fantasista, and we trusted each other.

Today, after becoming a full-fledged club, we have many challenges to face, and many difficulties to overcome.

But all of these things are leading us to our goal; becoming a Fantasista.

We never give up until the day we become Fantasista. We will continue to improve our communication and leadership skills.

We have a dream that some day, Fantasista will contribute more to you and the world.