日本に来て、色んな組織に入って、それぞれの総会に行き始まったら、いつも思ったけど、総会の進行がかたい！まあ、人のお金を動かしている組織ならああやって正式的に総会を行うって分りますが、それでも、かたい！
まさか、私がいつか「進行を努めさせていただきます」と言うようになると思いませんでした。でも、今日の千曲国際協会の総会で、私が副会長と言う事で、進行する事を初体験しました。もう１人の副会長、風間さんに親切に文書を書いて頂いて、それでも幹事の呼び方を思い切り間違えたりしましたが、何とか無事に（？）出来ました。
その後の食事会に私が変身して、上山田神楽保存会の皆さんと獅子舞をやりました。私にとっては忙しいけど思い出深い総会でした。
Since I've moved here to Kamiyamada, I've become active in several organizations, and have had to attend lots of Annual Meetings for the various organizations. These official meetings have always surprised me by how dry they are. I understand that peoples' money is involved, so these formal officialities have to take place, but still, the meetings are always so dry.
I had no idea that one day, I'd find myself in the position of saying, "Welcome to such-and-such group's annual meeting. My name is Tyler Lynch and I will be running the meeting today." But at today's Chikuma Int'l Exchange Assoc.'s general meeting, that is exactly what happened -- my first experience with running one of these dry formalities. I bumbled a few kanji readings, but managed to carry out the meeting.
At the lunch banquet after the meeting, I changed clothes and joined the Kamiyamada Okagura lion dance troupe for a dance for for the guests. It was an eventful, and memorable, annual meeting for me.
