July 12 2007 Meeting

Hello Fellow Toastmasters

We had another great meeting this past Thursday, 7/12/2006.

In attendance:

	Name	Meeting Role(s)
1	Tom Alvord	Evaluator # 1, Timer
2	Janet Argenta	Speaker # 4
3	Ute Brinkmann	Speaker # 2
4	Elliot Essman	Toastmaster
5	Nancy Green	Table Topics Master
6	John Keppler	Invocation, Evaluator # 2
7	Chris Lewis	Evaluator # 3
8	Eliot Lofman	Humorist
9	Ashley Mason	Guest
10	Cheryl Mason	Speaker # 1
11	Rose Rita Riccitelli	Word of the Day, Grammarian
12	Rob Schaff	General Evaluator
13	Fred Swiderski
14	Sreenivas Voleti	Speaker # 3

We had one guest, Ashley Mason, who is Cheryl's 9 year old daughter. She was happy to lead the pledge of allegiance (and thanks to John for asking her to!)

Tom started off the meeting by recognizing last year's officers and thanking them for their contributions. Noting this is the first club meeting of the new TM year, he also introduced this year's officers and asked for short reports from each of them.

Nancy (VP PR) is asking for all TMs to bring in any local newspapers they have so she can get the contact info. She is working on business cards that we can use to hand out for the Middlesex Club. She welcomes any comments and ideas from each of us.

Janet (VP Membership) is ready to welcome new members and is looking forward to her officer role.

Rob (VP Ed) provided a handout of goals for us to work toward for the Distinguished Club Program.

Cheryl (Secretary) will keep minutes of officer meetings and club meetings, including membership and attendance. Any ideas, feedback always welcome.

John (Treasurer) will continue managing the club funds and collecting membership dues.

Tom (President) is off to a great start leading our club, and we look forward to supporting him throughout the coming year.

John led our invocation by providing a hand out:

Words to Live By

Keep your thoughts positive . . . because your thoughts become your words

Keep your words positive . . . because your words become your actions

Keep your actions positive . . . because your actions become your habits

Keep your habits positive . . . because your habits become your values

Keep your values positive . . . because your values become your destiny

Thanks, John!

As Toastmaster, Elliot E. kept the meeting running smoothly and fun throughout! It was great to hear all those candid reviews of new snack foods from 7^th and 8^th graders as published in the Food Processing magazine. They were hysterical!

Rose Rita provided our word of the day:

alacrity, noun,

cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness: We accepted the invitation with alacrity.

Eliot L. provided some humor for the evening with what happens when you fall in love with . . .

Nancy led Table Topics with a unique theme that also helped us learn how to graciously accept an award using TCUT

T: Thanks. Give thanks for the award

C: Credit. Give credit to anyone that helped you.

U: Use. Describe how you will use the award / $

T: Thanks. End by thanking again.

Each of us were called up to accept recognition for a specific award. Using the TCUT structure, we accepted the "trophy" given as well as the $10K cash award. Awards were given out for best underwater basket weaving, best floral arrangement without flowers, doctoral work for the conversion of buffalo chips to energy for a lawn mower, winning the baked bean eating contest, best mechanical bull rider, and best bubble wrap popper, to name just a few! This was lots of fun, plus we all learned from it!

Speakers for the evening:

Cheryl - Against the Grain, CC speech # 3 which informed the audience about Celiac Disease.

Ute - Conversing with Ease, Advanced speech which covered various levels of communication and included an unrehearsed role play with Rose Rita from the audience.

Sreenivas - CC speech # 2 which was very devilish in nature and included lots of humor to keep
the audience entertained!

Janet - Effectively Not Speaking my Mind, CC speech topic that had some great content about talking to fill space and unspoken moments.

Evaluations were given by Tom, John, Chris & Nancy. Timing was provided by Tom, and Rose Rita provided insightful feedback as grammarian. Rob provided general evaluation for the meeting.

Closing discussion was about the Fall area contested, to be hosted by our own Middlesex Club. Tentative date/location being considered: October 11^th at Russell Library in Middletown. More info to follow.

Also, officer training is required for all officers and all members are welcome to attend, dates are listed on the District 53 calendar link (available on our club website page).

See you next time!

-Cheryl