Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Winter 2009 Officer Training

More than 100 Toastmasters from District 53, Divisions B & C, went to Manchester on Saturday, January 24th, for officer’s training. All members were invited to the “magnificent breakfast” and 3 hour session. Five members from our Middlesex Club participated: Rob Schaff, Tom Alvord, John Keppler, Dianne Olsen and Erik Jarboe. All of them agreed it was time well spent.

There will be more opportunities for Officer Training and Conferences coming up. All members are encouraged to attend

January 22 Meeting

As usual, the Middlesex Toastmasters Meeting was filled with interesting topics, humor and camaraderie. There were 12 members and three guests present. Our guests were: Victoria Schaff, Pamela Mulready and Sharon Bride-Caltabiano. We hope to see all our guests back at our next meeting!

Our President, Rob Schaff, began the meeting by presenting membership pins to our two newest members: Charnaie Gordon and Bob Makkencherry. Rob also presented pins to current members who had not yet received theirs: Kaylani Jeyapalan and Dianne Olsen.

Beth Legnani did an amazing job for her first time as Toastmaster! Her speech was eloquent and she did a great job with current events and making the meeting flow. Congratulations, Beth!

Kim Price was our Table Topics Master. Kim appropriately used a presidential theme and challenged members with interesting questions about the history of our presidential election which was held two days prior to our meeting.

We heard from 4 prepared speakers: Kim Price, Rob Schaff, Dianne Olsen, and Anne Marie Cannata, using a variety of manuals for their guidelines.

Cheryl Mason was the General Evaluator for the evening. One of the issues Cheryl raised was how the club, as a whole, could benefit from some training in doing evaluations. It was well received by the membership.

Special points of interest:
· March 26th Speech Contest
· April 25th Spring Conference, Holiday Inn, Norwich
· August 12 –15th International Conference, Foxwoods Resort & Casino


Next Meeting - February 12, 2009

Friday, January 9, 2009

Meeting Jan 8, 2009

We are off to a great start in 2009. We had 18 members at our meeting last night, including 4 guests.

As Club President, I was happy to catch up on the backlog of membership pins. I still have a couple of members to catch up with, as well as new member Charnaie Gordon, who joined last night. I was also happy to announce that Dianne Olsen has agreed to fill our open Club Secretary position.

Anne Marie Cannata was our Table Topics master, and she used a Dental Hygiene theme to tie together the Table Topics, the Word of the Day, and her prepared speech. And she gave us treats! Lots of good dentist stories ensued.

We heard 4 prepared speeches, from Deborah Nason, Cheryl Mason, Erik Jarboe, and Anne Marie Cannata. Deborah did a great job with her Ice-Breaker - congratulations!

Our next meeting is January 22. There are plenty of open roles, so sign up on-line!

Upcoming events:
- Jan. 17: District 53 2009 Kickoff, Hartford
- Jan. 24: District 53 Leadership Exchange, Manchester
- Feb. 26: Club Speech Contest

Bad Weather Policy

In case of bad weather on a meeting day, our policy is to follow Middlesex Community College. If MxCC is closed, our meeting is canceled. If MxCC is open, the meeting is still on.

Middlesex Community College posts their cancellation messages on the college’s main telephone number (860-343-5800) and on the MxCC website at www.mxcc.commnet.edu .

They also send notice to the following radio and television stations:

Radio Stations
WMRD 1150 am
WDRC 102.9 fm and 1360 am
WMMW 1470 am
WRCH 100.5 fm
WTIC 1080 am, 96.5 fm
WZMX 93.7 fm
WELI 960 am, WKCI 101 fm

Television Stations
WFSB - 3
WTNH - 8
WVIT - 30