Meeting, Thursday, July 23, 2009 - Village at South Farms
Middletown, Connecticut
Minutes of the Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340

Present were Club Members: Cheryl, Emily, Jennifer, John K., John V., Kay, Kim, Mike, Pam, Pete, Ramesh, Rob, Ron, Tom

Guests: Christina Dzenyuy, President Stag Toastmasters
Judith Chambers, Stag Toastmasters
Susan McNamara, VPM, Stag Toastmasters
Kathy, who accompanied her daughter Christina
Ute Brinkmann, Wallingford Eagles

Our special guest for the evening was Christian Mysliwiec, a freelance reporter for The Chronicle, arranged by the club Vice President of Public Relations, Kay Jeyapalan. Stay tuned for the September issue of The Chronicle (Middletown/Cromwell).

Cheryl Mason, the Club President, started the meeting with the announcement of our special meeting on July 30, 2009 at Russell Library in Middletown and John Keppler will be the Toastmaster for this meeting. Cheryl presented two of our new members Ron Brunelle and John Venduras with Toastmaster pins to welcome them to our club. Kim Price announced that Room 808 D has been arranged with Middlesex Community College for the club to meet beginning in September 2009 through June 2010. This room is bigger than the old one and will hold about 30 people.

Michael O'Brien was our Toastmaster for the evening and he tied the whole meeting with the theme of 40th anniversary of astronauts landing on the moon.

Other roles played by our club members and guests:

Timer - Emily
Ah Counter - Kathy
Grammarian - Jennifer
Word of the day - John V.
Invocator - Susan
Humorist - Pam


For Table Topics, Jennifer presented us some challenging and sagacious subjects intertwining the theme of the 40th anniversary of the astronauts landing on the moon.

Four ebullient speeches were given -

Ron Brunelle spoke on Alternative Energy evaluated by Cheryl - very informative with colorful phrases as mentioned by Cheryl. Cheryl pointed out the phrase, "Clean Environmental Power Source."

John Keppler gave a talk on the History of the Middlesex Toastmasters Club evaluated by Rob Schaff - members found it very interesting to hear that the original founders retired from the club in the same room we had our meeting last night. Rob, in his evaluation, mentioned the special connection of the club to the "Pub" room at the Village at South Farms. History of the club will be posted to the club's website soon!

Christina Dzenyuy gave a speech titled "Purity, Valor and Vigilance on the Sea of Tranquility" tied to the theme of our Toastmaster for the evening and she indeed brought History to Life. She captured the audience with the introduction of the precise time it took the astronauts to accomplish the mission. Kim Price in his evaluation of Christina's speech highlighted her introduction.

Ute Brinkman's speech titled "Acoustic" on Vocal Variety was evaluated by Tom as, "Ute left us with a WOW." Ute encouraged us to practice voice projection at home.

We enjoyed the 10 minute of break with delicious brownies, fruits, and drinks. Thanks to Cheryl and Pete who brought the snacks and drinks.

Our General Evaluator was Judith Chambers. Judith pointed out that we need to applaud more for our table topics as this is not a prepared speech and warrant more encouragement. Judith and all of our guests mentioned a couple of excellent qualities of our club that we should be proud of –

(1) Ours is a very welcoming club, and
(2) They felt comfortable participating.


Cheryl Mason closed the meeting by saying a few words about the traveling Gavel, Drew. Drew has been with our club for a year. Cheryl handed over Drew to our guests from the Stag Club in Hartford. We said Good Bye to Drew to send him away to live in Hartford with the Stag club till he decides to move to another home. Ute was responsible for designing and implementing the entire Traveling Gavel Program throughout District 53. She produced all six of the traveling gavels and designed the stand. Middlesex Toastmasters Club held three of these traveling gavels once.

To All: You did an excellent job whether you took a role or helped out during and after the meeting!

It was another exciting evening filled with information and laughter!!!

I am leaving you with the quote from our guest Susan McNamara, invocator for the evening -

"Learn from yesterday,
Live for today,
Hope for tomorrow."
Albert Einstein