Meeting, Thursday, October 8, 2009 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340

Hello Fellow Toastmasters!

We had quite an exciting meeting last night! Kevin Wortman, of the Danbury WestConn Club delivered an outstanding educational presentation on “Speaking of Speaking for Evaluations.” Last summer our club filled out a survey on what people thought was most needed for our Club development, and most people responded: help with giving evaluations. President Cheryl Mason answered that call and asked Kevin to come and help us with that development. It was obvious to everyone in the room that Kevin was the best of the best!

The room was filled with 20 people. Members present: Tom Alvord, Ana Bowman, Ron Brunelle, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jen Cimilluca, Craig Fresher, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, Cheryl Mason, Emily O’Brien, Mike O’Brien, Dianne Olsen, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Ramesh Padavala, Mike Perlman, Pete Plotica, Kim Price, and Rob Schaff. Our Guests were: Bill O’Donnell and Kevin Wortman.

The meeting started off with President Cheryl making announcements:
· Two new members received a pin, Ana Bowman and Mike Perlman. Congratulations and welcome to the Club!
· Tom and Jen were recognized for their achievements in the recent contests. Tom went all the way to the districts competing in the Evaluations Contest. Congratulations Tom! This was Jen’s first time competing in a competition and she went to the Area Contest for her humorous speech. Congratulations Jen!
· Everyone got their dues in on time – putting our Club on record for Distinguished Club. Our next goal is 4 new members. Tonight we welcomed two of them!
· The District 53 Fall Conference will be held on Saturday, November 7th at Saratoga Springs, NY. There are at least 5 people going from our Club to date.
· Tom is putting together a Variety Show to be held at The Village At South Farms on Thursday, October 15th. So far 9 people have volunteered to do a variety of entertaining such as: sing, recite poems, play instruments and/or give a speech. If you haven’t already signed up, contact Tom and join in the fun. There will also be a sing-a-long for audience participation – so we need you!
· Charnaie is organizing the Club Outing.
o She recently took a survey and most people responded that they would like to go on a local walk or hike. Charnaie is looking at 2 Saturday dates, October 17th or November 14th. A vote last night ended in a tie-breaker, so Charnaie will have to get back to us on the actual date.
o There will be a “Movie Night” planned for our November 12th meeting. Mike has a video of the 2009 International Speech Contest and he will share it with us. Please volunteer to bring in refreshments on this evening.
o On November 5th we will hold a special meeting to replace our meeting that falls on Thanksgiving Day. It will be held at the Russell Library.

Our Toastmaster was Area Governor, Rob. His theme of “Improvements: Getting Better” carried throughout the evening. There was plenty there to benefit everyone.

Cheryl was the TableTopics Master. Her topics appropriately carried the theme and we heard a variety of humorous and heartfelt mini speeches; void of any “raffish” remarks. Even our 2 guests, Kevin and Bill participated!

In addition to the presentation that Kevin gave on evaluations, we also had two great speeches given by Dianne and Craig. Dianne’s speech was “Autumn Flashbacks” and she told us about different experiences she did when leaf peeping. Craig gave an informative speech on “Health Care Reform – For or Against, Know the Points.” He gave the audience plenty to think about on this national topic.

It was tough for the Evaluators to come forth after Kevin’s dynamic speech. But they all made us proud! Charnaie did a great job as General Evaluator and the evaluators followed suit. Pete evaluated Dianne and Mike evaluated Craig.

Invocation: Jen, she recited a poem by Mother Theresa
WordMaster: Ana, “raffish” means crudeness or rowdiness
Humorist: Murugan
Ah Counter: Jen
Timer: Kay

Cheryl presented Kevin with a certificate and then closed the meeting on time.