Meeting, Thursday, September 24, 2009 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340

Hello Fellow Toastmasters!

September 24th meeting with the theme (provided by Charnaie Gordon) Back to School was “abundantly” attended by many guests and members.

Members present: Tom Alvord, Ron Brunelle, Jen Cimilluca, Craig Fresher, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Dianne Olsen, Cheryl Mason, Michael O’Brien, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Ramesh Padavala, Pete Plotica, and Rob Schaff.

Guests: Anna Bowman, Ashley Mason (Cheryl’s daughter), Maureen McHugh, Hero Man (friend of Charnaie), and Chozhan and Chezhiyan Pachaiyappan (both sons of Murugan).

It was Pete Plotica’s first time as Toastmaster but he lead the meeting like a veteran! It was well-structured and on time. In keeping with the theme, Pete brought a bag of apples to share with everyone!

President Cheryl Mason began her announcements with a warm welcome and pin to our newest member: Murugan Pachaiyappan. Congratulations Murugan! Other announcements:
· In addition to the $50.00 allotted from our budget to Middlesex Community College Foundation, members gave additional donations totaling $200.00. Very nice Toastmasters!
· If anybody has any old Toastmasters magazines lying around, please to bring them in so she can share them with visiting members
· PLEASE send your dues to John ASAP so he can send them into headquarters by the due date!
· At our next meeting, Kevin Wortman from the WestConn Club in Danbury will be speaking on evaluations
· District Conference will be held in Saratoga Springs on Saturday, November 7th at the Holiday Inn

Area Governor Rob Schaff brought us a new ribbon to hang on our banner. This is the first time our Club ever won the “Training Excellence” ribbon for having all seven of our officers present at the training in Manchester! Rob also announced that the Area Club Contest will be held Wednesday, September 30th at the Aetna Club in Middletown. Please come out and show your support for Tom and Jen!

Tom Alvord gave a reminder for the Variety Show which will be held on Thursday, October 15th at the Village at South Farms. Since they allow us to hold our meetings there all summer, this will be a way for our Club to do something for them. So far those participating will be Kay, Tom, Dianne, Charnaie, Ron & his wife, and Ashley (Cheryl’s daughter). If you would like to participate please contact Tom. And if not, please come anyway because we will need people in the audience to “move” the crowd along.

Charnaie Gordon was the Tabletopics Master and she awarded “Superlatives” to different members. It was fun! One of our guests, Maureen McHugh even came up and gave it a try!

We had 4 super speeches! Ron Brunelle, “Made in the USA,” very useful information about what’s made in the USA; Dianne Olsen, “A Vacation of Opportunity” all about her experience at the International Convention; Rob Schaff “Van Halen and the Brown M&M’s” and the cool cat passed m&m’s out to everyone; and Michael O’Brien, “One Bite At A Time” based on the book Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink. There was a lot of information and good humor!

Kay Jeyapalan gave her first try at General Evaluator! She was calm and relaxed and was a natural at it! Evaluators for the speakers were as follows: Craig Fresher for Ron; John Keppler for Dianne; Tom Alvord for Rob; and Ron Brunelle for Michael. Great job evaluators!

Other roles:
Ah Counter: Cheryl (and Ashley)
Grammarian: Jen Cimilluca
Timer: Craig
Invocator: Charnaie – she recited a nice poem on education to go with our theme
Humorist: Ramesh told 2 jokes!
Word of the Day: Ramesh: “abundantly”

In keeping with our theme, “Back to School” Ashley went around and gave everyone a fun sticker at the end of the meeting!