Meeting, Thursday, November 12, 2009 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


Our next meeting on December 3rd will be at a special location in Middletown (details forthcoming, check website).

Greetings Fellow Toastmasters!

As usual we had a full house at our meeting last night. However, Toastmaster Jennifer Cimilluca led us through an evening that was anything but ordinary. Her theme of “Giving Thanks” resounded throughout the night as people gave testimony of the fellowship, growth and support of the club members. It was a room filled with aficionados (word of the day)!

In attendance: Tom Alvord, Ana Bowman, Ron Brunelle, Ann-Marie Cannata, Jen Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jeff Lagasse, Cheryl Mason, Emily O’Brien, Mike O’Brien, Dianne Olsen, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, and Arun Sodani.

Guests/Visitors: Nadine McKeown (signed up as our newest member tonight!), Louis Nizet, and Dimple Padavala (Ramesh’s wife).

President Cheryl Mason began our meeting by giving Rob Schaff, our Area Governor, the Award of Excellence ribbon for completing another CC manual. Congratulations Rob! DCP – this latest award now puts the club at 7 points, Select Distinguished Club Status! This is something for all of us to be very proud of! Other news:
· Dianne Olsen received a Certificate of Appreciation for singing in the Variety Show held last month.
· The Spring Division Contest will be held in Bloomfield on May 22nd.
· Officer Training will be held on December 12th in Manchester. There will be a make-up training in January.

Vice President of Education, Charnaie Gordon had several announcements to make.
· She presented Kay and Ramesh a “Panice to Power” disc for being “first timers” at the Fall Conference in Saratoga Springs in NY, November 7th. Our club had six members in attendance, the most of any club there!
· Ron Brunelle received his “1/2 Certificate” for completing 5 of his speeches in the CC manual. Congratulations Ron!
· Mike, Cheryl, Arun and Charnaie will be going to Hartford to confiscate the “Traveling Gavel” that their club took from ours. If anyone else would like to attend the meeting at Stag in Hartford, it will be on Wednesday afternoon, December 2nd from noon to 1 pm.
· Our club Speech-A-Thon will be held January 7th, from 7-9 pm. Location to be determined.
· We will have a Club Speech Contest on March 11th. This will be for the International and Tall Tales Contest.
· Due to bad weather the hike tomorrow at Wadsworth Falls has been cancelled.

Toastmaster Jen changed the usual format of the evening. Mike O’Brien gave a speech on “How to Give a Toast” and then brilliantly went right into his role as TableTopics Master. Mike’s theme? How to give a toast! And there were some toasts! The most exciting one was when Ramesh stood up and made a toast to his “beautiful wife.” He then proudly told the audience they were expecting their first baby; a baby girl due on February 12th! Congratulations Ramesh and Dimple!

Dianne gave a thought provoking speech titled, “When Enough is Enough.” Her objective was to Persuade with Power over the controversial Die with Dignity Act.

From there the club enjoyed the rest of the meeting “at the movies.” Mike brought in a DVD of the winning speeches held at the 2009 International Convention, International Speech Contest. There was only time to watch five of the speeches and members had a chance to write their own evaluations, and then see how the judges at the conference actually placed the contestants. But the contests were not all that was enjoyed; snacks, of pop corn, potato chips, a fruit tray, cider, and more were brought in by some of the members to nibble on while everyone watched the “movie.” What fun!

Evaluators:
Arun Sodani and Tom Alvord evaluated Mike and Dianne respectively. Cheryl was the General Evaluator. Our veteran members Arun, Tom and Cheryl were great role models for the club with their expertise in giving evaluations.

Word of the Day: Murugan Pachaiyappan
Ah Counter: Emily O’Brien
Grammarian: Charnaie Gordon
Timer: Jeffrey Lagasse

Sargeant at Arms: A special thanks to Pete Plotica who could not attend our meeting tonight. He still came here ahead of time to secure our room, bring the banner, set up all the equipment for the movie showing and leave some refreshments. Pete went above and beyond the line of duty! Also, a big thank you to Tom for filling in for Pete at the last minute and to Arun for being equipment manager!

The meeting adjourned on time.