Club Calendar

The 2011 Club Calendar (Jan-Jun) has been posted, available from the main menu on the website and at the following link: club calendar

Meeting Notes December 9

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club met on Thursday, December 9th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, Jackie Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Rob Schaff, Jeanette White.

Guests Present: Gopala Krishna.

Business Meeting: Charnaie announced that Cheryl has earned another Competent Communicator Award, which along with Jen’s CC in August, will give the Middlesex County Toastmasters another point towards the Distinguished Club Program (congratulations and thank you, Cheryl!) Rob, in his speech that night, would be completing the Interpretive Reading manual and earning the Advanced Communicator Silver Award (for another point). The total for the year so far is seven points, out of a possible ten.

Upcoming District 53 events include the Jan Jam, which will be held January 29, 2011, from 12-6pm. This event will be held at The Hartford, 690 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT. (A note from the District 53 website: Admission is free but you must RSVP. Contact janjam@district53toastmasters.org. )

Meeting:

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Murali Pemmaraju, and he did a great job in his first time as Toastmaster.

Siva presented the invocation, thought-provoking words from St. Francis of Assisi that he first read when he was young and then re-discovered as an adult.

Our Wordmaster was Jeanette, who challenged us to use the word “intimate” (with a long a), meaning to communicate indirectly, subtly, to hint.

Prior to our prepared speakers, our Toastmaster Murali spoke of the importance of goal setting, reminding us that it’s not enough to have goals, but that we have to keep pursuing them. He asked, “What is your goal?” and “Are you doing enough to achieve it?”

Because of the length of the prepared speeches, the Table Topics session was held after the prepared speeches.

There were four prepared speeches:

Tom entertained us with “Twelve Angry Pigs”, a play he read for the Advanced “Interpretive Reading” manual. He read all the parts himself (at least 15!) Sally evaluated his speech.

Kay presented a briefing as part of the “Speeches by Management” manual. She briefed us on the “TLE Program on December 4, 2010” and made those of us who weren’t there really wish we had been. Kay’s speech was evaluated by Charnaie.

Charnaie gave an acceptance speech, “Don’t Lose the Lesson” for her project from the “Special Occasions” speeches manual. Jackie evaluated Charnaie’s speech.

Rob read a scene from “Glengarry Glen Ross” (Act I, Scene II), reading two characters’ parts. This was Rob’s fifth project from the Interpretive Reading manual (earning Rob the Advanced Communicator Silver award, it's worth repeating!)

For Table Topics, Michael gave “What would I do if” questions to Cheryl (what if her computer crashed, which has happened to her); to Jeanette (what if she won the lottery, sadly that hasn’t happened yet); to Sally (what if her car broke down in the desert with no cell service, sadly that has happened); and to Siva (what if he was lost on a hike with no cell service, yes, that has happened too).

Jen was our General Evaluator. Rounding out the evaluation team was Ramesh (Timer), Jackie (Grammarian), and Cheryl (Ah Counter).

Jen noted that this was Murali’s first time as Toastmaster, and lauded him for an excellent job. The meeting planning began early and the agenda was very well laid out, with the prepared speeches’ projects as well as titles. Tom and Rob chose their material well for the “Reading a Play” project in the Interpretive Reading manual. Kay gave very astute observations about the district training she attended, our club, and the club she evaluated as part of the training. Another excellent speech by Kay, and by Charnaie as well. (If Jen didn’t say so during her evaluation, she thought that Ramesh did a great job as timer with long speeches and unusual lengths. She also thought that Michael’s Table Topics questions were terrific, far better than her own questions were the week before.)

The meeting concluded shortly after 9pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Mid-year Report from the President

Hello Everyone!

We have officially completed the first 6 months of the 2010-2011 Toastmasters year and what a year it's been so far! Staying true to our theme this year, our club has really "branched out" since July 1, 2010.

We started the year with a bang in July:
• Cheryl Mason received her DTM award and another CL (Competent Leader) award
• We added 5 new members to our club! (Michael Nicastre (referred by Sally Nicastre), Anthony Elder, Christina Johnson, Gary Torello and Erik Jarboe (returning member)
• All 7 of our club officers were trained!

In August we had one new member: Jacqueline Kirwan.

In September we added two more new members: Murugan Pachaiyappan (returning member) and Yolanda Lowe. Also, Jennifer Cimilluca earned her CC award (Competent Communicator).

In November we added yet another new member: Brian Burness (referred by Anne-Marie Cannata)

Up until last night our club had 5 out of 10 DCP (Distinguised Club Program) points completed. However, last night we received two additional points bringing us to a total of 7 DCP POINTS! Rob Schaff earned his ACS award last night (Advanced Communicator Silver) and Cheryl Mason earned another CC award (Competent Communicator) - excellent job Rob and Cheryl!

It is so great to see the growth that has taken place within our club over the past few months. I couldn't be more proud!

We also had some great events that took place:
• District 53 Hiking Club started - Tom Alvord is the coordinator
• Guest Speaker Jerry Theodorou - "Use Your Voice" (September)
• Guest Speaker Isaak Gelbinovich - "Storytelling Secrets of the Masters" (November)
• Movie Night - "Magic Moments" DVD (Thanks Michael O'Brien!) (December)
• Rob Schaff made it all the way to the District 53 Humorous Contest!
• Rob Schaff, Michael Nicastre and Anthony Elder won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in our club Humorous Contest
• Rob Schaff, Michael O'Brien, and Anne-Marie Cannata won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in our club Evaluation Contest

As we embark on the next 6 months of the Toastmasters year, let us continue to grow and learn as communicators and leaders. If you're an active member and haven't attended a meeting in a while we'd love to see you soon!

We have some exciting events lined up for the next half of the year including:
• January 13th - First meeting of the new year!
• January 20th - Joint speech-a-thon with our sister club - Cromwell Community Toastmasters (Please contact Kay if you'd like to volunteer or bring refreshments)
• March 10th - International and Tall Tales Speech Contest
• March 24th - Spring Open House w/ keynote speaker Ruby Parker
• April 28th - Guest Speaker - "How to Write a Speech in 15 Minutes" w/ Walter Beveridge
• June 23rd - Last meeting of the 2010 - 2011 Toastmasters year! Keynote Speaker: Nana Danso

We will not meet again until January 13, 2011 (that's a 5-week stretch!). I hope you all enjoy the remainder of the year.

Thank you all for your efforts. Here's to having another successful 6 months in 2011!
Cheers!

Charnaie

Meeting Notes December 2

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club had a fun and educational night “at the movies” on Thursday, December 2nd, thanks to the video “Magic Moments”.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Brian Burness, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Yolanda Lowe, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff.

Guests Present: Ashley Mason, Paul Randolph (from the Air Line Trail Toastmasters Club in Colchester).

Business Meeting: Charnaie presented Brian with his new member pin and officially welcomed him to the club.

Rob competed in the Humorous Contest at the District 53 Conference on Saturday, November 21st, in East Fishkill, New York. That was just one of the conference highlights, which included educational workshops and the keynote speech from Dana LaMon, the 1992 World Champion of Public Speaking.

Upcoming District 53 events include the Jan Jam, a kick off to the new year, which will be held January 29, 2011. This free event will be held in Hartford – more details to come. The Spring Conference will be held on May 21, 2011, at the Clarion Conference Center in East Windsor, CT. There will be a club officer training session on 12/4 in Manchester, with other sessions to follow for those officers unable to make the 12/4 session.

Our club’s final meeting of 2010 will be at Middlesex Community College on Thursday, December 9th.

Two club members were mentioned in the current issue of the Middlesex/Cromwell monthly newspaper, The Chronicle. Anne-Marie was pictured on the front page of the paper, as Executive Director of The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown. An article on the Middlesex County Toastmasters mentioned Rob’s success in the club, area, and division Fall Humorous Contests.

There will be a meeting for club officers on Tuesday, January 11th, at the Russell Library.

Meeting:
Our Toastmaster for the evening was Michael O’Brien.

Jay presented our Word of the Day, assiduous (meaning “constant; unremitting: assiduous reading; constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive: an assiduous student.

Charnaie presented our invocation, reminding us that life is not a race, and giving us inspiring words to help unleash the greatness within each of us.

For Table Topics, in honor of our movie, “Magic Moments”, Jen gave the choice of either a movie related or a Harry Potter related Table Topics question. Answering questions were Brian, Yolanda, Michael Nicastre, our guest Paul, and Murali.

There were two prepared speeches:

Jackie gave her third speech from the Competent Communicator Manual with the objective, “Get to the Point.” Her speech, “The Transformative Power of Toastmasters: Reflections from My First Toastmasters Conference”, was evaluated by Tom.

Cheryl gave a speech from the Competent Communicator manual (Project #5, Your Body Speaks), “The Good Wife.” Her speech was evaluated by Kim.

Kay was our General Evaluator, and our technicians were Rob (Timer), and Charnaie (Grammarian).

In her evaluation of the meeting, Kay commented how effective the comments were by our two evaluators. The meeting went smoothly, starting on time and running on time up to that point. She brought Rob up to present him with a certificate marking his accomplishments in the District Humorous Contest.

The last hour of the evening was devoted to the DVD, “Magic Moments”, provided by our Toastmaster, Michael O’Brien. The narrator David Brooks, the 1990 World Champion of Public Speaking, introduced 29 video clips from Toastmasters speech contests held over 11 years. We saw examples of gestures, body language, timing, humor, excellent writing, and the use of personal stories from some of the best Toastmasters speakers in the world.

For more information, see the attached transcript from the “Magic Moments” video, and see David Brooks’ website, http://www.DavidBrooksTexas.com

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting Notes November 18

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club had an exciting “speech-a-thon” meeting on Thursday, November 18th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Ramesh Padavala, Rob Schaff, Jeannette White.

Guests Present: Brian Burness, Deb Flynn.

Business Meeting: Charnaie welcomed our guests, Brian and Deb, and announced that Brian would be joining the club.

Our next meeting will be held on December 2nd. It will be a special meeting in the “Show Room” at the Village of South Farms (645 Saybrook Road), a “movie night” with two speeches followed by an hour-long DVD with a series of speaking skills. Charnaie and Kay will be bringing popcorn.

Charnaie reminded us that members with any concerns about their mentoring partnership should see Pam Mulready, our mentoring program coordinator.

Prepared Speeches: John Keppler was our Toastmaster, and we had five prepared speeches:

Michael Nicastre gave his fourth speech from the Competent Communicator Manual, “Everything I learned in Life, I learned from vacations.” His speech was evaluated by Tom.

Charnaie gave a speech from the Special Occasions Manual, “Born to Lead”, and gave well deserved kudos to our Immediate Past President, Cheryl, a Distinguished Toastmaster and a club role model. The members present gave Charnaie a “round robin” evaluation.

Jackie gave her second speech from the Competent Communicator Manual, “Find the Joy in Your Life; Live a Life with No Regrets.” Jen evaluated her speech.

Kay’s speech was called “The Three P’s of Power Introductions” and used examples from her own introduction of Isaak Gelbinovich during last week’s meeting to illustrate her points. Murugan evaluated her speech.

Rob gave a practice run of the speech “Good Evening, Sir”, that he would be presenting at Saturday’s District Humorous Contest, followed by a “round robin” evaluation.

Kay was our General Evaluator, assisted by technicians Charnaie (Ah Counter), Ramesh (Timer), and Jeanette (Grammarian).

Kay mentioned that she liked Charnaie’s speech and how she used someone from the club as a speech subject. The meeting’s logistics went well. John added that as usual, people stepped up to the plate with Ramesh volunteering to time the meeting and Murugan volunteering to evaluate Kay’s speech.

The meeting concluded on time. Please advise any errors or omissions. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting Notes November 11

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club had a terrific meeting with a dynamic guest speaker, Isaak Gelbinovich, on Thursday, November 11th (Veterans’ Day).

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Yolanda Lowe, Pamela Mulready, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, Jeannette White.

Guests Present: Brian Burness, Christopher Cargnel, Doug Compton, Dorothy Goertz, Krishna Kumar, Jenn Maynard, Abhijit Mhetre, Sowmya Ramasamy

Business Meeting: After welcoming our guests, Charnaie reminded us that our next meeting will be on Thursday, November 18th, at the Village of South Farms. It’s an extra (speech-a-thon) meeting with no meeting on November 25th (Thanksgiving Day).

The District 53 Fall Conference will be held on Saturday, November 20th, at the Holiday Inn in East Fishkill, NY.

In her “Mentoring Minute”, Pam reminded any members looking for a mentor to let her know, also anyone in a mentoring partnership with any questions or concerns should seek her out.

Meeting:
Our Toastmaster was Kay, who took a moment before starting the meeting to remind us that December 2nd is a special meeting at the Village of South Farms, a “movie night” with just two speeches followed by an hour-long DVD with a series of speaking skills (thanks to Michael O’Brien for providing that to us). December 9th will be our last meeting of the year. On January 20th, we will be having a joint “speech-a-thon” with the Cromwell Community Toastmasters.

Kay read an excerpt from the book, Tips to Becoming an Effective Presenter, by Frank S. Adamo.

Our invocator was Anne-Marie, who on this Veterans Day gave us some very moving and appropriate thoughts on the meaning of freedom.

Tom offered us the Word of the Day—actually, in honor of Veterans’ Day he gave us two—“Armistice”, and “truce.” Using “armistice” would give a speaker two points, and using “truce” would give a speaker one point.

Our Humorist, Michael Nicastre, brought a golf club and ball so he didn’t just tell his joke, but acted it out for us.

Charnaie was our Table Topics Master. She set up teams of speakers for an “improv” session by giving an opening line and letting the speakers take it away. And taking it away were Pam and Jay; Ramesh, Murali, and our guest Abhijit; Anne-Marie and our guest, Doug; our guest speaker Isaak, and Kim; and Sally, Jeannette, and John.

We had two prepared speeches:

Siva’s speech, “How to Read a Brain” was his third, #3 in the CC manual, “Get to the Point.” His speech was evaluated by Jackie.

Tom’s speech “On the Battlefield: On Flanders Field” was from the Interpretive Reading manual, and was evaluated by Michael O’Brien.

We were then treated to a guest speaker, Isaak Gelbinovich, who presented “Storytelling Secrets of the Masters.” He told a wonderful story about his first experiences on the ski slope, and walked us through the elements of the story (structure, dialog, conflict, and message) one by one, to help us learn how to craft our own stories.

Rob was our General Evaluator.

Our technicians were Yolanda (Ah Counter), Jackie, (Grammarian), and Jen (Timer).

Rob’s evaluation of the meeting recognized Jackie and Michael O’Brien for their excellent evaluations and suggestions for Siva and Tom. He also noted how a speaking slot or role on the agenda could be used to introduce a theme to the meeting (as Tom did with Veterans’ Day).

The meeting concluded on time. Please advise any errors or omissions. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Oct. 28 Meeting Minutes

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club met on Thursday, October 28th, at the Village at South Farms.

14 Members Present: Tom Alvord, Charnaie Gordon, Erik Jarboe, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Pam Mulready, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, and Jeanette White.

Business Meeting: Charnaie put out a call for Toastmasters for our upcoming meetings. If you have never been Toastmaster for a club meeting, or haven't been Toastmaster in a long time, please take this opportunity to sign up.

Our next meeting will be held Thursday, November 11th, at Middlesex Community College. We will have a guest speaker, Isaak Gelbinovich, offering “Storytelling Secrets”.

Club Meeting:

Michael Nicastre was our Toastmaster for the evening. Our invocator was Charnaie Gordon. Jeanette White provided the word of the day, "pensive". Rob Schaff was our humorist.
Jackie Kirwan was our Table Topics Master. She provided a Jeopardy-style table topics sessions, complete with buzzers and prizes for 6 volunteers.

Prepared speeches:

John Keppler, "The Good Ol' Days", evaluated by Pam Mulready.
Sally Nicastre, "The Mother's Group", evaluated by Tom Alvord.
Michael O'Brien, "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", evaluated by Murali Pemmaraju.
Rob Schaff, "Concluding Your Speech", a presentation from the Toastmasters Better Speaker Series. Evaluated by Erik Jarboe.

John Keppler served as our General Evaluator, and pointed out the preparation that went into this well-organized meeting, and the people that stepped in to fill roles. Our technicians were Erik (Ah Counter), Charnaie (Grammarian), and Jackie (Timer).

The meeting concluded on time.

Respectfully submitted,

Rob Schaff, VPPR
Middlesex County Toastmasters

Division C Contest Results

Evaluation Contest

1st – Wendy Holleran, Valley-Shore Toastmasters
2nd – Suzanne DeMerchant, Energy Toastmasters
3rd – Abhijit Mhetre, Nathan Hale Toastmasters

Humorous Speech Contest

1st – Rob Schaff – Middlesex County Toastmasters
2nd – Lynnea P. Mahlke - Niantic Toastmasters
3rd – Larry Savage - Nathan Hale Toastmasters


Udaya Neelam, Rob Schaff, Cheryl Mason, and Dave Wheeler

District 53 Website Contest Results

Division C Contest Report

From Cheryl Mason, Division C Governor:

Hi Everyone,

The Division C Speech Contests were held at Eagle Club in Wallingford tonight, and Middlesex County was well represented with Michael O'Brien as the Area C5 Evaluation Contestant and Rob Schaff as the Area C5 Humorous Speech Contestant. We're so very proud of both of them making it to the Division level contests! Murali served as the primary timer, and Michael Nicastre, Tom Alvord, and John Keppler were also present to cheer on our contestants!

The speeches were all great and the competition fierce! It was a fun filled evening, and Eagle Club did a great job as the host club!

Drum roll please . . . .

Rob Schaff placed FIRST in the Humorous Contest, and will move forward to the District 53 Conference on November 20th!

District 53 Evaluation & Humorous Speech Contests
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Holiday Inn Fishkill
542 Route 9
Fishkill NY 12524
Phone: 845.896.6281

Hope you'll join us in supporting Rob at the District Conference!

Registration information

-Cheryl

Oct. 14 Meeting Notes

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club met on Thursday, October 14th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Yolanda Lowe, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, and Arun Sodani.

Guests Present: Stacy Davis, Debra Flynn, Jessica Maxan, and Ashley Oliver.

Business Meeting: Charnaie presented a new member pin to Yolanda. She updated us on the club’s progress in the Distinguished Club Program. We have five points so far, and have earned Distinguished Club status again.

The Area C5 contest was held in Cromwell on October 7th, and we have a lot to be proud of. Rob won the Humorous Contest, with Michael Nicastre coming in 2nd place. Michael O’Brien won the Evaluation contest. Rob and Michael O’Brien will next compete in the Division Contest on Monday, October 18th at the Eagles club in Wallingford.

Charnaie mentioned some updates from the club officers’ meeting on October 5th. To sign up for a 5th speaking slot, see Kay or Charnaie. Also, the backup speaking slot might be an opportunity to get a speech in, if a scheduled speaker is unable to attend a meeting. She brought up the possibility of selecting a particular individual to evaluate your speech, if you would like to do so.

Our next meeting will be held Thursday, October 28th, at the Village of South Farms (in the Show Room).

Our VP of Public Relations, Rob, gave us a club calendar for the next few months. Upcoming highlights: November 11th – we will have a guest speaker, Isaak Gelbinovich, offering “Storytelling Secrets”. There will be an extra, “speechathon” meeting on November 18th. The District 53 Fall Conference will be on November 20th, in Fishkill, NY. There will an extra meeting (a movie night) on December 2nd. On January 20th, there will be an extra meeting, a joint speechathon in Cromwell with the Cromwell Community Toastmasters.

Tom Alvord offered a hike recap. On Sunday, October 10th, Tom, Anne-Marie, Ramesh, Murali, and several friends (12 people altogether) hiked up to the Hublein Tower on Talcott Mountain in Simsbury. More dates to come!

Kay presented Tom with a certificate of recognition to Tom for all his efforts in putting the hikes together. She also presented certificates to Michael O’Brien, Michael Nicastre, and Rob for representing our club and doing so well in the area contests.

Club Meeting:

Rob was our Toastmaster. Our invocator was Anne-Marie, who gave us inspiring words from John Lennon, from his song, “Imagine”. Lennon would have been 70 years old on October 9th.

The Word of the Day was offered by Michael Nicastre. He gave us “Extemporaneous”, meaning impromptu, off the cuff, given without notes. In addition to posting the word, he gave us a handout to help us keep the word in mind.

Our Humorist, Siva, gave us three political anecdotes including an exchange between Benjamin Disreali and William Gladstone, and words from Mohandas Gandhi.

Tom was our Table Topics Master. He gave autumn themed questions to John; our guests Ashley, Stacy, and Deb; Arun; and Kim.

We had four prepared speeches:

Charnaie gave a speech from the Special Occasion Speeches manual, “Mastering the Toast”. Her speech was evaluated by Anne-Marie.

Jackie presented her Ice-Breaker, “My Search for Meaning: What I have Learned from My Favorite Book.” Rob evaluated Jackie’s speech.

Kay presented “The Toastmasters Educational Program” from the Successful Club Series. Her speech was evaluated by Murali.

Anne-Marie gave a speech, “Proper Flossing,” that was evaluated by Mike O'Brien.

Jen was our General Evaluator. Our technicians were Ramesh (Ah Counter), Siva (Grammarian), and Charnaie (Timer).

Jen’s evaluation of the meeting noted that as usual, club members were very supportive of each other. There were signs and banners congratulating Rob, Michael O’Brien, and Mike Nicastre for their performance in the Area Contest. Members stepped in to fill in roles, as Anne-Marie and Siva stepped in to fill a speaking slot and the grammarian role, respectively. Members were willing to evaluate each other in speaking roles and for the CL manual.

Comments from our guests: Stacy said she enjoyed it. Ashley thought it was great. Deb just loved it, and said that she will be back.

The meeting concluded on time.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Area C5 Fall Contest

Cromwell Community Toastmasters hosted the Area C5 Fall Contest on October 7. There were 27 people in attendance, including Dave Wheeler, District 53 Governor, and Cheryl Mason, Division C Governor.

Here are the results:

Evaluation Contest
1st - Michael O'Brien, Middlesex County Toastmasters
2nd - Kate Kelly, Eagle Toastmasters
3rd - Rachel Mele, Eagle Toastmasters

Humorous Speech Contest
1st - Rob Schaff, Middlesex County Toastmasters
2nd - Mike Nicastre, Middlesex County Toastmasters
3rd - Biju Kunjummen, Eagle Toastmasters

The winners will move on to the Division C Contest, Monday, October 18th, hosted by Eagle Toastmasters in Wallingford, CT.

Club Speechathon, Sep. 30

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club held a special meeting, a “Speech-A-Thon”, on Thursday, September 30th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Charnaie Gordon, Erik Jarboe, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Rob Schaff.

We were joined by a guest, Krisha Kumar, invited by Murali.

Business Meeting: Charnaie updated us on the club’s progress in the Distinguished Club Program. We have five points so far, and are now a Distinguished Club! Yolanda Lowe joined the club (giving us a point for adding four new members), and we gained another point by turning in our club renewals and officer lists on time.

The Area C5 Humorous and Evaluation Contests will be held on Thursday, October 7th, at the Cromwell Community Toastmasters (7pm). We will be represented in the Humorous Contest by Rob and Michael Nicastre, and in the Evaluation Contest by Rob and Michael O’Brien.

Tom spoke about a hike to be held on Sunday, October 10th at the Hublein Tower on Talcott Mountain in Simsbury at 2pm. All area Toastmasters will be invited. Members will soon be able to get information for upcoming hikes, and sign up, at the website http://www.meetup.com/.

Speechathon:

Our Toastmaster was Tom Alvord.

Jackie led us off with the Word of the Day, “mendacity”: the quality of being mendacious, untruthfulness, tendency to lie, an instance of lying, falsehood. She gave an original quote using the word, then gave a dramatic reading from the play, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, in which mendacity is a recurring theme.

We had seven prepared speeches:

Siva – “A Walk in the Woods – What I Found by Getting Lost” (evaluated by John). This was Siva’s second speech from the CC manual, “Organize Your Speech.”

Charnaie – “Mega Memory” (evaluated by the group in a round robin evaluation).
Anne-Marie – “Go With Your Gut” (evaluated by the group in a round robin evaluation)
Charnaie and Anne-Marie each spoke from Toastmasters’ advanced manuals.

Erik – “Composting Basics” (evaluated by Rob)
Murugan – “ICD-10” (evaluated by Charnaie)
These were Erik and Murugan’s first speeches since rejoining Middlesex County Toastmasters, and we are so glad to see them both return!

Michael – “Upsides and Downsides” (evaluated by Anne-Marie)
This was Michael’s second speech from the CC manual, “Organize Your Speech”, and the third he has presented to the club overall (the other was his speech in last week’s Humorous Contest).

Jen – “Lessons from the Mouse” (evaluated by the group in a round robin evaluation)
This was Jen’s 10th speech – she has now completed the CC manual!

Our General Evaluator was Murali, who did a great job in his first time in the role.

Our technicians were Jackie (Ah Counter), Anne-Marie (Grammarian), and Jay (Timer).

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Fall Speech Contest, Sep. 23

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club held its Fall 2010 Evaluation and Humorous Contests on Thursday, September 23rd.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Anthony Elder, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, Jackie Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Pam Mulready, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Emily O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, Arun Sodani, Jeannette White.

Guests: Yolanda Lowe (who joined the club after the meeting).

Business Meeting: Greg Kline from the Middlesex County Community College Foundation came to our meeting to accept our donation. $300 was presented to the Foundation as appreciation for the College’s allowing us to use the meeting space free of charge during the college’s academic year. Mr. Kline offered some history of the College, and some perspective on the College’s strategic plan as it celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2016.

The Fall 2010 Evaluation and Humorous Contests:
Our Contest Chair was Kay Jeyapalan, our Chief Judge was Charnaie Gordon, and our Contest Master was Jennifer Cimilluca.

Kim Price was the test speaker for the Evaluation Contest. His speech was entitled, “Do You Really Wanna Know?” The Evaluation Contest contestants were Arun Sodani, Ann-Marie Cannata, Rob Schaff, and Michael O’Brien.

The Evaluation Contest winners:
Rob Schaff
Michael O’Brien
Anne-Marie Cannata

The Humorous Contest had five contestants: Anthony Elder (“Grandkids”), Murugan Pachaiyappan (“LA to NY Travel Experience”), Michael Nicastre (“The Low Road to Higher Education OR How I Became the Man I am Today”), Rob Schaff (“Good Evening, Sir”), and Pam Mulready (“An Apple A Day”).

The Humorous Contest winners:
Rob Schaff
Michael Nicastre
Anthony Elder

Many thanks to all those who assisted with the contest – our Sergeant-At-Arms, Ramesh Padavala; our timers, Jackie Kirwin and Siva Digavalli; our ballot counters, Emily O’Brien, Sally Nicastre, and Jeannette White; and our judges.

Rob and Michael O'Brien will represent the Middlesex County Toastmasters at the Area C5 Evaluation Contest on Thursday, October 7th, at the Cromwell Community Toastmasters Club (Cromwell Town Hall) at 7pm. If either is unable to attend, then Anne-Marie will compete. Rob and Michael Nicastre will represent us in the Humorous Contest, with Anthony competing if either is unable to.

September 9 - Meeting Notes

The Middlesex County Toastmasters welcomed many guests and a special speaker, Jerry Theodorou, to our meeting on Thursday, September 9th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Anthony Elder, Charnaie Gordon, Erik Jarboe, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Pam Mulready, Deborah Nason, Michael Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, Arun Sodani.

Guests: Venessa Bromell, Christopher Cargnel, Gail Freeman, Norris Haynes, Kristoffer Jensen, Jessica Maxan, Abhijit Mhetre, Ewa Nowale, Frances Ocansey, Murugan Pachaiyappan (a former Mx County Toastmaster), Dave Pelland, Kasia Polak, Paul Rice, Barakah White.

Business Meeting: Charnaie welcomed our many guests, and Erik (a returning member) was given a new member pin and welcomed back. Charnaie gave us an update on how our club is progressing in the Distinguished Club Program. So far, we have three points for the year.

We are back to meeting at Middlesex Community College, with two exceptions in the near future: we have an extra “speech-a-thon meeting” on September 30th at the Village of South Farms, and our October 28th meeting location is still TBD.

There is an officers’ meeting on October 5th, at the Russell Library from 6:30-8pm. Club members with any feedback or concerns are encouraged to see a club officer prior to the meeting.

On November 11th, we will be having another special guest. Isaak Gelbinovich will be presenting "Storytelling Secrets of the Masters".

Our VPE, Kay, spoke about the Humorous and Evaluation contests, which will be held at our next meeting on September 23rd. Timers and ballot counters are needed (sign ups available for these roles on the club website). Contest judges are also needed—please email Kay if you are interested in being a judge.

Our mentoring program coordinator, Pam, reminded us she is still collecting surveys for prospective mentors/mentees. Those members interested in being a mentor should have already given three speeches.

Charnaie was our evening’s Toastmaster.

Meeting:

Jackie did probably the most thorough presentation of the Word of the Day the club has ever seen. “Malapropism” means usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase.

Our Invocator, Pam, gave us words of wisdom from a new client she had met earlier that day.

Our Humorist Tom had us laughing over a teenager scoring a great truck at a naughty husband’s expense.

Our Table Topics Master Cheryl put us in pairs for everyday (and not-so-everyday) situations. Up to the challenge were Kim and Deborah; Jen and Jay; Pete and Michael Nicastre; Siva and Erik; our guests Abijit and Dave; Rob and our guest Ewa; and Murali and Murugan.

Prepared Speeches:

Anthony presented his second speech from the Competent Communicator manual, “Everyone Can’t Be Rich, but Everyone can be a Success”, which was evaluated by Arun. Kay presented the first speech from the Speaking to Inform manual, “Numbers can Tell Stories.” Her speech was evaluated by Anne-Marie.

Our special guest speaker for the evening was Jerry Theodorou, who gave a vocal clinic for speakers. His presentation gave three common pitfalls for speakers and exercises to help overcome them: Mumbling/Garbled Indistinct Speech; Unprojected Sound Stuck in the Throat; and the Foreign Accent. It was an excellent presentation. Jerry brought a handout that will be available at our next meeting for those members unable to attend.

The General Evaluator was John. He thanked Charnaie for her efforts in bringing Jerry to the meeting and for all of her hard work in putting the meeting together. John gave kudos to Jackie for her excellent presentation of the Word of the Day and bringing four guests to the meeting (also some food!), also to Cheryl for her Table Topics.

Our technicians were Anthony (the Ah Counter), Pam (the Grammarian), and Michael O’Brien (the Timer).

Kay presented Erik with his “1/2 CC” certificate which he earned before his sabbatical from Toastmasters, and also a “1/2 CC” certificate to Ramesh. Congratulations to both!

Charnaie gave Jerry an appreciation gift to Jerry. It was a mug with the most appropriate saying: “Find Your Voice”. Many thanks to Jerry for a very enjoyable and helpful program.

The meeting ended at approximately 9:05pm.

Please advise any errors or omissions.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting Notes, August 26, 2010

The Middlesex County Toastmasters last met on Thursday, August 26.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Anthony Elder, Charnaie Gordon, Lawrence Gore, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Erin Mulhern, Pam Mulready, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Rob Schaff, Jeannette White.

Guests: Alfredo Herreira, Udaya Neelam (Area C-5 Governor).

Business Meeting: Charnaie has updated us on how our club is “Branching Out” in the Distinguished Club Program. So far, we have three points for the year.

Our September – December meetings will be held at Middlesex Community College, starting on September 9th. Our October 28th meeting location is TBD.

There is an officers’ meeting on October 5th, at the Russell Library from 6:30-8pm. Club members are encouraged to give any feedback to a club officer prior to the meeting.

Club dues are up for renewal in September. Renewals for the October – March period are $33 ($27 to Toastmasters International and $6 retained for the club). Also, we are taking up a collection to thank Middlesex Community College for allowing us to use meeting space there. MxCC’s Greg Klein will be coming to our September 23rd meeting to accept the donation. Please note: Checks should be made payable to the Middlesex County College Foundation. John is collecting both the club dues and the collection for the college foundation.

We will have a special guest speaker at our next meeting on September 9th. Jerry Theodorou, a trained opera singer, will be giving us techniques on how we can more effectively use our voices. Toastmasters from all over the district have been invited and we hope to have a packed house!

Tom spoke about our upcoming hike at Wadsworth State Park on Sunday, September 12th, from 1-3pm. It will be about three miles long. Toastmasters from Holy Apostles, Cromwell, Eagle, and Cheshire Toastmasters have been invited to join us, so we should have lots of company on a fun day. Anyone interested or needing more information should see Tom.

Our mentoring program coordinator, Pam, passed out a survey for prospective mentors/mentees. These surveys should be returned to Pam as soon as possible.

Our VPE, Kay, spoke about the Humorous and Evaluation contests, which will be held on September 23rd. A chief judge, timers, ballot counters, and a sergeant at arms are needed. To sign up for one of these roles, please go to the club website. Contest judges are also needed—please email Kay if you are interested in being a judge.

We will having an extra meeting on September 30th, at the Village of South Farms. It will be a “speechathon” meeting, with up to eight speakers. Signups are now available on the club website.

Tom Alvord was the evening’s Toastmaster.

Erin presented the Word of the Day, “inchoate”, meaning not yet completed or fully developed, rudimentary, just begun, incipient, not organized.

Our Invocator, John, told us “life is about expectations”, and reminded us how our positive and negative expectations affect what happens in our lives.

Our Humorist (and new member), Jackie, gave us many great examples of just how bizarre the English language really is at times. She had us rolling with laughter.

Our Table Topics Master, Charnaie, asked “If your fill in blank could talk, what it would it say about your ___________?” Lawrence was asked about his stove, our guest Udaya his brain, and Rob his phone. Sally was asked about her hair, our guest Alfredo his wardrobe, and Siva his eyes. Murali was asked about his pen, and Michael Nicastre was asked about his stomach.

Prepared Speeches:

Jennifer’s speech answered the question, “Who the heck were the Mansfields?” and was evaluated by Udaya.

Anthony wowed us with his Icebreaker, “Disadvantage to Advantage”. His speech was evaluated by John.

Pam presented her seventh speech, “Angry? Don’t get Even…Get Speaking!, which gave very effective anger management techniques and dispelled a myth or two. Her speech was evaluated by Cheryl.

Michael O’Brien’s speech, “30 Days to Success”, was evaluated by Erin.

The General Evaluator was Rob. He commented on how much he liked John’s invocation, adding that if you expect a good meeting, you will get one (and we did!). He praised club members for being willing to step up and fill in, noting that Tom stepped in as Toastmaster at the last minute. Rob also noted Charnaie’s excellent Table Topics questions, saying it was terrific to learn so much about our club members. He also commended the speech evaluators.

Our technicians were Jeanette as Timer, Kay as Grammarian, and Ramesh as Ah Counter.

Kay presented Anthony and Jackie with their new member pins. She also presented Ice Breaker candies to Anthony – along with congratulations on an excellent speech.

Guest comments: Alfredo used the words, “wonderful” and “animated” to describe the meeting.

Udaya said it was a pleasure to be there, adding comments on how well organized the meeting was, and energetic.

The meeting concluded shortly after 9pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting Notes - August 12

We had a great meeting on Thursday, August 12th at the Village of South Farms. Many thanks to our Sergeant at Arms, Ramesh Padavala, for arranging for us to be in the Village’s “Show Room”. It was a very nice room for our meeting.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Craig Fresher, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, Cristina Johnson, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Erin Mulhern, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, Kim Price, Arun Sodani, Gary Torello, Jeannette White.

Guests: Jackie Kirwan (who joined the club after the meeting), Steven Monahan, Amanda Roczniak.

Business Meeting: Charnaie gave an overview of our club’s progress in the Distinguished Club Program. Our club has earned DCP status in each of the last five years, and with four new members, we have earned another point (3 points for the year, of a possible ten).

Our club earned the “Beat the Clock” award for having five new members join the club in the last two months of the Toastmasters year (from May 1st – June 30th). A new ribbon for the club banner is on its way.

Our next meeting (August 26th) will be held at Luther Ridge at 628 Congdon Street West. We will be back at Middlesex Community College on September 9th. We will have a special guest speaker at that meeting. Jerry Theodorou, a trained opera singer, will be giving us techniques on how we can more effectively use our voices. The September 23rd and October 14th meetings will be at the college, and our October 28th meeting location is TBD.

We are taking up a collection to thank Middlesex Community College for allowing us to use meeting space there. MxCC’s Greg Klein will be coming to our September 23rd meeting to accept the donation. Any members interesting in donating can see John. Please note: Checks should be made payable to the Middlesex County College Foundation.

Tom told us all to “Take a Hike”! We will be having a hike at Wadsworth State Park on Sunday, September 12th, from 1-3pm. It will be about three miles long. Anyone interested or needing more information should see Tom.

Gary and Cristina were presented with their new member pins and officially welcomed to the club!

Our VPE, Kay, spoke about the Humorous and Evaluation contests, which will be held on September 23rd. Kay will be the contest chair. A chief judge, timers, ballot counters, and a sergeant at arms are needed (signups available on the club website). Contest judges are also needed—please email Kay if you are interested in being a judge.

We will having an extra meeting on September 30th. It will be a “speechathon” meeting, with up to eight speakers. Signups are now available on the club website. Location TBD.

Michael O’Brien was the evening’s Toastmaster. The theme for the meeting was “Relaxing and Enjoying the Summer” and over the course of the evening, Michael offered some of his own ideas—exercise, trying something new (he practices the piano), and relaxing with a nature CD—and some ideas from the evening’s speakers.

Michael Nicastre presented the Word of the Day, “umbrage”, which means “offense, resentment”.

Our Invocator, Anne-Marie, gave us a moving quote from Neale Donald Walsch about “the grandest version of the greatest vision you ever had about yourself.”

Our Humorist, Siva, told us a true story about father-daughter time – be very careful if your daughter offers you some tea!

Our Table Topics Master, Pete, brought a basket of coins. He asked our members and guests to pick one and talk about whatever happened (personally or historically) the year the coin was minted. Called up were John (1990), Jeannette (2002), Kim (1975), Gary (1986), Cristina (1997), and our guests Steven (1983), Jackie (1970), and Amanda (1965). Great idea, Pete!

Prepared Speeches:

Michael Nicastre presented his Ice Breaker, “The Real Impact of Mentoring on a Life,” evaluated by Cheryl.

Erin spoke about a new veterinary diagnosis technique for “foot and mouth” disease. Her speech was evaluated by Craig.

Charnaie’s speech gave helpful tips about preparedness, based on her training and experience as a Red Cross volunteer. “When Disaster Strikes” was evaluated by Anne-Marie.

Kay presented “Evaluate to Motivate” from the Toastmasters’ Successful Club Series. The speech was evaluated by Arun.

The General Evaluator was Tom. He commented how much he enjoys our meetings, and how much fun they are. He praised the evening’s Toastmaster, Michael O’Brien, for the meeting’s theme and excellent preparation.

The technicians were Murali (Timer), Jen (Grammarian), and Sally (Ah Counter).

Guest comments: Jackie said the meeting was everything she expected, and more. She was very glad she came.

Amanda said that she expected to come back again.

Steven found it enjoyable, said he liked it a lot, and hoped to be back.

Kay gave Ice Breaker candies to Michael Nicastre, with well deserved congratulations.

Craig was presented with his “Half CC certificate” for having completed five speeches. Congratulations, Craig!

The meeting concluded by 9pm.

Please advise any errors or omissions.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary

July 22 Meeting Notes

Hello, Toastmasters! I think we might be able to describe this past Thursday’s meeting as “record breaking”. We had eight guests, seven guests participated in our Table Topics session, we had four Ice Breaker speeches, and four guests joined after the meeting. I’m sure there has to be at least one club record broken in there somewhere!

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Jennifer Cimilluca, Walter Diaz, Siva Digavalli, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Pam Mulready, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Eric Roise, Rob Schaff, Jeannette White.

Guests: Anthony Elder, Erik Jarboe (a former member), Cristina Johnson, Frances Ocansey, Fred Payen, Amanda Roczniak, Jose Sanchez, Gary Torello. After the meeting, Anthony, Cristina, and Gary joined (and Erik rejoined) the club!

Business Meeting: Charnaie gave an overview of our club’s 2010-2011 theme, “Branch Out” and explained the Distinguished Club Program. Our club has earned DCP status in each of the last five years, and we have two points already so far (out of a possible ten).

Our next meeting (August 12th) will be held at the Village at South Farms, 645 Saybrook Road. August 26th’s meeting location is Luther Ridge at 628 Congdon Street West. We will be back at Middlesex Community College on September 9th.

On September 9th, we will have a special guest speaker. Jerry Theodorou, a trained opera singer, will be giving us techniques on how we can more effectively use our voices.

Our new coordinator of the mentoring program, Pam, spoke on the revitalized mentoring program. Anyone interested in assisting her on the mentoring committee, being a mentor, or being mentored, should see Pam.

Kay was our Toastmaster for the evening. She spoke about the Competent Communicator manual, which has ten speech projects that can be completed in any order. She mentioned some of the obstacles that we face in completing the manual, and offered tips to overcome them. If the obstacle is shyness, taking on other roles (Ah Counter, Timer) can help. If time is the obstacle, take a few minutes each day to prepare a speech. If choosing a topic is the obstacle, bounce ideas off your spouse, family member, a colleague, or a more experienced club members. Many thanks to Kay for these excellent suggestions. She also reminded us that taking a role in the fall contest can be used for credit in the Competent Leadership manual.

Siva presented the Word of the Day, “profligate”, which means wildly extravagant and wasteful.

In her invocation, Pam reminded us how privileged we are to have this time to improve ourselves through public speaking.

Our guest Humorist, Anthony, gave us three hilarious stories that really got us laughing.

Our Table Topics Master, Cheryl, gave “Getting to Know You Questions” to Erik, Cristina, Fred, Amanda, Gary, Jose, and Frances. It was really great to have so many guests participate in Table Topics!

Prepared Speeches: Four out of our five speeches were Ice Breakers and they were incredible! Eric’s speech was evaluated by Charnaie, Jeanette’s was evaluated by Pam, Siva’s speech was evaluated by Rob, and Walter’s was evaluated by Tom. Murali gave his 8th speech, and was evaluated by John. Two more speeches and Murali earns his CC!

The General Evaluator was Ramesh. Jay was our Timer, our Grammarian was Sally, and our Ah Counter was Michael.

Guest comments: Anthony said he was “glad to be here”
Frances said she “will be coming back”
Jose said he “had a good time; makes me want to come back”
Fred said he “will be back”
Amanda said it was “interesting” and that she “liked the Table Topics”
Cristina also said she enjoyed Table Topics
Gary said it was “educational, entertaining, will be back”
Erik said he was “happy to be back”

Kay gave Ice Breaker candies to Eric, Jeanette, Siva, and Walter, and congratulated them again on their excellent speeches.

The meeting concluded at 9:10pm.

Please advise any errors or omissions.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Club Meeting July 8, 2010

Hello, Toastmasters! We began the new Toastmasters year with another exciting meeting on July 8th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Jennifer Cimilluca, Walter Diaz, Siva Digavalli, Ashley Gasper, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Erin Mulhern, Pam Mulready, Deborah Nason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, Kim Price, Eric Roise, Rob Schaff, Arun Sodani, Jeannette White.

Guests: Anthony Elder, Sharon Roth (VPE, Cheshire Toastmasters).

Our President, Charnaie, presided over the club business portions of the meeting. Walter and Michael Nicastre were presented with new member pins and officially welcomed to the club.

At our last meeting, Cheryl wowed us with a recap of the club’s amazing results in 2009-2010. On Thursday, Charnaie presented the theme for the new year, “Branch Out”. She also reviewed the Distinguished Club Program and reported our progress – one week into the new year, we have two points already (thanks to Cheryl’s DTM and AL Silver!)

Our next meeting will be held at Luther Ridge at 624 Congdon Street West (July 22nd). On August 12th, we will be back at the Village at South Farms, 645 Saybrook Road. August 26th’s meeting location is TBD. We will be back at Middlesex Community College in September.

Last year, the club and club members gave a $200 contribution to Middlesex Community College as a “thank you” for the use of the meeting space. We are going to do another collection this year. Any members interesting in donating can see John.

It has been suggested that newer members wait until they have given 2 or 3 speeches (as a rule of thumb) before starting to give evaluations, as the more evaluations we have received, the better equipped we are to give evaluations.

Pam has volunteered to lead the club’s mentoring program going forward.

Arun opened the meeting as Toastmaster.

Jay presented the Word of the Day – “sanguine” meaning confident, optimistic, or upbeat. Our Invocator, Tom, presented a reflection on Independence Day. Our Humorist, Pam, offered us the choice of something she found in a book, or an absurd story from her own day. Since she gave us the choice, Pam’s book was not opened that night!

Our Table Topics Master, Erin, gave us statements from her GRE preparation that we would either agree with or disagree with. Answering her questions were John, Sally, Eric, Pete, Kim, our guest Anthony, Jen, and Jeannette.

After the break, Kim took over the Toastmaster duties as Arun was called away from the meeting.

Prepared Speeches:

Ramesh’s speech, “Expectant Dad’s Experience”, was an emotional rendering of the day his daughter was born. His speech was evaluated by Sharon.

Rob’s speech, “Good Times Never Seemed So Good”, told us why the Red Sox always play “Sweet Caroline” at their home games (and how many of us have wondered that!) and was evaluated by Ashley Gasper.

Deborah spoke about “Someone Else’s Normal”, which got us thinking about and appreciating the diversity we encounter in our daily lives, and in our club. Her speech was evaluated by Murali.

Charnaie spoke on “Money Magnetism”, reminded us to be grateful for what we do have already, told us to visualize what we want to have, and gave an action plan for going forward. Her speech was evaluated by Cheryl.

The General Evaluator was Michael O’Brien. He thanked Kim for stepping in as Toastmaster, and others who stepped into meeting roles at the last minute. He praised Erin for her Table Topics session and that so many were able to speak. He recommended reading the question first, then selecting a speaker. That would require everyone to think about the question, and give the chosen speaker an extra moment to frame an answer. He also suggested that each prepared speaker send an introduction to the Toastmaster, or enter it into the club’s website, as the introduction can help set up the speech. He commended Sharon, Ashley, Murali, and Cheryl for their evaluations.

Many thanks to our Timer, Michael Nicastre; our Grammarian, Kay; and our Ah Counter, Siva.

Our guests, Sharon and Anthony, were asked their thoughts on the evening and each said they would be back. Anthony said that he was delighted that he came and that he was “put on the spot” (for Table Topics).

Sally thanked the club for the feedback she received before giving a speech at the Cromwell High School graduation. She spoke in front of 2,000 people that night!

Our VP Education, Kay, spoke about the new Competent Leader completion record that was devised and would be emailed to us. Each member should bring the CL manual to each meeting. Completing that manual is an ongoing process, and every meeting could provide an opportunity to complete a task. Any members with questions about the Competent Communicator or Competent Leader manuals should see Kay.

There will be a hiking event planned for September, with Tom taking the lead on organizing the day (tentatively set for September 12th or 18th, more details to follow).

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

June 24 Club Meeting

Hello, Fellow Toastmasters! We had another terrific meeting on June 24th. The tone was set by Cheryl and Ashley Mason, who brought a wonderful assortment of snacks and beverages to celebrate the last meeting of the Toastmasters year.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Richard Graniero, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Pam Mulready, Emily O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, Rob Schaff, Jeannette White

Guests: Ute Brinkmann (2009-2010 Area Governor C1, 2010-2011 President, Eagle Toastmasters Wallingford, Ashley Mason, Udaya Neelam (2010-2011 Area C5 Governor), Sharon Roth (2009-2010 District Webmaster, 2010-2011 VPE, Cheshire Toastmasters).

Business Meeting: Cheryl began the business meeting with a recap of the 2009-2010 year, highlighting educational awards achieved by club members, special events through the year, visitors and new member counts, and much more. Outgoing officers Cheryl, Charnaie, Michael, Kay, Dianne Olsen, John, Pete, and Rob have much to be proud of, with the club once again achieving President’s Distinguished Club status! Cheryl called up all of this year's officers to the front of the room, thanked them, presented them with a gift and officially discharged them. Charnaie and Kay were presented with Outstanding Toastmaster awards—well deserved recognition, to be sure.

The 2010-2011 officers were inducted: President, Charnaie Gordon; VP Education, Kay Jeyapalan; VP Membership, Murali Pemmaraju; VP Public Relations, Rob Schaff; Secretary, Jen Cimilluca; Treasurer, John Keppler; Sergeant at Arms, Ramesh Padavala.

Our July meetings will be held at the Village of South Farms at 645 Saybrook Road, Middletown (July 8th) and Luther Ridge at 624 Congdon Street West (July 22nd).

Cheryl was our Toastmaster for the evening.

Siva presented our Word of the Day, “Ebullience”, lively or enthusiastic expression. Charnaie was our Invocator, and gave us very powerful words on the power of words. Kay entertained us with a joke with landmines as the punchline (honest!) and a moral, “Behind every man is a smart woman.” John was our Table Topics Master, with questions for Tom, Jeannette, Rich, Rob, and Udaya.

Prepared Speeches:

Richard presented his Icebreaker, and shared his life story from the Army to medical school, to today. His speech was evaluated by Ramesh.

Jay also presented his Icebreaker, and told us how he hiked the Appalachian Trail (all 2,000+ miles!) in 2003. His speech was evaluated by Tom.

Pam told us all about her “Misadventures with Moe” (her car) in a speech using vocal variety, evaluated by Rob.

Murali’s speech was entitled “Using our Brain”, with the objective “Research Your Topic”. His speech was evaluated by Michael.

The General Evaluator was Jennifer Cimilluca. Other roles were filled by Ute (Timer), Sharon (Grammarian), and Kay (Ah Counter).

Sharon gave us a Two-Minute Tutorial on “Setting a Goal and Reaching It in 10 Easy Steps” (see attached).

Meeting Closing: Charnaie presented Richard and Jay “Icebreaker” candies in recognition of giving their Icebreaker speeches. Murali was presented with his official Half CC certificate. Congratulations, Richard, Jay, and Murali!

There will be an Executive Meeting on July 13th. The meeting is open to club officers only, but members with feedback or suggestions can bring them to any officer for discussion at the meeting.

We will have a special guest speaker on September 9th. Jerry Theodorou, a trained opera singer, will be giving us techniques on how we can more effectively use our voices.

Dianne and Tom have done an excellent job with our Club Mentoring program, and volunteers are needed for the new year. Anyone interested should see Kay, Charnaie, Tom, or Dianne for more information.

Charnaie presented Cheryl with a card and plaque in recognition for all of her hard work and dedication in making the club so successful in the last year. Kudos to Cheryl!

Kay announced that the Fall Speech contests will be on September 23rd. Contestants, timers, and judges will be needed for the Humorous and the Evaluation contests. Anyone interested can see Kay or sign up on the website.

The meeting was concluded by 9pm.

Please advise any errors or omissions.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca
Secretary, Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting, Thursday, June 10, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


Hello, Toastmasters!

Once again, we had a great meeting on June 10th!

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Ashley Gasper, Charnaie Gordon, Lawrence Gore, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Erin Mulhern, Pam Mulready, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, Ramesh Padavala, Eric Roise.

Guests: Pat Lee (visiting from the Pflying Toasters Toastmasters/Pfizer club in Groton), Michael Nicastre, and Bill Pinckney (who is a professional speaker).

Business Meeting: Vice President Education Charnaie Gordon presented new members Siva Digavalli and Ashley Gasper with their membership pins to officially welcome them to the club.

A ribbon for our banner has arrived in recognition of the “Talk Up Toastmasters” award—and, our new banner stand has also just arrived.

Our July meetings will be held at the Village of South Farms at 645 Saybrook Road, Middletown (July 8th) and Luther Ridge at 624 Congdon Street West (July 22nd).

Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) Training will be held on June 26th from 9am – 1pm in Manchester, for club officers and any other interested members. More information can be found at the District 53 website http://www.district53toastmasters.org/

Jennifer Cimilluca was the Toastmaster for the evening. Erin Mulhern did double duty right from the start, introducing our word of the day “Regale”, and telling a humorous story about a mishap at the ATM. Our invocator Murali Pemmaraju brought us a very thoughtful story about Mahatma Gandhi, a young boy, and sugar, and how Gandhi wouldn’t give advice that he couldn’t follow himself.

Table Topics were presented by Anne-Marie Cannata, who gave Eric, Pat (our guest), Lawrence, Ashley, Bill (another of our guests), Sally, Siva, Murali, Erin, and Ramesh questions to answer about “LOVE”.

Prepared Speeches:
Sally Nicastre gave us the speech she will be giving to the Cromwell High School Class of 2010. There was a roundtable evaluation immediately following Sally’s speech, and her speech was formally evaluated by Erin Mulhern. Best of luck with the speech, Sally!

Ashley Gasper presented her Icebreaker, evaluated by Pam Mulready. Ashley did a great job, and we look forward to hearing more from her!

Lawrence gave an energetic and well-presented speech on the library and the many resources we can all find there. His speech was evaluated by Tom Alvord.

Rob Schaff gave a speech from the “Better Speaker Series” on beginning our speeches (see the handout, attached). Anne-Marie evaluated Rob’s speech.

The General Evaluator was Kay Jeyapalan, who commented how much she enjoyed Anne-Marie’s Table Topics, and the meeting overall.

Other Roles:
Timer: Michael O’Brien
Grammarian: Anne-Marie Cannata
“Ah Counter”: Pamela Mulready

Member Announcements: Tom Alvord announced that the art gallery at Luther Ridge will be presenting an exhibit called “Echoes from the Past” from now until July 16th, in honor of our veterans.

Meeting Closing: Charnaie presented Ashley with “Icebreaker” candies in recognition of giving her Icebreaker speech.

We will have a special guest speaker on September 9th. Jerry Theodorou, a trained opera singer, will be giving us techniques on how we can more effectively use our voices.

The new officers for the 2010-2011 Toastmasters year will be inducted at our next meeting, on June 24th.

One of our guests, Pat, commented that it was a “fantastic meeting.” Her club organizes their meetings differently, presenting Table Topics after the prepared speeches. Another guest, Bill, stated that he will be back on the 24th!

The meeting was concluded by 9pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

May 27 Meeting

Greetings, Toastmasters!

Last Thursday, we had a terrific meeting.

Members Present: Jay Broderick, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Erin Mulhern, Deborah Nason, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Peter Plotica, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, and Arun Sodani.

Guests: Siva Digavalli, Rich Graniero, and Mike Nicastre (Siva and Rich joined by the end of the evening).

Business Meeting: President Cheryl Mason opened the meeting by presenting our newest member, Jay Broderick, with his membership pin. Welcome, Jay!

The District 53 Spring Conference was held on Saturday, 5/22 at St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield. Eight Middlesex County Toastmasters were present, which Cheryl thought was likely the most of any club at the Conference. Though it was a long day, the educational sessions were excellent (the best ever, Rob added) and the contests were great!

Our club was recognized at the Conference for achieving “The Talk Up Toastmasters” award and Distinguished Club status. Cheryl also had quite a day, presenting the invocation at the evening’s dinner, and was elected Division C Governor for 2010-2011 (Congratulations, Cheryl!)

Our July meetings will be held at the Village of South Farms at 645 Saybrook Road, Middletown (July 8th) and Luther Ridge at 624 Congdon Street West (July 22nd).

We will be having a walk at Wadsworth Falls State Park on Saturday, June 5th, from 10am – 12pm. You can sign yourself up, along with any guests you would like to bring, on the club website.

The 2010-2011 Middlesex County Toastmasters Officers were elected. Area Governor and MxCT Immediate Past President, Rob Schaff, nominated the following slate:

President: Charnaie Gordon
VP of Education: Kay Jeyapalan
VP of Membership: Murali Pemmaraju
VP of Public Relations: Rob Schaff
Secretary: Jen Cimilluca
Treasurer: John Keppler
Sergeant at Arms: Ramesh Padavala

These officers were elected as nominated, and will serve from July 1, 2010 until June 30, 2011. They will be inducted at our last meeting of the year, on June 24th.

Kim Price was our Toastmaster for the evening, and it sure was lively!

Our humorist was Charnaie Gordon, following by an invocation on thought by Anne-Marie Cannata, with quotes that were themselves thought provoking. An abbreviated Table Topics session was led by Rob Schaff, who asked Arun, John, Pete, Kay, and Mike on their thoughts about their terms as club officers, and what advice they had for those officers newly elected.

Prepared Speeches:
Murali Pemmaraju, Mother Theresa (evaluated by Ramesh Padavala)
Anne-Marie Cannata, A Quick Lesson on the Law of Attraction (evaluated by Erin Mulhern)
Erin Mulhern, Practice Safe Baking (evaluated by Anne-Marie)
Jen Cimilluca, Umbrellas (evaluated by Michael O’Brien)

The General Evaluator was Cheryl Mason.

Other Roles:
Word of the Day: Charnaie Gordon (“moxie”)
Timer: Peter Plotica
Grammarian: Deborah Nason
“Ah Counter”: Sally Nicastre

Member Announcements: Pete Plotica announced that the art gallery at Luther Ridge will be presenting an exhibit called “Echoes from the Past” from now until July 16th, in honor of our veterans.

Anne-Marie announced that speech practice opportunities are available at the Buttonwood on Monday nights. Open mike starts at 8pm with sign-ups beginning at 7:30pm.

The meeting was concluded by 9pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

2010 Club Elections

At last night's meeting, we held elections for our next club officers. Congratulations to our incoming officers!

President: Charnaie Gordon, ACB, CL
Vice President Education: Kalyani Jeyapalan, CC
Vice President Membership: Murali Pemmaraju
Vice President Public Relations: Robert A Schaff, ACB, ALB
Secretary: Jennifer M Cimilluca
Treasurer: John F. Keppler, ATM
Sergeant at Arms: Ramesh Padavala

District 53 Spring Conference

We had a great turn-out at the District 53 Spring Conference on Saturday at St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield. Eight Middlesex members attended: Rob Schaff, Tom Alvord, Cheryl Mason, Charnaie Gordon, Michael O'Brien, Kay Jeyaplan, Murali Pemmaraju, and Ramesh Padavala.

Middlesex County Toastmasters was recognized during the business meeting for achieving President's Distinguished Club status, and then recognized again during the dinner banquet for our outstanding Open House event.

Our Club President, Cheryl Mason, was elected to the very important post of Division C Governor for 2010-2011. Congratulations, Cheryl!

Cheryl was also invited to give the invocation for the dinner banquet, in front of all 170 or so attendees, and she did a tremendous job.

The Top 3 District Officers for next year are:

Dave Wheeler, District Governor
Richard Peck, Lieutenant Governor Education & Training (LGET)
Jeff Sobel, Lieutenant Governor Marketing (LGM)

Dave announced next year's district theme: Have fun... and get it done!

The speech contest results:

Tall Tales Contest - Jim Kenney, "My Pet" (Air Line Trail TM)
International Contest - Nana Danso, "Light One Candle," (BI Toastmasters)

Nana will go to the Toastmasters Regional Speech Contest on Thursday Aug 12 in Palm Desert, CA .

The educational sessions, the food, and the Toastmasters networking were all great this year. The next conference will be November 20, 2010, in East Fishkill, NY.

Meeting, Thursday, May 13, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 630, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340

It was an exciting meeting in our former room at the MXCC. There is no question why we had to permanently move to a bigger room – we had a full house!

Members present:, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jen Cimilluca, Craig Fresher, Charnaie Gordon, Lawrence Gore, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason (Area Governor), Pam Mulready, Deb Nason, Sally Nicastre, Dianne Olsen, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, Kim Price, Eric Roise, Rob Schaff (Area C 5 Governor), Arun Sodani, and Jeanette White.


Guests: Bruce Bowker, Jay Broderick, Walter Diaz, Cristina Johnson, and Eddie Roman.


President Cheryl Mason began the meeting by presenting Charnaie Gordon with a certificate Triple Crown Winner, ACB 04/28/2010, CL 03/26/2010, cc 09/01/2009. Wow! Congratulations to Charnaie for her great accomplishment!

Jeanette White was presented with a new member Welcome/Pin. Welcome to the Club, Jeanette!

Our Club earned the “Talk Up Toastmaster Award” for adding five new members. We received a ribbon for our Banner and we will get money off from our next Toastmaster order. Congratulations to all!

Other business:
· Our June meetings cannot be held at the college. Instead we will meet:
o June 10th at The Village at South Farms, Middletown
o June 24th at Luther Ridge, Middletown
· Saturday, May 22, Spring Conference, Tall Tales and International Contests, St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield

Area Governor, Rob Schaff has been in charge of nominations for our next Club election, to be held at our next meeting. The proposed nominations are:

President Charnaie Gordon
VP Education Kay Jeyapalan
VP Membership Murali Pemmaraju
VP Public Relations Rob Schaff
Secretary Jen Cimilluca
Treasurer John Keppler
Sergeant at Arms Ramesh Padavala

Rob noted that anyone can still nominate themselves or someone else before the elections. Be prepared to tell the Club a few sentences on why you want to fill that position.

VP Education, Charnaie Gordon also handed out awards. Pam Mulready and Murali Pemmaraju both received a certificate for completing ½ CC (they have completed 5 out of 10 speeches). Congratulations to Pam and Murali!

We need a drum-roll for the next award that went to Cheryl Mason. Cheryl was a 2X Triple Crown Winner! She has earned 7 Educational Awards in one year: ACB, LDREXC, CL, ACB, ALB, CL and ACG!! She has done an amazing accomplishment. Congratulations Cheryl!

Charnaie was our Toastmaster for the evening. She kept the meeting flowing.

Table Topics Master was Murali Pemmaraju. Murali led us with a variety of challenging Table Topics. Kim, Arun, John, Jeanette, Eddie (guest), Pete, and Dianne all participated.

Speakers:
Sally Nicastre, CC Project 1, The Ice Breaker”
Deb Nason, CC Project 8, “Driving Down Your Career Path”
Craig Fresher, CC Project 5, “Slow & Steady Prevails: Economics/Politics”
Ramesh Padavala, CC Project 4, “Change Your Beliefs and Change Your Life”

Evaluators:
Cheryl Mason for Sally
Murali Pemmaraju for Deb
Pam Mulready for Craig
Rob Schaff for Ramesh

General Evaluator was Kim Price. Thank you Kim for taking on this big role at the last minute. (Cheryl mentioned how nice it was that when someone was needed to fill a role, members willingly raised their hands.)

The speeches and evaluations were all informative and very well presented!

Other Roles:
John Keppler: Word of the Day, “esoteric,” an elite group or people with an advanced degree.
Invocation: Jen Cimillluca
Humorist: Rob Schaff
Timer: Dianne Olsen
Grammarian: Eric Roise
“Ah” Counter: Jen Cimillluca
jbroderick@yahoo
Other announcements:
Club Event, June 5th, 10:00 a.m., 2-hour hike (approx. 3.3 miles), at Wadsworth Falls, Middletown

VP Education Charnaie called Sally up at the end of the meeting to present her with Icebreaker candy for giving her Ice Breaker speech this evening. Great speech Sally!

Comments on our meeting made by our guests:
Cristina, “…had no expectations…but was very impressed…joining…”
Bruce, “…very interesting…enjoyed it…”
Eddie, “…inspiring…definitely joining…”
Jay, “…3rd [visit to our] meeting…gets better every time…”


Respectfully,
Dianne Olsen, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting, Thursday, April 22, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340



Members present: Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Lawrence Gore, Kay Jeyapalan, Jonathan Martin, Cheryl Mason, Erin Mulhern, Deb Nason, Emily O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Pete Plotica, Eric Roise, and Rob Schaff.

Guest: Siva Digavalli

Our Sergeant-at-Arms, Peter Plotica called the meeting to order with a Pledge of Allegiance.

President Cheryl Mason started the meeting with the announcement of Tom Alvord and Charnaie Gordon competing in the Division C Contest held on April 20, 2010 in Marlborough, CT, and CONGRATULATING both participants

Cheryl presented Charnaie with flowers for winning the second place in the International Contest.

Cheryl brought a homemade cake (so delicious!) and other refreshments to celebrate Tom’s and Charnaie’s participation in the Division C contest and Charnaie’s accomplishment of winning the second place. A “GREAT BIG THANKS” to Cheryl.


Our Toastmaster for the evening was Anne-Marie Cannata. This was her first time being the Toastmaster of the club and she did an excellent job with a touch of humor.


Charnaie Gordon was the Table Topics Master with a theme fitting the anniversary of Earth Day. She read the topics first and asked the audience to volunteer. Deborah, Ramesh, Emily, Jen, Siva (our guest), Pete and Kim took the challenge and did a great job of impromptu speaking.

Speeches
Five wonderful speeches were given as follows:

#1 – Erin Mulhern, “Ice Breaker” evaluated by Rob Schaff.
#2 – Jonathan Martin, “Ice Breaker” evaluated by Charnaie Gordon.
#3 – Lawrence Gore, “Ice Breaker” evaluated by Deborah Nason.
#4 – Murali Krishna Pemmaraju, Speech # 5 of CC, “Climbing up to the Crown of Statue of Liberty” evaluated by Kay Jeyapalan.
#5 – Rob Schaff, Speech # 3 of CC (second round), “Toastmasters Club Officers” evaluated by Ann-Marie Cannata.


All the speeches and evaluations were fabulous. The speeches were either informative or informative and humorous. Our Past President, Rob Schaff, did a great job of educating everyone about the roles each officer plays and pepped up all to volunteer for next year.

Murali has now completed five speeches in the Competent Communications Manual to be entitled for his half CC certificate.


Our General Evaluator for the night was Tom Alvord.

Other Roles:
Invocation: Ramesh Padavala
Humorist: Eric Roise
Word Master: Peter Plotica. Word of the Day, “Wastrel” (it is a noun) idler, good for nothing, or spendthrift
Grammarian: Erin Mulhern
Ah-counter: Deborah Nason
Timer: Pete Plotica

Charnaie Gordon, VPE, recognized Erin, Jonathan, and Lawrence for breaking the ice by presenting the mints.

Other announcements:

· 5/13 - Our next meeting will be held at MXCC, Room 630
· 5/27 - Election of Officers for the upcoming year
· 6/10 - Regular Meeting
· 6/24 - Last meeting of the Toastmaster Year 2009-2010
· 5/2 - Jennifer announced that the Food share 27th Annual Walk will go on in spite of the fact that she will not be able to attend
Contributions can be made online www.foodshare.org
· 6/2 - Charnaie announced that the picnic will be at the Wadsworth Park, more details to follow
· 5/22 - District 53 Spring Conference, International & Tall Tales Contest, St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield

Anne-Marie asked our guest, Siva, to speak of his opinion about our club. Siva said that this is the best club of all the ones he has attended to date and his scouting search is over.

Anne-Marie Cannata thanked all who stepped up at the last minute to fill in the roles: Eric, Ramesh, Charnaie, Deborah, Pete, Tom, and Kay.
She ended the meeting at 8:55 p.m.

Great job Anne-Marie with all the 11th minute changes.

Kay Jeyapalan, VPPR

Area C5 Contest Report

Middlesex County hosted the Area C5 Speech contest on April 8. We had a great turnout, with 28 people in attendance, including representatives from all 5 area clubs. Division C Governor Nathan Jaycox and District 53 Photographer Don Logie were among the guests.

Special thanks to:
- Kay Jeyapalan, Contest Master
- Michael O'Brien, Chief Judge

Here are the results:

Tall Tales Contest
1st - Joseph M. Katucki, Eagle Toastmasters
2nd - Tom Alvord, Middlesex County Toastmasters
3rd - Dave Foster, Cheshire Toastmasters

International Contest
1st - Charnaie Gordon, Middlesex County Toastmasters
2nd - Andy Cravalho, Holy Apostles Toastmasters
3rd - Udaya B. Neelam, Eagle Toastmasters

Also competing, Sharon Roth (Cheshire) and Joe Lenart (Cromwell).

The winners from last night's contest will be competing at the Division C contest:

Tuesday, April 20, 7-9 PM
Fellowship Community Church
24 South Road, Marlborough, CT

April 01, 2010 (Extra Meeting held at The Village of South Farms)
Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340

Members present: Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Charnaie Gordon, Lawrence Gore, Kay Jeyapalan, Cheryl Mason, Pam Mulready, Deb Nason, Sally Nicastre, Dianne Olsen, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, and Arun Sodani.

Other Guests: Don Logie (District 53 Photographer) and Mike Nicastre (Sally’s husband).

President Cheryl Mason started the meeting with business by giving 2 of our newest members their Toastmasters pins. Congratulations to Lawrence Gore and Sally Nicastre!
Other news:
· 3/26 – Charnaie Gordon has completed her Competent Leadership Manual!
· 3/30 – Kay Jeyapalan has completed her Competent Communicator Manual!
· 4/01 - Our Club has already reached all 10 of the 10 goals required (and beyond) for Distinguished Club Status 1st! What an outstanding Club we have under the direction of these great leaders: Cheryl, Charnaie and Kay!

Toastmaster Tom Alvord was a terrific host for the evening.

Dianne Olsen was Table Topics Master with a theme fitting for April Fool’s Day. Participants were asked to respond to a quote about a fool or a joke. Taking a try with their wit were: Arun, Pam, Don (guest), Murali, Ramesh, Lawrence and Sally.

Speeches
Four superb speeches were given as follows:
#1 – Deb Nason, Research, “The Sleeping Giant Wakes Up”
#2 – Pam Mulready, Your Body Speaks, “Moving”
#3 – Anne-Marie Cannata, Entertaining Tale, “The 3 Menehune of Ainahou”
#4 – Cheryl Mason, Storytelling Advanced, “A Folktale from India”

Evaluators
General Evaluator: Kay Jeyapalan
Evaluators:
Anne-Marie Cannata for Deb’s speech #1
Deb Nason for Pam’s speech #2
Charnaie Gordon for Anne-Marie’s speech #3
Don Logie for Cheryl’s speech #4
There was a noticeable difference in the progress of our evaluators after our “coaching” by Jerry Aiyathurai at our last meeting. Terrific job by all!

Other Roles:
Invocation: Charnaie Gordon
Humorist: Anne-Marie Cannata
Word Master: Anne-Marie, “grok”, to intuitively understand or understand profoundly
Grammarian: Murali Pemmaraju
Ah-counter: Kay Jeyapalan
Timer: Ramesh Padavala

Other announcements:
· 4/8 - Our next meeting will be held at MXCC, we are hosting the Area C5 International & Tall Tales Contests
· 4/20 Division C International & Tall Tales Contest, 7-9 p.m., Fellowship Community Church, 24 South Road, Marlborough
· 5/2 – Foodshare 27th Annual Walk, Jen Cimilluca is forming a team of our Toastmasters, see Jen for more details
· 5/22 – District 53 Spring Conference, International & Tall Tales Contest, St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield


Respectfully,
Dianne Olsen, SecretaryMiddlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting, Thursday, March 11, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


Last night we held our International & Tall Tales Speech Contest. If you missed the meeting – you missed a fun time!

Members present: Amy Alvord, Tom Alvord, Jen Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Deb Nason, Ramesh Padavala, Emily O’Brien, Mike O’Brien, Dianne Olsen, Murali Pemmaraju, Michael Perlman, Pete Plotica, Rob Schaff, and Arun Sodani. Guests: Barrington Gordon (Charnaie’s husband), Jonathan Martin, Frances Ocansey (Charnaie’s mother-in-law), and Eric Roise.

Jonathan Martin and Eric Roise joined our Club tonight! Welcome Eric and Jonathan!

President Cheryl Mason began the meeting with business. She gave out awards to Dianne Olsen and Rob Schaff. Dianne earned the Competent Communicator (CC) award and Rob earned the Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) which is quite an achievement. Congratulations Dianne and Rob!

Other business:
· Our Club is in the top 10 in our District for meeting educational goals!
· March 25, Open House, with special guest Jerry Aiyathurai
· April 1, extra meeting, held at The Village at South Farms
· April 8, Area C5 Spring Speech Contest, hosted by our club; also participating will be Cheshire, Cromwell Community, Holy Apostles, and Wallingford Clubs
· If you have not already done so, please submit your dues to John Keppler before April 1 for the six-month renewal

Cheryl was the Contest Master and “expertly” led the speeches.
International Speeches:
Winner – Charnaie Gordon, “Mama Dot”
2nd Place – Mike O’Brien, “Attitudes of Gratitude”
3rd Place – Jen Cimilluca, “When Molasses Ran Fast in January”

Tall Tales
Winner – Tom Alvord

Congratulations to all our contestants! We heard 4 superb speeches. Our best goes out to our winners, Charnaie and Tom as they compete in the Area C5 Spring Contest! In the event that Charnaie would not be able to give her speech, Mike will then compete.

Area Governor, Rob Schaff was the Chief Judge. He did an excellent job explaining all the briefings, rules and results.
Kay Jeyapalan was the Contest Chair who put this meeting all together. Kay did an “outstanding job planning.”

Other roles:
Sargent at Arms: Pete Plotica
Judges: Dianne, John, Murali, and Ramesh
Timers: Deb and Mike
Ballot Counters: Emily and Pete

Thank you to all for your participation in tonight’s Speech Contest. Also, thanks to everyone who brought refreshments – they were very enjoyable!

Jen made an announcement that she is putting together a team of Toastmasters for a Walk Against Hunger to be held on May 2 in Hartford. She is also looking for a savvy name for our team, so if you have any suggestions and/or would like to walk, send her an email.

Comments by visitors:
Barrington “…well thought out, done, and executed…”
Eric (now a member) “…very interesting… great variety…”
Frances “interesting…learned a lot…”
Jonathan (now a member) “…really exciting…enjoyed the stories…”

Respectfully,
Dianne Olsen, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting, Thursday, February 25, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


We held our last meeting on February 25, 2010 with 14 members and 3 guests! Members present: Amy Alvord, Tom Alvord, Ann-Marie Cannata, Jen Cimilluca, Kay Jeyapalan, Cheryl Mason, Emily O’Brien, Mike O’Brien, Dianne Olsen, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, and Arun Sodani. Guests: Jay Broderick, Erin Mulhern, and Eric Roise.

President Cheryl Mason presented the business:
· Upcoming District Events:
o Spring Contests – Tall Tales & International
o Saturday, May 22, 2010, St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, CT
· Upcoming Club Events
o March 11, 2010 - Club Speech Contest – Tall Tales & International
o March 25, 2010 - Open House with Guest Speaker Jerry Aiyathurai
o April 1, 2010 – Extra Meeting – Village at South Farms
o April 8, 2010 – Area C5 Contest, Middlesex Hosting

Our Toastmaster was Kay Jeyapalan. You can really see that Kay has grown by leaps and bounds!

Table Topics Master, Jen Cimilluca presented her Table Topics in pictures projected on a screen from her laptop computer. Kim commented on how different it was to speak about displayed pictures. Nice idea, Jen! Participating in Table Topics were Pete, Ann-Marie, Kim, Tom, Michael, Murali, Arun, Erin, Emily, Amy, Rob, and our guest: Jay.

It was a night for our veteran members who gave the speeches, evaluations and general evaluation!
We had 3 excellent speeches by:
Cheryl Mason, (Make Them Laugh), “The Believer”
Rob Schaff, (Organize Your Speech), “Breaking the Rules”
Ann-Mare Cannata, gave an impromptu speech, (Storyteller), “The Scott Story”

General Evaluator was Kim Price and evaluators were:
Arun Sodani for Cheryl
Ann-Marie Cannata for Rob
Tom Alvord for Ann-Marie
Other Roles:
Invocator: Michael O’Brien
Word of the Day: Murali Pemmaraju, “Sedulous”, involving great care and effort
Humorist: Michael O’Brien
Grammarian: Dianne Olsen
Ah Counter: Peter Plotica
Timer: Emily O’Brien
A terrific job done by all. One could say it was a sedulous meeting!

Comments by our guests:
Eric: “My first impression was, is this a cult?...Everybody was so outgoing…I’ll be back!”
Erin: This was her second visit and she has decided to join. She loved “all the stories…the themes seemed to relate to me!”
Jay: “The meeting was very friendly…I will be back…there was a lesson to each speech!”


The following people have signed up to bring food to the Open House on March 25th:
Murali – Chips
Kay – Cookies
Emily – Soda
Kim – Water
Tom - ?
Jen – Fruit
Dianne - ?
We need your help. If you have not already signed up, please contact Dianne and let her know what you can bring. Her address is olsend@wcsu.edu

Meeting, Thursday, February 11, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


Our last meeting was held on February 10, 2010 at Middlesex Community College. It was a full house and a very exciting meeting!

Members present: Amy Alvord, Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jen Cimilluca, Craig Fresher, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Pam Mulready, Deb Nason, Dianne Olsen, Kim Price, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, and Rob Schaff. Our guests were: Bob Briggs, Monica Lozano, Erin Mulhern, and Sarada Pemmaraju (Murali’s wife).

Two memorable events have recently occurred for two of our members. Kim Price had his 2nd grandchild and Ramesh had a baby girl born on Valentine’s Day! Congratulations to both of you!

President Cheryl Mason led the meeting with announcements:
· Snow cancellations: We follow the MxCC College class cancellation policy. If classes are cancelled, we will not meet. The Web site features a red bar that will appear on the home page when the determination is made to close classes. http://www.mxctc.commnet.edu/
· Amy Alvord is our newest member! Welcome Amy!
· Bowling Event: our Club recently had a bowling event and 5/6 lanes were filled! High scorers were: Tom, Jen, and Barry (Charnaie’s husband).
· Our Club has achieved 8/10 goals for the President’s Distinguished Club status
· Saturday, May 22, will be the District Spring Conference, St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, CT
· Rename the District 53 Yankee Activator Newsletter! All toastmasters are invited to submit a new title by March 31st. The winner will be awarded a $25 gift credit to the Toastmasters store and a $20 gift card to Borders Bookstore. For more info: http:www.district53toastmasters.org/index.php/district-newsletter or http:www.district53toastmasters.org/file_cabinet/YA/YA10_winter.51.46.pdf

Vice President Charnaie Gordon also had announcements:
· Congratulations to Deb Nason for receiving a district awarded certificate for completing ½ of her CC manual!
· March 11 – Club Speech Contest – International & Tall Tales – please sign up for a role!
· March 25 - Open House will be at Middlesex Community College, room 808 A&B. We will have a guest speaker, Jerry Aiyathurai, and are looking for past guests to come. If you know any that you would personally like to invite, please do so. We also need people to help out with refreshments.
· April 8th – Area C5 Contest, International & Tall Tales, hosted by Middlesex at MxCC.

Area Governor Rob Schaff was our Toastmaster for the evening. He did an excellent job, managing to fit 5 speeches in and still have Table Topics!

Table Topics Master, Pam Mulready had a variety of questions she pulled off the Internet, and prospective speakers pulled them randomly out of a bag. John, Kay, Anne-Marie, Craig, Amy, Tom, Kim, Pete, and 2 of our guests, Erin and Monica, all participated.

Five very different and wonderful speeches were given as follows:
Jennifer Cimilluca – (Persuade with Power) - The Mission of Mercy
Deborah Nason – (Vocal Variety) - Putting It Out There
Dianne Olsen – (Research Your Topic) – The Germs Lurking Around You (This was Dianne’s 10th and final speech in the CC manual!)
Murali Pemmaraju – (Get to the Point) – Global “Warming”, or is it “Cooling”?
Kay Jeyapalan –(Vocal Variety) – One Memorable Day of the Past

General Evaluator for the evening was Anne-Marie Cannata. Anne-Marie graciously volunteered for this role at the last minute and did a terrific job! Fantastic evaluations were done by the following:
For Jen: Tom Alvord
For Deb: John Keppler
For Dianne: Craig Fresher
For Murali: Charnaie Gordon
For Kay: Kim Price

Other roles:
Wordmaster: Pete Plotica – “Ubiquitous” – being or seeming to be present everywhere.
Ah-Counter: Amy Alvord
Grammarian: Pam Mulready
Timer: Cheryl Mason

At the end of the meeting, our guests were asked if they had any comments to make. They summed it up very nicely with these “ubiquitous” comments
Bob – “the meeting was interesting;”
Monica – “people learn to express themselves;”
Sarada – “it was very good, Table Topics was really nice;”
Erin – “pleasantly surprised.”