Meeting, Thursday, January 14, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


Our 1/14 meeting was the first one of the new year at Middlesex College, and was well attended and lots of fun!
The room dividers were down, so we had a very large meeting space to work with. We set up the large round tables close to back wall, and acoustics were not a problem at all. It was a nice change.

Meeting Theme: Creating an Extraordinary Career Path

We had 20 attendees.
Members attending (12) - Tom A., Ana B., Jennifer C., Craig F., Charnaie G., John K., C. Mason, D. Nason, M. O'Brien, Murugan P., Kim P., Rob S.
Visitors attending (8) - Amy A., Seth G., Jay B., Sharon R., and from Mass Mutual: Michael L., wife Virginia, Jon Toner, Richard Chang

Mass Mutual visitors participated in the meeting and successfully captured gavel Drew from our Club.

Toastmaster: Charnaie Gordon

Opening Remarks: Given by Cheryl Mason, included comments about the successful Speech-a-Thon held on 1/7 at the Cromwell Town Hall, which was an event that combined both the Middlesex & Cromwell Community Toastmaster Clubs. At the Speech-a-thon, speeches were given by Charnaie G., Pam M., Ron Reeve, Murali P., Rob S., and Murugan P. The event was very successful, and Cheryl gave thanks of appreciation to Charnaie Gordon for all her efforts with coordinating the event.
DCP Status -- 4 officers attended training in December, Middlesex Club has now earned 8 of 10 Points (2 remain, and are quite achievable -- we need 2 more new members and 2 more CCs!)
Upcoming District Events: Jan 23rd is the Jan Jam, and our own Tom A. gave us some info about the event, and he will be performing!
Upcoming Club Events: Feb 6th Bowling Event (sign up using the on-line roster)
March 11 - Club Speech Contest, March 25 - Open House with Guest Speaker Jerry A.

Charnaie led the meeting with inspriational thoughts related to the meeting theme, and introduced each of the roles for the meeting. At the end of the meeting, one of our guests commented that he really enjoyed her opening remarks!

Table Topics - Tom Alvord. Table Topics were related to the Career theme, and questions involved many of our guests, a great way to encourage their participation and (hopefully) future involvement with our club!

Word of the Day - Kim Price, who provided lots of entertainment with his unveiling of the special word
Invocator - Michael Lavery
Humorist - Jon Toner
General Evaluator - Jon Toner
Timer - Craig Fresher
Grammarian - John Keppler
Ah Counter - Murugan P.

We had 4 excellent speeches given:

Speaker 1 - Craig Fresher, "Energy Game Changers"
Speaker 2 - Jennifer Cimilluca, "When Molasses Ran Fast in January"
Speaker 3 - Deborah Nason, "Perfect Pitch"
Speaker 4 - Michael O'Brien, "First Day on the Job"

Speech Evaluators:

Evaluator 1 - Rob Schaff
Evaluator 2 - Ana Bowman
Evaluator 3 - Richard Chang
Evaluator 4 - Cheryl Mason

Meeting was ended promptly at 9 p.m.

Gavel handover to our visitors from Mass Mutual concluded the meeting.
Click here for the picture and story on the D53 website!
http://www.district53toastmasters.org/index.php/traveling-gavel/travelin-gavel-news