Meeting, Thursday, January 28, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


The roads were pretty slippery tonight with the light snow coming down, so understandably a number of people were unable to make it to the meeting.

For those of us that did, it was a GREAT meeting! We played "fill in the roster" with all kinds of changes from our original program, and had lots of fun nonetheless.

Meeting Theme: Properly Set Goals Aid Success

We had 10 members attending: Amy A., Tom A., Ana B., Craig F., John K., C. Mason, Murali P., Pete P., Kim P., Rob S.

Toastmaster: Cheryl Mason

Opening Remarks / Business Meeting:

Welcome to Amy Alvord, our newest Middlesex Member! Amy was presented with a Toastmasters pin and a warm round of applause.

Cheryl talked about some of the highlights from the District 53 Jan Jam event in Hartford last weekend, including the fun music (our own Tom Alvord provided entertaining performances -- check these links to see more!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzqH1o9HlTk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg3x-Pkuxb0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2S351BzGtQ
Mary Cheyne gave her International Speech Contest speech as well as a motivational 45-minute speech about her journey to the international stage as well as some very useful lessons she learned along the way.
Flyers were provided for the District 53 Spring Conference, & DTM guide (will bring copies again next meeting).

DCP Status -- Middlesex Club has earned 8 of 10 Points (2 remain, and are quite achievable -- we need only 1 more new member and 2 more CCs!)

Upcoming Club Events:
Feb 2nd - Officer's Meeting (feel free to send any comments or suggestions to any of the club officers, for discussion at the meeting).
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.

Upcoming District Events: May 22, 2010 Spring Conference, St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, CT

Table Topics - Craig Fresher. Table Topics were related to the goal oriented meeting theme and were lots of fun.

Word of the Day - Pete Plotica, curmudgeon, a difficult, bad-termpered person, a grump!
Invocator - Tom Alvord
Humorist - Murali Pemmaraju
General Evaluator - Pete Plotica
Timer - Pete Plotica
Grammarian - Kim Price & Amy Alvord
Ah Counter - Amy Alvord

We had 4 excellent speeches given:

Speaker 1 - Tom Alvord, "Shet" -- A Truly Captivating Story about a Man's Best Friend
Speaker 2 - Ana Bowman, "The Family Map" -- Informative Speech About Technology & How It Helps Her Family
Speaker 3 - Rob Schaff, "Goal Setting & Planning" -- a Leadership Excellence Series Speech, Given With Practical Tips
Speaker 4 - Kim Price, "Grampy" -- All About The Great Experience of Welcoming Baby John Michael Chapin, His Grandson Born Yesterday Morning. CONGRATULATIONS, KIM!

Speech Evaluators:

Evaluator 1 - Kim Price
Evaluator 2 - John Keppler
Evaluator 3 - Craig Fresher
Evaluator 4 - Tom Alvord

Everyone did such a great job being flexible and adjusting the agenda, including Tom & Kim who agreed to give speeches tonight, John and Tom who jumped in as Speech Evaluators, Amy who helped to cover both Ah Counter & Grammarian roles, and Craig who put together engaging Table Topics! It turned out to be a great meeting.

Meeting ended approx. 8:45 p.m.