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