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