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