Meeting Notes December 9

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club met on Thursday, December 9th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, Jackie Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Rob Schaff, Jeanette White.

Guests Present: Gopala Krishna.

Business Meeting: Charnaie announced that Cheryl has earned another Competent Communicator Award, which along with Jen’s CC in August, will give the Middlesex County Toastmasters another point towards the Distinguished Club Program (congratulations and thank you, Cheryl!) Rob, in his speech that night, would be completing the Interpretive Reading manual and earning the Advanced Communicator Silver Award (for another point). The total for the year so far is seven points, out of a possible ten.

Upcoming District 53 events include the Jan Jam, which will be held January 29, 2011, from 12-6pm. This event will be held at The Hartford, 690 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT. (A note from the District 53 website: Admission is free but you must RSVP. Contact janjam@district53toastmasters.org. )

Meeting:

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Murali Pemmaraju, and he did a great job in his first time as Toastmaster.

Siva presented the invocation, thought-provoking words from St. Francis of Assisi that he first read when he was young and then re-discovered as an adult.

Our Wordmaster was Jeanette, who challenged us to use the word “intimate” (with a long a), meaning to communicate indirectly, subtly, to hint.

Prior to our prepared speakers, our Toastmaster Murali spoke of the importance of goal setting, reminding us that it’s not enough to have goals, but that we have to keep pursuing them. He asked, “What is your goal?” and “Are you doing enough to achieve it?”

Because of the length of the prepared speeches, the Table Topics session was held after the prepared speeches.

There were four prepared speeches:

Tom entertained us with “Twelve Angry Pigs”, a play he read for the Advanced “Interpretive Reading” manual. He read all the parts himself (at least 15!) Sally evaluated his speech.

Kay presented a briefing as part of the “Speeches by Management” manual. She briefed us on the “TLE Program on December 4, 2010” and made those of us who weren’t there really wish we had been. Kay’s speech was evaluated by Charnaie.

Charnaie gave an acceptance speech, “Don’t Lose the Lesson” for her project from the “Special Occasions” speeches manual. Jackie evaluated Charnaie’s speech.

Rob read a scene from “Glengarry Glen Ross” (Act I, Scene II), reading two characters’ parts. This was Rob’s fifth project from the Interpretive Reading manual (earning Rob the Advanced Communicator Silver award, it's worth repeating!)

For Table Topics, Michael gave “What would I do if” questions to Cheryl (what if her computer crashed, which has happened to her); to Jeanette (what if she won the lottery, sadly that hasn’t happened yet); to Sally (what if her car broke down in the desert with no cell service, sadly that has happened); and to Siva (what if he was lost on a hike with no cell service, yes, that has happened too).

Jen was our General Evaluator. Rounding out the evaluation team was Ramesh (Timer), Jackie (Grammarian), and Cheryl (Ah Counter).

Jen noted that this was Murali’s first time as Toastmaster, and lauded him for an excellent job. The meeting planning began early and the agenda was very well laid out, with the prepared speeches’ projects as well as titles. Tom and Rob chose their material well for the “Reading a Play” project in the Interpretive Reading manual. Kay gave very astute observations about the district training she attended, our club, and the club she evaluated as part of the training. Another excellent speech by Kay, and by Charnaie as well. (If Jen didn’t say so during her evaluation, she thought that Ramesh did a great job as timer with long speeches and unusual lengths. She also thought that Michael’s Table Topics questions were terrific, far better than her own questions were the week before.)

The meeting concluded shortly after 9pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club