The Middlesex County Toastmasters’ Open House was enjoyed by 26 members and guests on March 24th, featuring special guest Ruby Parker and her workshop, Holistic Evaluations.
Members Present: Tom Alvord, Brian Burness, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Charnaie Gordon, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Michael O’Brien, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, Arun Sodani.
Guests Present: John Bell, Marsha Kiley (District 53 Immediate Past Governor), Richard Peck (District 53 Lt. Governor Education& Training), Bettyann Peck, Janki Nambi, Louis Nivet (President, Cromwell Community Toastmasters), Maryanne Shirshac.
Special Guest Speaker: Ruby Parker, Area A4 Governor
The meeting was opened at 7pm by our Sergeant-at-Arms, Ramesh. He turned the meeting over to club President Charnaie for the business meeting. She welcomed our guests and updated Middlesex’s progress in the Distinguished Club Program (9 points out of a possible ten, for President’s Distinguished Club status six years running).
The Area C5 International and Tall Tales Contests will be held on Sunday, April 3rd, hosted by Middlesex County Toastmasters. The contests will be held at the Village of South Farms, 645 Saybrook Road, from 6:30-9pm. A $5 donation is requested for refreshments.
On April 14th, the regular club meeting will be held at the Village of South Farms, instead of Middlesex Community College.
On April 28th, we will have a guest speaker, Walter Breveridge, giving his workshop, “How to Write a Speech in 15 Minutes”, and some speakers will do just that, using the skills taught in the evening’s workshop.
The Toastmaster, Jackie, ably guided us through a packed agenda.
Our Word of the Day, “obdurate” was presented by Siva. The word means, “hardened against feeling, not giving in to persuasion.”
Our Invocator, Kay, spoke about the power of turning a minus into a plus. She shared the story of Thelma Thompson, who turned a miserable time in the sands of the Mojave desert into the best time of her life by changing her attitude. Her situation did not change but her attitude did, and her life was transformed.
Our humorist, Murugan, both made us laugh and inspired us, telling us a true story about a CEO who had a very clever way of choosing his successor, a seed with no harvest: “If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.”
The evening’s technicians introduced their roles: Cheryl as Timer, Charnaie as Grammarian, and Anne-Marie as Ah-Counter.
Table Topics were led by Jonathan, who did a great job in his first time in the role. His “One Up, One Down” topics asked the speakers to state one thing they like, and one thing they would change, on whatever topic they were given to speak on.
Ramesh spoke about the world he lives in; Michael about the place that he works; Tom, the country he lives in; Maryanne, the state she lives in; and Janki, the country she lives in. (Disliking taxes seemed to be a common theme!)
Ruby Parker, Advanced TM Gold/CL, presented “The Holistic Approach to Evaluations”, which offered excellent suggestions and a checklist (attached) to prepare and present the evaluation speech, and give feedback to the speaker following the meeting.
Among her many suggestions:
* Talk to the speaker before the speech
* Focus – there is only limited time to evaluate the speech
* Share your notes with the speaker afterwards to discuss the speech
* Solicit feedback on your evaluation
We had two prepared speeches:
Brian presented his Icebreaker, “A Little Bit About Me”, evaluated by Michael O’Brien.
Rob earned another Competent Communicator award with his speech, “Vitamins, Aspirin, and Toastmasters”. His speech was evaluated by Murugan.
Following the evaluations, Ruby came back to do a mini workshop on evaluating the evaluators, which was the perfect capstone to her earlier presentation.
Arun was our General Evaluator, with assistance from technicians Siva (Wordmaster) Anne-Marie (Ah Counter), Charnaie (Grammarian), and Cheryl (Timer). He gave well-deserved praise to Ramesh, Charnaie, Kay, Jackie, and all who put so much preparation into the Open House meeting. He turned the meeting back to the toastmaster, Jackie, who gave her thanks to all who signed up for meeting roles.
Charnaie asked for comments from our guests:
Marsha: “fantastic, energetic, smiles galore”
John: “enjoyed it, felt welcome”
Richard: “first time here, Cheryl doesn’t blow smoke when she’s describing this club”
Janki: “encouraging, welcoming”
Maryanne: “supportive, makes me feel like I want to continue”
Louis: “welcoming"
Ruby: “a great club, honored to be here, a wonderful experience”
She then presented a certificate of appreciation for Ruby for her excellent presentation. Kay presented Brian with “Icebreaker” candies in honor of his Icebreaker speech.
The meeting concluded at 9:00pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Middlesex Open House, March 24, 2011
We had a great turn-out for our Open House. Thanks to Ruby Parker for her excellent presentation on evaluations.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Meeting Notes - February 24
Twenty members and guests enjoyed a workshop with the Sea-Tea Improv troupe, plus a fun club meeting, on Thursday, February 24th.
Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Margarita Giraldo, Charnaie Gordon, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, Jackie Kirwan, Yolanda Lowe, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Rob Schaff, Arun Sodani.
Guests Present: Mallika Digavalli, Kevin Finn (Cedar Hill Toastmasters), Abhijit Mhetre (Nathan Hale Toastmasters), Michele Rousseau (Michele joined the club after the meeting).
The meeting was opened at 7pm by our Sergeant-at-Arms, Ramesh. He turned the meeting over to Greg, Julia, and Dan from the Sea-Tea Improv troupe, who used a series of games to teach us and let us practice the “rules” of improv: “Make your partner look good”; “Yes, and…” (Listen, acknowledge, and add to whatever information you are given); “Make honest choices” (Don’t overthink and edit yourself”).
We learned and practicing thinking on our feet with compound word games, three line scenes, creating continuous stories, and more. The hour flew by, but there are plenty of opportunities to see Sea Tea in action (see seateaimprov.com for more information).
Following the workshop, the regular club meeting began.
Our Word of the Day was presented by Charnaie: “persnickety”, meaning over particular, fussy, snobbish, requiring painstaking care.
Our Invocator, Jonathan, shared three ideas from Steven Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”: Habit 1: Be Proactive--Taking responsibility for your choices and the consequences of them. Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind--Figure out what's important to you and pursue that. Whatever you can conceive and believe, you can achieve. Habit 3: Put First Things First--Prioritize. Do what must be done before why you want to do.
We had two prepared speeches:
Kay also used examples from Steven Covey’s book in her speech, “The Law of Subtleness of Mind”. Her speech was #5 from the Speaking to Inform Manual (The Abstract Concept), and was evaluated by Rob.
Kevin Finn presented Speech #4 from the Storytelling Manual (The Touching Story). His speech, “And The Winner is Dave” was at times humorous, and touched our hearts. Siva evaluated Kevin’s speech.
Yolanda, a first-time Table Topics Master, asked several of us to devise commercials for the products she brought, and for ourselves as potential hires for an advertising team. Michele, Jen, Jonathan, and Jackie took turns pitching Jif peanut butter, Olde Cape Cod salad dressing, jam, and chocolate covered butter cookies, and themselves.
Michael Nicastre was our General Evaluator, assisted by Sally performing the dual roles of Ah Counter and Grammarian, and our timer, Tom.
Charnaie presented Margarita with a new member pin to officially welcome her to Middlesex County Toastmasters. She also announced that Michele has joined the club.
Our club will be hosting the Area C5 contests on Sunday, April 3rd, at the Village of South Farms.
We are now a “President’s Distinguished Club” with nine points in the Distinguished Club Program – the first club in the district to earn that distinction!
The meeting closed promptly at 9:00pm.
Please advise any errors or omissions. Thank you.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club
Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Margarita Giraldo, Charnaie Gordon, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, Jackie Kirwan, Yolanda Lowe, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Rob Schaff, Arun Sodani.
Guests Present: Mallika Digavalli, Kevin Finn (Cedar Hill Toastmasters), Abhijit Mhetre (Nathan Hale Toastmasters), Michele Rousseau (Michele joined the club after the meeting).
The meeting was opened at 7pm by our Sergeant-at-Arms, Ramesh. He turned the meeting over to Greg, Julia, and Dan from the Sea-Tea Improv troupe, who used a series of games to teach us and let us practice the “rules” of improv: “Make your partner look good”; “Yes, and…” (Listen, acknowledge, and add to whatever information you are given); “Make honest choices” (Don’t overthink and edit yourself”).
We learned and practicing thinking on our feet with compound word games, three line scenes, creating continuous stories, and more. The hour flew by, but there are plenty of opportunities to see Sea Tea in action (see seateaimprov.com for more information).
Following the workshop, the regular club meeting began.
Our Word of the Day was presented by Charnaie: “persnickety”, meaning over particular, fussy, snobbish, requiring painstaking care.
Our Invocator, Jonathan, shared three ideas from Steven Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”: Habit 1: Be Proactive--Taking responsibility for your choices and the consequences of them. Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind--Figure out what's important to you and pursue that. Whatever you can conceive and believe, you can achieve. Habit 3: Put First Things First--Prioritize. Do what must be done before why you want to do.
We had two prepared speeches:
Kay also used examples from Steven Covey’s book in her speech, “The Law of Subtleness of Mind”. Her speech was #5 from the Speaking to Inform Manual (The Abstract Concept), and was evaluated by Rob.
Kevin Finn presented Speech #4 from the Storytelling Manual (The Touching Story). His speech, “And The Winner is Dave” was at times humorous, and touched our hearts. Siva evaluated Kevin’s speech.
Yolanda, a first-time Table Topics Master, asked several of us to devise commercials for the products she brought, and for ourselves as potential hires for an advertising team. Michele, Jen, Jonathan, and Jackie took turns pitching Jif peanut butter, Olde Cape Cod salad dressing, jam, and chocolate covered butter cookies, and themselves.
Michael Nicastre was our General Evaluator, assisted by Sally performing the dual roles of Ah Counter and Grammarian, and our timer, Tom.
Charnaie presented Margarita with a new member pin to officially welcome her to Middlesex County Toastmasters. She also announced that Michele has joined the club.
Our club will be hosting the Area C5 contests on Sunday, April 3rd, at the Village of South Farms.
We are now a “President’s Distinguished Club” with nine points in the Distinguished Club Program – the first club in the district to earn that distinction!
The meeting closed promptly at 9:00pm.
Please advise any errors or omissions. Thank you.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club
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