Meeting Notes - May 12

The Middlesex County Toastmasters had their last meeting on Thursday, May 12th.

Members Present: Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Helena Grey, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jacqueline Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Pam Mulready, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Michele Rousseau.

Guests Present: John Bell, Steven Grey, Suzanne O’Connell, Jimmy Ortiz.

The Sergeant-at-Arms, Ramesh, opened the meeting and turned it over to club President, Charnaie. Charnaie announced that with Murali’s completing his CC, the club now has 10 points in the Distinguished Club Program and has achieved Presidents Distinguished status for the 6th year running.

Officer elections for the next Toastmaster year (starting in July) will be held at our next meeting, on May 26th. The officers will be inducted at the June 9th meeting and will begin one-year terms in July. Cheryl announced the nominees so far:

President – Kay Jeyapalan
VP Education – Murali Pemmaraju
VP Membership – Ramesh Padavala
VP Public Relations – Jennifer Cimilluca
Secretary – Rob Schaff
Treasurer – John Keppler
Sergeant at Arms – Jonathan Herron

Nominations are still open – anyone interested in running for an office can email Cheryl, and nominations will be taken from the floor on May 26th.

Because the meeting room at Middlesex Community College is not available for our meetings in July and August, we will be using alternate locations (still to be determined).

The Middlesex County Toastmasters club will be celebrating its 20th anniversary during the month of June. On Sunday, June 5th, we will have a special event – a teleseminar featuring Lenny Laskowski, a Distinguished Toastmaster and professional speaker. You can participate in this one-hour event from your own home by dialing in to a conference call. You are invited to submit your questions ahead of time to Charnaie or Kay to ask this dynamic speaker your questions on public speaking and leadership. Our 20th anniversary celebration will be held at our June 23rd meeting.

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Ramesh.

Our Wordmaster was Jackie, who challenged us to use the word “galvanize” (to shock or arouse into action).

Pam was our Invocator, and shared an observation from her day – when people get talking, they find they have much more in common than they thought possible.

Sally was our Table Topics Master, and gave our guests Suzanne, Steven, and Jimmy spring-themed questions to answer.

We had five prepared speeches:

Charnaie gave a speech from the Specialty Speeches Manual (Project: Sell a Product). Her speech, “The Magic Pimple Potion”, was evaluated by Kay.

Pam’s speech, “Let’s Get Crafty” was for Project #8 in the Competent Communicator manual (Objective: Get Comfortable with Visual Aids). Cheryl evaluated Pam’s speech.

Jacqueline’s speech, “How to Tap into More of Your Brain’s Power” was Project #7 in the CC Manual (Objective: Research Your Topic”). Her speech was evaluated by Michael O’Brien.

Jen presented the third project in the Storytelling Manual (The Moral of the Story). Her speech, “Jim’s Perfect Evening”, was evaluated by Anne-Marie.

Cheryl presented speech #2 in the CC Manual (Objective: Organize Your Speech). “The New Guy” was evaluated by Michael Nicastre.

Our General Evaluator was Murali, assisted by the Timer (John), Grammarian (Charnaie), and Ah Counter (Jonathan).

Murali commented that the meeting started right on time, and ran smoothly. He gave a special thank you to Sally for volunteering to be Table Topics Master at the last minute, and noted that she gave a number of our guests a chance to speak. He commented that each evaluator did an excellent job, and that our Toastmaster, Ramesh, did a great job of managing our time in a very busy meeting (in his first time in the Toastmaster role).

Charnaie took the reins of the meeting back, and asked the guests for comments.

John – every meeting is interesting, thoroughly enjoyed it
Suzanne – fun and fascinating
Jimmy – great!
Steven – 3rd visit, looks forward to “getting up there to give a real speech”

Kay offered the role sign up sheet for the next three meetings, and announced that the duty roster on the club’s website would be opening up for July and August. She presented Jacqueline with a “Half CC” certificate signed by the District 53 officers.

Kay reminded us to make sure that we are updating our Completion records at the back of our manuals, and make sure they’re completely filled out before turning into the VP Education for submission to Toastmasters International.

The meeting was adjourned shortly before 9pm.

Please advise any errors or omissions. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club