Meeting Notes - May 5

The Middlesex County Toastmasters last met for a special “speech-a-thon” meeting on Thursday, May 5th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Margarita Giraldo, Charnaie Gordon, Helena Grey, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jacqueline Kirwan, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Arun Sodani.

Guests Present: Ute Brinkman (President, Wallingford Eagle Toastmasters) and Steven Grey.

At 7pm, the Sergeant-at-Arms, Ramesh, opened the meeting. Our club president, Charnaie announced that on May 17th, the Cromwell Community Toastmasters will be having a guest speaker. Terry Bedard, the Division B International Contest winner, will be giving the speech that she will be presenting at the District 53 Conference’s International Contest.

Officer elections for the next Toastmaster year (starting in July) will be held on May 26th. Anyone seeking a leadership role should see the Immediate Past President, Cheryl Mason, for more information.

The Middlesex County Toastmasters club will be celebrating its 20th anniversary on June 23rd. Charnaie will be announcing the keynote speaker for the evening’s commemoration in the coming weeks. Charnaie and our VPE Kay will have an announcement at the May 12th meeting about another special event at the beginning of June – details to come!

Kay announced that Charnaie has earned a “Triple Crown” by completing three educational programs in a Toastmasters year. Kay presented Charnaie with a certificate recognizing her accomplishment. Charnaie is a repeat winner, having earned this distinction last year. Middlesex’s three Triple Crown winners, Cheryl, Rob Schaff, and Charnaie, will have their names displayed along with the other Triple Crown winners at the upcoming District 53 Conference.

Charnaie was our Toastmaster, and chose “Celebrating Excellence” for the meeting theme. She read to us from Dana LaMon’s “The Excellence Book: 104 Principles for Living and Working”: Principle #2 -- Excellence demands that you do your best, not be the best”.

The Word of the Day, “aplomb”, was presented by Kay. Aplomb: complete and confident composure, poise, self-assurance

We had six prepared speeches:

Helena presented her Icebreaker, “Journey to Toasting”, evaluated by Tom.

Tom presented the speech that won him the Division C Tall Tales Contest, “Swanee River”. His speech was evaluated by everyone in a round robin evaluation. He will be giving the speech at the District 53 Tall Tales Contest on May 21st.

Siva presented speech #4 in the Competent Communicator manual (Objective, How to Say it): “Books in Running Brooks and Sermons in Stones.” His speech was evaluated by Ute.

Murali completed the Competent Communicator manual with his 10th speech (Objective: Inspire Your Audience), “My Real Life Role Model). The group evaluated his speech in a round robin.

Our guest, Ute, presented Speech #9 from the Competent Communicator manual (Persuade with Power): “Get out and Volunteer”, which was evaluated in a round robin.

John presented Speech #10 from the Competent Communicator manual (Inspire Your Audience) in a speech entitled: KISS, Uncluttering Your Mind”, which was evaluated by Anne-Marie.

Our General Evaluator was John Keppler, assisted by the Ah Counter (Murali), Grammarian (Anne-Marie), and Timer (Ramesh).

Kay presented Helena with Icebreaker candies in honor of her Icebreaker speech. Anne-Marie was also presented with a certificate of recognition for her participation in the Division C International Speech contest.

The meeting concluded shortly after 9pm.

Please advise any errors or omissions. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club