Meeting Notes, June 23 - 20th Anniversary

The Middlesex County Toastmasters met on Thursday, June 23, for a rousing 20th anniversary celebration.

We were honored to have 32 people at this meeting, 20 members and 12 guests, including 11 people that have served as Club President at some point in our 20-year history.

Our current president, Charnaie Gordon, opened the meeting with a brief re-cap of our accomplishments during this club year. She recognized the club officers with a gift for their service this year.

Cheryl Mason served as Table Topics Master, and involved many of our guests and past members with her topic questions around the themes of summer and celebration.

Our celebration included great food and fabulous raffle prizes, as well as 4 excellent prepared speeches:

• Ramesh Padavala gave an inspiration speech from the Competent Communicator manual, titled “Put the Glass Down”.

• John Keppler recounted the 20-year history of Middlesex County Toastmasters, and showed us how each individual contributes to the continued success of the club.

• Our keynote speaker, Kimberly Taylor, told us about the beginnings of Toastmasters, and how Toastmasters has changed her life with her speech, “The Toastmaster Experience”.

• Special guest Jerry Theodorou gave an inspirational and frightening speech, “Let It Go”, detailing the lives of the Collyer brothers.

Jacqueline Kirwan served as our General Evaluator. She pointed out the historical theme throughout the meeting, from a 1-year recap, to our 20-year history, and even back to the beginning of Toastmasters,

We tried to wrap up on time, but there was too much meeting to fit the 7-9 timeframe, and the raffle and gifts spilled over into the 9:00 hour.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Margarita Giraldo, Charnaie Gordon, Helena Grey, Steven Grey, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jacqueline Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Emily O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, Arun Sodani, and Judy Thompson.

Guests Present: John Bell, Ute Brinkmann, Nancy Green, Phil Mason (Happy Birthday!), Ron & Trudy Reeve, Val McLean, Sharon Roth, Jerry Theodorou, and from Talk of the Town Toastmasters: Gail Lewis, Kimberly Taylor, and Jackie Carl.