Meeting Notes - May 26

The Middlesex County Toastmasters met on Thursday, May 26th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Margarita Giraldo, Charnaie Gordon, Helena Grey, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jacqueline Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Michele Rousseau, Rob Schaff.

Guests Present: Steven Grey, Jonathan Martin, Emily O’Brien, Jimmy Ortiz, Judy Thompson.

The Sergeant-at-Arms, Ramesh, opened the meeting. The club President, Charnaie, welcomed our guests and gave a recap of the District 53 Conference, held on Saturday, May 21st. Nine members went from Middlesex, and cheered Tom on to a 3rd place at the District’s Tall Tales Contest. Other news from the Conference, provided by Charnaie and Kay – Michael O’Brien will be the Division B governor for 2011-2012; Cheryl, Charnaie, and Rob were lauded as Triple Crown winners; Charnaie will be an area governor in Division B.

In June, the Middlesex County Toastmasters club will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. On Sunday, June 5th, we will have a special event – a teleseminar featuring Lenny Laskowski, a Distinguished Toastmaster and professional speaker. This one-hour conference call could be dialed into from anywhere, just RSVP to Kay or Charnaie to get the details, and submit your questions to Lenny.

Our 20th anniversary celebration will be held at our June 23rd meeting. Kimberly M. Taylor, from the Talk of the Town Toastmasters Club in New York City, will be our keynote speaker. Kimberly will talk about how Toastmasters has changed her life, a subject she shared in the May 2011 Toastmasters magazine. John, a founding member of the club, will also be speaking, and we will have many honored guests from “way back when” returning for the anniversary.

Our Immediate Past President, Cheryl, conducted the officer elections for the next Toastmaster year (starting in July). Cheryl read the names of the candidates thus far nominated:

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

She then asked for nominations from the floor. There were none; the motion was made and seconded to accept the slate of officers, which was elected by a majority of the members present. The officers will be inducted at a meeting in June, to begin one-year terms on July 1st. District officer training will be announced soon.



Our Toastmaster for the evening was Murali, who shared some encouraging thoughts from the District 53 Conference’s International Contest. The winner’s speech urged those present to “explore your possibilities”, while the runner-up focused on “hanging onto goals” and “never giving up”.

Our Invocator, Kay, encouraged all of us to encourage and help our new members so we can all learn from one another. She reminded us that “We all bring something unique to the Toastmasters Table”.

Our Wordmaster was Tom, with the word of the day, “exculpate” (to clear from alleged fault or guilt, prove to be guiltless, to relieve of blame, to acquit.)

Jacqueline was our Table Topics Master. Instead of Faith Middleton, five Toastmasters were in the “Hot Seat”, interviewing our guests so we could all get to know them a little better. Jonathan Herron interviewed Steven, Sally interviewed Judy, Jay reintroduced us to Jonathan Martin, Tom interviewed Jimmy, and John interviewed Emily.

We had five prepared speeches:

Michele presented “The Danger of Jealousy”, Speech #2 from the Competent Communicator Manual (Objective: Organize Your Speech”). Her speech was evaluated by Jen.

Jacqueline’s speech, “The Power of Gratitude”, was Speech #6 in the Competent Communicator manual (Objective: Vocal Variety), and was evaluated by Rob.

Kay presented “Oh no! Papers are Flying Everywhere!”, which was a project from the Advanced manual, Speaking to Inform (Project Objective: The Demonstration Talk). Her speech was evaluated by Anne-Marie.

Cheryl’s speech, “Yes You Can!” was for Project #9 in the Competent Communicator Manual (Objective: Persuade with Power”), and was evaluated by Charnaie.

Our last speaker of the evening was Ramesh, whose speech, “The Pinky Challenge”, was presented for Speech #6 in the Competent Communicator manual (Objective: Vocal Variety). Ramesh’s speech was evaluated by John.

Our General Evaluator was Michael O’Brien, assisted by the Timer (Michael Nicastre), Grammarian (Michele), and Ah Counter (Helena).

Michael noted that the meeting began a couple of minutes late, but ran efficiently overall. He reminded us that guests should not sit alone (if they sit by themselves, members could move to join them). The agenda included officer elections (which Cheryl conducted very efficiently), Table Topics, five speakers, and five evaluations, and we were still on track to end on time. He thought the explanations of roles were well done for the guests’ benefit. The Table Topics were fun.

Murali, as VP Membership, reminded those present of the “Beat the Clock” Challenge – clubs who have five new members join between May 1st and June 30th will earn a ribbon for their banner. Everyone was encouraged to bring guests to upcoming meetings.

Charnaie asked the guests for comments.

Judy – felt welcome. Was confused at first but was able to follow along quickly.
Jimmy – a phenomenal experience every time. (Jimmy is joining the club).
Steven -- liked it so much he’s joining.
Jonathan – thought it was great, just as he remembered it.

Kay presented Tom with a Certificate of Appreciation for his excellent performance in the District 53 Tall Tales Contest.

Please advise any errors or omissions. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary