Notes from Dist 53 Conference

The District 53 Fall Conference was held on Saturday, November 19, at the Heritage Hotel in Southbury, CT. Our Middlesex County Toastmasters club was well-represented. Ten of our members attended the conference, and they were very involved - helping to organize the conference, introduce the guest speakers, and serving as judges for the speech contests. This is an outstanding turn-out from our club.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, Jacqueline Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Michael O'Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, and Rob Schaff.

The conference featured a keynote address from Rory Vaden, the runner-up in the 2007 International Speech Contest. There were outstanding educational sessions, two excellent speech contests, and lots of opportunities for networking and socializing.

Table-Topics Contest Results:

1. Christy Minshall
2. Malcolm Dickinson
3. Richard Frantz Jr (Division C) 

Humorous Speech Contest Results:

1. Pratik Joshi
2. Gregor Wynnyczuk
3. Henry Greene

The District Conference is a great way to renew your motivation, network with members for our club, and meet new friends from the other clubs in the District. The next district conference will be held on May 19, 2012, in East Hartford, CT. You can learn more about the Spring conference and register online at the District 53 website: http://www.district53toastmasters.org/

Our next club meeting will be on December 8, and this will be a special "Movie Night" meeting. Hope to see you all there!

Respectfully submitted,

Rob

Meeting Notes - November 17

The Middlesex County Toastmasters met on Thursday, November 17, at Middlesex Community College. Fifteen members were in attendence.

Jennifer Cimilluca was our Toastmaster. Murali Pemmaraju provided the invocation and a humorous joke. Tom Alvord was the General Evaluator, and was supported by Rob Schaff (Ah-counter), Emily O'Brien (Grammarian), and Chris Sullivan (Timer). Chris also read the Word of the Day ("burgeon", to grow or develop quickly).

Ramesh Padavala was the Table-Topics Master. Ramesh got many members involved with questions around the theme of Thanksgiving.

Prepared speeches:

• Jonathon Herron presented his speech, "Children at Risk, How One Couple Decided to Help," and won favor with the audience by distributing Hershey Kisses before his speech. The speech was evaluated by Judy Thompson.

• Helena Grey presented "To Crush a Crash", a research-based speech on the proper way to handle many dangerous driving situations. Her speech was evaluated by Kay Jeyapalan.

• Jay Broderick presented speech #3 from the Competent Communcator manual, "Introduction to Occupational Fraud for Small Businesses". His speech was evaluated by Michael O'Brien.

Our next meeting will be on December 8, and this will be a special "Movie Night" meeting. Hope to see you all there!

Members Present:

Tom Alvord, Jay Broderick, Jennifer Cimilluca, Helena Grey, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Monica Lozano, Emily O'Brien, Michael O'Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Rob Schaff, Chris Sullivan, and Judy Thompson.

Meeting Notes - November 10

The Middlesex County Toastmasters heard special guest speaker Leslie Karen Hammond present “Evaluate to Stimulate” when they last met on Thursday, November 10, 2011. We had another treat in hearing Division C Governor Sharon Roth give a speech as well.


Members Present: Tom Alvord, John Bell, Jay Broderick, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Emily O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Arun Sodani, Chris Sullivan, Judy Thompson.

Guests Present: Michael Aron, Doug Compton, Leslie Karen Hammond, Sharon Roth.

Business Meeting:

Our president, Kay, announced that our next two meetings will be on November 17th and December 8th (a “Movie Night”, organized by Emily).

Our Vice President Education, Murali, reminded us that the District 53 Fall Conference will be held on Saturday, November 19th in Southbury, CT. More information can be found at http://tinyurl.com/D53Conference.

On January 18th, we will having a speech-a-thon with the Wallingford Eagles Toastmasters club (location TBD). Four speakers from each club will participate.

Murali announced that Pam Mulready, after two years of guiding our mentoring program, has had to step down because of increased work commitments. Anyone interested in leading the mentoring program should contact Murali.

Kay was our Toastmaster, aided by the Wordmaster, Murali (“gingerly”, meaning cautiously, carefully); the Ah-Counter, Charnaie; the Ha-Counter, Michael Nicastre (in the role’s debut at Middlesex); the Grammarian, Chris; the Timer, Judy; and the General Evaluator, Ramesh.

Charnaie was our Invocator, and Tom was the Humorist. During Table Topics, Emily asked questions about motivational topics to Kim, Arun, Jay, Murali, Cheryl, John Bell, John Keppler, Sally, Anne-Marie, and our guests Michael Aron and Doug Compton.

Keynote Speech:

Leslie Karen Hammond presented “Evaluate to Stimulate”, which talked about the importance of evaluations, inside and outside of Toastmasters. In a lively and engaging speech, we were reminded that evaluations can change lives, giving evaluations is a privilege, and evaluations can help us learn about ourselves.

Prepared speeches:

• Our guest, Sharon Roth, presented “The Wonder Drug”, CC#7 (Objective: Research Your Topic). Her speech was evaluated by Michael O’Brien.
• Jen presented Project #4 in the Interpretive Reading Advanced Manual (The Play). “Driving Miss Daisy” was evaluated by Tom.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Kay presented “thank you” gifts from the club to Michael Aron (who delighted us with a speech while visiting our club on September 8th) and to Leslie Hammond, for her wonderful speech that night. She also thanked everyone who brought refreshments for the club to enjoy.

Tom asked those members attending the District 53 Fall Conference on November 19th to consider volunteering at the educational sessions. Each of the seven sessions requires a room monitor and a timer. Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Tom.

Our next meeting will be on November 17, at Middlesex Community College.

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Cimilluca

Good article in WSJ

Middlesex member Arun Sodani provided this link to a good article about Toastmasters in the Wall Street Journal.

Check it out!

Meeting Notes - October 27

Thirteen Middlesex County Toastmasters and one guest braved the elements to meet on Thursday, October 27, at Middlesex Community College. The conditions were slippery, but the speeches were excellent.

Ramesh Padavala was our Toastmaster. Our functionaries for this meeting included Emily O'Brien (General Evaluator), Jonathan Herron (Ah-counter), Helena Grey (Grammarian), and Michael O'Brien (Timer). Steven Grey provided the Word of the Day, and Kay Jeyapalan was our Table-Topics Master.

Prepared speeches:

- Helena Grey focused on Vocal Variety with her speech, "The Sociology of Cultures." Her speech was evaluated by Rob Schaff.

- Jennifer Cimilluca brought history to life with her narrative of the day President Reagan was shot, "Rawhide Down - March 30, 1981." Her speech was evaluated by Emily O'Brien.

- Rob Schaff provided a spooky Halloween story, "The Monkey's Paw," evaluated by Jonathan Herron.

- Jacqueline Kirwan presented a poem, working from the Interpretative Reading manual, "The Six Goodbyes of the Eightfold Path." Her speech was evaluated by Jennifer Cimilluca.

With a smaller attendance, a number of people pulled double-duty to make this meeting come together. The result was a well-organized meeting where everyone had lots of chances to participate.

Members Present:

John Bell, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Helena Grey, Steven Grey, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, Jacqueline Kirwan, Emily O'Brien, Michael O'Brien, Ramesh Padavala, and Rob Schaff.

Guests Present: Monica Lozano