Meeting Notes - February 9, 2012

The Middlesex County Toastmasters met on Thursday, February 9, at Middlesex Community College. Twenty-one public speaking fans were in attendance, including 17 members and 4 wonderful guests. This meeting featured one member giving their very first speech, and one member achieving their Competent Communicator award by giving their 10th speech.

Members Present:

Patricia Alston, Tom Alvord, John Bell, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Omar El-Taliawi, Helen Evrard, Charnaie Gordon, Helena Grey, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, and Chris Sullivan.

Guest Present:

• Mary Essue, who recently moved from Florida to Connecticut

• Dave Pelland, a member of Park City Toastmasters and brother to our own Jennifer Cimilluca

• Kirti Sodani, who is married to long-time club member Arun Sodani

• Kim Toledo, a second-time visitor to our club from Middletown


At the business meeting, Club President Kay Jeyapalan recognized new members Patricia Alston and Helen Evrard with their official membership pins.

Arun Sodani was once again our Toastmaster. Charnaie Gordon provided the invocation, and Ramesh Padavala told a very humorous joke. Jonathan Herron was the General Evaluator, and was supported by Tom Alvord (Ah-counter), Helen Evrard (Grammarian), and Jennifer Cimilluca (Timer). Chris Sullivan provided the Word of the Day ("bombast", pretentious, inflated speech), and Jonathan managed to use the word twice.

Kay Jeyapalan was the Table-Topics Master, and provided a mix of group exercises and solo topics.

Prepared speeches:

• Omar El-Taliawi gave his Ice-Breaker speech, fittingly entitled "A Little About Myself." His speech was evaluated by Helena Grey.

• Rob Schaff gave a speech from the Special Occasions Manual, speaking in praise about "My Marathon Mentor." His speech was evaluated by Kim Price.

• Murali Pemmaraju gave us some insight into his speech preparation methods with a project from the Humorously Speaking advanced manual. His speech was titled, "How I Cook My Speech," and was evaluated by Tom Alvord.

• Helena Grey presented her 10th speech from the CC manual, earning the Competent Communicator award. Her moving speech was titled, "Of Men and Honor", and was evaluated by Charnaie Gordon.


The feedback from our guests shows that our club continues to make visitors feel comfortable and welcome at Middlesex. Our next meeting will be Thursday, Feb. 23. See you there!

Respectfully submitted,

Rob
Robert A. Schaff, ACS, ALB