Meeting, Thursday, April 22, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340



Members present: Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Lawrence Gore, Kay Jeyapalan, Jonathan Martin, Cheryl Mason, Erin Mulhern, Deb Nason, Emily O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Pete Plotica, Eric Roise, and Rob Schaff.

Guest: Siva Digavalli

Our Sergeant-at-Arms, Peter Plotica called the meeting to order with a Pledge of Allegiance.

President Cheryl Mason started the meeting with the announcement of Tom Alvord and Charnaie Gordon competing in the Division C Contest held on April 20, 2010 in Marlborough, CT, and CONGRATULATING both participants

Cheryl presented Charnaie with flowers for winning the second place in the International Contest.

Cheryl brought a homemade cake (so delicious!) and other refreshments to celebrate Tom’s and Charnaie’s participation in the Division C contest and Charnaie’s accomplishment of winning the second place. A “GREAT BIG THANKS” to Cheryl.


Our Toastmaster for the evening was Anne-Marie Cannata. This was her first time being the Toastmaster of the club and she did an excellent job with a touch of humor.


Charnaie Gordon was the Table Topics Master with a theme fitting the anniversary of Earth Day. She read the topics first and asked the audience to volunteer. Deborah, Ramesh, Emily, Jen, Siva (our guest), Pete and Kim took the challenge and did a great job of impromptu speaking.

Speeches
Five wonderful speeches were given as follows:

#1 – Erin Mulhern, “Ice Breaker” evaluated by Rob Schaff.
#2 – Jonathan Martin, “Ice Breaker” evaluated by Charnaie Gordon.
#3 – Lawrence Gore, “Ice Breaker” evaluated by Deborah Nason.
#4 – Murali Krishna Pemmaraju, Speech # 5 of CC, “Climbing up to the Crown of Statue of Liberty” evaluated by Kay Jeyapalan.
#5 – Rob Schaff, Speech # 3 of CC (second round), “Toastmasters Club Officers” evaluated by Ann-Marie Cannata.


All the speeches and evaluations were fabulous. The speeches were either informative or informative and humorous. Our Past President, Rob Schaff, did a great job of educating everyone about the roles each officer plays and pepped up all to volunteer for next year.

Murali has now completed five speeches in the Competent Communications Manual to be entitled for his half CC certificate.


Our General Evaluator for the night was Tom Alvord.

Other Roles:
Invocation: Ramesh Padavala
Humorist: Eric Roise
Word Master: Peter Plotica. Word of the Day, “Wastrel” (it is a noun) idler, good for nothing, or spendthrift
Grammarian: Erin Mulhern
Ah-counter: Deborah Nason
Timer: Pete Plotica

Charnaie Gordon, VPE, recognized Erin, Jonathan, and Lawrence for breaking the ice by presenting the mints.

Other announcements:

· 5/13 - Our next meeting will be held at MXCC, Room 630
· 5/27 - Election of Officers for the upcoming year
· 6/10 - Regular Meeting
· 6/24 - Last meeting of the Toastmaster Year 2009-2010
· 5/2 - Jennifer announced that the Food share 27th Annual Walk will go on in spite of the fact that she will not be able to attend
Contributions can be made online www.foodshare.org
· 6/2 - Charnaie announced that the picnic will be at the Wadsworth Park, more details to follow
· 5/22 - District 53 Spring Conference, International & Tall Tales Contest, St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield

Anne-Marie asked our guest, Siva, to speak of his opinion about our club. Siva said that this is the best club of all the ones he has attended to date and his scouting search is over.

Anne-Marie Cannata thanked all who stepped up at the last minute to fill in the roles: Eric, Ramesh, Charnaie, Deborah, Pete, Tom, and Kay.
She ended the meeting at 8:55 p.m.

Great job Anne-Marie with all the 11th minute changes.

Kay Jeyapalan, VPPR

Area C5 Contest Report

Middlesex County hosted the Area C5 Speech contest on April 8. We had a great turnout, with 28 people in attendance, including representatives from all 5 area clubs. Division C Governor Nathan Jaycox and District 53 Photographer Don Logie were among the guests.

Special thanks to:
- Kay Jeyapalan, Contest Master
- Michael O'Brien, Chief Judge

Here are the results:

Tall Tales Contest
1st - Joseph M. Katucki, Eagle Toastmasters
2nd - Tom Alvord, Middlesex County Toastmasters
3rd - Dave Foster, Cheshire Toastmasters

International Contest
1st - Charnaie Gordon, Middlesex County Toastmasters
2nd - Andy Cravalho, Holy Apostles Toastmasters
3rd - Udaya B. Neelam, Eagle Toastmasters

Also competing, Sharon Roth (Cheshire) and Joe Lenart (Cromwell).

The winners from last night's contest will be competing at the Division C contest:

Tuesday, April 20, 7-9 PM
Fellowship Community Church
24 South Road, Marlborough, CT

April 01, 2010 (Extra Meeting held at The Village of South Farms)
Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340

Members present: Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Charnaie Gordon, Lawrence Gore, Kay Jeyapalan, Cheryl Mason, Pam Mulready, Deb Nason, Sally Nicastre, Dianne Olsen, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, and Arun Sodani.

Other Guests: Don Logie (District 53 Photographer) and Mike Nicastre (Sally’s husband).

President Cheryl Mason started the meeting with business by giving 2 of our newest members their Toastmasters pins. Congratulations to Lawrence Gore and Sally Nicastre!
Other news:
· 3/26 – Charnaie Gordon has completed her Competent Leadership Manual!
· 3/30 – Kay Jeyapalan has completed her Competent Communicator Manual!
· 4/01 - Our Club has already reached all 10 of the 10 goals required (and beyond) for Distinguished Club Status 1st! What an outstanding Club we have under the direction of these great leaders: Cheryl, Charnaie and Kay!

Toastmaster Tom Alvord was a terrific host for the evening.

Dianne Olsen was Table Topics Master with a theme fitting for April Fool’s Day. Participants were asked to respond to a quote about a fool or a joke. Taking a try with their wit were: Arun, Pam, Don (guest), Murali, Ramesh, Lawrence and Sally.

Speeches
Four superb speeches were given as follows:
#1 – Deb Nason, Research, “The Sleeping Giant Wakes Up”
#2 – Pam Mulready, Your Body Speaks, “Moving”
#3 – Anne-Marie Cannata, Entertaining Tale, “The 3 Menehune of Ainahou”
#4 – Cheryl Mason, Storytelling Advanced, “A Folktale from India”

Evaluators
General Evaluator: Kay Jeyapalan
Evaluators:
Anne-Marie Cannata for Deb’s speech #1
Deb Nason for Pam’s speech #2
Charnaie Gordon for Anne-Marie’s speech #3
Don Logie for Cheryl’s speech #4
There was a noticeable difference in the progress of our evaluators after our “coaching” by Jerry Aiyathurai at our last meeting. Terrific job by all!

Other Roles:
Invocation: Charnaie Gordon
Humorist: Anne-Marie Cannata
Word Master: Anne-Marie, “grok”, to intuitively understand or understand profoundly
Grammarian: Murali Pemmaraju
Ah-counter: Kay Jeyapalan
Timer: Ramesh Padavala

Other announcements:
· 4/8 - Our next meeting will be held at MXCC, we are hosting the Area C5 International & Tall Tales Contests
· 4/20 Division C International & Tall Tales Contest, 7-9 p.m., Fellowship Community Church, 24 South Road, Marlborough
· 5/2 – Foodshare 27th Annual Walk, Jen Cimilluca is forming a team of our Toastmasters, see Jen for more details
· 5/22 – District 53 Spring Conference, International & Tall Tales Contest, St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield


Respectfully,
Dianne Olsen, SecretaryMiddlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting, Thursday, March 11, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


Last night we held our International & Tall Tales Speech Contest. If you missed the meeting – you missed a fun time!

Members present: Amy Alvord, Tom Alvord, Jen Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Deb Nason, Ramesh Padavala, Emily O’Brien, Mike O’Brien, Dianne Olsen, Murali Pemmaraju, Michael Perlman, Pete Plotica, Rob Schaff, and Arun Sodani. Guests: Barrington Gordon (Charnaie’s husband), Jonathan Martin, Frances Ocansey (Charnaie’s mother-in-law), and Eric Roise.

Jonathan Martin and Eric Roise joined our Club tonight! Welcome Eric and Jonathan!

President Cheryl Mason began the meeting with business. She gave out awards to Dianne Olsen and Rob Schaff. Dianne earned the Competent Communicator (CC) award and Rob earned the Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) which is quite an achievement. Congratulations Dianne and Rob!

Other business:
· Our Club is in the top 10 in our District for meeting educational goals!
· March 25, Open House, with special guest Jerry Aiyathurai
· April 1, extra meeting, held at The Village at South Farms
· April 8, Area C5 Spring Speech Contest, hosted by our club; also participating will be Cheshire, Cromwell Community, Holy Apostles, and Wallingford Clubs
· If you have not already done so, please submit your dues to John Keppler before April 1 for the six-month renewal

Cheryl was the Contest Master and “expertly” led the speeches.
International Speeches:
Winner – Charnaie Gordon, “Mama Dot”
2nd Place – Mike O’Brien, “Attitudes of Gratitude”
3rd Place – Jen Cimilluca, “When Molasses Ran Fast in January”

Tall Tales
Winner – Tom Alvord

Congratulations to all our contestants! We heard 4 superb speeches. Our best goes out to our winners, Charnaie and Tom as they compete in the Area C5 Spring Contest! In the event that Charnaie would not be able to give her speech, Mike will then compete.

Area Governor, Rob Schaff was the Chief Judge. He did an excellent job explaining all the briefings, rules and results.
Kay Jeyapalan was the Contest Chair who put this meeting all together. Kay did an “outstanding job planning.”

Other roles:
Sargent at Arms: Pete Plotica
Judges: Dianne, John, Murali, and Ramesh
Timers: Deb and Mike
Ballot Counters: Emily and Pete

Thank you to all for your participation in tonight’s Speech Contest. Also, thanks to everyone who brought refreshments – they were very enjoyable!

Jen made an announcement that she is putting together a team of Toastmasters for a Walk Against Hunger to be held on May 2 in Hartford. She is also looking for a savvy name for our team, so if you have any suggestions and/or would like to walk, send her an email.

Comments by visitors:
Barrington “…well thought out, done, and executed…”
Eric (now a member) “…very interesting… great variety…”
Frances “interesting…learned a lot…”
Jonathan (now a member) “…really exciting…enjoyed the stories…”

Respectfully,
Dianne Olsen, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting, Thursday, February 25, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


We held our last meeting on February 25, 2010 with 14 members and 3 guests! Members present: Amy Alvord, Tom Alvord, Ann-Marie Cannata, Jen Cimilluca, Kay Jeyapalan, Cheryl Mason, Emily O’Brien, Mike O’Brien, Dianne Olsen, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, and Arun Sodani. Guests: Jay Broderick, Erin Mulhern, and Eric Roise.

President Cheryl Mason presented the business:
· Upcoming District Events:
o Spring Contests – Tall Tales & International
o Saturday, May 22, 2010, St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, CT
· Upcoming Club Events
o March 11, 2010 - Club Speech Contest – Tall Tales & International
o March 25, 2010 - Open House with Guest Speaker Jerry Aiyathurai
o April 1, 2010 – Extra Meeting – Village at South Farms
o April 8, 2010 – Area C5 Contest, Middlesex Hosting

Our Toastmaster was Kay Jeyapalan. You can really see that Kay has grown by leaps and bounds!

Table Topics Master, Jen Cimilluca presented her Table Topics in pictures projected on a screen from her laptop computer. Kim commented on how different it was to speak about displayed pictures. Nice idea, Jen! Participating in Table Topics were Pete, Ann-Marie, Kim, Tom, Michael, Murali, Arun, Erin, Emily, Amy, Rob, and our guest: Jay.

It was a night for our veteran members who gave the speeches, evaluations and general evaluation!
We had 3 excellent speeches by:
Cheryl Mason, (Make Them Laugh), “The Believer”
Rob Schaff, (Organize Your Speech), “Breaking the Rules”
Ann-Mare Cannata, gave an impromptu speech, (Storyteller), “The Scott Story”

General Evaluator was Kim Price and evaluators were:
Arun Sodani for Cheryl
Ann-Marie Cannata for Rob
Tom Alvord for Ann-Marie
Other Roles:
Invocator: Michael O’Brien
Word of the Day: Murali Pemmaraju, “Sedulous”, involving great care and effort
Humorist: Michael O’Brien
Grammarian: Dianne Olsen
Ah Counter: Peter Plotica
Timer: Emily O’Brien
A terrific job done by all. One could say it was a sedulous meeting!

Comments by our guests:
Eric: “My first impression was, is this a cult?...Everybody was so outgoing…I’ll be back!”
Erin: This was her second visit and she has decided to join. She loved “all the stories…the themes seemed to relate to me!”
Jay: “The meeting was very friendly…I will be back…there was a lesson to each speech!”


The following people have signed up to bring food to the Open House on March 25th:
Murali – Chips
Kay – Cookies
Emily – Soda
Kim – Water
Tom - ?
Jen – Fruit
Dianne - ?
We need your help. If you have not already signed up, please contact Dianne and let her know what you can bring. Her address is olsend@wcsu.edu

Meeting, Thursday, February 11, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 808 D, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340


Our last meeting was held on February 10, 2010 at Middlesex Community College. It was a full house and a very exciting meeting!

Members present: Amy Alvord, Tom Alvord, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jen Cimilluca, Craig Fresher, Charnaie Gordon, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason, Pam Mulready, Deb Nason, Dianne Olsen, Kim Price, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, and Rob Schaff. Our guests were: Bob Briggs, Monica Lozano, Erin Mulhern, and Sarada Pemmaraju (Murali’s wife).

Two memorable events have recently occurred for two of our members. Kim Price had his 2nd grandchild and Ramesh had a baby girl born on Valentine’s Day! Congratulations to both of you!

President Cheryl Mason led the meeting with announcements:
· Snow cancellations: We follow the MxCC College class cancellation policy. If classes are cancelled, we will not meet. The Web site features a red bar that will appear on the home page when the determination is made to close classes. http://www.mxctc.commnet.edu/
· Amy Alvord is our newest member! Welcome Amy!
· Bowling Event: our Club recently had a bowling event and 5/6 lanes were filled! High scorers were: Tom, Jen, and Barry (Charnaie’s husband).
· Our Club has achieved 8/10 goals for the President’s Distinguished Club status
· Saturday, May 22, will be the District Spring Conference, St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, CT
· Rename the District 53 Yankee Activator Newsletter! All toastmasters are invited to submit a new title by March 31st. The winner will be awarded a $25 gift credit to the Toastmasters store and a $20 gift card to Borders Bookstore. For more info: http:www.district53toastmasters.org/index.php/district-newsletter or http:www.district53toastmasters.org/file_cabinet/YA/YA10_winter.51.46.pdf

Vice President Charnaie Gordon also had announcements:
· Congratulations to Deb Nason for receiving a district awarded certificate for completing ½ of her CC manual!
· March 11 – Club Speech Contest – International & Tall Tales – please sign up for a role!
· March 25 - Open House will be at Middlesex Community College, room 808 A&B. We will have a guest speaker, Jerry Aiyathurai, and are looking for past guests to come. If you know any that you would personally like to invite, please do so. We also need people to help out with refreshments.
· April 8th – Area C5 Contest, International & Tall Tales, hosted by Middlesex at MxCC.

Area Governor Rob Schaff was our Toastmaster for the evening. He did an excellent job, managing to fit 5 speeches in and still have Table Topics!

Table Topics Master, Pam Mulready had a variety of questions she pulled off the Internet, and prospective speakers pulled them randomly out of a bag. John, Kay, Anne-Marie, Craig, Amy, Tom, Kim, Pete, and 2 of our guests, Erin and Monica, all participated.

Five very different and wonderful speeches were given as follows:
Jennifer Cimilluca – (Persuade with Power) - The Mission of Mercy
Deborah Nason – (Vocal Variety) - Putting It Out There
Dianne Olsen – (Research Your Topic) – The Germs Lurking Around You (This was Dianne’s 10th and final speech in the CC manual!)
Murali Pemmaraju – (Get to the Point) – Global “Warming”, or is it “Cooling”?
Kay Jeyapalan –(Vocal Variety) – One Memorable Day of the Past

General Evaluator for the evening was Anne-Marie Cannata. Anne-Marie graciously volunteered for this role at the last minute and did a terrific job! Fantastic evaluations were done by the following:
For Jen: Tom Alvord
For Deb: John Keppler
For Dianne: Craig Fresher
For Murali: Charnaie Gordon
For Kay: Kim Price

Other roles:
Wordmaster: Pete Plotica – “Ubiquitous” – being or seeming to be present everywhere.
Ah-Counter: Amy Alvord
Grammarian: Pam Mulready
Timer: Cheryl Mason

At the end of the meeting, our guests were asked if they had any comments to make. They summed it up very nicely with these “ubiquitous” comments
Bob – “the meeting was interesting;”
Monica – “people learn to express themselves;”
Sarada – “it was very good, Table Topics was really nice;”
Erin – “pleasantly surprised.”