Open House Notes, March 24

The Middlesex County Toastmasters’ Open House was enjoyed by 26 members and guests on March 24th, featuring special guest Ruby Parker and her workshop, Holistic Evaluations.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Brian Burness, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Charnaie Gordon, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, John Keppler, Jackie Kirwan, Cheryl Mason, Michael O’Brien, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff, Arun Sodani.

Guests Present: John Bell, Marsha Kiley (District 53 Immediate Past Governor), Richard Peck (District 53 Lt. Governor Education& Training), Bettyann Peck, Janki Nambi, Louis Nivet (President, Cromwell Community Toastmasters), Maryanne Shirshac.

Special Guest Speaker: Ruby Parker, Area A4 Governor

The meeting was opened at 7pm by our Sergeant-at-Arms, Ramesh. He turned the meeting over to club President Charnaie for the business meeting. She welcomed our guests and updated Middlesex’s progress in the Distinguished Club Program (9 points out of a possible ten, for President’s Distinguished Club status six years running).

The Area C5 International and Tall Tales Contests will be held on Sunday, April 3rd, hosted by Middlesex County Toastmasters. The contests will be held at the Village of South Farms, 645 Saybrook Road, from 6:30-9pm. A $5 donation is requested for refreshments.

On April 14th, the regular club meeting will be held at the Village of South Farms, instead of Middlesex Community College.

On April 28th, we will have a guest speaker, Walter Breveridge, giving his workshop, “How to Write a Speech in 15 Minutes”, and some speakers will do just that, using the skills taught in the evening’s workshop.

The Toastmaster, Jackie, ably guided us through a packed agenda.

Our Word of the Day, “obdurate” was presented by Siva. The word means, “hardened against feeling, not giving in to persuasion.”

Our Invocator, Kay, spoke about the power of turning a minus into a plus. She shared the story of Thelma Thompson, who turned a miserable time in the sands of the Mojave desert into the best time of her life by changing her attitude. Her situation did not change but her attitude did, and her life was transformed.

Our humorist, Murugan, both made us laugh and inspired us, telling us a true story about a CEO who had a very clever way of choosing his successor, a seed with no harvest: “If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.”

The evening’s technicians introduced their roles: Cheryl as Timer, Charnaie as Grammarian, and Anne-Marie as Ah-Counter.

Table Topics were led by Jonathan, who did a great job in his first time in the role. His “One Up, One Down” topics asked the speakers to state one thing they like, and one thing they would change, on whatever topic they were given to speak on.

Ramesh spoke about the world he lives in; Michael about the place that he works; Tom, the country he lives in; Maryanne, the state she lives in; and Janki, the country she lives in. (Disliking taxes seemed to be a common theme!)

Ruby Parker, Advanced TM Gold/CL, presented “The Holistic Approach to Evaluations”, which offered excellent suggestions and a checklist (attached) to prepare and present the evaluation speech, and give feedback to the speaker following the meeting.

Among her many suggestions:
* Talk to the speaker before the speech
* Focus – there is only limited time to evaluate the speech
* Share your notes with the speaker afterwards to discuss the speech
* Solicit feedback on your evaluation

We had two prepared speeches:

Brian presented his Icebreaker, “A Little Bit About Me”, evaluated by Michael O’Brien.

Rob earned another Competent Communicator award with his speech, “Vitamins, Aspirin, and Toastmasters”. His speech was evaluated by Murugan.

Following the evaluations, Ruby came back to do a mini workshop on evaluating the evaluators, which was the perfect capstone to her earlier presentation.

Arun was our General Evaluator, with assistance from technicians Siva (Wordmaster) Anne-Marie (Ah Counter), Charnaie (Grammarian), and Cheryl (Timer). He gave well-deserved praise to Ramesh, Charnaie, Kay, Jackie, and all who put so much preparation into the Open House meeting. He turned the meeting back to the toastmaster, Jackie, who gave her thanks to all who signed up for meeting roles.

Charnaie asked for comments from our guests:

Marsha: “fantastic, energetic, smiles galore”
John: “enjoyed it, felt welcome”
Richard: “first time here, Cheryl doesn’t blow smoke when she’s describing this club”
Janki: “encouraging, welcoming”
Maryanne: “supportive, makes me feel like I want to continue”
Louis: “welcoming"
Ruby: “a great club, honored to be here, a wonderful experience”

She then presented a certificate of appreciation for Ruby for her excellent presentation. Kay presented Brian with “Icebreaker” candies in honor of his Icebreaker speech.

The meeting concluded at 9:00pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Middlesex Open House, March 24, 2011

We had a great turn-out for our Open House. Thanks to Ruby Parker for her excellent presentation on evaluations.

Meeting Notes - February 24

Twenty members and guests enjoyed a workshop with the Sea-Tea Improv troupe, plus a fun club meeting, on Thursday, February 24th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jennifer Cimilluca, Siva Digavalli, Margarita Giraldo, Charnaie Gordon, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, Jackie Kirwan, Yolanda Lowe, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Rob Schaff, Arun Sodani.

Guests Present: Mallika Digavalli, Kevin Finn (Cedar Hill Toastmasters), Abhijit Mhetre (Nathan Hale Toastmasters), Michele Rousseau (Michele joined the club after the meeting).

The meeting was opened at 7pm by our Sergeant-at-Arms, Ramesh. He turned the meeting over to Greg, Julia, and Dan from the Sea-Tea Improv troupe, who used a series of games to teach us and let us practice the “rules” of improv: “Make your partner look good”; “Yes, and…” (Listen, acknowledge, and add to whatever information you are given); “Make honest choices” (Don’t overthink and edit yourself”).

We learned and practicing thinking on our feet with compound word games, three line scenes, creating continuous stories, and more. The hour flew by, but there are plenty of opportunities to see Sea Tea in action (see seateaimprov.com for more information).

Following the workshop, the regular club meeting began.

Our Word of the Day was presented by Charnaie: “persnickety”, meaning over particular, fussy, snobbish, requiring painstaking care.

Our Invocator, Jonathan, shared three ideas from Steven Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”: Habit 1: Be Proactive--Taking responsibility for your choices and the consequences of them. Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind--Figure out what's important to you and pursue that. Whatever you can conceive and believe, you can achieve. Habit 3: Put First Things First--Prioritize. Do what must be done before why you want to do.

We had two prepared speeches:

Kay also used examples from Steven Covey’s book in her speech, “The Law of Subtleness of Mind”. Her speech was #5 from the Speaking to Inform Manual (The Abstract Concept), and was evaluated by Rob.

Kevin Finn presented Speech #4 from the Storytelling Manual (The Touching Story). His speech, “And The Winner is Dave” was at times humorous, and touched our hearts. Siva evaluated Kevin’s speech.

Yolanda, a first-time Table Topics Master, asked several of us to devise commercials for the products she brought, and for ourselves as potential hires for an advertising team. Michele, Jen, Jonathan, and Jackie took turns pitching Jif peanut butter, Olde Cape Cod salad dressing, jam, and chocolate covered butter cookies, and themselves.

Michael Nicastre was our General Evaluator, assisted by Sally performing the dual roles of Ah Counter and Grammarian, and our timer, Tom.

Charnaie presented Margarita with a new member pin to officially welcome her to Middlesex County Toastmasters. She also announced that Michele has joined the club.

Our club will be hosting the Area C5 contests on Sunday, April 3rd, at the Village of South Farms.

We are now a “President’s Distinguished Club” with nine points in the Distinguished Club Program – the first club in the district to earn that distinction!

The meeting closed promptly at 9:00pm.
Please advise any errors or omissions. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Middlesex County Toastmasters Strike a Fun Filled Afternoon

The 2nd annual Middlesex Winter Bowling Outing was held on Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. The event was attended by 12 adventurous Toastmasters, friends, and family members.

The event was held at Bowl-O-Rama on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington, with the following attendees: Tom Alvord, daughter Amy and son Jeff, Cheryl Mason and husband Phil, Murali Pemmaraju, wife Saratha, and friend Pushkar, Kay Jeyapalan, Jackie Kirwan, Charnaie Gordon and husband Barry.

Bowl-O-Rama is quite a busy place on a Saturday afternoon! With advance reservations in place (thanks to Kay), we had a very comfortable area to ourselves. We set up in 3 bowling lanes together which accommodated 4 bowlers in each lane.

The excitement and surprise of strikes, spares, and reluctant pins falling like dominos was quite exhilarating. We cheered each other on as we completed two fun filled games.

High scorers for the first game: Tom 144, Jeff 134, & Phil 127
High scorers for the second game: Phil 156, Jeff, 154, Tom 140
Most improved in second game: Murali 126

The event concluded at 3:00 p.m. Thanks to everyone that participated in this fun filled afternoon, and especially to Kay for organizing the event!

Meeting Notes, Feb-10, 2011

The Middlesex County Toastmasters Club met on Thursday, February 10^th.

Members Present: Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Jonathan Herron, Kay Jeyapalan, Jackie Kirwan, Yolanda Lowe, Cheryl Mason, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Kim Price, Rob Schaff.

Guests Present: Helena Grey, Margarita Giraldo (Margarita joined the club after the meeting).

Business Meeting: Charnaie welcomed our guests, then reminded us that the Sea Tea Improv troupe will be at our next meeting (February 24^th) to put on a workshop from 7-8pm (followed by an abbreviated club meeting from 8-9pm). $5 per person is requested to cover the cost of the workshop and refreshments, and registration is limited to 40 people. (You can RSVP to info@middlesex.freetoasthost.com).

Kay updated us on the following events: the club’s Bowling Outing will on Saturday, February 26^th, from 1-3 at the Bowl-O-Rama, 2131 Berlin Turnpike, Newington. Please RSVP by Tuesday (Feb 15^th) to Kay.

The spring contests (International and Tall Tales) will be held on March 10^th. Jackie will be the contest chair. Anyone wishing to be a contestant should see Jackie or Kay. In addition, the roles of chief judge, judges, timers, and ballot counters are still open.

Charnie updated us the club’s Distinguished Club Program. Middlesex has eight points, though would have nine points by the end of the night after Charnaie’s speech (and earn President’s Distinguished Club status).

Kay was our Toastmaster for the evening.

Meeting:

Jackie presented the Invocation, relating fitness expert Tony Horton’s words to our Toastmasters experience – “Remember to Breathe” (relax, focus, and keep poised); “Do your Best and Forget the Rest (clear your mind of any negative self chatter”) and “Keep Pushing Play” (if it doesn’t go the way you’d like, you can always try again).

Cheryl was our Humorist, telling a very funny joke about four brothers and gifts (to their mother) gone bad.

Apropos for Valentine’s Day, our Wordmaster, Jonathan, gave us the word “Passion” to use in our Table Topics, prepared speeches, and evaluations -- strong feelings (rage, anger, love) – and gave us a poem about passion.

Sally was our Table Topics Master, and used raffle tickets to choose members for her Valentine’s Day-themed questions. Answering her questions (and receiving Valentine’s Day candy) were Yolanda (answering about a romantic dinner), Charnaie (a romantic date), Kim (a romantic purchase), Murali (a romantic book), Jen (a romantic movie), and Kay (a romantic vacation).

There were four prepared speeches:

Michael O’Brien presented speech #9 from the Competent Communicator Manual (objective: Persuade with Power). His speech, entitled, “Ruddy Apple, Ruddy Cheek”, persuaded us to pursue healthier eating habits (centered around the apple) and was evaluated by Kim.

Rob also presented speech #9 from the CC manual. His speech, “Speech Contests” gave the benefits he found in participating in the fall speech contests, and persuaded us to do the same. His speech was evaluated by Michael Nicastre.

Charnaie spoke from the Better Speaker Series on “Selecting Your Topic.” After her speech (which was evaluated by Rob) we will have a much easier time in finding speech topics -- what we know, what we have a passion for, and what our audience cares about.

Our last speech was given by Kim Price. “Governor, Please” used three examples of poor communication styles (and the negative consequences) to illustrate how important good communications skills are. His speech was evaluated by Cheryl.

Our technicians were Yolanda (Timer), Murali (Grammarian), and Jen (Ah-Counter).

Ramesh was our General Evaluator, and he noted that Jackie in her invocation set the bar higher (as she does with every role she takes on). He led an extra round of applause for Sally and her excellent Table Topics – they were Valentine-themed, loads of fun, with candy gifts for those who participated. He lauded those who stepped in to roles at the last minute but noted how unfortunate it was that that was necessary. Ramesh reminded us to please sign up for roles ahead of the meeting time, before turning the meeting back over to Kay.

Kay closed the meeting with two inspirational quotes that she thought summed up our Toastmasters club and members – “Some people want it to happen, Some wish it to happen, some make it happen”, and “Teamwork allows common people to do uncommon things.”

She gave Jonathan Icebreaker candies, in recognition of his icebreaker speech at the January 27^th meeting, noting that he gave his icebreaker in just his first meeting after joining the club.

Charnaie gaveled the meeting closed just before 9pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary, Middlesex County Toastmasters Club

Meeting Notes, January 27

Despite a snowy start to the day, the Middlesex County Toastmasters Club met on Thursday, January 27^th.

Members Present: Tom Alvord, Jennifer Cimilluca, Charnaie Gordon, Jonathan Herron, Jackie Kirwan, Michael Nicastre, Sally Nicastre, Michael O’Brien, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Rob Schaff.

Guests Present: Michele Rousseau, Genevieve Marai.

Business Meeting: Charnaie welcomed our guests, Michele and Genevieve, and updated us on the Distinguished Club Program. Middlesex earned another point after last Monday’s officer training, bringing us to eight points for the year so far (out of a possible ten).

Charnaie announced that the Sea Tea Improv troupe would be coming to our February 24^th meeting to put on a workshop from 7-8pm (followed by a club meeting from 8-9pm). $5 per person is requested to cover the cost of the workshop and refreshments, and registration is limited to 40 people. (You can RSVP to info@middlesex.freetoast.com).

Charnaie welcomed our newest member, Jonathan, and presented him with a new member pin.

Meeting: Our Toastmaster for the evening was Charnaie.

Rob presented the invocation, reflecting on the quote “Your audience does not require your perfection; they seek only your authenticity.”

Our Wordmaster was Charnaie, who challenged us to use the word “thwart” (to frustrate or prevent) in our Table Topics and speeches.

Our Humorist was Tom, who sang us a humorous (and touching song) about a young lady and the love of her life, a logger.

In another of her multiple roles, Charnaie was our Table Topics master. She provided conversation cards with questions for Rob, Ramesh, Michael O’Brien, and our guest Genevieve to read and answer.

There were four prepared speeches:

Jonathan presented his Icebreaker, “Let’s Go Fishing”, in which he used the acronym “FISH” to introduce us to important areas of his life. Ramesh evaluated his speech. (It should be noted that Jonathan joined the club on January 13^th, received his Toastmasters manuals on the 26^th, and gave his Icebreaker on the 27^th—and was our Ah Counter that same night. What a great start to his Toastmasters journey!)

Sally and Michael Nicastre treated us to a pair of speeches, “Home Sweet Home” and “Home Sweat Home,” a wonderful “hers and his” view of the homes they have shared in their married lives. Rob evaluated Sally’s speech, and Murali evaluated Michael’s.

Jen presented an interpretive reading of a story, excerpted from Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods.” Her speech was evaluated by Tom.

Michael O’Brien was our General Evaluator, assisted by Jackie serving the dual roles of Timer and Grammarian, and Jonathan, who was our Ah Counter as noted earlier. Michael noted that while the meeting started just a bit late, people were willing to step up and take on multiple roles (as they usually are). He commented how interesting it was to see a team speech done by Sally and Michael, since it’s not something that we see often. He then turned the meeting back to Charnaie.

Charnaie asked the guests, Genevieve and Michele, for their comments about the meeting. Genevieve said it was informative, and that she thought she’d be back. Michele said that she would be coming back. She thought the feedback the speakers received was great.

With the meeting proper ending early, Charnaie asked for comments and suggestions from the members present. Jackie suggested putting meeting role descriptions, agenda templates, and forms on the club website. Tom commented on the importance and value of the mentoring program. Murali was hoping for an update on the proposed bowling outing.

The meeting concluded at approximately 8:50 pm. Please advise any errors or omissions in these meeting notes. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Cimilluca, Secretary