Meeting, Thursday, May 13, 2010 - Middlesex Community College, Room 630, Middletown, CT Middlesex Toastmasters Club #8340

It was an exciting meeting in our former room at the MXCC. There is no question why we had to permanently move to a bigger room – we had a full house!

Members present:, Anne-Marie Cannata, Jen Cimilluca, Craig Fresher, Charnaie Gordon, Lawrence Gore, John Keppler, Cheryl Mason (Area Governor), Pam Mulready, Deb Nason, Sally Nicastre, Dianne Olsen, Ramesh Padavala, Murali Pemmaraju, Pete Plotica, Kim Price, Eric Roise, Rob Schaff (Area C 5 Governor), Arun Sodani, and Jeanette White.


Guests: Bruce Bowker, Jay Broderick, Walter Diaz, Cristina Johnson, and Eddie Roman.


President Cheryl Mason began the meeting by presenting Charnaie Gordon with a certificate Triple Crown Winner, ACB 04/28/2010, CL 03/26/2010, cc 09/01/2009. Wow! Congratulations to Charnaie for her great accomplishment!

Jeanette White was presented with a new member Welcome/Pin. Welcome to the Club, Jeanette!

Our Club earned the “Talk Up Toastmaster Award” for adding five new members. We received a ribbon for our Banner and we will get money off from our next Toastmaster order. Congratulations to all!

Other business:
· Our June meetings cannot be held at the college. Instead we will meet:
o June 10th at The Village at South Farms, Middletown
o June 24th at Luther Ridge, Middletown
· Saturday, May 22, Spring Conference, Tall Tales and International Contests, St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield

Area Governor, Rob Schaff has been in charge of nominations for our next Club election, to be held at our next meeting. The proposed nominations are:

President Charnaie Gordon
VP Education Kay Jeyapalan
VP Membership Murali Pemmaraju
VP Public Relations Rob Schaff
Secretary Jen Cimilluca
Treasurer John Keppler
Sergeant at Arms Ramesh Padavala

Rob noted that anyone can still nominate themselves or someone else before the elections. Be prepared to tell the Club a few sentences on why you want to fill that position.

VP Education, Charnaie Gordon also handed out awards. Pam Mulready and Murali Pemmaraju both received a certificate for completing ½ CC (they have completed 5 out of 10 speeches). Congratulations to Pam and Murali!

We need a drum-roll for the next award that went to Cheryl Mason. Cheryl was a 2X Triple Crown Winner! She has earned 7 Educational Awards in one year: ACB, LDREXC, CL, ACB, ALB, CL and ACG!! She has done an amazing accomplishment. Congratulations Cheryl!

Charnaie was our Toastmaster for the evening. She kept the meeting flowing.

Table Topics Master was Murali Pemmaraju. Murali led us with a variety of challenging Table Topics. Kim, Arun, John, Jeanette, Eddie (guest), Pete, and Dianne all participated.

Speakers:
Sally Nicastre, CC Project 1, The Ice Breaker”
Deb Nason, CC Project 8, “Driving Down Your Career Path”
Craig Fresher, CC Project 5, “Slow & Steady Prevails: Economics/Politics”
Ramesh Padavala, CC Project 4, “Change Your Beliefs and Change Your Life”

Evaluators:
Cheryl Mason for Sally
Murali Pemmaraju for Deb
Pam Mulready for Craig
Rob Schaff for Ramesh

General Evaluator was Kim Price. Thank you Kim for taking on this big role at the last minute. (Cheryl mentioned how nice it was that when someone was needed to fill a role, members willingly raised their hands.)

The speeches and evaluations were all informative and very well presented!

Other Roles:
John Keppler: Word of the Day, “esoteric,” an elite group or people with an advanced degree.
Invocation: Jen Cimillluca
Humorist: Rob Schaff
Timer: Dianne Olsen
Grammarian: Eric Roise
“Ah” Counter: Jen Cimillluca
jbroderick@yahoo
Other announcements:
Club Event, June 5th, 10:00 a.m., 2-hour hike (approx. 3.3 miles), at Wadsworth Falls, Middletown

VP Education Charnaie called Sally up at the end of the meeting to present her with Icebreaker candy for giving her Ice Breaker speech this evening. Great speech Sally!

Comments on our meeting made by our guests:
Cristina, “…had no expectations…but was very impressed…joining…”
Bruce, “…very interesting…enjoyed it…”
Eddie, “…inspiring…definitely joining…”
Jay, “…3rd [visit to our] meeting…gets better every time…”


Respectfully,
Dianne Olsen, Secretary
Middlesex County Toastmasters Club