Toastmasters Minutes for Tuesday December 20, 2011

We had another great meeting last night - Tuesday  December 20^th, 2011!

Congratulations to all who participated! 

Members in attendance…

Akshay Dhote

Charlie Hubert

Charnaie Gordon

Elizabeth Landeen

Heather Turner

Louis Nizet

Mary Talbot

Mano Rudravajhala

Sharon Roth

Tom Alvord

Guests …

Dave Roman

Eileen Baird

We began promptly at 5:30 being called to order by substitute Sergeant At Arms Charlie Hubert who introduced President Tom Alvord …

Tom…

recognized …

new members Elizabeth Landeen and Sharon Roth

guests Dave Roman and Eileen Baird. 

announced important dates:

February 21 – Open house

March 20^th – Club Contest

April – Guest speaker by skype – Marilyn Jess

VP PR Heather Turner  …

Invited us all to our Holiday Party at her house for January 24^th   

Reminded us to be sure to use our new website from now on at http://cromwellcommunitytoastmasters.toastmastersclubs.org/.

Tuesday was the last meeting for which we will have used the old website at freetoasthost.

Heather then took over as Toastmaster, ably introducing all participants and keeping us on track!

Charlie Hubert gave a combined Invocation and Word of the day which was “Courage”.  Charlie had the courage and wisdom to print out the word “COURAGE” twice as big as any previous Word of The Day.

Mary Talbot then served as Table Topics Master with very interesting topics having participants give their speech based on pictures – tiny pieces of art she showed to them and then asked them to pass around for all to see.

Prepared speeches were given by …

Mano Rudravajhala –

Project #8 from the CC Manual: Get Comfortable with Visual Aids

Title: “Habits; Exposing the Inspirational Seven Habits of Highly Effective people by Stephen Covey”

Sharon Roth – Speech #8 from 3rd CC manual: "Get Comfortable with Visual Aids

Title:  A Gift for Any Occasion

Charnaie Gordon – Custom Speech: "Share the Vision" relating to her

High Performance Leadership projects including the Division C Toastmasters Leadership Exchange to be held Monday, January 30 from 6:30-8:30 at Middlesex Community College.

Tom Alvord as General Evaluator introduced the following:

Charlie Hubert who evaluated Mano’s speech

Heather Turner who evaluated Sharon’s speech

Louis Nizet who evaluated Charnaie’s speech

Word Master:   Charlie Hubert

Ah Counter:       Mary Talbot (Welcome back Mary!)

Grammarian:    Charnaie

Timer:                Akshay Dhote

Tom then gave a positive evaluation of the well run enthusiastic meeting along with some minor improvements that could be made suggesting that we can never be too well prepared.

During the closing of the meeting Sharon Roth gave an enthusiastic description of the intriguing plan for gift exchange that is in the works for our Party on January 24^th.   (Did I say it’s on Jan 24^th at Heather’s place? – Yahoo!  )

Tom happily took down the names of several volunteers for roles for our January 17^th meeting:

·      Toastmaster:  Charlie
·      General Evaluator – Charnaie
·      Table Topics – Louis

Multiple hands went up for each opportunity! We are reminded that we can sign up in advance on the web site: http://cromwellcommunitytoastmasters.toastmastersclubs.org/

Our next meeting is January 3^rd at which we expect to have similar enthusiasm, growth, leadership and lots of fun!

New membership pins were presented three of our most recently joined members:

Mano

Sharon

Elisabeth

Finally – and very importantly – we are all delighted to

welcome as new members our two guests Eileen Baird and Dave Roman!  Both of these hardy newcomers said that this seems like the type of club they’ve been looking for.

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Alvord   

December 6, 2011 Meeting Minutes

Meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and concluded at 7:00 p.m.

Attendees

Members:  Rob Dalo, Charnaie Gordon, Cheryl Mason, Phil Mason,
Crystal Storo, Louis Nizet, Bill Sullivan, Heather Turner, Charnaie Gordon, Sharon Roth, and Mano Rudravajhala
Guests:  Elizabeth Landeen (who joined tonight), Deidre Rice

Business Meeting

Cheryl Mason covered the following topics: 

-       Club Supplies have been ordered from Toastmasters International – a new club banner with new TI logo, a banner stand, full set of Advanced Speech Manuals, promotional marketing materials, membership pins, etc.  We’re very excited about the new supplies on their way! 

-       Upcoming Club Events: 

o    February 21 – Open Houselooking for volunteer chair (leadership opportunity, earn credit toward CL manual project ) 

o    March 20 – Club Speech Contests, Tall Tales & Internationallooking for volunteer chair (leadership opportunity, earn credit toward CL manual project)

o    April / May – Guest Speaker, Marilyn Jess, DTMthis will be a Skype-type of session, topic is phone interviewing skills

Heather Turner covered these topics: 

-       January Holiday Partymore info to follow, looking for location options, someone’s home or a restaurant, Heather will send e-mail

-        New club websitethe current club website will be retired in January, all club members need to register with the new site!  http://5908.toastmastersclubs.org/
Any questions, please contact Heather.  heather@forfengdesigns.com

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster:                Louis Nizet

Word Master:                Rob Dalo

Rob had a unique approach to the word-of-the-day: 

Everyone had a crayola crayon that had been placed in front of them. 

He also showed us his library card. 

He went on to explain that he is sometimes challenged to correctly pronounce “crayon” and “library”.  He asked each of us to think about the word(s) we have difficulty pronouncing and he would provide a “grand prize” to the winner at the end of the meeting. 

At the end of the meeting, during the word report, there was a quick “round robin” report of words that each person has difficulty pronouncing.  Everyone practiced the correct pronunciation of each word! 

Words:  Crayon, library, pronounce, drawer, idea, Caribbean, realtor (and others)

Prize went to:  Heather, for shrimp(s) and accouterment

Table Topics Master:    Crystal Storo, Theme:  Season of Giving

Participants: 

Bill Sullivan – Explaining giving to the needy, hats/gloves, food

Rob Dalo – A great meal on Christmas

Cheryl Mason – Finding money on the ground, and community giving

Elizabeth – Yes, she would work at a Salvation Army event this Saturday

Louis – What he really wants for Christmas

Speaker 1:         Mano Rudravajhala, CC Speech # 7 Research Your Topic

                          Avadhana

 Introduction:  Mano joined Cromwell Community Toastmasters in July this year!  Since then he has
been a very active member.  Tonight he will be giving Speech #7 from the CC Manual.  Mano will be speaking about Avadhana - a literary performance of India

Speaker 2:      Charnaie Gordon, CC Speech # 3 Get To the Point

How to Conduct Productive Meetings

Charnaie has been a member of Toastmasters since January 2009.  Since joining she has served as a club President and Vice President of Education.  She is currently serving as an Area Governor in Division B.

Tonight, Charnaie will be presenting a practice speech for a presentation she will present later this week at another Toastmasters club.  This speech will be a shortened version of the actual speech she will present.

The speech goal is to discuss How to Conduct Productive Meetings.  This speech is part of the Success Leadership Series, but Charnaie will count tonight's speech presentation towards her CC manual.  She'll be presenting speech project #3, Get to the Point.  The speech will be 5 - 7 minutes long and the title is "How to Conduct Productive Meetings."

Speaker 3:       Heather Turner, Humorously Speaking, Speech #2

Leave Them with a Smile
How to Peel an Onion

Introduction:  In 20 years in the restaurant industry and many onions peeled, Heather has found the perfect way to peel an onion.

                        

General Evaluator:       Bill Sullivan

Evaluator 1:                  Heather Turner

Evaluator 2:                  Phil Mason

Evaluator 3:                  Sharon Roth

Timer:                          Cheryl Mason

Ah Counter:                 Charnaie Gordon

Grammarian:                Rob Dalo

Noteworthy:

Bill's General Evaluation report included the following helpful comments: 

-       Meeting was both FUN and RAN SMOOTHLY – sometimes it’s difficult to do both! 

-       Table Topics were challenging and well done – and it was excellent that guest Elizabeth was invited to participate

-       Signs were well placed and helpful (2^nd guest attended impromptu as a result of seeing signs when she was visiting the Town Hall for something else!) 

-       It’s helpful when the Toastmaster reviews the roles and asks functionaries to describe / confirm their roles for the meeting

Surprise Guest: 

At the end of the meeting, a guest stopped by after seeing the Toastmaster Meeting signs at the Town Hall!  Several of us had an opportunity to welcome and talk to Deidre as well as provide her with Toastmasters information. 

Deidre indicated she would like to join Toastmasters, lives nearby, and will attend the next meeting!