Meeting Minutes 10-15-2013

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

Club 5908 ~ District 53

October 15, 2013  

Attendees:    members attended: Eileen Baird, Bo Bogart, Micheal Brillas, Robert Dalo, Miroslav Grajewski, Elizabeth Landeen, Donald Ostertag, Hollie Rose CC, Crystal Storo CC, CL, Brian Terry, Carolyn Warner, and Andrew Watt

Guests: Nathan Jaycox - Area 32 Governor, Robin Thompson

Business Meeting:

The meeting was called to order by Donald Ostertag.  President Crystal Storo spoke of the recent Area Contest and upcoming Division Contest. Rob Dalo won first place in the Area Evaluation Contest. Way to Go Rob!  He will be in the Division contest held Wed. Oct. 16^th at North East Utilities on the Berlin Turnpike in Berlin.  Congratulations to Andrew Watt who won second place in the Area Humorous Speech Contest.                                 

VP of Education, Elizabeth Landeen discussed the Competent Communicator and Competent Leader Charts to track club members progress towards goals.  She reminded us to fill in the charts with our accomplishments and to have Competent Leader Manuals signed when completing a meeting role.

Meeting Roles:

Toastmaster: Andrew Watt

Invocation: Andrew Watt – Reach Beyond Yourself   Andrew spoke of reaching above and beyond to become greater than we are but not to neglect reaching low, to our toes, so that we remain grounded.

Word Master:  Micheal Brillas

Word - of - the - Day:  Apoplectic – Overcome with anger and rage

Table Topics Master:  Carolyn Warner

Theme:  Chinese Fortune Cookies     Carolyn had each speaker take a fortune cookie, read the fortune out loud and discuss it.  

Bo Bogart’s cookie foretold Romance in Future.  She didn’t think it would be between her cat and tenant’s dog, but maybe one of the people who stop to gawk at the silver styrofoam heads in her garden.  Andrew Watt’s fortune had the Chinese word for chocolate and he launched into a passionate portrayal of Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wonderful sound effects were included.  Miroslav Grajewski spoke effortlessly explaining how public speaking matched his fortune “Your skills and talents are called on in unusual areas.”  Nathan Jaycox ate his cookie; told us not to talk with a full mouth; and admonished us to put our brooms away so we aren’t swept away by our passions.  His fortune was - Your passions sweep you away. Last but not least, Robin Thompson gave a delightful talk about her fortune “Focus on good.”

Speaker # 1:  Eileen Baird

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator/Project 1 Ice Breaker 

Title:  Why I Can Never Become President     

Both Eileen’s parents are American citizens, and were living on a Military Base in Germany when Eileen was born.  Due to an administrative mistake Eileen was a German, not American citizen for the first five years of her life.  She became a naturalized American citizen but is not eligible to become President.  She did point out that she is eligible to become Secretary of State.

Speaker # 2:   Micheal Brillas

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator/Project 1 Ice Breaker 

Title:  How I Became Mike   

Born Ryan Gregory, his parents didn’t want the attending Dr. Ryan to think their baby was named for him and changed their baby’s name to Michael Justin.  The creative spelling of Micheal’s first name created problems and made him apoplectic so he used his middle name Justin. Entering work he was told he had to use his first name, and he found it easier to go by the nick name Mike.

Speaker # 3:  Hollie Rose CC

Manual/Project:  The Professional Speaker/ Project Keynote Address 

Title:  The Serendipity of Being Me  

Hollie told us when you’re open to it, it will happen.  She gave us examples of how many things seem to be amazing coincidences but people are more connected with events and each other than they are aware of.  She told of camping in Oregon, how in the middle of the night a sleeping stranger heard someone in her group laugh and commented it sounded like someone he knew in Atlanta named Yvette.  Her friend Yvette looked to the sleeping stranger and said, “Mike?” It was. She spoke of finding west coast friends on Cape Cod behind a deserted beach dune.  She spoke of unexpected gifts and of things lost and found where least expected. Hollie told us to be open to wild and crazy things, expect a miracle and remember the magic.

General Evaluator: Elizabeth Landeen

Evaluator # 1:  Rob Dalo

Evaluator # 2:   Crystal Storo CC, CL

Evaluator # 3:  Round Robin

Functionary Reports:

Ah Counter:  Donald Ostertag

Grammarian:  Rob Dalo

Timer:  Brian Terry

In closing Crystal gave Ice Breaker candies to Eileen and Micheal.  Crystal asked our guests for comments about tonight’s meeting.  Robin said she like the meeting very much.  Area Governor Nathan Jaycox took the stage for a few minutes and told us about his function in visiting the six clubs in his Area, and the reports he’s required to file. He shared with us some of the things he would put in his report of his visit to our club. He found our club very enthusiastic and encouraging and never heard people clap so loudly.  He thought the Table Topics unique and creative and the evaluations outstanding.  He mentioned he had seen the Round Robin evaluation only done at Advanced Toastmasters Club meetings. 

After the meeting some members stayed to socialize. 

Now (while you’re thinking of it) would be a great time to sign up for roles at the next meeting.

Next meeting: November 5^th 2013.

Respectfully submitted by

Bo Bogart, Secretary

[posted by Hollie Rose]

Area 32 Fall Contest October 9th, 2013...

Hello Toastmasters and friends,

I wanted to tell you a bit about our Fall Area 32 contest which took place on Wednesday October 9, 2013 in Berlin, CT.

It was hosted by the CCAT Toastmasters in their home meeting zone at Northeast Utilities.

There were veggie platters and pizza and drinks as the small crowd gathered.

When I first arrived I was completely THRILLED to see Charlie Hubert seated at a table with Don Ostertag. It was SO good to see Charlie’s smiling face again. It’s been too long. He looked good and well on the road to recovery. Let’s hope he’ll be able to join us at regular meetings again soon!

Cromwell members represented were Charlie, Don, Tom Alvord, Elizabeth Landeen and Hollie Rose (me) as part of the audience. And Rob Dalo and Andrew Watt as participants in the Evaluation and Humor contests respectively.

The contest got underway precisely at 7 with Ray Johnson of CCAT as the Area Contest Master.

The evening’s Test Speaker was Gaia Dong from the Aetna Club. Her speech was about culture shock and the different ways she experienced it growing up in China, moving to Japan for two years and then coming to the US eleven years ago.

By random drawing the first Evaluation Contestant was Murali Pemmaraju from the Middlesex County Club. He made some excellent points about Gaia’s speech and was able to compare some of her experiences of culture shock with his own experiences when he came to the US. It was an insightful and worthy evaluation but Murali had some tough competition.

Our own Rob Dalo was up next. He took a more technical approach to evaluating the speech; speaking of some of the many things we learn in Toastmasters and how Gaia used those techniques to great effect. He mentioned things like her use of the rule of 3s, her vocal variety, her eye contact and how she worked the room and the stage. For possible improvement he suggested some more extreme physical movements she might use in particular parts of her speech.

There were only two contestants for this contest.

Major Congratulations to Rob Dalo, who represented us well and took first place!

Congrats also to Murali Pemmaraju in second place!

After a break for more pizza and veggies the Humorous Contest began.

First up was our own new member Andrew Watt who has been a great addition to our club. He did a version of the same speech he gave for us at our club level contest but modified it somewhat to fit the stage area. His speech about what’s actually funny is fun to watch. From acting in Hamlet as a kid, to the follies of history, we get to contemplate humor. (Are feet funny?) His speech title was “What’s Funny, Anyway?”

Next up was Maria Johnson from the Middlesex County Club. She gave a speech that was very well organized – taking us from an awareness of how the story would contain death and an hour long crying jag, through some history, the death, the crying jag, something lost and something found. Her speech was titled “Diamond in the Fluff.”

The third and final contestant was Dolly Reed from CCAT. She dressed the part and looked like a mountain farm girl as she told the story of her own brand of culture shock when, as a pre-teen, her family moved from the suburbs of Ohio to the wilds of West Virginia. Many comparisons were made between the different worlds and I think we all loved the story of their pet pig named Pork Chop. She left us with the wisdom to “never fall in love with your bacon.” Dolly's speech title was "Country Ways."

For the Humorous Contest the  results were…..

(Drumroll please)

First place goes to  - Maria Johnson!

Second place to Andrew Watt!

Third place to Dolly Reed!

The evening's winners -
Maria Johnson (Middlesex County Club - Humor) and Rob Dalo (Cromwell Community Club - Evaluation)

Pictured from left to right, Tom Lore, Area Contest Chief Judge; Dolly Reed, CCAT Club; Maria Johnson, Middlesex County Club; Area Contest Master Ray Johnson; Rob Dalo, Cromwell Community Club; Murali Pemmaraju, Middlesex County Club; Andrew Watt, Cromwell Community Club (on the floor)

Pictured from left to right, Dolly Reed, CCAT Club; Tom Lore, Area Contest Chief Judge; Gaia Dong, Test Speaker;  Maria Johnson, Middlesex County Club; Nathan Jaycox, Area 32 Governor; Rob Dalo, Cromwell Community Club; Andrew Watt, Cromwell Community Club; Murali Pemmaraju, Middlesex County Club.

Big congratulations to all those who put themselves out there for these contests. And heartfelt thanks to those who facilitated – Ray Johnson as Emcee, Tom Lore as Chief Judge for the evening, Gaia Dong as Test Speaker and Nathan Jaycox, Area 32 Governor.

 Out of 19 total persons present, I’m thrilled to report that 7 of those were from our wonderful Club #5908 – Cromwell Community. I thank you all for making us so well represented and hope you will do so again next week to support our member Rob Dalo as he (hopefully) wins the next level of the contest with as much aplomb as he won this one.

Let’s see if we can show our spirit and our support next Wednesday the 16^th for the Division level Contest – Division C.

Hope to see you there!
(107 Seldon St. Berlin, CT. 6:30p)

 ~~~~~~~ Hollie Rose