Two Big Milestones

Hello, fellow Toastmasters!

As we near the end of the 2014-15 Toastmasters year, it's worth mentioning that we achieved two big milestones in the history of our club.

First of all, we completed nine of the Distinguished Club Program goals over the course of the year, and this makes us eligible to be a President's Distinguished Club!

This is the fifth year we've achieved this designation, and it's something pretty amazing.  If you look at what we achieved in the graphic, our members finished four Competent Communicator Awards, some Advanced Communicator Awards, and some Leadership Awards.  Our Officers attended training to learn how to serve our club better,  and communicate more effectively. We paid our dues on time, and we communicated with Toastmasters International effectively about our new officers and leadership team.  And we've done all of this for five years.

Second, and in some ways far more important (although it doesn't seem like it, given the amount of hoopla placed on getting President's Distinguished), is the certification of our club as a 30-year veteran organization.  We have staying power that lasts far beyond our own relatively-short terms in Toastmasters.  Some members of our club have been there for five years; some for longer, and many more for far fewer years than that.  But the club has remained active now for thirty years, and as each generation has gone out, they have found worthy successors to continue the work of service and education and entertainment and learning which is central to the Toastmasters mission.

Congratulations, everyone.  There are people that we have never met who helped us get to this place today, where we can be a club of excellence and amazing achievement.  Here's to another great year, our thirty-first, and hopefully our sixth President's Distinguished.

Please join us on July 7, at 5:30 pm, for our first meeting of the new Toastmasters year.  I believe we'll be swearing in our new officers at that time, and presenting another great round of speeches and evaluations.  Hope to see you there!

Meeting Minutes 6-2-2015 (Another CC for our club!)

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

Club 5908 ~ District 53

Tues, June 2 2015

Attendees:    Don Ostertag, Jen Bourne, Phil Mason, Bill Sullivan, Danielle Payne, Micheal Brillas, Hollie Rose, Jeevan Kale

Guests:  Peter, Mirabel, Bill

Business Meeting

Don Ostertag called the meeting to order and thanked President Phil Mason for his assistance is setting up tonight.   There have been some changes in the next Toastmasters year, putting us in area D in the coming year.   Officer trainings coming up starting in July:  July 11 Hamden, August 8 Manchester.  Elections will be put off until next week since Crystal is not in attendance this week.   VPE Bill discussed DCP progress, we already have 7 of 10 and will have 8 of 10 next week.   One new member needed.   

Toastmaster Phil Mason

Invocation Don Ostertag  I’ve learned that “fair” blinds your vision.   Believe in your value and self-worth.   Transform “fair” into “freedom”.

Table Topics Bill Sullivan

• [Don] What can you do today that you weren’t capable of a year ago?   One of these is being up here talking off the cuff.    Also I was in charge of conducting detachment meeting for Marine Corp League. 
• [Danielle]  What gets you excited about life?   Teaching Math.    Nothing is more exciting that taking a kid from bombing their last quiz or test and tutoring them until they don’t have to repeat the grade.   I love helping people.
• [Hollie] Would you ever give up your life to save someone else?   I’m going to completely ignore the questions and go with what excites me about life.    I had a conversation with someone who thought I dislike CT.     It’s not that I hate CT; it’s that what excites me in life is seeing new vistas, doing new things.   What excites me is the newness of every day – if you can find it.
• [Jeevan]  What makes you lose track of time?    At work struggling to come up with some solution to a problem.   Many times I’ve missed some meetings getting the solution to the problem.   Also, when I’m diving, I just want to drive and not stop – so I also lose track of the time driving without a destination to go to.    Sometimes an hour or more will go by.
• [Mirabel]  What gets you excited about life?  I have 3 children.  Also every Saturday.   I also read, write, and enjoy poetry.    I have a grandson who just turned 5  and I hope he learns to speak another language.    

 Speaker # 1:  Jen Bourne 8:01

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator, #8  Visual Aids

Title: Get Real!

Jen shared some local places to camp and hike that look a bit exotic and handed out some Middletown outdoor options for the club members to explore.

Speaker # 2:  John Ansell  6:32

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator #1, Ice Breaker

Title: The Interesting Life of John

Originally I come from Mn, from a small town in the Southwest.   It’s a town that you can see farm fields everywhere.   I have siblings who live in other places in the Midwest .   I played tuba in marching band, played sports, and acted in various school plays.    Things became interesting after graduation from High School.   I went on two different paths as the same time.   Joined the Army reserves and accepted to U Mn.    In S Carolina I did basic training and then advance training as a Chaplin’s assistant.    I came back to university and attended to my studies for 3 years.   In that 3^rd year I was offered a proposal to be deployed to the Middle East.   I accepted the deployment in 2006 to Iraq.  It was a time of Civil War and unrest in that place at that time.     I came home and got my Bachelors in 2009.   As luck would have it the recession was in full bloom.    I was deployed again to the Middle East.   This tour really encouraged me to go into Ministry.  I was accepted in the Lutheran seminary in St Paul.   I am currently in my year of assignment to Cromwell for seminary school.

Speaker # 2:  Jeevan Kale  7:48

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator #2

Title: Managing Projects

Some projects go well and some are failures, you may have a process for your projects or you may not.    It’s something that you can use a methodology – at least you know what you are going to do.   There are different models.   I follow the PMI module because it has certification that is globally recognized.  Important to define a project:  A temporary endeavor which is intends to achieve a goal, result, product or service.   A unique effort.   There are 5 phases: Initiation, planning, executing, controlling and monitoring, closing.   One example for initiation:  you want to paint your living room.   It starts because of a need, want, or any other goal. In Planning you plan what exactly you want to paint; one color or two colors, what walls.  How big is the living room, how much paint do you need, what kind of brushes do you need.   All those things are taken care of in planning.   Decide paint the walls only, not the ceiling – the ceiling is “out of scope”.   Exciting – is simply doing the painting.   Controlling and Monitor: Did I get it done in the week I wanted to or was there something that got in the way.   Closing: clean the room, put the paint away, put the furniture back.

Evaluator # 1:  Michael Brillas

The speech was well done but a little at first a little metaphysical.  The lack of ability to change the slides took away from message.   Excellent ability with body language e.g. turning around at the fire and that helped bring things together.    The pictures were well done as well.    And supported the point of people fixating on the indoors and not getting out in the real world.

Evaluator # 2:  Bill Sullivan

John’s first speech, he has a great baritone voice with wonderful projection.     Before you move come up and get grounded – become part of the floor and then move.  

You did that well but then didn’t move so much.    It was interesting but not as engaging as it could have been.   Tell us some stories about your interaction with your brothers, why you decided to become a Chaplin. 

Evaluator # 3:  Phil Mason

A lot of kudos for getting up here and doing it even through you weren’t felling fully  prepared.  I was great to hear about you and your PMI certification and it was clear from how well structured your topics was.   You seemed comfortable but not too comfortable.   Sometime you are hard to understand because you are a little quiet.    For a partially prepared speech this was great – can’t wait to hear you speak again.

Officials’ Reports:

WordMaster: Phil Mason  Prodigious, marvelous or enormous.  Bill 1

Timer:  Hollie Rose times given, see above

Grammarian:  Peter (Guest) Jen: end a lot of sentences with prepositions.   John: repeated phrases, keep an eye on that, use more variety of words   Jeevan:  used same words, look for more variety

Ah Counter:  Danielle Payne  TT  Don 1 Jen 3 John 1 Jeevan 1

General Evaluator: Phil Mason

Officers pay attention to training meetings.   All - never apologize for anything when you’re on the speaking stage.   Bill: First and lasts.   First speech John, First evaluation Micheal,  10^th speech Jen
Congratulations on getting your CC Jen Bourne!

In closing:  

Next meeting: June 2, 2014

Respectfully submitted by

Jennifer Bourne, Secretary

[Posted by Hollie Rose CC, CL]

Meeting Minutes 5-19-2015

Catching up on posting our meeting minutes.

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

Club 5908 ~ District 53

Tues, May 19 2015

Attendees:    Don Ostertag, Andrew Watt, Jen Bourne, Heather Turner, Phil Mason, Bill Sullivan, Charlie Hubert, Crystal Storo, Danielle Payne, Jon Ansel, Tom Alvord, Sheetal Patel, Hollie Rose

Guests:  Peter, Darwin

Business Meeting

Sgt at Arms called the meeting to order.   Looks to be a great meeting, all roles are filled and we have a guest tonight.    VPE Bill Sullivan went over the club’s progress towards our president’s distinguished goals.   Crystal (Area Governor) Incoming officer team, has been nominated - President.: Hollie - VPE: Andrew - VPM: Don - VPPR: Jen - Treasurer: Brian - Secretary: Danielle  Sgt at Arms: Charlie   Voting most likely at the next meeting and then invocation for new officers.   Incoming folks should prepare why they should take on the role.    Crystal has been elected new Division B Governor!   Heather would like to give us a report on last weekend’s district conference.     Richard Peck (Regional Director for Region 9) lead the meeting.   3 sessions: Motivational session was very well attended.   And Crystal appears to have a following as the audience was pleased when her candidacy for a district office was announced.

Toastmaster Andrew Watt

Invocation Crystal Storo 

Stumbled upon this quote  "The truth is our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." M. Scott Peck

Table Topics Crystal Storo

Facilitated Session:  Problem Solving – Increasing New Members

Causes:

bad winter

visitor follow up

slow start to visitor year

lack of apparent diversity

new members goals

low under 35 membership

packages for guests

good meetings

  

Solutions:

facebook /social media / google + / targeted geographic marketing

district go-to webinars: upcoming

personal connection

networking with friends

email signatures

with TM stuff – listing benefits of joining toastmasters

email meeting minutes to guests

backup secretary to ensure minutes go out.

3x5 card for guest to fill out for info for follow-up

leadership, mentorship, speaking benefits.

Leadership series presentations

talking to guests after the meeting

postcard sent with personalized message  (postal mail for Toastmasters)

multi-prong media strategy – text people

video tape meetings new speaker-evaluator and experienced speaker-evaluator pair

track guests to member conversion metrics.

Speaker # 1:  Jen Bourne 8:02

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator, #5

Title: Map of the Year

Jen talked about the changing sunrise sunset times across the course of a year, how the sun is in a different place in the sky at the same time of day, essentially drawing a figure 8 over the course of the year, and how she believes and lives 8 distinct emotional-motivational states that she likes to think of as the 8 seasons.

Speaker # 2:  Don Ostertag 11:20

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator #10

Title: Feeling good within yourself

Here to tell new members about the different programs our veteran chapter has to offer.   The first is the Hartford parade (we can have 40-50 members at the parade). About 1.5 mile and 1.5 hours to complete.  Next is our toys for tots programs, we drop off at about 70 locations and then pick up the full boxes of toys, we sort the toys by age a gender, and then we distribute them to organizations that can use them.   We also have the Rocky Hill Veterans home and run Bingo there once a month.    Usually there are 20-30 patients who attend the Bingo, usually attend in walkers or wheelchairs – we give then $5 per Bingo they get that they can use in the hospital store.   They thank us for being at the Bingo, and we thank them for their service to the country.   At our wake detail, all our members come in the blazer and cap – often we have 20 members at a service.   We have a chaplain, we face the casket and salute - after the Chaplin is done with the prayer we have another salute and we play the Marine Corps theme (CD) at the end of a service many people feel it is wonderful that we were there to comfort the family.  At the cemetery we have a rifle detail, sometimes there is also a detail of active duty Marines.  Together we run the flag folding and the rifle firing.   On your way home you start to think how nice it was to give a fellow marine the honor of a proper burial. 

Speaker # 3:  Sheetal Patel  8:13

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator #10

Title: Be confident and ignorant forever

Mark Twain: “To succeed in life be ignorant and be confident”.   Ignorance I had, I needed to get confidence and so I joined Toastmaster.  I was attending a traditional Indian wedding and the host asked me if I minded anchoring the musical portion festivities.    “You just have to speak for 5 minutes before every dance”  “How many dances?”  “About 12-15”.     I was expecting a script and he gave me a list of songs.    That’s when I took out my CC manual and started assigning functionalities.   A timer, and a person to make sure the right song was played, and a person to advise me on the current Bollywood songs.   The theme of all of my speeches was arranged around the process of having an arranged marriage.   I used eye contact, humor, vocal variety, and everything I've learned here.   Every person in the audience came up to congratulate me on what a good job I did.   And at that time, I remembered each and every one of you.    This is my 10^th speech – and it’s not the destination, its every step of the journey.  Stay hungry, stay ignorant, and become confident by coming here.

Speaker # 4:  Heather Turner  9:18

Manual/Project:

Title: How to attract Millennials to our club

There is surprisingly little tangible info out there on how to attract Millennials (anyone under 35).   At TM  ¼ of our members are under 35.   In 10 years they should be ½ of our membership if all things go right.    4 key things that we can focus on. 

1. Clubs / Orgs / Business getting involved in causes.   A lot of clubs around the country are getting involved in causes – food pantry,
2. Looking for Mentors.   Mentors are very important to them – looking for long terms mentors.  Beef up our mentoring program.   Not assigning – let the person select their mentor.
3. Goal related. Everyone works at their own pace.  If you don’t want to be motivated, you don’t have to.   Younger generation wants the goal and wants the carrot. 
4. Not the me” generation” the “us” generation.   Sure they want wealth, fame, and money, but they also want world peace.

The TM website is mobile friendly, our website is not.   Heather will work with our new VPPR to institute the workaround.   The younger generation do almost all of their web searching on mobile devices.  Look at our website on a mobile device.   One of the key websites they access is youtube.   “help with fear of public speaking”  will get found on youtube.

  

Evaluator # 1:  Tom Alvord

Jen has so many natural attributes that serve well for this speech, a great smile, and eyes that connect with people well.  When she was talking about the first week of Oct. she really made it clear that she turns inward with the “mole” body language.     She memorized the first part and last part of her speech also a helpful tactic.  This speech could have been made better my keeping it a little more simple.  Moved abruptly from good opening to too much detail. 

Evaluator # 2:    Phil Mason

I want to congratulate Don on speech #10.   We have another competent communicator.   You were very prepared, knew material very well.  The biggest thing I saw was your confidence.   You knew what you needed to know.   If would have been good to know dates around the time of year that each of these programs is available to league members.   You involved your speech title in the feeling of the last part of your speech.  Excellent job.

Evaluator # 3:    Bill Sullivan

Sheetal, why did it take so long?   She’s been here for 3 years and showed us how she changed by coming up and mumbling then going off the stage and restarting the speech.   As a club we remember her hesitance and now her confidence is clear, and that’s when your brain fills in with good positive energy, thoughts, and clear confidence.    Your pause toward the end “it is not the destination” was really excellent.     Improvements, do some dancing, talk more about Indian culture.  You brought it all together; every speech is different, don’t stay home, get out there and sign up for more speeches. 

Evaluator # 4:    Round Robin

Crystal: some other clubs “select a buddy” in their group who remains their mentor for their time in the club.    Maybe both a buddy who started the same time you did and a mentor who you can go to for advice.

Have non-officers run community outreach committee activities

Bill:  Theme meetings, first job, how to get a promotion (speeches on the topics)

Andrew:  Multi-media approach.   34 guests to 3 members – what is our follow-up?

  

Officials’ Reports:

WordMaster: <Toastmaster>  Affinity  a spontaneous or natural liking for someone or something.    4 uses

Timer:  Danielle Payne  times given, see above

Grammarian:  Jon Ansel  That weekend the universe kicked my ass.   Ignorance I have plenty of but confidence.

Ah Counter:  Charlie Hubert none in T T, bill, Heather, Danielle, Don, Hollie.   Had: Crystal 3, Jon 2, Andrew 1  Speakers:  Jen 3 Sheetal 1 Heather 1

General Evaluator: Heather Turner

Guest: Looks like a supportive group – liked how everyone applauds after someone speaks. 

In closing:  

We always have enough time for certificates.   Competent Communicator was presented to Don and Sheetal!

Next meeting: June 2, 2014

Respectfully submitted by

Jennifer Bourne, Secretary

[Posted by Hollie Rose CC, CL]

Meeting Minutes 5-5-2015 (We're 30 years old as a club!!!)

Catching up on posting our Minutes.

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

Club 5908 ~ District 53

Tues, May 5 2015

Attendees:    Don Ostertag, Charlie Hubert, Bill Sullivan, Jen Bourne, Crystal Storo, Phil Mason, Cheryl Mason, Sheetal Patel, Hollie Rose, Andrew Watt, Jeevan Kale

Guests:  Maria , Claude, Aiday

Business Meeting

President Phil Mason presented the Cromwell Community Toastmaster certificate for the club’s 30 year anniversary.   VPE Bill Sullivan reviewed our progress toward our presidents distinguished status for Cromwell.  Area Governor Crystal Storo, in charge in nomination committee for next officer group effective July 1^st.   Voting process within next two meetings, Nominees Hollie Rose  - President,  VPE – Andrew Watt,  VPM Don Ostertag, VPPR – Jen Bourne, Treasurer – Brian Fleming, Secretory  and Sgt at Arms nominees yet to accept nomination.  Second meeting in June small campaign speech and then voting.

District Conference – this weekend Sat in Albany, NY.   Info on District 53 toastmasters website.

Toastmaster Hollie Rose

Invocation Charlie Hubert 

Og Mandino: The Greatest Salesman in the World.  “I will form good habits and make them my slave.”

Table Topics Andrew Watt

Good Stuff in Toastmasters Magazine

·       [Bill] Common Speaker Pitfalls  Given this a lot of thought.  Greatest pitfall is thinking that you don’t have to prepare for a speech.   Best speakers look like they were able to do it without practice, only because they did so much preparation.

·       [Crystal] Setting and reaching goals When I first joined TM I came at speech-a-thon time; the speakers and then the feedback really drew me in. There’s no timeline to say, I have to get this done in a certain amount of time.  You can set a goal and get it done in your own time.

·       [Don] Leading with Love  When I was 50 years old I stumbled on the “consonant blend” which opened up a big door for me in ease of reading.   Doing reading manual after finishing my CC.

·       [Sheetal] Telling Tales at the Office  There is nothing you can do better at work than to be honest and there are many ways of telling the truth.   The direct way is the best way.

·       [Maria] It’s about time, and how to manage it Life has been very busy, as a working mom.  Just forget about the list, just do what you need to do.  I hope to find time (enough time) for everybody in my life.   One step at a time.

·        [Cheryl] TED talk  The best Ted Talk I ever saw was described and delivered though the movement of dancers on the stage.  It was about physics and science.  It changed my whole vision of how to present at topic.

·        [Claude] Password security  It doesn’t matter how careful you are.  If you have a digital internet its possible for your password to be stolen.   I had this experience and found out when I went to file my taxes.   Choose a password root and make the password unique to the website in question

·        [Aiday] Speaking on Camera I will be looking at the person who is behind the camera.  The camera is a person that you are talking to.

Speaker # 1:  Crystal Storo  9:03

Manual/Project: Specialty Speeches, Impromptu Speaking

Title: Off the Cuff: Officer Roles

 I have served in all of these roles; Secretary – was only member for 4 months.  I’m a procrastinator and usually meeting minutes would not go out until the day before the next meeting.   So I learned to work on procrastination. Advice: Participate as an officer in ways other than meeting minutes – you are part of the leadership team and can give your input.   Second role was VPE – I felt I hadn’t been a member long enough.   But this was one of my favorite roles and the one that made me flourish.   Their main responsibility is to motivate the club members to achieve their goals.    I felt it was rewarding to see people grow throughout the year.   Advice: Connect with each person individually rather than in aggregate as a club.   Third role was President – Felt very enthusiastic and want to help lead the team.  One of the things I work on is to try to build the team and get people to work together.   This was great for my professional role at work. Advice: get your team together thinking about not just their role but how they can all help each other.  Currently Area Governor – work with the leadership teams of all the area clubs and get area clubs together and cross pollinate.     Next will be running for Division Governor – gets area governors together and works to improve the district as a whole.

Speaker # 2:  Jen Bourne 5:23

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator #9

Title: What’s your story?

Jen asked the club to stand up and physically express and feel certain way – think about their story when they felt a certain way.   She asked fellow members to move beyond initial excitement of motivation to working towards their goals in their own way. 

Evaluator # 1:  Phil Mason

Crystal’s off the cuff speech sounded like a prepared speech.  Detailed about explaining roles and what people could get out of that role.   You could have moved around the room and connected with different people.   Liked how you told how you were rewarded by each role.  You created a really strong structure, which is a challenge in an impromptu speech.

Evaluator # 2:    Charlie Hubert

What better way to persuade than with the title, What’s your story?    Persuading people works well when you connect with people’s personal interest.   I can recommend “not to use any notes”.   I think she persuaded us that we need to tell our own story and this is the venue to do it in.

Functionary Reports:

WordMaster: Andrew  Vernal –adj spring-like, springtime  Hollie 1, Andrew 1, Jen 1, TT speaker 1

Timer:  Sheetal -   gave times see above

Grammarian:  Cheryl – Bill: preparation is the key to give  Crystal: “you do good when you are setting goals” Jen  “How do you succeed in the way you want to succeed it your story”

Ah Counter:  Don  -  Only a few each for:  Crystal, Maria, Phil that was basically it.

General Evaluator: Bill Sullivan -

Transition to Table topics, this is a place where we make mistakes and a learning opportunity.   That’s why we practice, practice, practice.   It would have been fine to just go with it and see how it goes for the group. Part of the beauty of toastmasters is the place to make the mistakes.  Andrew in table topics, I thought I had him and I didn’t think he’d called on guests but then he got them.  Evaluators:  I like to hear how the speech made you feel.   Give the evaluation from your point of view.  Meeting could have started more on time.   The person who didn’t speak today was Jeevan.  Jeevan: Crystal’s and Jen’s speeches were good the meeting was good.  To the guests, it is really good that you spoke at your very first meeting.  Next time you’re in a staff meeting, notice how many people speak.  Not everyone is speaking but everyone has something to say  - ask a chronically quiet person what they think.

In closing:  

This weekend, there is the district conference.   International conference in August – go online and be inspired by some of the international speech contest winners on you tube.

Next meeting: May 19, 2014

Respectfully submitted by

Jennifer Bourne, Secretary

[Posted by Hollie Rose CC, CL}