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 10th
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.
- Clubs / Orgs /
Business getting involved in causes.
A lot of clubs around the country are getting involved in causes –
food pantry,
- 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.
- 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.
- 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]
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