Friday, June 5, 2015

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 3rd 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,  10th 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]


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