Monday, August 31, 2015

Meeting Minutes August 18, 2015

Cromwell Community Toastmasters
Club 5908 ~ District 53
Tues, August 18, 2015


Attendees:    Don Ostertag, Crystal Storo, Bill Sullivan, Danielle Payne, Hollie Rose,  Charlie Hubert, Sheetal Patel, Gaia McDermott, Rob Dalo, Peter Davis,

Guests:  Amy, Maribell

Business Meeting

4 officers have been trained in this first training period: Andrew, Don, Jen and Hollie
This gives us our first point for the Distinguished Club Program.

Toastmaster Andrew Watt


Invocation Don Ostertag 

Table Topics Rob Dalo
  • [Bill] What is your dream vacation?: I spent time in Old Lyme shores and was able to disconnect from everything... looking at the sunset, crabbing, fishing on a kayak,.  2:05
  • [Gaia]  What is your favorite trip from childhood?   Ireland. Mother and father are from Ireland. Spent time with relatives. 1:13
  • [Danielle] What would be your dream vacation?   I was going to take a road trip to Arizona but ended up working instead. 0:48
  • [Amy]  What vacation did you go on with your Dad?   Camping in Canada. We explored muscles, shells and had a great time. 0:59
  •  [Mirabel]  Tell us anything you want:  We wanted to drive from Illinois to Nevada. It took two days longer than expected.   We got to see the Rocky Mountains.  2:02
  • [Sheetal]  Tell me about India?  The town in India is like Connecticut compared to New York. It is near the water.  One of the biggest festivals lasts 9 nights full of dancing. 2:44
  • [Don]  Tell us about visiting your daughter?  He was going to see his daughter in Vegas. He was on medication for a respiratory infection and just slept and relaxed the whole time. 1:13






Speaker # 1:  Andrew Watt 7:51
Manual/Project: Speaking to Inform, #3
Title: Contrast in Graphic Design
I have a presentation about graphic design without a projector. I will be teaching graphic design.  Graphic designers use CARP which stands for Contrast Alignment Repetition and Proximity. We as humans like sameness. There was an article on diversity with everyone the same age, same ethnicity, same clothing. People need to think about diversity. Different fonts also can represent diversity. Good graphic designers think about contrast.

Speaker # 2:  Peter N. Davis 4:17
Manual/Project: Competent Communicator #2
Title:
Why I joined Toastmasters
I feel I am swimming against the current. I want to be a teacher but there are some things I need to work on. Number one, I get nervous in front of a group. Number two, my voice goes from high to low tone. Number three, I have a lisp that comes out when I annunciate my “S’s.” Number four, I wrinkle my face when I am thinking. These issues create a lack of self-confidence. I joined Toastmasters to help me reach my career goals. 

Evaluator # 1:  Crystal  3:59
The speech was open and honest. Thing didn’t go as planned but you did well. You made the computer visible to all and we were able to connect with you. You had a good sense of humor. You also used examples other than the computer. The examples with the bad and good choice of diversity were interesting. All in all good, maybe a little a little longer next time.

Evaluator # 2:  Bill Sullivan 3:14
Good visual… swimming against the tide.  You told us what you were going to tell us and then you told us. Good organization by numbering your points. Maybe more detail now. Make the speech about you more than your advisor. Again you mentioned turning against the tide at the end and you brought it back to the beginning.

Officials’ Reports:

WordMaster: Charlie Hubert  Prodigious, marvelous or enormous.  Rob 2, Andrew 1, Peter 1, Maribell 1

Timer:  Amy Hubert times given, see above

Grammarian:  Don Ostertag  Gaia- “I’m an extension of America.” Maribell used coincide very well. Peter to “embark on my career and turn the tide in my favor.”

Ah Counter:  Sheetal Patel Hollie 1, Andrew 2, Rob 6, Bill 2, Gaia 3, Danielle 8, Amy 4, Maribel 3, Don 2, Peter 12, Crystal 5.

General Evaluator: Hollie Rose
Thank you Charlie and Don for the signs. Hollie: “The president seems disorganized.” Thank you Rob for doing table topics.

In closing:  
The fall contest topics are humorous and table topics. Our fall contest will be September 15th.

Next meeting: September 1, 2014 – Area 44 Director August Wolf will be joining us

Respectfully submitted by

Danielle Payne, Secretary


[Posted by Hollie Rose]

District 53 Recognition Potential for all clubs in the District

Here's a note our President recently got about potential ways Clubs can win gift certificates from the District.
This is pertinent to every club in Toastmasters District 53.

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Here are some incentives for you:

New Club Incentive: Any club that charter by June 30th will receive a $100 Toastmasters International (TI)  gift certificate and recognized at our next district conference. Click here for details on how to start a new club.

Spread the Word Incentive: Any club where a member suggests a lead that results in a demo meeting, the member will receive a $25 TI gift certificate and if the club chartering by June 30, 2016, the member will receive another $25 TI gift certificate and the club will each receive a $50 TI gift certificate. and be recognized at our next district conference.

Moments of Truth Incentive: Every club that conducts the Moments of Truth module, submits the assessment and action plan to our District 53 Program Quality Director will receive a $20 gift certificate to the District 53 bookstore and will be recognized at the next district conference.

Early Bird Dues Incentive: Every club that has paid dues for at least the same number of members as at the club's member base on July 1st and documented as received by Toastmasters International by October 1st  will receive a $25 TI gift certificate and be recognized at our next district conference. Clubs with less than 8 members at the start of the Toastmasters’ year must pay dues for at least 8 members to qualify.

Distinguished STAR Club Incentive: Any club that achieves Distinguished or higher, has a 2% increase in membership over the base number of members in July 2015 and increases their educational DCP points by 1 will receive $100 TI gift certificate and be recognized at our next district conference.

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So there you have it - some things you or your club may want to shoot for...

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Connecting for Toastmasters Around the World

Today, our club website on Facebook got an interesting note. There was a private message from someone who wanted to visit our club and attend the very next meeting.  At first, our Facebook webmaster was deeply excited.  But something struck him as odd: the few visible photographs of the person messaging were filled with pictures of mountains.

Distinctly non-Connecticut-like mountains.

If you search for "Connecticut" and "Mountains" on Google images, you will seem some wooded hills, and some photographs of mountains that turn out to be a Norwich or Norfolk couple planning a 5,000 mile-long hike... in the Rockies.  Mountains like these mountains in this visitor's image don't really happen in this part of the world.

And we know it.

So our webmaster did a little more investigation. And it turned out that this person was looking for Cromwell, New Zealand toastmasters, not Cromwell Community Toastmasters in Connecticut.

Now, thanks to the Toastmasters International website, our webmaster was able to look up the possible clubs for a Cromwell, New Zealand visitor, and find two clubs close by: Queensland Toastmasters, and Wanaka Toastmasters, both of which are a little less than 25 miles from Cromwell, New Zealand.  We got this person the right information, at the right time, so that they could in theory make the meeting that's just a couple of nights from tonight.

So once again, we're a Connecticut club.  But this little bit of international goodwill and cooperation — achieved simply by a little attention to detail, and some web-search skills — proves again how Toastmasters is a place where leaders are made.