Meeting Minutes for 7-10-2018

We had a great first meeting of the 2018/2019 TM year last night!

Our SAA Schuyler Diehm banged the gavel with athourity for his first meeting as not only SAA, but a Club Officer as well! Schuyler greeted everyone efficiently and turned the meeting to our President Stephen McGirr.

Stephen quickly passed authority to one of THREE visiting dignitaries, Division B Director James Zukowski, who led the officer induction ceremony with a slight touch of his own personal flair. Very well done James, we thank you for you participation!!

We also had in attendance Second Vice-President of Toastmasters International Richard Peck and past District Director Rich Derkson! They were extremely welcomed and a big hit with the members! We all took photos together as well as two first time guests Kim and Alex. They sure came on the right night!

Inducted this year were Schuyler Diehm SAA, Andrew Watt Secretary/Treasurer, Tom Alvord VPM, Sheetal Patel VPPR, Heather Turner VPE, and Stephen McGirr President. Thank you all for your commitment to serving the club this year, and HAVE FUN WITH IT!!

For the main meeting, Stephen gave the presidential opening remarks and led right into the 1st meeting of the year as Toastmaster. Our functionary roles were covered by Sheetal at grammarian, Schuyler and Tom tag teamed the timer role, Heather took on the Ah Counter position, and Mark Richardson took on the Word of the Day with a particularly challenging word that was only used (3) times, QUIXOTIC. I actually had to re-ask him to explain it to me half-way through the meeting!

Our speeches were given by first off Stephen, speaking from the project for the second speech requirement from Level One of his Pathways path Effective Coaching. He shared with us a tool from his mechanics tool box that he uses for life situations, Complaint, Cause, and Correction. Heather evaluated his speech, and because it is a Level One speech in Pathways, the purpose is to take the evaluators suggestions, address any possible recommendations and deliver the speech a second time reworked! Heather shared some valuable insights as always, come next meeting to see version 2.0!

Next on the list with his second speech out of the Competent Communicator manual was Carl Lepack! Carl shared with us the reasons why we would want to use an "Energy Advisor". The speech format was "Organize your Speech", and Carl did a fantastic job opening about what the subject was on, gave great points in the middle, and most certainly swayed the audience that, YES, we should all use an Energy Advisor! Stephen gave Carl's speech evaluation and shared some good suggestions but stated he wasn't swayed too much because of Wallingford Electric. Stephen did comment on the intense amount of energy and life Carl brings to his speechs, he truly is an intense speaker!

Our final speaker of the night was Sheetal with a speech about her Toastmasters Journey. Sharing with us a very well put together narration of the story of her passage from Shy Sheetal to highly Social Sheetal! James Zukowski was her evaluator and shared that she has come a great distance and it shows! Now is the time to add just a little more, and totally command every room she walks in!

We next had our Table Topics portion run by superstar Tom Alvord! He pulled amazing speeches from every participant! First we had Rich Derkson sharing with us that he wished he had a money tree in his backyard harvesting $100 bills daily! Richard Peck shared with us his daring attempt at running for Second Vice-President a second time, and winning the nomination! James Zukowski shared with us his best vacation that wasn't really a vacation when it started out in the first place. Mark Richardson shared with us his best gift. A watch from his grandfather that got him off his phone, cleared his mind, and kept him employed! First time guest Alex went over a minute and one half on his like of real Japanese Sushi chefs as opposed to Chinese ones, because he has learned Japanese and likes to try and converse with the chefs! Alex is from the Ukraine, and speaks three languages that I know of so far! Incredible!

We took a 5 minute break and everyone had great conversations and enjoyed chocolates and chips! Especially Tom Alvord and chocolates!

When we resumed Stephen introduced Schuyler as the general evaluator of the night for his FIRST TIME at it. Again proving he is an incredibly capable Toastmaster in only a few months, handling the role with ease, confidence, and conviction! 

If you weren't able to make it to the meeting, our next meeting is July 24th. I want YOU to be a part of the fun! See you all in 2 weeks!

Steve