Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Tuesdays Meeting Recap!! 7.24.18

Good evening/morning fellow Toastmasters!
We had an amazing fun filled meeting Tuesday night! Here is the recap:
Members in attendance Rob Dalo, Heather Turner, Sheetal Patel, Schuyler Diehm, Carl Lepack, Mark Richardson, Stephen McGirr.

Guests in attendance Allison Klump, Ute Brinkmann, Atul Gupta, Harouna Camara, Deandre Camara, Olademeji Sanniola, Alex Trachisin, Ravidra Perera.

Our SAA Schuyler Diehm banged the gavel promptly at 6:30PM to start the meeting off, welcomed everyone with style and ease, and passed control over to our President Stephen McGirr.

Stephen shared a brief message about how what we do today, is in preparation for tomorrow. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky. Even before those shots were taken, you can guarantee, there was a LOT of practice. That is what we do at Toastmasters every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month. So let’s have fun practicing communications and leadership!

Stephen also shared that it was Andrew Watt’s birthday the past weekend (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!) and brought in a box of donuts with 2 candles in the eyes of the smiley face on the box. Unfortunately Andrew could not make it, so in his absence, we were able to sing happy birthday to Sheetal Patel! Everyone sang for her and she was a very gracious recipient. We also found out after the fact that S! heetal’s birthday is in December! Excellent! (Sheetal - you only get one song per year though…)

After the initial merriment, Stephen welcomed and asked each of our guests to introduce themselves: Allison Klump – is visiting our club and is a fellow Toastmaster from Heather Turners club in Massachusetts! So great to meet you! Ute Brinkmann – is a visiting Toastmaster from Eagles club in Wallingford. Ute was there so that she could complete a project in her new Pathways path “Dynamic Lea! dership” Love when you visit! Atul Gupta – is a first time visitor who found us on Meet-up and is very excited to be a part of our club family! So glad you enjoyed the meeting and club experience! Harouna Camera and Deandre – A father and son duo! Harouna is a visiting Toastmaster from Eagles club in Walingford and his son is an aspiring Toastmaster. Excellent participation guys! Olademeji Sanniola– Is a second time guest and is in the process of becoming a member! So great to see you again OlaAlex Trachishin – Is a second time visitor to our club, and joined after the meeting! Welcome to the club fellow Toastmaster Alex!! Ravidra Perera – “Ravi” recently moved to the area from New Jersey and quickly joined Middlesex Toastmasters. He didn’t realize he lived so close to another club and came to check us out! Ravi had a great time and is going to be attending! often. Great to have your talent with us tonight Ravi!

After introductions, Steve Passed control over to our extremely competent Toastmaster of the night, Sheetal Patel! Sheetal wasted no time getting to the business by introducing our functionaries! Schuyler Diehm took on the role of Timer. Our guest Allison Klump did a phenomenal job as Grammarian.! Carl Lepack shared with us the word of the day which was Laconic, which means having few words. NOT a Toastmaster tendency! It was a tough word to fit in and was used several times by skillful Toastmasters, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! Stephen McGirr handled the Ah-Counter role.
Our speeches were given by first off Carl, speaking from the third project in the Competent Communicator manual, Get to the Point. His speech “The space between words” was an absolutely brilliant speech describing the abstract nature of language, and how a one word, three syllable sound such as “Elephant” is supposed to describe such a majestic creature, where if you just observe! d an elephant in the Savanna, with no words in mind, how could you possible describe its complexity? Simple words such as “I do” can change everything in a couples life. And adding silence, in between the words, to just observe life in general, can be an absolutely awe inspiring experience! Heather passed on the evaluation sheet to our visiting Toastmaster Harouna Camara, who gave his first ever evaluation! Harouna has not even given his first speech yet and that isn’t as hard as your first evaluation! Heather did help, but excellent first delivery Harouna!

Our second speaker of the night was Ute Brinkmann, with her second speech from Level one of her Dynamic Leadership Path. Her speech was “Autobahn or Highway” where she, with the greatest of ease and best of examples, proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, it was no question at all! It is Autobahn! From the skill of German drivers, to expert road design that lasts, and everything in between! There really is! no comparison. Ute is an exemplary speaker and had everyone taking notes on style and presentation, especially her evaluatorStephen. As difficult as it is to evaluate a DTM+++, Steve was able to assist in some small way to help Ute advance her craft.

Next on the list with his second speech out of the Competent Communicator manual was Mark Richardson! Mark shared with us the “Everyday Utility of a Knife”, reasons why we should all carry a knife! The everyday utility of a knife, is truly extensive. From ease of carrying with so many styles, to its numerous uses. A truly remarkable tool! Effective at its intended use as a cutting tool, hand! y in dire emergencies where one would be caught and needed to be cut away from being stuck in clothes or seatbelts. A handy little piece of insurance, that he swayed most of us to start carrying. Except Heather, she has always hand knives around…BIG KNIVES!  Sheetal evaluated Mark’s speech and did a fantastic job as always! Noticeable growth and comfort!

Our final speaker of the night was Schuyler Diehm with his 4th speech out of the Competent Communicator manual, “Ho! w to Say it”. Schuyler shared in his speech, “The three Pillars of Health” a story of a prisoner of war, where his captors broke him down by chaining him to the wall and restricting his movement. They improperly fed him, making him malnourished. They deprived him of the basic consistency of sleep. Over time, he broke. Relating that to us, in modern day, we are no different with our lifestyles, and we have no captors but ourselves. Schuyler also shared tips and tricks to help with each and every deficiency from the story, so we can live better lives NOW! Ravi Perera was was his evaluator and shared how impressed he was with his 4th spe! ech. Say it isn’t so!   
                                                 
Most important in Ravi’s evaluation, he reminded us that Toastmasters should not thank the audience at the end of their speeches, because it is the audience that should be thanking the speaker, and we thank ALL our speakers tonight for such well delivered speeches!

We next had our Table Topics portion run by Stephen McGirr! He pulled amazing speeches from every participant! He first shared that, on the back of his newsletter, he had provided several tips to make it through the 60 seconds we aim for when participating in Table Topics. Stephen read a quote and asked a question. Our enthusiastic first participant was Rob Dalo! Rob shared most all tips from the back of the ! sheet, extending his speech well over the required time and got to the task of sharing a very visual example of plumbing work! Allison Klump shared with us the first step in moving in a new direction, and she has been around the world some! Thankfully pulling up ties and coming north from Florida on a prayer! We are glad to have you near us!  Heather Turner shared with us excitedly about her view on Mark’s speech about KNIVES! Especially in self-defense when she and some fellow culinary students were the victims of an attempted mugging with a small knife…when culinary students have MUCH sharper and MUCH larger knives! Ravi Perera shared with us his belief about how people are unique and that the approach used for every situation must be unique to properly communicate. A very competent Toastmaster with great delivery! Deandre Camara jumped at the chance to be our last speaker for his first time ever speaking in front of a Toastmaster crowd! Deandre shared with us what he is doing to help others. He is starting by surrounding himself with go! od people and working on his speaking skills, and Deandre, you are moving in a great direction with your father, and hoping you to join us!

We took a 5 minute break and everyone had great conversations and enjoyed chocolates and chips and donuts OH MY!

When we resumed Stephen introduced Heather as the general evaluator of the night leading a darn fine evaluations segment! Heather also shared some tips about the meeting she liked and thanked all participants and guests.

If you weren't able to make it to the meeting, our next meeting is August 7th. I want YOU to be a part of the fun! See you all in 2 weeks!

Steve