Good evening fellow Toastmasters!
Another fine meeting was had for all in attendance on Tuesday November 20th! Here is the meeting recap:
Members in attendance Stephen McGirr, Sheetal Patel, Heather Turner, Phil Gagnon, Rob Dalo, Maureen Willett, Andrew Watt, Donna Denert, Tom Alvord, Carl Lepack, Mark Richardson
Guests in attendance Harouna Camera, Krysten, Douglas, Chris, Damaris Velez
Our Sargent At Arms stand-in, Tom Alvord, banged the gavel at 6:30PM to start the meeting off. Tom opened with a warm welcome, greeted our full house with enthusiasm and style, and smoothly passed control to our President Stephen McGirr. First order of business was to present Donna Denert with her new member certificate and her very own name placard! Welcome to the club Donna! Stephen made an announcement that we will be having a special meeting on th! e 18th, including food, drink, and a unique Table Topics section. We are asking if you are attending, please bring a gift of $5 or less wrapped to place in a gift sack. When we have our Table Topics, we will each take turns pulling a gift out, unwrapping in, and speaking on it as out Table topics! Next, for the guests and everyone to get to know each other, we had a round of introductions with name, how long you have been in Toastmasters, and what brought you to Toastmasters. After everyone had a turn, it was time to start the regular meeting, and Steve passed control to himself as he was the Toastmaster of the evening.
Stephen McGirr addressed the meeting agenda openings first off, with the members that volunteered to fill them out. A very important item to address brought up by our General Evaluator of the night Tom Alvord, is that as we move forward developing our successful club, is to make sure the agenda is filled 100% hours (preferably days) before the meeting starts. This keeps us professional and punctual. Tom has us well on our way to a full agenda for our next meeting, thank you Tom!
Stephen next called up the Phil Gagnon who gave us the invocation for the day. Phil asked us if we knew Nathan Hale, who was an American soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and executed. Courage was the theme. Courage to do what is needed. Courage to start a new career such as Donna Denert, or courage to move and find a job such as our guest Chris. Courage to come to Toastmasters and develop the skills to spea! k in public like most of us. Courage, to do anything! Excellent invocation Phil!
Next called up was Sheetal Patel, with our word of the day BLISS, which means “perfect happiness, great joy”. It was an excellent word selected as it was used approximately a dozen times!
Stephen then called upon our functionaries for the evening which included as Timer, a special dignitary from Energy Toastmasters, club President Damaris Velez. She is a well versed Toastmaster and kept impeccable time! Always on point as the grammarian, was Mark Richardson. Of special note, Mark heard “dreaming out the window”. Toastmasters is a place you will find the most amazing phrasing! Sheetal Patel also served as our umm, Ah Counter!
After our functionaries were identified, it was time to move on to the prepared speeches section. First up with her second speech in as many meetings was Maureen Willet! Maureen shared with us the perfect evergreen decorated for Christmas. Easily one of the most descriptive speakers we have had in a while, Maureen really goes all the way in sharing visually descriptive language. All the way down to her stealing a little Christmas tree when she was a little girl. After leaving a store, the small tree was found when her mother opened up her hand to see what she was hiding wrapped up inside her little fingers! “Christmas Tree Justice” then ensued, as it was placed to grow outside her bedroom window to s! erve as a reminder not to be naughty! After sharing with us examples of how she felt looking at the tree out her window, and how it affected her decisions, sort of, she opened up a small box with all that remained of that tree. Inside were two small pine cones. Carl Lepack was her speech evaluator and also shared some very descriptive language during his evaluation! Wrestling with ourselves to give speeches, pushing against a difficult horse to move and was particularly pleased with Maureen’s use of the prop at the end showing us the pine cones.
Our second speaker of the night was Donna Denert, who shared with us her Ice Breaker! In her speech titled “It’s never too late for a dream”, she shared with us her childhood aspiration of becoming a nurse. Moving through her adolescent years, she shared some of the lessons she learned. It was school years with Algebra and Chemistry which proved to be a hurdle for her. Life seems to have a way of moving along and she became a wife, mom, school bus driver. All wonderful things of course, but not a nurse. She went back to the schooling, and at 42 became the nurse she had always wanted to be! It is never to late to do what you dreamed of! Rob Dalo was her speech evaluator and shared what a ! natural speaker she is and how relaxed she was giving her ice breaker. She had her notes, but didn’t use them too often at all. She shared a great deal and could even had split it up into two speeches!
Our third speaker was given by Mark Richardson, shared with us a speech about “Learning”. Mark, if you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing a speech from him, is naturally warm and humorous without even trying! Mark shared with us the tools of learning from retired Hartford Fire Chief Charles Teale. A very engaging speaker, he really invites the audience to think about if they ever had trouble, taking all day to learn something. If we had all day, to understand all we needed to do, would we remember it all when we tried again? Learning by accident is not learning. And mark shared at the end, the real goal in learning is being able to repeat what your learned, when you need to do it, and whenever! you want! Sheetal Patel was his speech evaluator and shared that indeed, Mark is so full of humor! Sheetal gave advice on how to use the lectern if needed for notes by moving it to the center of the stage and glancing when needed.
Next on the agenda was out Table Topics session led by none other than Mr. Andrew Watt! Andrew started off by having a table added to the center of the room and two chairs added for two participants! It was holiday time and two judges are going to be commenting on clove (Winston Phillip) and orange (Rob Dalo). Winston shared a piece on his grandma’s ham and stealing some from underneath before it was shared for dinner, and Rob shared how for him, Italian food is love and he could talk about it for hours! Next up speaking on the holiday topic of flavor, Tom Alvord shared that as he was growing up, he really didn’t realize how bland his families cooking was, being born to Ge! rman and English parents. When he was exposed to Italian cooking he was blown away and wondered what it would have been like to be born in an Italian family! Our guest Chris Kullstroem gave table topics a try and was given the topic of cinnamon. Cinnamon is good sprinkled on eggnog, but one thing she shared she absolutely loves is eggnog as creamer in her coffee. Writing this my mouth started watering! When the dessert comes out and the coffee is supposed to compliment the dessert, she put it as the pumpkin pie compliments the eggnog and coffee! Excellent Chris! Phil Gagnon was given the topic of a taste you didn’t expect. Phil spoke about going to eat with his friend with a special needs child that accidently went for the wrong sauce. Skipping the mild, and mild plus, he used the “don’t touch” sauce and had somewhat of a scene in the restaurant. It all ended well though. Phil is really a great speaker and does so well at all his opport! unities to stand in front of the group and share from his experiences. Last up wasMark Richardson who shared with us something that was made to share but ended up getting eaten all by on our own. Mark admits, he can’t cook, but there is only some many times and so many people that can bring the same cups and spoons to the party! Mark tried making a cheesecake that really didn’t have the right consistency. MMM, tasty! But Mark found it just fine!
We then switched it over to the evaluations portion of the meeting which was led by expert General Evaluator Tom Alvord. Tom reminded us of the need to having meetings prepared well in advance so that we get started on time, reduce the stress of those leading the main roles and are of the utmost professionalism! Tom really liked the meeting and can’t wait for next meeting!
Our next meeting is on December 18! Can’t wait to do it all again with a full house of members and eager participants!! Thank you all for your participation, and we will see you soon!!
Please remember to set Tuesday’s meeting in your calendar and plan to arrive 15 minutes early, as we start promptly each week at 6:30! Thank you!!
Steve
