Meeting Minutes 3.19.19!!!

Good afternoon fellow toastmasters!

The daylight is hanging around a little longer with each passing day, but we never let the sunset on our education at Cromwell Community Toastmasters! Tuesday March 19^th was a fantastic meeting, here is the meeting recap:

Members in attendance Stephen McGirr, Tom Alvord, Winston Phillip, Andrew Watt, Kristyn Neal, Schuyler Diehm, Sheetal Patel, Maureen Willett, Beth Pruchnic

Guest in attendance Carmine DeYoung, Peter Wnek, Chloe Zanardi, Marcus Schumacher, Chris Scoppetta, and Daniel Proiette

Sheetal Patel dropped the gavel at 6:35 p.m. to start our meeting off, welcomed everyone to the meeting, and passed control to President Stephen McGirr, who went right into his business meeting topics. First item was to remind of dues that need to be paid. $51 is due this cycle, $45 for Toastmasters International and $6 for club dues. The second item mentioned was the upcoming Division B International and Tall Tales Speech contests, Saturday March 30^th, at the Waterbury Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.. Come and support our International speech winner at the Area 25 contest, Carl Lepack! It will be a! great meeting with great speech’s all around. Your officer team highly recommends the opportunity to be exposed to well-rounded speakers!

We had some guest introductions, with a 2^nd time visit from Carmine DeYoung, a Distinguished Toastmaster still deciding on which club to join in the area. We share with her great meetings, jump in Carmine! Peter Wnek with his 2^nd visit working on transferring his thoughts to words a little better. Great seeing you again Peter! Chris Scoppetta, first time visitor, who is the President of Cedar Hill Toastmasters. Chris was looking to give a speech at, and visit, a different club than his own. Well he came to Cromwell, and JOINED! Welcome to the club Chris!! 2nd time visitorChloe Zanardi, who is looking to brush up on her public speaking skills, an! d from her performance at the meeting, is going to be unstoppable in her journey! First time visitor Marcus Schumacher, was also visiting from another club, Eagles in Wallingford. Marcus was finally able to make a meeting, and states he will definitely be back! We also had the pleasure of Daniel Proiette joining us and making the meeting. Daniel wants to be around those that are also improving their skills and came to the right place! We look forward to growing with you Daniel!

Stephen McGirr then passed control of the meeting to our Toastmaster of the Night, Sheetal Patel. Sheetal wasted no time and got right to work, as we had a full speaking agenda, and proper timing is in the hands of the Toastmaster. Sheetal started with calling up Stephen McGirr with our invocation. It was a thought on vibration, and how everything in this world vibrates, including emotions. With the Law of Attracting where like attracts like, we should use the Law of Attraction, and getting into a positive state of emotions and excitement, and quietly focus that on everything ! we want that is good in this world. He states he feels he cheated to get what he wanted in his career, but the laughter from the audience makes him think they feel he worked for it…you decide!

Our next meeting objective, was to call on our functionary role holders to hear about their duties for the night. First up was composed guest Chloe Zanardi as the word of the day supplier. The word of the day was “potent” which means “having great power, influence, or effect”. It was used a solid half dozen times in different variations. The next role called upon was handled by Andrew Watt, as the Ah Counter. The purpose of this role is to observe and keep track of, all filler words used throughout the meeting and gives report at the en! d of the meeting when called upon by the general evaluator. Guest Carmine DeYoung DTM was next tapped as our Grammarian of the night. The grammarian takes note of correct or incorrect grammar usage, such as Carmine picking out “wanna” and “gonna”, as well as noting phrasing such as “need a little more feel better” and colorful use such as wiggling feet into the sand. The next role was held by Beth Pruchnic as our Timer for the night. The timer keeps track of speeches, Table Topics, and evaluations, and signals when certain time thresholds are met. The timer signals these time markers with colored cards, records the total time used, and reports at the end meeting.

Moving onto the prepared speakers, Stephen McGirr was our first with a speech from the advanced speaking manual “Speaking to Inform”. The speech titled “Pathways” from project #3 “The Demonstration Talk”, took a look at how members can access their education in the Pathways program. It was a power point presentation that took the members step by step through the process of selecting a path, starting their projects and printing out the evaluations for the meeting. Guest Marcus Schumacher was Steve’s speech evaluator and shared that it was a fitting project choice to share and the presentation method was very good. Possible additions were to smooth out the presentat! ion and time the slides as there was brief disconnects, and a handout also would have been valuable. But a very good speech with relevant information for the listeners.

Visiting Cedar Hill President Chris Scoppetta, was up next with project #8 from the Competent Communicator manual, Getting Comfortable with Visual Aids. His speech “Building a Better Beverage” took us through the process of making Kambucha, a homemade fermented tea full of living probiotics. A tea very good for the GI tract. Tastier than water, and more beneficial than any sports drink on the market. Andrew Watt was the speech evaluator and shared that there were some opportunities to add dramatization with the visuals, especially the growing live culture in Chris’s science experiment looking like drink, and taking a shot at drinking it in front of us as a perfectly safe to drink ! beverage. It was a very informative speech and a great topic for sharing visual aids!

Next on the agenda was Schuyler Diehm with a speech that was evaluated and will count towards an as yet undecided project! Get credit for ALL speeches you give in Toastmasters! Schuyler’s speech shared with us how to stop “Hitting the Snooze Button”. Want to get up on the first alarm? Want to start your day right and keep your energy at a high level when you wake up? How about thinking quickly on your feet w=once you get to them? This speech is what you need to hear! Chalk full of tips, background information, and supporting notes, even I remembered the speech the VERY first time my alarm went off the next day and I tried to hit snooze! Chris Scoppetta was Schuyler’s speech ! evaluator and shared that he absolutely crushed it! It was clear, direct, and relatable topic with supporting documents. Chris shared there was opportunity to use the room more and act out some parts to more effect (getting chased by a bear). A really good speech that I’m sure wasn’t the only one to remember the next morning…

Our final prepared speaker of the night, was Beth Pruchnic, who gave her very first Ice Breaker speech! Her speech shared with us so much about who she is and what she is all about. From her childhood picture on the beach, to her triathlon picture of her on the beach as a woman, and her future…on or near the beach! A competitive woman with goals and a strong background with many, many, MANY activities and interests, we are so glad to have a strong, positive, ambitious woman as part of our club as a friend and member! Stephen McGirr was her speech evaluator and presented her with her Ice Breaker candy award! Also he mentioned what a great ice breaker it was, sharing so much information about herself! and doing it with many Toastmaster cues entwined. She repeatedly used the rule of three, had great eye contact, and vocal tone, and was comfortable with her space. A tip for moving forward, is to not hold onto something with one hand the whole time so we can really experience your freedom of movement! Can’t wait for more!

We next had our Table Topics portion run by Tom Alvord! Tom explained that Table Topics is what we do every day in general conversation, just with and added time limit component. Tom had with him a set of general questions that enabled some excellent answers. First up was Marcus Schumacher with what you love about entering spring time. Marcus shared that he likes that things get better, less snow, more daylight. Not so much cold and freezing anymore. Spring is the opening for the rest of the seasons. Getting out into the day again, preparing for summer and the fall as well. Until we have to retreat back indoors again in the winter. Kristyn Neal shared with the members a favorite spring time activit! y. Kristyn likes to garden and test her skills, and apparently patience! As she states she doesn’t have a green thumb but a black thumb. Planting a garden and trying with seeds at first and if that doesn’t catch start with the little pre-started potted plants. One pesky task that seems to get in the way is the watering part…must remember to water! Winston Phillip was next up sharing about spring food. What types of food, do you associate with Spring? Hot dogs! How about barbeque? Spring is when we roll out the grills and start cooking outdoors. This led to a whole slew of thoughts in ice cream, chips, West Indian food and Spanish food, island food. Food is good! Chloe Zanardi next shared her view on what the changing of seasons means to her. Change of seasons, change of clothes! Switching out the closet of winter clothes, going through them, finding what she won’t wear anymore, what can go to goodwill. She’s not one to sell the c! lothes online, so giving them away works best. Change of seasons, change of thought and mood, and cleansing! Making new again from the winter.

We then switched it over to the evaluations portion of the meeting which was led by expert General Evaluator Andrew Watt! Andrew shared that we did a great job making an excellent meeting. The beginning was tough and started a little late, but that means for his section, he was right on time when he ended at 8:05! We also invited Tom Alvord up who will be filling roles for the next meeting at this meeting. That way we can all be prepared and understand our assignments for the next!

Our next meeting is on April 2nd! 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!!

Steve

March 5th Meeting Minutes!!!

It was cold and snow covered outside for our meeting on Tuesday March 5th! Here is the meeting recap:

Members in attendance Stephen McGirr, Heather Turner, Mariusz Sasinski, Tom Alvord, Rob Dalo, Andrew Watt, Kristyn Neal, Schuyler Diehm, Sheetal Patel

Guest in attendance Carmine DeYoung, Peter Wnek

Stephen McGirr dropped the gavel at 6:35 p.m. to start our meeting off and went right into his business meeting topics. First item was to remind of dues that need to be paid. $51 is due this cycle, $45 for Toastmasters International and $6 for club dues. Andrew Watt would like to kindly remind us, that we need to spend what is in our coffers as we should not make money as a not for profit organization. The second item mentioned was the upcoming Division B International and Tall Tales Speech contests, Saturday March 30^th, at the Waterbury Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.. Come and support our Internat! ional speech winner at the Area 25 contest, Carl Lepack! It will be a great meeting with great speech’s all around. Your officer team highly recommends the opportunity to be exposed to well-rounded speakers!

We had some guest introductions, with Carmine DeYoung, a toastmaster for 20 years who is hunting for a new club in the area, and Peter Wnek. Peter decided to come on in and see if this was the place to work on transferring his thoughts to words a little better. It sure is Peter!

Special congratulations goes out to new member Kristyn Neal and returning member Schuyler Diehm!! Welcome to, and welcome back to, the club!!! Can’t wait to experience your influence on the meeting dynamics!

Stephen McGirr then passed control of the meeting to our Toastmaster of the Night, Heather Turner. Heather wasted no time and got right to work, as we had a full speaking agenda, and proper timing is in the hands of the Toastmaster. Heather started with calling up Mariusz Sasinski with our invocation. It was an Albert Einstein quote, and had the meaning of live for today!

Our next meeting objective, was to call on our functionary role holders to hear about their duties for the night. First up was Sheetal Patel as the word of the day supplier. The word of the day was “portent” which means “a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen” or “an exceptional or wonderful person or thing”. It was a solid choice to share and was used at least a half dozen times in different variations. The next role called upon was again S! heetal Patel, but this time as the Ah Counter. The purpose of this role is to observe and keep track of, all filler words used throughout the meeting and gives report at the end of the meeting when called upon by the general evaluator. Rob Dalo was next tapped as out Grammarian of the night. The grammarian takes note of correct or incorrect grammar usage, advises how it can be made better, and also notes especially colorful language to share and bring to light so we can all benefit and try to incorporate such language into our own speeches. The next role was held by Andrew Watt as our Timer for the night. The timer keeps track of speeches, Table Topics, and evaluations, and signals when certain time thresholds are met. The timer signals these time markers with colored cards, records the total time used, and reports at the end meeting.

Moving onto the prepared speakers, Stephen McGirr was our first with a speech from Effective Coaching, Level 3, connect with your audience. The speech titled “Keep Moving Forward” took a look at the life Steve has led over the last 2 years, and the areas he has received criticism and felt halted by the opinions of other people in his life. Sometimes we can be stifled by living up to the standards or opinions of others, but the real focus that we need to keep in mind is what we want to do with our lives. We will face criticisms, doubts, and the opinions of others and ourselves, but when we keep hold of the vision of what we want to become as the focal point of our thoughts and actions, we keep moving ! towards our dreams. No matter what the obstacles, the vision we hold of ourselves in our minds will be the dominating director of where our lives take us. Heather Turner was Steve’s speech evaluator, and shared that more than previous speeches, he has moved into the center of the room more, and keeps a longer gaze at each audience member to boost the connection. More can be done in the way of asking questions and further developing a truly engaged audience.

Heather Turner was up next with a tale about mentors in her life, as it is a Level 2 pathways project, introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring. Heather shared her cooking life from the time she persisted in getting her first cooking position, to her experience with those she was around for her career. It was through cooking that she met mentors that believed in her, had a great work ethic, and was taught to appreciate employees. And while things can be at their most dire, a good mentor sticks up for their employees and those around them. Rob Dalo was her speech evaluator and shared that she ! does a really good job with body language and expressing thoughts with her words AND hands. Heather added vocal variety, especially with imitating the voice of her French kitchen boss. Rob did suggest that the mentoring story be developed a little further to really describe how the mentoring took place above and beyond the actual business skills Heather gained as far as work ethics and being good to employees.

Next on the agenda was Andrew Watt with a topic that comes before our elections are to take place for next year’s officers. Did you know that Toastmasters roles and officers are actually HIGHLY transferrable skills to the business world?! Toastmasters is actually a leadership organization. A small start that leads to bigger opportunities. Practice leadership by accepting real world positions in the club. Secretary documents legally binding meeting minutes, Treasurer practices real world items such as dealing with the IRS. That’s important!!! Sheetal Patel was his speech evaluator and shared that he had great vocal variety, but maybe was a little too loud for the room at times. Andrew covered s! o much ground with moving on the stage, vocal variety, and body language. A suggestion she made was that he could have touched upon all the roles a little each, instead of a couple roles with more extended descriptions.

Our final prepared speaker of the night, was Schuyler Diehm, with a speech on self-image. Having been one to struggle with self-image when he was younger, shared a process we can use moving forward with our own struggles. I, Stephen McGirr, as Schuyler’s videographer, was not able to take any detailed legally binding notes of the speech as secretary, so will move into Tom Alvord’s role as the speech evaluator, which will give the reader more insight! Tom noted that Schuyler did an excellent job at letting the audience settle before he started the speech. He used great questions to immediately get audience participation and buy-in. The speech was about giving value and passing something onto th! e listener, great for speech giving. Something to work on would be to be cautious of the pacing, as the younger generation can be faster in their communication than an older generation can grasp.

We next had our Table Topics portion run by Tom Alvord! Tom explained that Table Topics is what we do every day in general conversation, just with and added time limit component. Tom had with him a set of general questions that enabled some excellent answers. First up was Kristyn Neal with what book had changed her life. She shared that the book that changed her life was on the fundamentals of marketing, as now, she is at CCSU teaching it! Granted, she has a high level of comprehension and must remember to talk at a lower level for those just entering the subject.Mariusz Sasinski shared with the members a risk he had taken, the first of which was moving to the U.S. with a low level of English comp! rehension. The second of which was having a web design company and doing well, but then having all of his employees focus on a new game called starcraft and losing the company. He learned from that experience how NOT to do business! Peter Wnek was next up sharing about the town where he grew up which was Meriden CT. Peter is actually a photographer and is now documenting Meriden in all of its diverse glory o share as a media public relations campaign for the city. A blue collar town that Peter is shedding a different light on. Carmine Deyoung next shared her view on everything happening for a reason. God wink, or serendipity in her life and how it relates to her next book. The book has to do with the hobo life and her research follows a young man riding the rails, had her as the 2008-2009 hobo queen, and took her to the first national hobo convention in Iowa. A hobo convention and hobo queen??? Speech material all day long!

We then switched it over to the evaluations portion of the meeting which was led by expert General Evaluator Stephen McGirr! Steve shared that we did a great job making an excellent meeting. Steve kept it short and sweet so we could end just past the 8:00 mark.

Our next meeting is on March 19th! 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!!

Steve

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