Cromwell Community Toastmasters 5908 - Club News

Open House Report

2012-03-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

We are totally delighted that Fourteen guests attended our Open House last Tuesday ... nearly out-numbering oureighteen members who attended this exciting evening of entertainment andinspiration!

This made for an extraordinary meeting which began earlywith members welcoming guests and everyone greeting each other, networking andenjoying refreshments.

Phil Mason our Sergeant at Arms called us together right ontime,

Louis Nizet stepped up as Toastmaster and

Bill Sullivan shared inspiration from Dale Carnegie on howto Win Friends and Influence People.

Mary Talbot followed with the Word of the Day: Scintillatingwhich means brilliant and stimulating.

RamManohar Rudravajhala then led us through his carefullychosen, insightful and entertaining Table Topics.

We are delighted that several guests participated along withmembers!

We then were treated to three excellently Prepared speeches:

Heather Turner regaled us with a very funny speech about herpet Rock and pet Rocks in general - a real education!

Charlie Huber practiced what he was preaching by turningthose “ah”s, “um”s "you know"s, etc. into golden silence!

and ...

Our guest speaker Michael Aron used humor to inspire us toconsider that G.P.S. can mean Goals, Plans and Success!

Thank you Michael for your special appearance at our club!

Our General Evaluator Cheryl Mason introduced our speechevaluators: Elizabeth Landeen and Bill Sullivan;

and our technicians:

Ah counter: Crystal Storo

Grammarian: Mary

Word Master: Mary who noted that seven people had used“Scintillating”

and …

Timer Phil Mason

As Toastmaster Louis Nizet skillfully guided us smoothlythrough the entire evening!!

We even had a raffle with member and Division C GovernorSharon Roth organizing tickets and facilitating the drawing for 10 wonderfuland useful gifts! Thank you Sharon and Heather for providing those great items!

We had plenty of delicious refreshments organized by CrystalStoro including provisions from several others including Rob Dalo who wasunable to attend!

(Rob sent two guests to the meeting!)

Thank you Phil for arranging the use of the Arch Room atleast two months in advance and to our VP of PR Heather Turner who generatedtons of great publicity!

Finally - Congratulations to our VP of Education CherylMason for masterfully guiding and inspiring all of us to put this hugelysuccessful evening together!

Let’s all encourage the guests who attended to join ourclub! Louis Nizet is leading the follow up with these guests and we are hopingto have several new members soon.

Congratulations to all of you!

Personally inviting guests seemed a key motivation for themto attend.

This attests to the service we all provide when we extendthe Toastmasters opportunity to those we care about!

Tom Alvord

President

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.365457986806380.89035.221946664490847&type=3

Helpful How to be a better Evalulator links

2012-02-20T08:25:00.000-08:00

Evaluation I: A SimpleStructure for Evaluating Speeches: http://messagemasters.squarespace.com/articles/speech-evaluation-i-a-simple-structure-for-a-speech-evaluati.html

How to Give a KillerEvaluation: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/management/how-to-give-a-killer-evaluation.html

Evaluator: Evaluate to motivate!

http://www.toastmasters.org/members/memberexperience/meetingroles/evaluator.aspx

Keep Your Evaluations on Target

http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/SpotlightArticles/SpotlightArticle_1.aspx

The 3Rs of Evaluating: Review, Reward, and Respond

http://www.toastmasters.org/toastmastersmagazine/toastmasterarchive/2007/november/the3rs.aspx

What? A Standing Ovation for an Evaluation? Thoughtson giving an exceptional evaluation.

http://www.toastmasters.org/ToastmastersMagazine/ToastmasterArchive/2007/November/Articles/StandingOvation.aspx

Assessing Your Evaluations: Maximize the help, andminimize the hurt.

http://www.toastmasters.org/ToastmastersMagazine/ToastmasterArchive/2007/November/Articles/Evaluations.aspx

Viewpoint: The Gift of Evaluation: A message fromour International President

http://www.toastmasters.org/ToastmastersMagazine/ToastmasterArchive/2011/April/Departments/ViewpointTheGiftofEvaluation.aspx

Effective Evaluation

http://www.toastmasters.org/EffectiveEval

Challenging the Advanced Speaker

http://www.toastmasters.org/ToastmastersMagazine/ToastmasterArchive/2007/February/Articles/AdvancedSpeaker.aspx

Cromwell Community Toastmasters Upcoming Events

2012-02-09T13:34:00.001-08:00

1. Open house

· February 21^st - 5:30 – 7:30

· At the Town Hall in The Arch Room on first floor near the library.

· Please bring at least one guest whether they’ve expressed interest in Toastmasters or not.

2. Toastmasters Leadership Exchange (especially for officers, open to all)

· February 23^rd - 6-8PM

· 65 Wooster St., Shelton, CT

3. Regular meeting

· March 6^th - 5:30 – 7:30

· At the Town Hall Room Rm 222 – (same room as tonight 2/7)

· Please sign up early for a role.

· If you are a speaker please email your introduction to the Toastmaster by Friday March 2^nd.

4. Tall Tails and International Club Contests

· March 20^th 2012 - 5:30 – 7:30

· Here at the Town Hall (room TBA)

Consider giving a speech in the contest. A Contest is just another opportunity to practice communication and leadership skills. Those judged to have given the best speeches are eligible to compete at the Area Contest.

There are four clubs in our Area 34. Winners of the Area Contest may then advance to the Division C Contest and Division Contest winners may advance to the District Contest 53 and the Winner of the District *International Contest is eligible to Compete at the International Contest.

Our Division C has about 27 clubs. Our Division C Governor is our very own Sharon Roth. Our District 53 has approximately 140 clubs in CT, Western MA and part of Upstate NY.

The *International Speech contest is called such because it is the only Toastmasters speech contest in which the winner has the opportunity to advance to the International Contest for the World Champion of Public Speaking. The speeches are 5-7 minutes in length and can be any topic the speaker desires. There are over 200,000 Toastmasters world wide in approximately 13,000 clubs.

The Tall Tales Contest speeches are 3-5 minutes. The Tall Tale is an original story of a highly exaggerated, improbable nature with a theme or plot.

5. Mentoring: Return forms

6. Hike with Toastmasters at Sleeping Giant

· April 14 1:00 – 3:00

7. Special Guest Marilyn Jess via Skype: “How to interview over the phone.”

· April 17 Regular meeting 5:30 – 7:30

8. District 53 Spring Conference 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Hartford Plaza Hotel 100 East River Drive East Hartford, CT

A wonderful day of...

· Education

· Inspiration

· The Best Speeches in District 53 (140+ clubs)

· Networking

· Fun

Cromwell Toastmasters Open House

2012-02-09T13:27:00.001-08:00

Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2012-01-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

Attendees: Tom Alvord, Eileen Baird, Akshay Dhote, Charnaie Gordon, CharlieHubert, Elizabeth Landeen, Louis Nizet, Dave Roman, Sharon Roth, Bill Sullivan,Heather Turner

Guests: Anthony DiSantis, Elizabeth Dubosz, Mark D.

President TomAlvord reminded everyone of the Holiday Party January 24, The Open HouseFebruary 21 with guest speaker Mike Aron, the Fall Contests on March 20 and theApril guest Marilyn Jess. We are encouraged to sign up for roles for the nextmeeting on the club website.

Toastmaster BillSullivan performed his role with aplomb. Eileen Baird read the Toastmasters Mission Statement with gusto. Tomoffered the word of the day: PLAUDIT meaning applause. Elizabeth Landeenoffered a provocative invocation suggesting each member write a phrase to usethroughout the year to achieve one's goals. At the end of the meeting, everyone shared what their phrases.

Topics MasterHeather Turner called on Charnaie, Charlie, Louis and Dave Roman to present 1-2minute speeches using creative topics which allowed speakers to add a humorousflavor to the meeting.

Akshay presentedProject #5 “Your Body Speaks” in his speech titled, “Time to Buy a Calendar.” His speech contained many humorous anecdoteswhich the audience thoroughly enjoyed. Tom evaluated Akshay, complimenting himon his strengths and offering one suggestion.

Heather presentedProject #1 from the “Speaking to Inform” advanced manual. The title of herspeech was, “How to Make Brushetta,” during which she demonstrated theproper preparation of the ingredients including the tomato, onion and garlicwith professional tools. The audiencewas treated to a delicious sample of her recipe. Charlie evaluated Heather, complimenting heron the content and presentation with one suggestion.

Sharon gave Project#2 from the Better Speaker Series called “Organizing Your Speech,” entitled, “Dumpthe Script.” She gave handouts at the end showing the five easy steps toorganize an effective speech. Bill evaluated Sharon with compliments and asuggestion.

Elizabeth Landeen,who effectively performed the role of Timer, gave her report. Eileen Bairdpresented the Grammarian report showing her excellent listening skills. Davegave an effective Ah Counter report. Tomreported that Bill and Sharon used the word of the day, Plaudit.

Our guest Mark toldus that his friend, who was a toastmaster, told him what Toastmasters is allabout: Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Charnaie Gordongave the General Evaluation of the meeting, noting the positive aspects. She also spoke about the ToastmastersLeadership Exchange which will take place on Monday, January 30^th atMiddlesex Community College from 6:30 to 8:30pm. All are invited. ClickHere for flyer.

Respectfullysubmitted,

Sharon Roth January4, 2012

Toastmasters Minutes for Tuesday December 20, 2011

2011-12-26T08:05:00.000-08:00

We had another great meeting last night - Tuesday December 20^th, 2011!

Congratulations to all who participated!

Members in attendance…

Akshay Dhote

Charlie Hubert

Charnaie Gordon

Elizabeth Landeen

Heather Turner

Louis Nizet

Mary Talbot

Mano Rudravajhala

Sharon Roth

Tom Alvord

Guests …

Dave Roman

Eileen Baird

We began promptly at 5:30 being called to order by substitute Sergeant At Arms Charlie Hubert who introduced President Tom Alvord …

Tom…

recognized …

new members Elizabeth Landeen and Sharon Roth

guests Dave Roman and Eileen Baird.

announced important dates:

February 21 – Open house

March 20^th – Club Contest

April – Guest speaker by skype – Marilyn Jess

VP PR Heather Turner …

Invited us all to our Holiday Party at her house for January 24^th

Reminded us to be sure to use our new website from now on at http://cromwellcommunitytoastmasters.toastmastersclubs.org/.

Tuesday was the last meeting for which we will have used the old website at freetoasthost.

Heather then took over as Toastmaster, ably introducing all participants and keeping us on track!

Charlie Hubert gave a combined Invocation and Word of the day which was “Courage”. Charlie had the courage and wisdom to print out the word “COURAGE” twice as big as any previous Word of The Day.

Mary Talbot then served as Table Topics Master with very interesting topics having participants give their speech based on pictures – tiny pieces of art she showed to them and then asked them to pass around for all to see.

Prepared speeches were given by …

Mano Rudravajhala –

Project #8 from the CC Manual: Get Comfortable with Visual Aids

Title: “Habits; Exposing the Inspirational Seven Habits of Highly Effective people by Stephen Covey”

Sharon Roth – Speech #8 from 3rd CC manual: "Get Comfortable with Visual Aids

Title: A Gift for Any Occasion

Charnaie Gordon – Custom Speech: "Share the Vision" relating to her

High Performance Leadership projects including the Division C Toastmasters Leadership Exchange to be held Monday, January 30 from 6:30-8:30 at Middlesex Community College.

Tom Alvord as General Evaluator introduced the following:

Charlie Hubert who evaluated Mano’s speech

Heather Turner who evaluated Sharon’s speech

Louis Nizet who evaluated Charnaie’s speech

Word Master: Charlie Hubert

Ah Counter: Mary Talbot (Welcome back Mary!)

Grammarian: Charnaie

Timer: Akshay Dhote

Tom then gave a positive evaluation of the well run enthusiastic meeting along with some minor improvements that could be made suggesting that we can never be too well prepared.

During the closing of the meeting Sharon Roth gave an enthusiastic description of the intriguing plan for gift exchange that is in the works for our Party on January 24^th.(Did I say it’s on Jan 24^th at Heather’s place? – Yahoo! )

Tom happily took down the names of several volunteers for roles for our January 17^th meeting:

·      Toastmaster: Charlie
·      General Evaluator – Charnaie
·      Table Topics – Louis

Multiple hands went up for each opportunity! We are reminded that we can sign up in advance on the web site: http://cromwellcommunitytoastmasters.toastmastersclubs.org/

Our next meeting is January 3^rd at which we expect to have similar enthusiasm, growth, leadership and lots of fun!

New membership pins were presented three of our most recently joined members:

Mano

Sharon

Elisabeth

Finally – and very importantly – we are all delighted to

welcome as new members our two guests Eileen Baird and Dave Roman! Both of these hardy newcomers said that this seems like the type of club they’ve been looking for.

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Alvord

December 6, 2011 Meeting Minutes

2011-12-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

Meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and concluded at 7:00 p.m.

Attendees

Members: Rob Dalo, Charnaie Gordon, Cheryl Mason, Phil Mason,
Crystal Storo, Louis Nizet, Bill Sullivan, Heather Turner, Charnaie Gordon, Sharon Roth, and Mano Rudravajhala
Guests: Elizabeth Landeen (who joined tonight), Deidre Rice

Business Meeting

Cheryl Mason covered the following topics:

- Club Supplies have been ordered from Toastmasters International – a new club banner with new TI logo, a banner stand, full set of Advanced Speech Manuals, promotional marketing materials, membership pins, etc. We’re very excited about the new supplies on their way!

- Upcoming Club Events:

o February 21 – Open Houselooking for volunteer chair (leadership opportunity, earn credit toward CL manual project )

o March 20 – Club Speech Contests, Tall Tales & Internationallooking for volunteer chair (leadership opportunity, earn credit toward CL manual project)

o April / May – Guest Speaker, Marilyn Jess, DTMthis will be a Skype-type of session, topic is phone interviewing skills

Heather Turner covered these topics:

- January Holiday Partymore info to follow, looking for location options, someone’s home or a restaurant, Heather will send e-mail

- New club websitethe current club website will be retired in January, all club members need to register with the new site! http://5908.toastmastersclubs.org/
Any questions, please contact Heather. heather@forfengdesigns.com

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster: Louis Nizet

Word Master: Rob Dalo

Rob had a unique approach to the word-of-the-day:

Everyone had a crayola crayon that had been placed in front of them.

He also showed us his library card.

He went on to explain that he is sometimes challenged to correctly pronounce “crayon” and “library”. He asked each of us to think about the word(s) we have difficulty pronouncing and he would provide a “grand prize” to the winner at the end of the meeting.

At the end of the meeting, during the word report, there was a quick “round robin” report of words that each person has difficulty pronouncing. Everyone practiced the correct pronunciation of each word!

Words: Crayon, library, pronounce, drawer, idea, Caribbean, realtor (and others)

Prize went to: Heather, for shrimp(s) and accouterment

Table Topics Master: Crystal Storo, Theme: Season of Giving

Participants:

Bill Sullivan – Explaining giving to the needy, hats/gloves, food

Rob Dalo – A great meal on Christmas

Cheryl Mason – Finding money on the ground, and community giving

Elizabeth – Yes, she would work at a Salvation Army event this Saturday

Louis – What he really wants for Christmas

Speaker 1: Mano Rudravajhala, CC Speech # 7 Research Your Topic

Avadhana

Introduction: Mano joined Cromwell Community Toastmasters in July this year! Since then he has
been a very active member. Tonight he will be giving Speech #7 from the CC Manual. Mano will be speaking about Avadhana - a literary performance of India

Speaker 2: Charnaie Gordon, CC Speech # 3 Get To the Point

How to Conduct Productive Meetings

Charnaie has been a member of Toastmasters since January 2009. Since joining she has served as a club President and Vice President of Education. She is currently serving as an Area Governor in Division B.

Tonight, Charnaie will be presenting a practice speech for a presentation she will present later this week at another Toastmasters club. This speech will be a shortened version of the actual speech she will present.

The speech goal is to discuss How to Conduct Productive Meetings. This speech is part of the Success Leadership Series, but Charnaie will count tonight's speech presentation towards her CC manual. She'll be presenting speech project #3, Get to the Point. The speech will be 5 - 7 minutes long and the title is "How to Conduct Productive Meetings."

Speaker 3: Heather Turner, Humorously Speaking, Speech #2

Leave Them with a Smile
How to Peel an Onion

Introduction: In 20 years in the restaurant industry and many onions peeled, Heather has found the perfect way to peel an onion.

General Evaluator: Bill Sullivan

Evaluator 1: Heather Turner

Evaluator 2: Phil Mason

Evaluator 3: Sharon Roth

Timer: Cheryl Mason

Ah Counter: Charnaie Gordon

Grammarian: Rob Dalo

Noteworthy:

Bill's General Evaluation report included the following helpful comments:

- Meeting was both FUN and RAN SMOOTHLY – sometimes it’s difficult to do both!

- Table Topics were challenging and well done – and it was excellent that guest Elizabeth was invited to participate

- Signs were well placed and helpful (2^nd guest attended impromptu as a result of seeing signs when she was visiting the Town Hall for something else!)

- It’s helpful when the Toastmaster reviews the roles and asks functionaries to describe / confirm their roles for the meeting

Surprise Guest:

At the end of the meeting, a guest stopped by after seeing the Toastmaster Meeting signs at the Town Hall! Several of us had an opportunity to welcome and talk to Deidre as well as provide her with Toastmasters information.

Deidre indicated she would like to join Toastmasters, lives nearby, and will attend the next meeting!

20 Blogging Ideas for Toastmasters

2011-11-23T08:29:00.001-08:00

(also useful for things totweet about or content for Facebook fan pages or Google+ pages)

Remember social media doesn't have to be a novel, ablog post can consist of a paragraph or a picture with a caption.

Guest or visitor to your meeting comments and feedback about the meeting.
Speech failures with a funny story (only written in the first person).
Your TM club in the News.
A member in the News.
Member achievements.
Why did each of your members join Toastmasters.
Every speech has an inspiration behind it, get your members to describe briefly what gave them ideas for speeches.
Write-ups of speakers, in person or in the media that you and you club have found inspiring, helpful or knowledgeable.
Pictures of your meetings and/or club contests.
A brief FAQs and answers.
What does your club do to differentiate itself from other clubs or even from other organizations.
Speech ideas
Table topics ideas and if you have tried them, write about how they work out.
Bios of your members (if you have 15 members = 15 blog posts).
What each of your members thinks about Toastmasters and how it's helped them.
Articles about public speaking, leadership and improving skills. You can post these links directly to twitter and Facebook. If you are using them in a blog, make sure you give proper attribution and make a point of saying "why" the article was worth referencing.
Meeting schedules, comments about "Congratulations to John Smith, this is his first time taking the role of Toastmasters for the evening", are good for both readers and members, as both like the fact that members are being acknowledged.
Thank yous, to the place where you hold your meetings, a local paper that gives you free ad space, etc. Links/website URLs to venues or resources are always appreciated and help your SEO (search engine optimization) as well.
Toastmaster videos, both your own and Toastmaster IT's and other club's videos can be imbedded in blogs and the URLs sent our both in twitter and posted on Facebook, comments accompanying the links are always helpful.
A relevant book review about public speaking, leadership or other applicable skills.

Here is the list of useful applications from my recent educational session talk at the D53 Toastmasters conference

http://chefforfeng.wordpress.com/useful-websites-information-and-applications-for-social-media-business/

Social Media for Toastmasters

View more presentations from Forfeng Designs

10 Social Media Insights for Toastmasters

2011-10-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

No one can do it all, Everyone is busy with work, with home, with family. Pick 2 channels out of the 4 major ones, Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, Youtube or a Blog and concentrate on doing 2 of those well. Spreading yourself too thin does nothing for your Toastmasters club marketing. Putting your eggs in all one basket is not a really good idea either.
It's not all about you and your Toastmasters group. It's all about other people and paying attention to what they do, who they are and what they are interested in.
Check your mentions and replies. Just like returning a phone call, if someone asks a question or has a problem on social media, you need to respond. Ignoring a comment on twitter for example, can make even a compliment that was made to you, turn into a negative in the complimenter's mind, because you ignored it.
Don't advertise it, if you aren't going to use it. Having a link or button on your website that's says "Fan Us on Facebook" or "Follow Us on Twitter" and the last update was a year and half ago just makes your Toastmasters Club site look bad.
Social Media does not have to be time consuming or cost anything, Investigate and take advantage of the multiple free time saving tools that are out there to manage SM.
Don't Pitch, Engage! Hitting potential members over the head with nothing but sales messages does not a future member make. Try talking to them as people and not prospects.
Don't let marketers snow you. If you have someone tell you can't maintain your own social media venues, or you need to pay them $200 a month to monitor your club's name on the web. My recommendation? Laugh. Why? It's not hard to do and set up yourself. There is free help out there if you need it and it doesn't cost you your first born child.
Social media for Toastmasters is not a buy now proposition. The potential future member you engage with on a blog comment or a Facebook post is not going to turn around and join your club the next day or even that month. Think long term. The person you engage with today, may turn around and become a regular member and may tell all their family, their friends and business associates about it as well (also on social media). The potential return is multiplied by the hundreds.
Social Media is a long term proposition. Success with social media does not come over night. It takes time to build a fan base, a twitter following and a blog with high traffic. If you build it, they WILL come, Just not overnight.
ROTI (Return on Time Investment) beats out ROI (Return on Investment, i.e. the layout of money) any day. If you doubt this, do a little math, a $400 magazine ad or radio shot has the possible potential of reaching how many people and with what return? VS five minutes of your time on social media has the potential of reaching thousands of people.

August 16th, 2011 Meeting Minutes

2011-08-19T14:11:00.001-07:00

Meeting started at 5:35 p.m. and concluded at 7:00 p.m.

Attendees

Members: Tom Alvord, William Sullivan, Crystal Storo, Louis Nizet, Heather Turner, Charnaie Gordon, and Akshay Dhote.

Business Meeting

Crystal reminded the club of the set date of Tuesday, September 20th for the upcoming Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contest. Crystal encouraged members to sign up for a Humorous speech or Table Topics contestant and/or sign up for a role.

Contest Roles:

Table Topics Contestants (no limit) – 1 signed up so far – speak for 1-2 minutes, after receiving a topic

Humorous Speech Contestants (no limit) – 2 signed up so far – present an original 5-7 minute speech

Contest Chair – Crystal Storo – Organizes the contest, supplies, prepares the agenda, helps fill roles, briefs contestants & SAA on rules

Contest Master – Charnaie Gordon – Toastmaster for the Contest, follows a prepared agenda / script

Chief Judge (1 needed) – Ensures published rules are followed, briefs judges, counters, timers on duties, selects tiebreaking judge

Contest Judges (2-4 more needed) 3 participants signed up so far – Using pre-printed judging ballot, scores and ranks contestants, follows judges code of ethics

Timers – (1 more needed) – Charlie Hubert - Primary timer signals contestants, both timers document speech time using pre-printed time record sheet

Ballot Counters – (3 needed) Collect sealed ballots from each judge, outside of contest room, record speakers points on tally sheets

Sergeant At Arms – Philip Mason - Helps with room setup, calls meeting to order, guides contestants in and out of the room as necessary

Table Topics Master – Heather Turner – Provide the same general topic to each contestant. Should lead to an opinion or conclusion

Louis Nizet reminded members of the upcoming table we have set up for the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce meeting. Louis asked those who signed up to be there early to help with set up.

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster: William Sullivan

Word Master: Akshay Dhote

APPOSITE – appropriate and relevant

Table Topics Master: Heather Turner

Participants: Louis Nizet – Fortune Cookie

Charnaie Gordon – 1st Job Interview

Akshay Dhote – Penny Year

Tom Alvord – Why did the Chicken cross the road?

Crystal Storo – What gets better with age?

Speaker 1: Heather Turner, Project 1 from the Humorously Speaking Manual
Amo, Amas, Amat, Amamus, Amatis, Amant, EMU

Speaker 2: Charnaie Gordon, Project 3 from the Humorously Speaking Manual
A Rite of Passage

Speaker 3: Tom Alvord, CC # 2 Organize Your Speech
Wrinkle Free

General Evaluator: William Sullivan

Evaluator 1: Louis Nizet

Evaluator 2: Crystal Storo

Evaluator 3: Charnaie Gordon

Timer: Crystal Storo

Ah Counter: Louis Nizet

Grammarian: Charnaie Gordon

Prepared by Crystal Storo, Club Secretary 8/18/2011

August 2nd, 2011 Meeting Minutes

2011-08-03T11:52:00.001-07:00

Meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and concluded at 7:20 p.m.

Attendees

Members: Tom Alvord, Cheryl Mason, William Sullivan, Crystal Storo, Philip Mason, Charlie Hubert, Louis Nizet, Heather Turner, Charnaie Gordon, Mano Rudravajhala, and Akshay Dhote.

Guests: Jerry Aiyathuria and Nancy Green

Business Meeting

Tom Alvord, our club President, introduced our guests and guest speaker of the evening, Jerry Aiyathuria.

Cheryl Mason congratulated the club on achieving the President’s Distinguished Club award. She also congratulated and informed the club of Heather Turner for achieving her Competent Communicator award and William Sullivan for achieving his Advanced Bronze Leader award.

Contest Roles:

Table Topics Contestants (no limit) – 1 signed up so far – speak for 1-2 minutes, after receiving a topic

Humorous Speech Contestants (no limit) – 1 signed up so far – present an original 5-7 minute speech

Contest Chair – Crystal Storo – Organizes the contest, supplies, prepares the agenda, helps fill roles, briefs contestants & SAA on rules

Contest Master – Charnaie Gordon – Toastmaster for the Contest, follows a prepared agenda / script

Chief Judge (1 needed) – Ensures published rules are followed, briefs judges, counters, timers on duties, selects tiebreaking judge

Contest Judges (2 more needed) 3 participants signed up so far – Using pre-printed judging ballot, scores and ranks contestants, follows judges code of ethics

Timers – (1 more needed) – Charlie Hubert - Primary timer signals contestants, both timers document speech time using pre-printed time record sheet

Ballot Counters – (3 needed) Collect sealed ballots from each judge, outside of contest room, record speakers points on tally sheets

Sergeant At Arms – Philip Mason - Helps with room setup, calls meeting to order, guides contestants in and out of the room as necessary

Table Topics Master – Heather Turner – Provide the same general topic to each contestant. Should lead to an opinion or conclusion

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster: Tom Alvord

Word Master: Nancy Green

PROGRESS – Noun & Verbal – Development/Growth & Forward movement

Table Topics Master: Cheryl Mason

Theme: Pictures to Improve Imagination/Creativity

Participants: William Sullivan – Picture of Earth from the Moon

Charlie Hubert – Antique Picture of Family

Akshay Dhote – Picture of the Subway rush hour

Nancy Green – Picture of the Grand Canyon

Philip Mason – Picture of a double Rainbow

Crystal Storo – Picture of an Albino Ladybug

Louis Nizet – Picture of a Painting

Speaker 1: Charnaie Gordon, Project 3 from the Humorously Speaking Manual
The Disagreement

Speaker 2: Mano Rudravajhala, CC Speech # 2 Organize Your Speech

Java

Speaker 3 (Guest): Jerry Aiyathuria, Practicing for International Contest, second speech
The Best Thing that Ever Happened To You

Speaker 4 (Guest): Jerry Aiyathuria, Practicing for World Championship of Public Speaking Contest

Trapped

General Evaluator: William Sullivan

Evaluator 1: Heather Turner

Evaluator 2: Charnaie Gordon

Evaluator 3: Round Robin (Everyone)

Evaluator 4: Not needed

Timer: Philip Mason

Ah Counter: Mano Rudravajhala

Grammarian: Louis Nizet

Noteworthy

· Cheryl Mason encouraged imagination and creativity growth with a great Table Topics session

· We were also blessed to hear Jerry Aiyathuria perform his prepared speech for the semifinals of the World Championship of Public Speaking Contest at the 2011 Toastmasters International Contest in Las Vegas on August 18th. If he wins the semifinals he will go on to the Finals where he will have to deliver a new speech. That would be "The Best Things That Ever Happened To You" (working title).

· Everyone was in agreement of the impact of new outdoor signs on the street, which were very helpful to the guests who attended our meeting. Heather Turner also made Member name badges and had blanks available for guests.

Prepared by Crystal Storo, Club Secretary 8/3/2011

July 19, 2011 Meeting Minutes

2011-07-22T13:40:00.001-07:00

Meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and concluded at 7:10 p.m.

Attendees

Members: Tom Alvord, Cheryl Mason, Philip Mason, Crystal Storo, Charlie Hubert, Louis Nizet, Mary Talbot, Heather Turner, Charnaie Gordon, Joe Lenart and Mano Rudravajhala
Guests: Laura Dinan, Area 34 Governor

Business Meeting

Tom Alvord, our Club President, called up Club Secretary, Crystal Storo to read the club mission. Tom informed the club of 3 officers completing training, 2 going on Saturday and 1 still pending. Tom announced our District 53, Area 34 Governor, Laura Dinan as a guest to our Club meeting.

Laura conducted the installment of our new Club Officers: Philip Mason - Sergeant at Arms, Standing in for Brian Fleming, Charlie Hubert – Treasurer, Crystal Storo – Secretary, Heather Turner – Vice President of Public Relations, Louis Nizet – Vice President of Membership, Cheryl Mason – Vice President of Education, and Tom Alvord – President

Cheryl Mason congratulated the club of achieving the President’s Distinguised Club award. She also informed the club of the upcoming Fall Contest – Table Topics and Humorous set to take place on Tuesday, September 20th, 2011. Cheryl encouraged members to sign up early for speeches and roles. The following roles are available:

Contest Roles:

Table Topics Contestants (no limit) – speak for 1-2 minutes, after receiving a topic

Humorous Speech Contestants (no limit) – present an original 5-7 minute speech

Contest Chair (1) – Organizes the contest, supplies, prepares the agenda, helps fill roles, briefs contestants & SAA on rules

Contest Master (1) – Toastmaster for the Contest, follows a prepared agenda / script

Chief Judge (1) – Ensures published rules are followed, briefs judges, counters, timers on duties, selects tiebreaking judge

Contest Judges (5) – Using pre-printed judging ballot, scores and ranks contestants, follows judges code of ethics

Timers – (2) Primary timer signals contestants, both timers document speech time using pre-printed time record sheet

Ballot Counters – (3) Collect sealed ballots from each judge, outside of contest room, record speakers points on tally sheets

SAA – (1) Helps with room setup, calls meeting to order, guides contestants in and out of the room as necessary

Table Topics Master (1) – Provide the same general topic to each contestant. Should lead to an opinion or conclusion

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster: Cheryl Mason

Word Master: Heather Turner

BEMUSED – filled with bewilderment

Table Topics Master: Mary Talbot, Theme: Bag of Goodies

Participants:

Philip Mason – Magic Lizard

Laura Dinan – Wooden Fish

Crystal Storo – Metal Spring

Joe Lenart – Arabian Doll

Speaker 1: Mano Rudravajhala, CC Speech # 1 Ice Breaker

From the Other Side of the Ocean

Speaker 2: Mary Talbot, CC Speech # 4 How to Say It

The Tides of Providence, A must See Art Exhibit

Speaker 3: Charlie Hubert, CC Speech # 3 Get To the Point

Revelation

Speaker 4: Heather Turner, CC Speech # 10 Inspire Your Audience

Mentoring, Why Mentor?

General Evaluator: Charnaie Gordon

Evaluator 1: Cheryl Mason

Evaluator 2: Crystal Storo

Evaluator 3: Phil Mason

Evaluator 4: Tom Alvord

Timer: Joe Lenart/Tom Alvord

Ah Counter: Mano Rudravajhala

Grammarian: Louis Nizet

Noteworthy:

Mano, brand new member, gave his first speech and did a wonderful job!

Heather gave her 10th speech, to complete her CC manual
Tom was presented with a Triple Crown Certificate for completing three educational awards in the last Toastmasters year

Prepared by Crystal Storo, Club Secretary 7/19/2011

July 5, 2011 Meeting Minutes

2011-07-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

Meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and concluded at 7:10 p.m.

Attendees

Members: Tom Alvord, William Sullivan, Crystal Storo, Charlie Hubert, Louis Nizet, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Mary Talbot, Heather Turner, Charnaie Gordon, and new member Mano Rudravajhala.

Business Meeting

Louis Nizet recognized and presented Tom Alvord with a gift of his choice for finishing his CC

Tom Alvord, our new Cromwell Club President, thanked the club and new officers for their commitment to our club and expressed great enthusiasm in our upcoming year.

Louis Nizet explained goals as VP of Memberships and challenged members to get friends, family, neighbors etc to attend meetings as guests. Louis also has a goal of 12 new members for the year (1 per month).

Heather Turner explained goals as VP of Public Relations and informed us of the recent setup of our Facebook fan page and Twitter. Heather is also working on several different avenues of marketing for our club.

Tom Alvord informed the club of next meeting, July 19^th will be the installation of the new club officers done by our Area Governor.

Our newest member, Mano, read the mission statement of Toastmasters and as a club we all read the Toastmaster promise!

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster: Heather Turner

Invocator: Crystal Storo

Word Master: Charlie Hubert

ERRONEOUS – derived from error; mistaken

Table Topics Master: Louis Nizet

Theme: Communication

Participants: Tom Alvord, Mano Rudravajhala, Crystal Storo

Speaker 1: William Sullivan, Successful Club Series
Creating The Best Club Climate

Speaker 2: Murguan Pachaiyappan, CC Speech # 10 Inspire your audience

Ten Steps to Improve Self Confidence

Speaker 3: Mary Talbot, CC Speech # 3 Get To the Point
Be Aware, Befriend A Bee

Speaker 4: Charnaie Gordon, Advanced Manual, Humorously Speaking

Speech # 3 Make Them Laugh

General Evaluator: Louis Nizet

Evaluator 1: Everyone

Evaluator 2: Charlie Hubert

Evaluator 3: Tom Alvord

Evaluator 4: Charlie Hubert

Timer: Charnaie Gordon

Ah Counter: Mary Talbot

Grammarian: Crystal Storo

Noteworthy

· We had over 10 uses of the word of the day!

· Everyone, including Table Topics speakers, Prepared Speakers, and Evaluators all were within time limits!!

Prepared by Crystal Storo, Club Secretary 7/12/2011

June 21, 2011 Meeting Minutes

2011-06-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

Meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and concluded at 7:00 p.m.

Attendees

Members: Tom Alvord, Robert Dalo, Akshay Dhote, Charlie Hubert, Joe Lenart, Cheryl Mason, Phil Mason, Louis Nizet Murugan Pachaiyappan, Mary Talbot, Heather Turner

Guest: Mano (2^nd meeting)

Business Meeting

Louis Nizet, Cromwell Club President, thanked everyone for the team effort that resulted in Cromwell achieving President’s Distinguished status this year!

Tom Alvord mentioned the upcoming District 53 Club Officer TLI Training events. The Manchester based TLI is this Saturday, June 25. All members are welcome to attend in addition to club officers. For more info: http://www.district53toastmasters.org/

Cheryl Mason presented Heather Turner with a District 53 Award for completing 5 CC Speeches! Heather received a letter and 1/2 CC Certificate signed by Lt. Gov. Education & Training, Richard Peck.

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster: Joe Lenart

Invocator: Louis Nizet

Word Master: Mary Talbot
TRANQUILITY – calmness, peacefulness, quiet

Table Topics Master: Cheryl Mason

Theme: Reader’s Digest Magazine Topics

Participants: Rob Dalo, Mano, Akshay Dhote, Charlie Hubert, Louis Nizet

Speaker 1: Heather Turner, CC Speech # 7 Research Your Topic

Tin Foil, History and Uses Over the Years

Speaker 2: Tom Alvord, CC Speech # 8 Get Comfortable With Visual Aids

Even You Can Learn to Read Music

Speaker 3: Mary Talbot, CC Speech # 2 Organize Your Speech

Peace &Tranquility

Speaker 4: Tom Alvord, Successful Club Series Module

Evaluate to Motivate

General Evaluator: Murugan Pachaiyappan

Evaluator 1: Rob Dalo

Evaluator 2: Phil Mason

Evaluator 3: Cheryl Mason

Evaluator 4: Cheryl Mason (written evaluation only)

Timer: Akshay Dhote

Ah Counter: Charlie Hubert

Grammarian: Rob Dalo

Noteworthy

· A number of “first-times” at tonight’s meeting! Congratulations to all:

Rob- first time giving a speech evaluation

Phil – first time giving a speech evaluation

Akshay – first time serving as timer

Murugan – first time serving as General Evaluation

· Tom completed TWO educational awards tonight: CC Competent Communicator & ALB Advanced Leader Bronze. Tom completed an ACB in April which means he has earned a TRIPLE CROWN award (recognition by Toastmasters International for achieving 3 educational awards in one year)! Congratulations. Tom!

· With Tom’s additional CC achievement tonight, Cromwell has earned the 9^th Distinguished Club Program DCP point which achieves President’s Distinguished designation from Toastmasters International for the Cromwell Club! Congratulations to all!

Tom Alvord Places First in the Division C Tall Tales Contest!

2011-04-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

Tom Alvord competed in the Division C Tall Tales Speech Contest on April 26 in Marlborough, CT, representing Club 5908 Cromwell Community Toastmasters, .

Tom placed FIRST out of the five contestants who had previously won their club and area contests in order to earn their spots in the division contest. The competitors at the division contest represented the best speakers across 24 clubs and 6 areas, all of which make up Division C.

Also attending from Cromwell: Louis Nizet, Club President, Cheryl Mason, VPPR, Charlie Hubert, and Phil Mason.

Tom's Tale, "Swanee River" earned him 1st Place in the Division Contest. Tom will go on to compete in the District 53 Speech Contests on May 21 in East Windsor, CT. We wish Tom much success and hope to see many of our fellow club members at the District Conference to support him!

Read more here:

Contest Results, April 26, 2011 Division C

District Spring 2011 Conference Info

Pictured l-to-r: Dave Wheeler, DTM, District Governor, Tom Alvord, 1st Place Tall Tales Winner,
Cheryl Mason, DTM, Division C Governor, Leslie Hammond, CC, Area C6 Governor & Contest Master

Pictured l-to-r: Leslie Hammond, CC, Area C6 Governor & Contest Master, Tom Alvord, 1st Place Tall Tales Winner, Liz Trendowski, ACS, CL, Contest Chief Judge

January 20, 2011 Meeting Minutes

2011-01-21T15:44:00.000-08:00

Middlesex & Cromwell Speech-a-Thon

See many great pictures from this event here: Speech-a-Thon Pictures

The 2^nd annual Joint Speech-a-Thon with Middlesex County Toastmasters & Cromwell Community Toastmasters was held on Thursday, January 20, 2011, at the Cromwell Public Library, in the Arch Room. The event was well attended with members from both clubs joining in the fun as well as a number of guests. Refreshments were provided for everyone to enjoy.

The meeting featured seven great speeches, including a “secret” speaker not known until that evening! Ute Brinkmann from Eagle Club in Wallingford was a guest speaker. Thorough, constructive speech evaluations were given to all the speakers, and one evaluation consisted of “round robin” comments from everyone in the audience, including guests!

Opening

Louis Nizet, Cromwell Club President, opened the meeting and welcomed all! Guests were introduced individually and welcomed.

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster: Bill Sullivan, Cromwell

Timer: Brian Conte, Cromwell

Ah Counter: Phil Mason, Cromwell

Speaker 1: Jackie Kirwan, Middlesex

Speaker 2: Murugan Pachaiyappan, Cromwell & Middlesex

Speaker 3: Charlie Hubert, Cromwell

Speaker 4: Charnaie Gordon, Middlesex & Cromwell

Speaker 5: Ute Brinkmann, Eagle

Speaker 6: Jay Broderick, Middlesex

Speaker 7: Tom Alvord, Cromwell & Middlesex

General Evaluator: Kay Jeyapalan, Middlesex

Evaluator 1: Bill Sullivan, Cromwell

Evaluator 2: Rob Schaff, Middlesex

Evaluator 3: Cheryl Mason, Cromwell & Middlesex

Evaluator 4: Michael O’Brien, Middlesex

Evaluator 5: Louis Nizet, Cromwell

Evaluator 6: Kay Jeyapalan, Middlesex

Evaluator 7: All, Round Robin Feedback

Closing

Charnaie Gordon, Middlesex Club President asked each of the guests for feedback and comments regarding the meeting. The feedback from guests was very positive and comments such as “stimulating,” “fun,” and “I’ll be back” were heard. Charnaie then closed the meeting. Meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. sharp!

January 4, 2011 Meeting Minutes

2011-01-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

The first meeting of the year was well attended and very educational! The meeting featured three great speeches, table topics that were loads of fun and included surprise props, and thorough, constructive speech evaluations!

Members Present: Tom Alvord. Phil Mason, Cheryl Mason, William Sullivan, Charlie Hubert, Heather Turner, Ethel Peltz, Joe Lenart, John Lecornec, Akshay Dhote, Udaya Neelam

Guests Present: Charnaie Gordon

Charnaie completed the application process and became our newest member tonight! Welcome!

Udaya Neelam, Area C5 Governor, conducted an official club visit.

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster: Cheryl Mason

Invocation: Charnaie Gordon

Word Master: Ethel Peltz

Timer: Charlie Hubert

Grammarian: Charnaie Gordon

Ah Counter: Akshay Dhote

Table Topics Master: Heather Turner

Speaker 1: Phil Mason

Speaker 2: Tom Alvord

Speaker 3: Bill Sullivan

General Evaluator: Joe Lenart

Evaluator 1: Heather Turner

Evaluator 2: Charnaie Gordon

Evaluator 3: Udaya Neelam

Business Portion

Vice President of Membership (VPM) Bill Sullivan welcomed all and kicked off the meeting.
Upcoming events:

Thu 1/20/2011 7-9:00 p.m. Speech-a-Thon with Cromwell & Middlesex Clubs, Cromwell Town Hall

Mon 1/24/2011 7-9:00 p.m. Division C TLE Mid-Year Officers Training, All Welcome, Cromwell Town Hall

Sat 1/29/2011 12 noon – 6 p.m. District 53 Jan Jam 2011 – This is a free event open to all!

The Hartford, Tower 22^nd floor, 690 Asylum Ave., Hartford, CT 06105

Must pre-register, RSVP to: janjam@district53toastmasters.org

***************

Ethel presented the Word of the Day, “compensate”

Table Topics

Table Topics was led by Heather Turner. Participants: Tom, Ethel, Akshay, John, Joe, Udaya

Props were provided for some to use in their speeches, while others responded to “what-if” scenarios such as inheriting a large sum of money, and explaining driving infractions!

Education Portion

Speaker #1 Phil Mason

Speech Number: 2

Speech Length: 5 – 7 minutes

Manual: Competent Communicator

Objective: Organize Your Speech

Title: My Passion – Or Is It An Obsession?

Phil described his love for motor sports and racing, which started early in his childhood.

Speaker #2 Tom Alvord

Speech Length: 10-15 Minutes

Objective: Successful Club Series

Title: Going Beyond Our Club

Modules in the Successful Club Series are Toastmasters International provided materials that address the quality of club meetings and offer tips on attracting and maintaining members. Fulfills ACS & ALB requirement.

Tom described the many ways for personal enrichment and growth by attending events and participating in activities outside the club environment. The opportunity is to get to know and interact with a broad variety of people while practicing communication and leadership in these other environments.

Easy opportunities: visit another club, participate in an area contest, attend the upcoming Jan Jam, join a Toastmasters hike.

Speaker #3 Bill Sullivan

Speech Length: 10-15 minutes

Objective: Successful Club Series

Title: Setting the Stage for Success: Meeting Roles & Responsibilities

Bill described the various meeting roles and how important they are to successful meetings. He also described additional meeting roles (e.g. Humorist) which we may want to consider adding to our structure. He included descriptions of the club officer duties as well and how their contributions help to strengthen the club.

Evaluation Portion

Joe led the Evaluation portion of the meeting as General Evaluator.

Speech Evaluators provided feedback to each of the speakers:

Evaluator 1: Heather Turner

Evaluator 2: Charnaie Gordon

Evaluator 3: Udaya Neelam

Each of the technicians provided their reports:

Word Master: Ethel Peltz

Timer: Charlie Hubert

Grammarian: Charnaie Gordon

Ah Counter: Akshay Dhote

Closing

Toastmaster Cheryl closed the meeting. Meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.

December 21, 2010 Meeting Minutes

2010-12-31T07:02:00.000-08:00

The last meeting of the calendar year was well attended and lots of fun with a variety of speeches, table topics, and evaluation reports! Our Toastmaster, Bill, kept the meeting moving and on track while bringing lots of energy and enthusiasm to the meeting.

Members Present: Tom Alvord. Phil Mason, Cheryl Mason, William Sullivan, Charlie Hubert, Heather Turner, Brian Conte, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Ethel Peltz, Joe Lenart

Guests Present: Joe, John Lecornec, Akshay Dhote

John & Akshay completed membership applications and joined as new members! Welcome!

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster: Bill Sullivan

Invocation: Heather Turner

Word Master: Murugan Pachaiyappan

Timer: Phillip Mason

Grammarian: Brian Conte

Ah Counter: Brian Conte

Table Topics Master: Heather Turner

Speaker 1: Heather Turner

Speaker 2: Ethel Peltz

Speaker 3: Tom Alvord

General Evaluator: Cheryl Mason

Evaluator 1: Charlie Hubert

Evaluator 2: Cheryl Mason

Evaluator 3: Round Robin led by Bill Sullivan

Business Portion

Our VPM Bill Sullivan welcomed club members and guests. Upcoming events:

Ø January 20^th, 2011 Cromwell Community Toastmasters & Middlesex Toastmasters are joining together for a Speech-a-thon at the Cromwell Town Hall (7pm to 9pm). All members are encouraged to sign up for available roles and make use of this opportunity to get closer to completing their TM goals. Bill will be the Toastmaster and is helping to organize the agenda.

Table Topics

We had a unique table topics session which was guided Heather Turner. She enthusiastically volunteered to fill in when help was needed! Topics included clever play-by-play narration of baseball game highlights with role-play by Bill & Phil, and other topics which included our guests as willing participants!

Education Portion

Speaker #1 Heather Turner

Speech Number: 2

Speech Length: 5 – 7 minutes

Manual: Competent Communicator

Objective: Organize Your Speech

Title: The Elephant in the closet, or dyslexia and should one wear a big red D?

Heather shared stories and experiences about dealing with dyslexia, and inspired the audience with this speech!

Speaker #2 Ethel Peltz

Speech Number: 4

Speech Length: 5 – 7 minutes

Manual: Competent Communicator

Objective: Get to The Point

Title: Trip to Stowe, VT

Ethel shared many interesting facts about the early endeavors of Ben & Jerry, the founders of the famous ice cream company, She left everyone wanting to hear more!

Speaker #3 Tom Alvord

Speech Number: 1

Speech Length: 4 – 6 minutes

Manual: Competent Communicator

Objective: The Ice Breaker

Title: Paint

Tom shared a story from his childhood about painting, and left us with a very inspirational message about exploring our potential talents and not giving up!

Evaluation Portion

Cheryl led the Evaluation portion of the meeting as General Evaluator.

Speech Evaluators provided feedback to each of the speakers:

Evaluator 1: Charlie Hubert

Evaluator 2: Cheryl Mason

Evaluator 3: Bill Sullivan led a timed round-robin evaluation segment for Tom, where each member of the audience provided feedback about Tom’s speech. Members and guests all participated!

Each of the technicians provided their reports:

Word Master: Murugan Pachaiyappan

Timer: Phillip Mason

Grammarian: Brian Conte

Ah Counter: Brian Conte

Closing

Bill asked each of the guests for their feedback of the meeting. Feedback was very positive feedback; John Lecornec and Akshay Dhote completed membership applications and joined as a new members!

Meeting was adjourned approximately 6:40 p.m.

December 7, 2010 Meeting Minutes

2010-12-08T15:21:00.000-08:00

Participants : Louis Nizet, Tom Alvord. Phil Mason, Cheryl Mason, Praveen Nair, William Sullivan, Charles Hubert, Phillip Mason, Heather Turner, Brian Conte,

Guests : John

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster : Heather Turner

Invocation : Heather Turner

Word Master : Phillip Mason

Timer : Praveen Nair

Grammarian : Cheryl Mason

Ah Counter : Charles Hubert

Table Topics Master : Tom Alvord

Speaker 1 : Brian Conte

Speaker 2 : Murugan Pachaiyappan

Speaker 3 : Tom Alvord

General Evaluator : Cheryl Mason

Evaluator 1 : William Sullivan

Evaluator 2 : Louis Nizet

Evaluator 3 : Charles Hubert

Business Portion

Our club President Louis Nizet started off the meeting by welcoming the club members and guests. Below are the highlights of the business portion of the meeting:

Ø Welcome certificates awarded to our newest members : Brian Conte and Charles Hubert

Ø Our VP for Education Joe Lenart has reached out to all members to provide him a list of all completed speeches for his records. All members are requested to respond to Joe Lenart’s email.

Ø The Cromwell Community Toastmasters club and Middlesex Toastmasters club are having a Speech-a-thon on January 20^th, 2011 at Cromwell town hall (7pm to 9pm). All members are encouraged to sign up for all the available roles and make use of this opportunity to get closer to completing their TM goals.

Ø Our club is planning an “Open House” in February 2011. More details will be available soon. Heather Turner has agreed to take a lead in organizing this event.

Ø Tom Alvord provided some details around the Mentoring program. Members are encouraged to reach out to Joe Lenart or Tom Alvord with regards to any mentoring requests / questions.

Education Portion

Word of the Day : Stalwart

Table Topics :

We had a unique table topics session which was guided by one of our Stalwart member and Table topics master Tom Alvord. The goal for every member was to carry forward a conversation based on the last sentence spoken by a different member. The key part of the exercise was to have the ability to continue a conversation without asking a question. All the members thoroughly enjoyed this unique exercise.

Prepared Speeches & Evaluations

Speaker #1 : Brian Conte

This was an Ice Breaker speech and Brian provided us a fascinating introduction to his life and his interests.

Speech Number : 1

Speech Length : 4 – 6 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective : To get comfortable in front of an audience for first speech

Title : My Beach

Speaker #2 : Murugan Pachaiyappan

Murugan provided some unique insights into the difference between a Leader and a Manager

Speech Number : 9

Speech Length : 5 – 7 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective : Persuade listeners to adopt your viewpoint or ideas or to take some action

Title : Leadership style

Speaker #3 : Tom Alvord

Couple of weeks ago Tom attended the TM conference and had the opportunity to listen to an accomplished and inspirations speaker Dana Lamon. Tom gave an inspirational speech based on Dan Lamon’s life.

Title : Dana LaMon, My New Hero

Evaluations :

Ø The General evaluator for the evening Cheryl Mason guided us through the evaluation portion of the meeting

Ø William Sullivan, Louis Nizet and Charles Hubert provided a very detailed and effective evaluation for the speeches

Ø The Timekeeper (Praveen Nair), Word Master (Phillip Mason). Ah – Counter (Charles Hubert) and Grammarian (Cheryl Mason) also reviewed their reports for the meeting.

Conclusion :

The Toastmaster for the evening Heather Turner and club ex- President William Sullivan thanked all the members and guests for their participation. Our next meeting is scheduled on 12/21 at 5:15pm.

September 7, 2010 Meeting Minutes

2010-09-10T04:36:00.000-07:00

Cromwell Community Toastmasters: Club 5908
Meeting Minutes for 9/7/2010

Participants : Louis Nizet, Tom Alvord. Heather Turner, Phil Mason, Cheryl Mason, Sharon Roth, Praveen Nair, Todd Bower, Brian Conte, Mary Talbot, Joe Lenart, Murugan Pachaiyappan, Bill Sullivan

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster : Tom Alvord
Word Master : Heather Turner
Timer : Sharon Roth
Grammarian : Cheryl Mason
Ah Counter : Phil Mason
Table Topics Master : Joe Lenart

Speaker 1 : Todd Bower
Speaker 2 : Murugan Pachaiyappan
Speaker 3 : Tom Alvord
Speaker 4 : Bill Sullivan

General Evaluator : Praveen Nair

Evaluator 1 : Cheryl Mason
Evaluator 2 : Praveen Nair
Evaluator 3 : Louis Nizet
Evaluator 4 : Murugan Pachaiyappan

Business Portion

Our club President Louis Nizet started off the meeting by welcoming the club members and guests. He congratulated and thanked all the members for making the 25th anniversary meeting a huge success. A 25th Anniversary Commemorative Booklet is available for download in the “Public Download” section of our website. He also provided some details on upcoming meetings / events:

Humorous Speech and Evaluation contest (Club Level) : September 21, 2010

Education Portion

Word of the Day :
Segue - To continue at once with the next musical section or composition

Table Topics :

Our table topics master for the evening Joe Lenart had some interesting questions / topics.

Participants: Heather Turner, Brian Conte, Mary Talbot

Prepared Speeches & Evaluations

Speaker #1 : Todd Bower

Todd manages the Middletown office of TDBank and is one of our newest members. He gave his ice breaker speech from the competent communicator manual.

Speech Number : 1

Speech Length : 4 – 6 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective : To get comfortable in front of an audience for first speech

Title : The Ice Breaker

Speaker #2 : Murugan Pachaiyappan

Murugan recently made his first trip back to India after becoming a US citizen. He walked us through the anxiety he and his family went through in making sure they had all the necessary paperwork to visit India.

Speech Number : 4

Speech Length : 5 – 7 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective : Select the right words and sentence structure to communicate your ideas clearly, accurately and vividly

Title : One time pain worth a million

Speaker #3 : Tom Alvord

Last week with Labor Day coming up Tom got thinking about work and how it is often thought of negatively. He gave a speech on how he discovered that work can be pleasant

Title : The joy of work

Speaker #4 : Bill Sullivan

Bill has been a parent for 5 years and has done his best to raise his children. He has often reflected on his own childhood and the manner in which his parents raised him as a guide to better parenting. Bill is working from speech project number 2 in the advanced manual Humorously Speaking. The project is called "Leave Them With a Smile".

Speech Number : 2

Speech Length : 5 – 7 minutes

Manual : Humorously Speaking

Objective : Prepare a serious speech that opens and closes with humorous story

Title : The two rules of parenting

Evaluations :

The General evaluator for the evening Praveen Nair guided us through the evaluation portion of the meeting

Cheryl Mason, Praveen Nair, Louis Nizet and Murugan Pachaiyappan provided a very detailed and effective evaluation for the speeches

The Timekeeper (Sharon Roth), Word Master (Mary Talbot). Ah – Counter (Phil Mason) and Grammarian (Cheryl Mason) also reviewed their reports for the meeting.

Conclusion :

The Toastmaster for the evening Tom Alvord and club President Louis Nizet thanked all the members and guests for their participation and also reminded everyone that our next meeting on September 21st is the club speech contest meeting.

August 17, 2010 Meeting Minutes

2010-08-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

Cromwell Community Toastmasters: Club 5908

25th Anniversary Meeting

Meeting Minutes for 8/17/2010

Thank you to all the member and guest for making our 25th anniversary meeting fun filled and a memorable one. We had great participation in all sections of the meeting.

Participants : Louis Nizet, Cheryl Mason, Phillip Mason, Bill Sullivan, Praveen Nair, Joseph Lenart, Ethel Peltz, Udaya Neelam, Brian Fleming, Sandra Bassett

Visiting Toastmasters : Brian Cavanaugh, Joseph Katucki, Michael Aaron, Deb Grehn, Kay Jeyapalan,

Sharon Roth, Ute Brinkmann, Rose Scruto-Zolnik, Charnaie Gordon.

Guests : Brian Cote, Heather Turner, Brian Dibella, Mary Talbot, Jane Tinti, Theo Gomes,

David Adametz, Angie Ondrick, Charlie Mongoho, Angela Caponetto, Shawn M. Mcdade
Meeting Roles

Toastmaster : Cheryl Mason

Word Master : Kay Jeyapalan

Timer : Philip Mason

Grammarian : Joe Lenart

Ah Counter : Brian Fleming

Table Topics Master : Praveen Nair

Speaker 1 : Brian Cavanaugh

Speaker 2 : Michael Aaron

Speaker 3 : Deb Grehn

Speaker 4 : Joe Lenart

General Evaluator : Ute Brinkmann

Evaluator 1 : Bill Sullivan

Evaluator 2 : Udaya Neelam

Evaluator 3 : Charnaie Gordon

Evaluator 4 : Sharon Roth

Business Portion

Our club President Louis Nizet started off the meeting by welcoming the club members and guests. He thanked all the members for working together to plan and setup the 25th anniversary meeting. He also provided some details on upcoming meetings / events:

Humorous Speech and Evaluation contest (Club Level) : September 21, 2010

Party / Social announcement by Louis Nizet

“Bring and Barbecue" party at my place on Saturday August 28-10, beginning at around 5pm and going on as late as participants will want. We'll have hot coal, from real wood, ready to cook the food from about 6pm onward. All members welcome with wife, husband, children, friends and guests. Weather permitting, for those interested, we can take a short walk through the forest to the secluded "Turkey Hill" reservoir, an unspoiled nature jewel in the area. Elize and I will appreciate it if those interested will let us know by no later than August 24th, so that we can send a map and directions how to get there to all participants.”
Education Portion

Word of the Day : Coup

A highly successful, unexpected stroke, act, or move; a clever action or accomplishment.

Table Topics :

The impromptu portion of the meeting was very interesting and thanks to our guests for agreeing to participate. Joseph Katucki, Brian Cote, Brian Dibella, Brian Fleming, William Sullivan, Sandra Bassett.

Prepared Speeches & Evaluations

We had a wonderful set of established and polished speakers and evaluators who kept us all engrossed with their speeches and evaluations.
Speaker #1 : Brian Cavanaugh

Brian Cavanaugh is the Area D-5 Governor and past President of Sikorsky DCMA Toastmasters club – A Presidents Distinguished Club. Brian has been a Toastmaster since 1983 and is dedicated to helping Toastmasters become more effective communicators and leaders.

Speech Number : 10

Speech Length : 8 – 10 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective : Inspire Your Audience

Title : There is a Light

Speaker #2 : Michael Aaron

Michael Aaron has been a Toastmaster since July 2000. He is a Distinguished Toastmaster, which is the highest designations a Toastmaster can receive. He has served in various club officer positions. At the District level, he has server as a club coach, club mentor, Area B3 Governor and Division B Governor. Michael is also a producer of his own TV show called “Toast of the Town” in West Hartford Community Television. In November of 2009, Michael won first place in the District 53 Humorous speech contest and in May of 2010 he took second place in the District 53 Tall Tales speech contest.

Speech Number : 5

Speech Length : 5 – 7 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective : Your Body Speaks

Title : Half Full or Half Empty
Speaker #3 : Deb Grehn

Deb Grehn is a member of two clubs in District 53 – Charter Oak Toastmasters in Glastonbury and the West Hartford Toastmasters. She served as District Governor from 1999 – 2000 and will serve as Area B4 Governor in 2010 – 2011. Deb is an established speaker and also appeared on the TV show “Jeopardy” in 2009.

Speech Number : 2

Speech Length : 8 – 10 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective : Inspire Your Audience

Title : Take the First Step

Speaker #4 : Joe Lenart

Joe Lenart joined our club in June of 1999. Joe is a regular participant at contests and always provides wonderful insights on different topics during his speeches. He is currently serving as the 2010-2011 VP – Education

Speech Number : 1

Speech Length : 5 – 7 minutes

Manual : Speaking to Inform

Objective : Resources for Informing

Title : The Other Free Radicals – Not a Political Commentary
Evaluations :

Ute Brinkmann, our General Evaluator guided us through a very well organized evaluation portion of the meeting. She also provided insightful tips on how to deliver a meaningful and effective evaluation.

William Sullivan, Udaya Neelam, Charnaie Gordon and Sharon Roth provided a very thoughtful and positive evaluation for the four speeches of the evening.

The Timekeeper (Phillip Mason), Word Master (Kay Jeyapalan). Ah – Counter (Brian Fleming) and Grammarian (Joe Lenart) also reviewed their reports for the meeting.
Conclusion :

The Toastmaster for the evening Cheryl Mason and club President Louis Nizet thanked all the members and guests for their participation and help in making this a wonderful and exciting meeting. Members and guests spent some time socializing while enjoying the refreshments.

August 3, 2010 Meeting Minutes

2010-08-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

Cromwell Community Toastmasters: Club 5908

Meeting Minutes for 8/03/2010

Participants : Louis Nizet, Cheryl Mason, Phillip Mason, Tom Alvord, Bill Sullivan, Praveen Nair, Joseph Lenart, Ethel Peltz, Amee Parikh, Robert Schaff, Udaya Neelam

Guests : Todd Bower

Meeting Roles

Toastmaster : Amee Parikh

Word Master : Amee Parikh

Timer : Philip Mason

Grammarian : Louis Nizet

Ah Counter : Tom Alvord

Table Topics Master : Bill Sullivan

Speaker 1 : Robert Schaff

Speaker 2 : Udaya Neelam

Speaker 3 : Tom Alvord

Speaker 4 : Ethel Peltz

General Evaluator : Cheryl Mason

Evaluator 1 : Bill Sullivan

Evaluator 2 : Joseph Lenart

Evaluator 3 : Udaya Neelam

Evaluator 4 : Louis Nizet
Business Portion

Our club President Louis Nizet started the meeting by welcoming the club members and guests. He provided an updated on upcoming meetings

1. Party to celebrate the Cromwell Community Toastmaster Club 25th anniversary – scheduled for August 17th.

a. Speakers involved were mentioned

b. Reminder to members to encourage friends , family and colleagues to join

2. Another surprise party announcement by Louis Nizet

“Bring and Barbecue" party at my place on Saturday August 28-10, beginning at around 5pm and going on as late as participants will want. We'll have hot coal, from real wood, ready to cook the food from about 6pm onward. All members welcome with wife, husband, children, friends and guests. Weather permitting, for those interested, we can take a short walk through the forest to the secluded "Turkey Hill" reservoir, an unspoiled nature jewel in the area. Elize and I will appreciate it if those interested will let us know by no later than August 24th, so that we can send a map and directions how to get there to all participants.”

Education Portion
Table Topics:

We had four members (Bill Sullivan(Table Topic Master), Cheryl Mason, Amee Parikh, Louis Nizet ) and guest (Todd) participate in the Table Topics session.
Prepared Speeches & Evaluations

Speaker #1

Rob has been a member of Middlesex County Toastmasters for 3 ½ years, and has recently joined Cromwell Community Toastmasters. Tonight, Rob will be speaking about the limitations of human effort, and will discuss one theory about what determines those limitations, with his speech, “The Central Governor”.
Speech Number : 1

Speech Length : 5 – 7 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective : Your Body Speaks

Title : The Central Governor
Speaker #2

Udaya Neelam is Area C5 Governor and dual member of Cromwell & Wallingford Eagle Club.During this meeting, Udaya will deliver an icebreaker speech to introduce himself to the Cromwell Community Toastmasters.
Speech Number : 1

Speech Length : 4 – 6 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective : Ice breaker

Title : I and Toastmasters
Speaker #3

Tom has achieved two Competent Communicator awards and is now working toward his Advanced Communicator Bronze award. He will be completing project # 5 of the advanced manual: Interpretive Reading. His job during the allotted 8-10 minutes is to present a famous speech in a way that conveys the original speaker's meaning and emotions.
Speech Number : 5

Speech Length : 8 – 10 minutes

Manual : Interpretive Reading

Objective : present a famous speech

Title : Never Give Up!
Speaker #4

Ethel is a newer member of the club and a resident at Cromwell. She is working on her Competent communicator manual completion

Speech Number : 2

Speech Length : 5 – 7 minutes

Manual : Competent Communicator

Objective :

Title : The Glory of Richmond

Evaluations :

Bill Sullivan, Joe Lenart, Udaya Neelam, Louis Nizet provided a very thoughtful and positive evaluation of the variety presented in the evenings speeches, as was required for each speaker.

General Evaluation :

Cheryl Mason provided a comprehensive evaluation of the proceedings of the meeting and supported to the timer, ah – counter and grammarian reports.

Conclusion :

The president concluded the meeting by thanking all the participants and guest (Todd Bower).

July 20, 2010 Meeting Minutes

2010-07-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

Cromwell Community Toastmasters: Club 5908

Meeting Minutes for 7/20/2010

Participants : Louis Nizet, Cheryl Mason, Phillip Mason, Tom Alvord, Bill Sullivan, Praveen Nair, Peter Carpenter

Guests : Richard Chang
Meeting Roles

Toastmaster : Praveen Nair

Word Master : Louis Nizet

Timer : Cheryl Mason

Grammarian : Cheryl Mason

Ah Counter : Phillip Mason

Table Topics Master : Praveen Nair

Speaker 1 : Bill Sullivan

Speaker 2 : Tom Alvord

General Evaluator : Peter Carpenter

Evaluator 1 : Louis Nizet

Evaluator 2 : Peter Carpenter

Business Portion

Our club President Louis Nizet started the meeting by welcoming the club members and guests. He provided an updated on the Executive meeting held on 7/13/2010 and also made few announcements. Below is the list of items discussed.

1. Party to celebrate the Cromwell Community Toastmaster Club 25th anniversary – scheduled for August 17th.

2. A brief summary of what happened at the TLI (Toastmaster Leadership Institute) meeting in Manchester last month, where the theme was “Have Fun and Get It Done”.

3. The next Officer Training that will be held on July 24th in Bridgeport.

4. More awards being planned to recognize members’ performances.

5. Better communications to keep members informed of meetings reports.

6. Changes to the Cromwell Community Toastmaster Club’s website, and planned assistance for members to get their speech dates booked in advance

7. New calendar for bi-monthly meetings, instead of every second Tuesday.

8. Proposed new system to ease synergy between speakers and evaluators prior to the meeting date/time.

9. Humorous contest – We want to make sure that it will be much fun in October.

10. Ideas to increase membership

11. Another surprise party announcement by Louis Nizet

“Bring and Barbecue" party at my place on Saturday August 27-10, beginning at around 5pm and going on as late as participants will want. We'll have hot coal, from real wood, ready to cook the food from about 6pm onward. All members welcome with wife, husband, children, friends and guests. Weather permitting, for those interested, we can take a short walk through the forest to the secluded "Turkey Hill" reservoir, an unspoiled nature jewel in the area. Elize and I will appreciate it if those interested will let us know by no later than August 24th, so that we can send a map and directions how to get there to all participants.”
Education Portion

Table Topics:

We had three members (Bill Sullivan, Peter Carpenter, and Phillip Mason) and guest (Richard Chang) participate in the Table Topics session.

Prepared Speeches & Evaluations

Speaker #1

Bill has just completed his CC award and is half way through his ACB award, his speech "Good Morning Exercise" focuses on the joy of waking up early in the morning to go out for a run.

Speech Number : 1

Speech Length : 5 – 7 minutes

Manual : Humorously Speaking

Objective : Prepare a speech that opens with a humorous story, personalize the story, deliver the story smoothly and effectively

Title : Good Morning Exercise

Speaker #2

Tom has achieved two Competent Communicator awards and is now working toward his Advanced Communicator Bronze award. With this speech tonight he will be 1/2 way to the 10 required speeches. Although this is speech number 1 it is Tom's third project in the Storytelling manual.
Speech Number : 1

Speech Length : 3 – 5 minutes

Manual : Storytelling

Objective : To tell a folk tale

Title : The Samurai
Evaluations :

Louis Nizet and Peter Carpenter provided a very thoughtful and positive evaluation of the 2 speeches.
General Evaluation :

Peter Carpenter provided a comprehensive evaluation of the proceedings of the meeting and supported to the timer, ah – counter and grammarian reports.
Conclusion :

The president concluded the meeting by thanking all the participants and guest (Toastmaster Richard Chang). Richard thanked the club for the opportunity to attend the meeting.