2015 Spring Contest.

Every year Toastmasters Clubs around the world hold a Spring Contest.

This year's categories are the Evaluation Contest and the International Speech Contest.

Cromwell Community Toastmasters held our Club Contest on March 17th, 2015.

We had a great turnout of members and a whole roomful of guests!

We hope everyone had a great time and we welcome our visitors to come visit again and experience a more usual meeting. We are always this friendly!

Contest Master Crystal Storo with Evaluation Contestants Andrew Watt, Jennifer Bourne, Miroslav Grajewski, Sheetal Patel

Contest Master Crystal Storo with Jennifer Bourne, Phil Mason, Hollie Rose

Congratulations to our club members who finished in first place at the club level.
In the Evaluation Contest - Andrew Watt.
In the International Speech Contest - Hollie Rose.

We hope lots of club members will come support our winners as they compete at the Area level on Thursday April 2, 2015 from 7-9 pm, to be held at Middlesex Community College.

Make plans now to join us and cheer on Andrew and Hollie.

VPPR on a Road Trip 5 - San Diego, California

As you may know, your intrepid VPPR (that's me - Hollie Rose, CC) is on a Road Trip. I have determined to make Toastmasters a part of this adventure. I'm blogging about other clubs I visit.

This time I'm in San Diego!

Toastmasters club #2327386
GSDBA Toastmasters
San Diego, California
Jan. 9, 2014 6pm
Location: The Inn at the Park - Balboa Room - 525 Spruce Ave. San Diego, CA 92103

I picked the hotel I'd stay in for three different reasons. 1 - It was very close to Balboa Park and all the Museums and art there. 2 - I found a great sale rate online. 3 - It had a Toastmasters meeting in one of the meeting rooms on exactly the day I was arriving!

Turns out, after an afternoon in La Jolla, I encountered more traffic than I expected. I got to the hotel at about 5:50 pm. I had just enough time to check in and go running downstairs to the Balboa Room. I walked in about 2 minutes before the meeting started.

What a friendly group! Small but very open. I often like the smaller meetings best because I can actually get to know the members some.
To start the meeting everyone introduced themselves - possibly for my benefit and it was much appreciated.
There was Steve Doster - President, Yvette Currie - VPE, Bob Sanchez, Milo Grecian, Stewart Bornhoft, Ryne Ramos, Cory Russo, Pamela MacPherson, Kris Angell, Bob Ristow and me. Later we were joined by Amir Shayan and everyone joked that he's often late.

The theme for the meeting was "Life at the Speed of Mayberry." Toastmaster of the day Bob Ristow gave an interesting and complete vision of why he chose this theme. Recounting a particular episode of an Andy Griffith show and how it led him to this theme. At some point in this monologue he used the word "flustrated" which I loved so much I wrote it down with three exclamation points in my notebook!!!
Basically the idea was that to rush around from place to place all the time like so many of us do, just doesn't give the best experience of life. In the episode he told us abut a visitor through town had his car break down on a Sunday and spent countless hours chasing people down trying to get it fixed only to learn that they'd gone fishing or don't work on Sundays. By the end of the half hour he'd decided he liked Mayberry's speed and decided to stay a bit.
Bob encouraged us to slow down and enjoy life at a laid back pace. Life is not meant to be sped through.

Grammarian Stewart explained his role like we do it in Cromwell Community TM. Not just as grammar police, but keeping an ear open for "awkward or interesting phrasing." 
The Word of the Day was Flexibility and while all members are encouraged to use the word, Table Topics speakers are especially encouraged to do so.

The Table Topics Master was Cory Russo and he used Mayberry as his jumping off point for a theme loosely connected by the topic of old tv shows.
First TT speaker was President Steve Doster who told us about his part playing Opie in the movie of the Andy Griffith crew all grown up, and how it wasn't the blockbuster it was expected to be. The movie went right to TV.
Second was Yvette Currie. She was asked to explain how it was that the Professor on Gilligan's Island could make a radio out of a coconut but yet he couldn't fix a hole in a boat. She justified the Professor's inability by talking about the differences between book smarts and street smarts.Lastly, Amir was asked about Goofy and Pluto and why one talks and walks on two legs, while the other barks and walks on al fours. They're both dogs after all! Amir was great! He talked about the flexibility of doing table topics when you have no idea who Goofy and Plato are! Isn't Plato a Philosopher?
GSDBA Table Topics was fun all the way around.
This groups shares heartfelt laughter a lot and the warmth and camaraderie is palpable.

Speech # 1 - CC Manual, project 4, How to Say It
Title: Believe by Kristine Angell. Evaluated by Pamela MacPherson.
Believe is a simple but weighty word.
Kris is an Ethnographer. She shared with us exactly what that means and how it helps people and companies learn more about their products. With examples, she told us how her works helps them understand when users and customers go "off label." Her works helps them to see when people stop following directions in order to make the product work for their needs. Very interesting. I learned a lot from this speech.

"We need a second speaker."
Me - "Okay, I'll do it."

Speech # 2 - Custom Speech
Title: Flexibility at the Speed of Mayberry by Hollie Rose. Evaluated by Kristine Angell.
This theme and word of the day was perfectly suited for me to tell some of my story. I talked abut my walkabout and the freedom I'm experiencing to change my plans and my mind about the direction I'll go and the need for flexibility to adjust one's thoughts while on the road in order to be open to the situations that present themselves. I also touched on the fact that I'm doing this partially in order to really enjoy life and the places I visit. Much like the visitor to Mayberry in the episode Bon Ristow told us about, I'm in no hurry.

My evaluation by Kris was (and this is no exaggeration) one of the very best evaluations I have ever gotten as a Toastmaster. In a few short minutes she told me what was good and/or distracting about my stance, my hand movements, my eye contact, my use of today's themes, my voice modulation and the fundamentals of the organization of my speech. She told me what was phrased well, what impact my stories and examples carried both as personal stories and as stories, traits and overarching perspectives from which others can learn. AND she told me exactly how to improve. 
She said this was only her second evaluation! Kris, I hope you participate in your club's next Evaluation Contest - you are a natural and I appreciated your insights. I am vey glad I was able to learn from you!

The meeting wound down and I give props to Stewart's Grammarian report as well - it was filled with great detail of both interesting and awkward moments. Great job!

Proving the extra special friendliness of small Clubs... A couple days later, while sitting on a bench waiting for a restaurant to open, I hear someone say my name with a questioning tone. It was Stewart. He recognized me and I was so pleased he stopped to say hi. Thanks for being so welcoming and awesome GSDBA!

I didn't remember to bring my camera in with me from my car when I literally ran from the check-in desk to the meeting so this photo of the club was taken with my phone. And the photo of me was taken by Bob Sanchez with his phone.

Thanks everyone! I loved meeting you and hope to visit again someday!

Area 32 Fall Contest October 9th, 2013...

Hello Toastmasters and friends,

I wanted to tell you a bit about our Fall Area 32 contest which took place on Wednesday October 9, 2013 in Berlin, CT.

It was hosted by the CCAT Toastmasters in their home meeting zone at Northeast Utilities.

There were veggie platters and pizza and drinks as the small crowd gathered.

When I first arrived I was completely THRILLED to see Charlie Hubert seated at a table with Don Ostertag. It was SO good to see Charlie’s smiling face again. It’s been too long. He looked good and well on the road to recovery. Let’s hope he’ll be able to join us at regular meetings again soon!

Cromwell members represented were Charlie, Don, Tom Alvord, Elizabeth Landeen and Hollie Rose (me) as part of the audience. And Rob Dalo and Andrew Watt as participants in the Evaluation and Humor contests respectively.

The contest got underway precisely at 7 with Ray Johnson of CCAT as the Area Contest Master.

The evening’s Test Speaker was Gaia Dong from the Aetna Club. Her speech was about culture shock and the different ways she experienced it growing up in China, moving to Japan for two years and then coming to the US eleven years ago.

By random drawing the first Evaluation Contestant was Murali Pemmaraju from the Middlesex County Club. He made some excellent points about Gaia’s speech and was able to compare some of her experiences of culture shock with his own experiences when he came to the US. It was an insightful and worthy evaluation but Murali had some tough competition.

Our own Rob Dalo was up next. He took a more technical approach to evaluating the speech; speaking of some of the many things we learn in Toastmasters and how Gaia used those techniques to great effect. He mentioned things like her use of the rule of 3s, her vocal variety, her eye contact and how she worked the room and the stage. For possible improvement he suggested some more extreme physical movements she might use in particular parts of her speech.

There were only two contestants for this contest.

Major Congratulations to Rob Dalo, who represented us well and took first place!

Congrats also to Murali Pemmaraju in second place!

After a break for more pizza and veggies the Humorous Contest began.

First up was our own new member Andrew Watt who has been a great addition to our club. He did a version of the same speech he gave for us at our club level contest but modified it somewhat to fit the stage area. His speech about what’s actually funny is fun to watch. From acting in Hamlet as a kid, to the follies of history, we get to contemplate humor. (Are feet funny?) His speech title was “What’s Funny, Anyway?”

Next up was Maria Johnson from the Middlesex County Club. She gave a speech that was very well organized – taking us from an awareness of how the story would contain death and an hour long crying jag, through some history, the death, the crying jag, something lost and something found. Her speech was titled “Diamond in the Fluff.”

The third and final contestant was Dolly Reed from CCAT. She dressed the part and looked like a mountain farm girl as she told the story of her own brand of culture shock when, as a pre-teen, her family moved from the suburbs of Ohio to the wilds of West Virginia. Many comparisons were made between the different worlds and I think we all loved the story of their pet pig named Pork Chop. She left us with the wisdom to “never fall in love with your bacon.” Dolly's speech title was "Country Ways."

For the Humorous Contest the  results were…..

(Drumroll please)

First place goes to  - Maria Johnson!

Second place to Andrew Watt!

Third place to Dolly Reed!

The evening's winners -
Maria Johnson (Middlesex County Club - Humor) and Rob Dalo (Cromwell Community Club - Evaluation)

Pictured from left to right, Tom Lore, Area Contest Chief Judge; Dolly Reed, CCAT Club; Maria Johnson, Middlesex County Club; Area Contest Master Ray Johnson; Rob Dalo, Cromwell Community Club; Murali Pemmaraju, Middlesex County Club; Andrew Watt, Cromwell Community Club (on the floor)

Pictured from left to right, Dolly Reed, CCAT Club; Tom Lore, Area Contest Chief Judge; Gaia Dong, Test Speaker;  Maria Johnson, Middlesex County Club; Nathan Jaycox, Area 32 Governor; Rob Dalo, Cromwell Community Club; Andrew Watt, Cromwell Community Club; Murali Pemmaraju, Middlesex County Club.

Big congratulations to all those who put themselves out there for these contests. And heartfelt thanks to those who facilitated – Ray Johnson as Emcee, Tom Lore as Chief Judge for the evening, Gaia Dong as Test Speaker and Nathan Jaycox, Area 32 Governor.

 Out of 19 total persons present, I’m thrilled to report that 7 of those were from our wonderful Club #5908 – Cromwell Community. I thank you all for making us so well represented and hope you will do so again next week to support our member Rob Dalo as he (hopefully) wins the next level of the contest with as much aplomb as he won this one.

Let’s see if we can show our spirit and our support next Wednesday the 16^th for the Division level Contest – Division C.

Hope to see you there!
(107 Seldon St. Berlin, CT. 6:30p)

 ~~~~~~~ Hollie Rose

The Fall Contest was fun!

The other night - Tuesday September 17th, we had our Fall Contest here at Cromwell Community Toastmasters.

What a treat!



 
Here are the some of the club members being briefed about their roles for the evening -








Our test speaker for the Evaluation Contest was Ute Brinkmann from Eagle Toastmasters Club in Wallingford speaking about the value of money for her as juxtaposed by the value of it for "her two boys" in India.

      Here Ute (middle) chats with our two Evaluation Contestants Rob Dalo (left) and Tom Alvord (right)









As we know from past evaluations in our club, both Tom Alvord ACB, ALB and Rob Dalo are excellent at sharing their perspectives about a speech, while giving good feedback about ways to improve. That's a very hard thing to do - give feedback about ways to improve - when the speaker is as accomplished and polished as Ute is! Both evaluations were quite enjoyable.

After a break, where we all enjoyed some food brought in by Rob, we got moving on to our Humorous Speech Contest.

First up was one of our newer members Andrew Watt, contemplating what makes something funny.
Second was Phil Mason CC talking about life as a young teen boy. Jarts and BBs and Arrows - oh my!
Third contestant on the stage was Heather Turner ACS, giving us giving us a look at some of the BMW drivers she encounters on her daily commute.

Contest Master Hollie Rose CC interviews Evaluation Contestants Rob Dalo and Tom Alvord ACB, ALB.

Participants in the Humorous Speech Contest (from left to right) Andrew Watt, Heather Turner ACS and Phil Mason CC.

Hollie Rose and Rob Dalo (First Place - Evaluation Contest)

Phil Mason and Hollie Rose

Andrew Watt (First Place - Humorous Speech Contest) and Hollie Rose

Congratulations to our winners. Soon we'll gather with the other clubs from Area 32 and we know you'll do us proud when you represent us at the next level of the contest!

Hearty Thanks go out to all who helped and participated in this Contest - contestants, timers, judges, ballot counters: we couldn't do this without you! And I'd like to especially thank Contest Chair Elizabeth Landeen, our VP Ed, who organized the whole thing and Chief Judge Crystal Storo CC, CL and President. 

Thank you as well to all our members - your commitment to the club and its members is appreciated and cherished.




[posted by Hollie Rose CC]

Fall Contest 2013 Meeting Minutes

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

Club 5908 ~ District 53

 September 17, 2013

“Go Big or Go Home”

Attendees:  members attended: Tom Alvord ACB, ALB, Bo Bogart, Robert Dalo, Miroslav Grajewski, Elizabeth Landeen, Cheryl Mason DTM, Phil Mason CC, Donald Ostertag, Sheetal Patel, Hollie Rose CC, Molly Seely, Crystal Storo CC, CL, Brian Terry, Heather Turner ACS,   Carolyn Warner, and Andrew Watt

Guests: Ute Brinkman

Business Meeting:  Don Ostertag started the meeting on time. Tonight was the Cromwell Community Toastmasters Club Evaluation and Humorous Speech Contest. President Crystal Storo CC, CL gave everyone a warm welcome and shared that fellow Toastmaster Carolyn Warner became engaged.  Congratulations and Best Wishes to Carolyn! Crystal then presented Contest Master Hollie Rose CC.  Hollie explained the purpose of the contest, the rules and introduced the “Test Speaker.”  The Test Speaker gives the speech that is evaluated during the Evaluation Contest.

 Contest Roles:

Contest Master:  Hollie Rose CC

Test Speaker:  Ute Brinkman of Eagle Toastmaster Club

Speech:  My Two Boys

Ute started her speech by opening a case containing a violin bow, removing the bow from the case, snipping the hair from the bow and dropping the hair on the floor.  She repairs bows and is paid seventy dollars for rehairing bows.  She spoke of the things that seventy dollars could buy; one of her super, shiny, shoes, a fine meal, or she could use it to help support her two boys in India. Some of the money from rehairing bows gets sent to India each month and Ute told how having two boys taught her to struggle with issues of how to spend her money.

 Speech Evaluation Contestant:  - Tom Alvord ACB, ALB

Tom complimented Ute on giving an excellent speech, noted that it was concise, she said what she needed to say and sat down.  He commented on her skillful use of pacing and pauses to let thoughts sink in.  He suggested that the first sentence to have been more audible and to enunciate a few words more clearly.  Tom summed up by saying the speech was concise, well constructed and he thanked Ute for giving her speech.

Speech Evaluation Contestant:    Rob Dalo

Rob thanked Ute for being at the contest.  He talked about how she used continuity, the continuity of her uses for the seventy dollars.  Rob spoke of the drama of cutting the bow’s hair and how Ute used hand gestures.  Her gestures helped move the speech along and showed struggle which was explained by now having two boys to consider.  Rob felt she wrapped her speech up nicely but that Ute did not mention what she was getting out of supporting her two boys.

Humorous Speech Contestant:  Andrew Watt

What’s Funny Anyway?

Andrew began his speech by lying on the floor on his back with his feet pointed toward the audience.  He asked – what makes something funny?  Andrew told us Hamlet is a very serious play, and when an actor is portrayed as dead with his head towards the audience death is perceived to be serious but that when feet face the audience it’s a signal it’s funny to be dead.  We heard examples of funny and not funny.  We heard folly in human beings is funny, an example being how Queen Zenobia of Turkey maneuvered into a win, win situation.  The banana loaf dance at Starbucks is NOT funny but at the same time it is funny.  To twelve year olds, saying something that sounds like a forbidden word is funny.  To keep from smirking we look at our feet, which brings us back to - feet are funny – so if dying, do it head first.

Humorous Speech Contestant:  Phil Mason CC

How Did I Live Through Adolescence?

Phil told us how when he was thirteen, he and his buddies, Joe and Chris, had nothing to do but get in trouble.

When Jarts, BB Guns and Bows and Arrows were no longer amusing Phil and his friends thought of creative ways to have fun with their toys. Jarts were always a good time until someone got hit, and the BB guns were good for target practice but were better to set matchbooks aflame.  That would have been fine but the lit matchbooks fell onto the hay bales propping up the targets. Ooops! The bows and arrows were also fun, but became better when shot at gas cans which made a good sound but didn’t ignite.  Even more fun was shooting the arrows towards their fort in the woods. It was an exciting pastime until Phil stopped an arrow with his neck.  He summed up by saying thirteen year old boys are the dumbest thing on Earth.

Humorous Speech Contestant:  Heather Turner ACS

My Daily Commute

Having switched from a ten minute to sixty minute

commute, it’s an interesting but scary route. Heather recognizes the different BMWs she sees on a daily basis on route 5.  We heard of Digger, the driver of the black BMW who likes to exercise his index finger; Rocker – the red Z8 convertible with it’s elderly driver energetically playing imaginary drums; and Gigolo –3 series BMW – M version - souped up and scouting chicks to wink at.  Prima Donna – has a 5 series BMW and a filthy car, at every light she’s engrossed in the mirror, either putting her hair up or taking it down. Other drivers on Heather’s commute include the Organizer who can multi task with steering wheel, makeup, cigarette, cell phone and coffee without swerving; and the Snowman, who lets his dandruff blow out the window.  Heather left us with the query; if there was a reality show about commuting, should it be named Real Commuter Confessions of Connecticut Gigolos or Real Starbucks Schmucks of Route 5?

Timers:  Miroslav Grajewski, Molly Seely

Judges:  Ute Brinkman, Elizabeth Landeen, Cheryl Mason DTM,        Sheetal Patel 

Chief Judge:  Crystal Storo CC, CL

Ballot Counters:  Bo Bogart, Brian Terry, Carolyn Warner

After the Evaluations and Speeches the judges voted and ballots were collected.  Rob Dalo had brought in refreshments for everyone to enjoy.  Chief Judge, Crystal handed the results to Contest Master Hollie to announce.  Hollie presented certificates to all the contestants as follows:  for the Evaluation Contest Tom Alvord - Runner up and Rob Dalo - First Place Winner. For the Humorous Speech contest Phil Mason CC - Second Runner Up, Heather Turner ACS - First Runner Up and Andrew Watt - First Place Winner.  Rob, Tom, Andrew and Heather will be representing Cromwell Community Toastmasters at the Area 32 contest.  President Crystal Storo said it was an awesome evening, we all had some belly laughs and heard great speeches and evaluations.  She recognized and thanked Contest Chair Elizabeth Landeen, for all her hard work, Contest Master Hollie Rose for all her hard work and recognized and thanked stand-in Sergeant at Arms Don Ostertag for all he did.  She thanked everyone for coming and mentioned for those not paid up – six month dues are due – checks should be made out to Cromwell Community Toastmasters and mailed to Treasurer Brian Fleming.

Congratulations and Thank You to all the contestants for a job well done! 

Next meeting: October 1, 2013

Respectfully submitted by

     Bo Bogart, Secretary

[posted by VPPR Hollie Rose CC]