Meeting Minutes March 4th, 2014

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

3/4/2014

Theme:  No Supplies

Opening:  Charlie Hubert promptly opened the meeting at 5:30.  For an invocation Charlie read the Toastmasters mission and announced that we were going to run the meeting without supplies.  As Toastmasters we are put in positions where we have to improvise with what we have.   Charlie then introduced the Immediate Past President Rob Dalo to run the Business part of the meeting.

Business Items:  Rob welcomed the group and announced that the next meeting will be the Toastmasters Spring contest.  Rob introduced Tom to review for the group the speech contest and give his personal contest experience.    The speech contest will contain two segments the International Contest as well as Tall Tales.  Rob then challenged the group to “get out of the stands” and “get into the game”.   Currently 5 individuals volunteered to speak at the contest, more volunteers are needed. 

During the meeting Rob introduced the 2 guests in attendance Gaurav and Gloria, this was Gloria’s first meeting and Gaurav expressed interest in joining.

Rob then promptly introduced Brian Terry as Toastmaster of the Evening.

General Meeting:  Brian introduced the functionaries who gave a brief review of their roles.  John – Timer, Donald – ah counter, Charlie – Grammarian and the word of the day ebullience – extreme enthusiasm – was introduced by Carmen.

Table Topics:  Brian introduced Andrew as Table Topics Master who used thought challenging questions from Brian Eno, English musician and composer.  Andrew had the audience pull questions from a pile of index cards.

1.      Do something boring?  Mirslov (43 sec)

2.     Is something missing?  John (40 sec)

3.     Move toward the unimportant?   Heather (40 sec)

4.     Humanize something free of error?   Gaurav (38 sec)

5.     Your mistake was a hidden intention?  Carmen (20 sec)

6.     Only one element of each kind?  Rob (1:13)

7.     Revaluation a warm feeling?   Robino   (42 sec)

Speeches:  Brain Terry introduced the 4 speakers. 

1.     Elizabeth Landeen:  Your Body Speaks, All In or Fold -  6:30

2.     Sheetal Patel:  Persuade With Power, Skip the Bottled Water -  7:00

3.     Heather Turner:  The Persuasive Approach, The Importance of Networking for Business- 7:38

4.     Andrew Watt:  Vocal Variety, How I learned to Cook…Really Cook -  7:30

Evaluations:  Brian Terry introduced Heather Turner as General Evaluator who introduced the night’s evaluators.

1.      Carmen Jenkins - 1:00

2.     Bill Sullivan – 3:45

3.     Andrew Watt – 3:45

4.     Robin Thompson – 2:15

After the evaluations Heather asked for reports from the meeting functionaries.  She recapped the meeting and offered feedback to the group.  The meeting was handed over to Rob Dalo who asked for feedback from the guests in attendance, Gaurav said I’m want to join! and Gloria said It was great learning about Networking in the speech given by Heather.

The meeting adjourned at 7:15

Respectfully Submitted by William Sullivan

[posted by Hollie Rose CC, VPPR]

Meeting Minutes February 4th, 2014

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

Club 5908 ~ District 53

February 4, 2014

“Go Big or Go Home”

Attendees:    members attended: Tom Alvord ACB, ALB, Bo Bogart, Micheal Brillas, Robert Dalo, Miroslav Grajewski, Charlie Hubert, Carmen Jenkins, Donald Ostertag, Crystal Storo CC, CL, William Sullivan ACB, ALB, Brian Terry and Heather Turner ACS, CL

Guests:  Guaro Caromital

Business Meeting:

The meeting was called to order at 5:30 by Sergeant at Arms - Charlie Hubert. President Crystal Storo CC, CL mentioned that having meetings start and end on time is a club goal.  The Cromwell Community Toastmasters Club’s educational goal is to have at least two more CC awards, at least one AC award and a leadership award by June 30^th, 2014.  All present shared their educational goals:  Bill - ACS (completed 2/4/14); Rob – CC; Carmen – CC; Brian – CL; Crystal ALB; Bo – CC; Charlie – CC; Heather - ALB and 2^nd CC.  Later in February there will be a Toastmaster Leadership Education meeting led by Nathan, the area governor.  More details will be coming.  Crystal asked us to start thinking of what role we wanted for the Spring Contest.  Rob told us of an interesting quiz that can be found by googling - NY Times Dialect Quiz.                             

Meeting Roles:

Toastmaster: Heather Turner ACS, CL

Invocation: Carmen Jenkins – A quote from John Quincy Adams which said if you inspire people you are a leader.

Word Master:  Charlie Hubert

Word - of - the – Day: Bliss - great happiness 

Table Topics Master:  Donald Ostertag

Don had us choose a card, and he then read the question.  Rob told us the Seahawks blew their competition away because of their constant practice.  Bo wouldn’t be bothered by other people using cell phones in a movie theater because she’d be sleeping. When snowed in, Miroslav plans to celebrate Valentines Day early by; making frittatas with his sweetie, watching German movies and cooking a rack of lamb.  Carmen told us if her two aunts received each other’s flower arrangements she could tell the truth, tell them there had been a mix up, switch the flowers and tell them she loves them.  Mike thought he’d probably run away if he ran into an ex girlfriend in the store.  Charlie told about the first time he drove alone.  He drove as fast as he could on the highway; he was petrified and excited at the same time, and filled with bliss.

 Speaker # 1:  William Sullivan ACB, ALB

Manual/Project: Leadership Excellence Series

Theme:  Keeping the Commitment

 Speaker # 2:   Carmen Jenkins

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator/Project 2   Organize Your Speech

Title:  My Job

 Speaker # 3:  Heather Turner, ACS, CL

Manual/Project:  Competent Communicator/Project 8   Getting Comfortable w/ Visual Aids

Title:  What’s a Prepper?

The three speeches were evaluated by Round Robbin

General Evaluator: Tom Alvord ACB, ALB – Tom shared that he felt structure, efficiency and focus are important to a good meeting.

Distinguished Technicians:

Ah Counter:  Brian Terry 

Grammarian:  Rob Dalo

Timer:  Crystal Storo, CC, CL 

In closing, Crystal asked our guest Guaro his thoughts about the meeting.  He said he liked the meeting and liked the humor, but at the same time he was thinking “how would I do this, how would I do that?”

Give some thought to what role you’d like for the Spring Contest and now is the perfect time to sign up for roles for our next meeting.

Next meeting: February 18, 2014.

Respectfully submitted by

Bo Bogart, Secretary

[posted by Hollie Rose, CC]

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!

VPPR on a Road Trip 4 - Scottsdale, Arizona

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.

The last Club I visited was in Memphis on December 17th. After that most clubs I found weren't meeting,or had changed their schedule because of the holiday, so I sort of gave up looking for a while. So there's no visits in Arkansas, Texas, or New Mexico.
The first week of the new year I spent mostly at a friend's house in Scottsdale, Arizona.
As I was getting ready to leave, it occurred to me to look for a TM meeting and I found one to visit just as I headed out of town.

Toastmasters club #8576
Chats Toastmasters
Scottsdale, Arizona
Jan. 6, 2014 Noon
Location: The Raintree Corporate Center    15333 N. Pima Rd Suite 270

I walked into the room a few minutes early. It was a large room bustling with activity and people. A greeter introduced herself to me and took my name and information.
The tables were set up in a basic U shape, with a couple layers in some areas. Speakers had their own table, as did the functionaries. The group is a large one that meets every Monday. I believe they have nearly 50 active members. Today there were 23 members present and three visitors - myself, a prospective member named Candice and a Toastmaster visiting from Denmark. I sat next to her. Her name was Joy and she also visits clubs wherever she goes. She advised me on which ones might be worth visiting in some of the places I'm headed in the next few weeks. She has just relocated to Scottsdale and I believe she is trying to decide which club to join.

Trish Ferree the Sergeant at Arms opened the meeting and gave an invocation. She quoted Zig Ziglar (RIP) saying "You don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start."

The Toastmaster of the day, Jenny Locklin, started their first meeting of the year speaking about the concept of keeping a jar, throughout the year, and putting in it, notes about the joys and glories of a year. Then, at the end of the year, or the start of the next year, when everyone is saying how glad they are to see the old year go, you can pull out the notes in the jar and reflect on just what a good year it was. 
"If Chats had such a jar, some of our notes might read like this..."

So and so overcame breast cancer, So and so celebrated his 50th anniversary with his wife, So and so went on her 3000th date and she's still single, So and so adopted a rescue dog, a group of our male members had a man's day skiing at the lake, So and so started a new business...
It was a very nice start to any year and had everyone cheering and laughing and shouting out comments about the different happenings.

The word of the day was EXTOL - to praise highly
The Ah counter explained his duties while holding up a piggy bank, explaining that infractions cost 10 cents each and at the end of the meeting, after the report, the pig would be passed around and you should pay up on the honor system.

The GE explained he job as that of evaluating the evaluators. (This was nice to hear as it's been something we've been pushing for in our club! Let's make it an official art of the role description!)

Table Topics was Fortune Cookies. And while everyone exclaims what a brilliant and original idea it is, in my Toastmaster travels, it seems to be the Table Topics tactic I see most.
People lined up at the side of the room. I was unsure how the participants were decided on. I quietly asked the TT Master if one just gets up in line. He said no, people get picked. I watched him, hoping to get picked but it was not him doing the picking. That was the role of another member, who did eventually ask me if I'd like to get in line. In this way they were able to get about 10 or 11 Table Topics in a very short period of time.

Speech # 1 - Humorous Manual, project # ?
Title: Proposed Laws For Language Criminals; Are You and Offender? by Sheila Whittington.
Sheila used slides to consider three of the worst offenses, as well as considering appropriate penalties for each.

Speech # 2 - Facilitating Discussions Manual, project 1, Panel Moderator.
Title: Global Warming; Fact or Fiction? by Brent McDonald.
Brent said he was a seeker, and unsure of his positions on the matter. He introduced 2 experts (club members Kevin Maxwell and Avery Goodman, playing experts, with scripts) with opposing viewpoints. Most of the speech stage time was taken by the two experts telling their perspectives on the matter, with some light prodding by Brent.

Speech # 3 - First speech - impromptu speech, hasn't even done Icebreaker yet, but stepped up today when a slot opened.
Title: How to Make Your Dreams a Reality by Jeff Geiser.
You know I loved this one! Jeff spoke about jumping into your resolutions. He told of a friend who gave him the book "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway." Said he didn't even need to read the book. He gets it. The title told it all! He also said he'd written a book "Awakening Oneself."He closed by talking about the power of Purpose in every single thing we do each day.

Evaluations were good. I liked how Brent's evaluator (Stephanie) pointed out that in a really good panel discussion, the moderator has an opinion and an awareness of both sides of the argument and uses his knowledge to guide the discussion, as opposed to the way he opened, saying he didn't have an opinion.
Stephanie actually had a really good overall approach and a theme to her evaluation. "Well, that's Awkward."
Everything she said was couched in the view of what was awkward.

Towards the end of the meeting votes were tallied and prizes given to the winers of Best Table Topics, Best Speech, Most Improved Speaker, and Best Evaluator. Today's prizes, in reference to the opening talk about a jar for notes on the year, was a small mason jar. I sure hope it included a note inside that said "I won Best ____ at the year's first Toastmaster meeting."

This club has a man who functions at Club Mentor. His name is Joel Weldon and he's a professional speaker and friend of many well known professional speakers whom he has convinced to interact with the club in the past. The last segment of the meeting was a talk by Joel Weldon about the importance of accepting and dealing with controversy in a club like Toastmasters. Especially a club this large.
He also gave a short evaluation of everyone and everything that happened in today's meeting. His thoughts on it all were truly top notch. This Club Mentor concept is a good one and methinks this club benefits greatly from having Joel's insight

The meeting closed and members were reminded to sign up for roles for the next meeting by putting their name tags of a large bulletin board that was off to the side of the room.

After each meeting Joel Weldon adjourns to a smaller room for what is known as The Mentor's Minute. Any member is invited to stay after for deeper discussion of the day's events as well as important things to consider for the club's future plans. I joined this week's Mentor's Minute. I was surprised only four member and myself joined Joel in the luxurious room with a gorgeous table and comfortable executive chairs. It was a bit of a round table discussion with all of us adding thoughts and ideas and experiences to the conversation.
He discussed in more depth the reality of controversy in a group setting and how to be free to express your opinion and yet, do it without offending others. Often merely acknowledging the other side of an issue is enough to mollify those who don't agree with you. "I know not everyone here will agree with me, but this is what I think." as opposed to "This is the way it is."
He likened the Toastmaster's approach as best seen like they view their experience on the lake when he has a summer home; Don't harm anyone. Don't inhibit anyone. Don't harm the lake. Or. Don't harm anyone. Don't inhibit anyone. Don't harm anyone else's experience of Toastmasters.

He closed by reminding folks of Chats Toastmasters Motto - "Get Them On Your Bus."
And to do that you always have to be respectful.

Hollie Rose and Joel Weldon January 6th, 2014

Meeting Minutes for January 7, 2014

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

Club 5908 ~ District 53

January 7, 2014

“Go Big or Go Home”

Attendees:    members attended:  Bo Bogart, John Hart, Charlie Hubert, Carmen Jenkins, Elizabeth Landeen, Donald Ostertag, Catherine Rose, Crystal Storo CC, CL, William Sullivan ACB, ALB, Robin Thompson and Heather Turner ACS, CL

Business Meeting:

The meeting was called to order by Sergeant at Arms Charlie Hubert.  President Crystal Storo mentioned the January Jam taking place this Saturday (January 11.) Crystal also told us that Hollie Rose has been reporting on Toastmaster meetings that she visited during her travels. Hollie has been sharing her impressions on the Cromwell Community Toastmaster Facebook page.

Meeting Roles:

Toastmaster: Bo Bogart

Invocation: Charlie Hubert   - Toastmaster Promise

Word Master:  Robin Thompson

Word - of - the - Day:  ameliorate – to improve or make better

Table Topics Master:  Elizabeth Landeen

Theme:  New Year’s Resolutions   Elizabeth told us that New Years Resolutions were started by the Romans over 2000 years ago.  Bill Sullivan gave us his theory as to why this custom started and Catherine Rose reflected on whether 2014 will be better than 2013. Don Ostertag felt that a year was too long a time to give up chocolate, but he could give up potato chips.  Though the thought of a Bungee Cord Jump appealed to Heather’s sense of adventure, she also saw the down side.  When asked about changing something in the world Crystal talked about her trip to the UN and how it’s members change the world.

Speaker # 1:  Carmen Jenkins

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator/Project 1 Icebreaker

Title:  My Life 

Carmen told us she has four children and one grandchild. She is currently working towards a Masters Degree in Social Work.  Carmen is improving her life and wants to help other people improve their lives.

Speaker # 2:   Donald Ostertag

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator/Project 8   Getting Comfortable w/ Visual Aids

Title:  How Some Meetings are Conducted 

Don described how to conduct a detachment meeting.  He described the opening ceremony; who would be present; the various parts of the meeting and how correspondence and new business are handled. He discussed routines, reports and interesting facts.  He described the closing ceremony and then answered questions.

Speaker # 3:  John Hart

Manual/Project:  Competent Communicator/Project 1   Icebreaker

Title:  Looking back.  Looking forward.  

John told us about his New Year holiday and spending time with his girlfriend and family.  He also told us he works at a non-profit agency, The Hartford Defense League where he thinks public speaking skills would be useful.

Speaker # 4:  Heather Turner ACS, CL

Manual/Project:  Public Relations/Project Crisis Management Speech

Title:  Update on the Zombie Apocalypse 

Reporter Hollie Hobbie reported on the effects of the Zombie Apocalypse that had happened one year prior.  Electricity is a thing of the past; most people are either dead or zombified; food from aluminum cans has turned poisonous but on the bright side, the President has just starred in a new movie and a good use has been found for canned Spam.

General Evaluator: Crystal Storo CC

Evaluator # 1:  Elizabeth Landeen

Evaluator # 2:   Heather Turner ACS, CL

Evaluator # 3:  Charlie Hubert

Evaluator # 4:  William Sullivan ACB, ALB

Functionary Reports:

Ah Counter:  Carmen Jenkins

Grammarian:  William Sullivan ACB, ALB

Timer:  Charles Hubert

In closing Crystal thanked everyone for participating.  Both Carmen Jenkins and John Hart received Icebreaker Ribbons. It was another great meeting!  Now is the perfect time to sign up for roles for our next meeting.

Next meeting: January 21, 2014.

Respectfully submitted by

Bo Bogart, Secretary

[posted by Hollie Rose CC]