Cromwell Toastmasters Open House

Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, January 3, 2012

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

Guests: Anthony DiSantis, Elizabeth Dubosz, Mark D.

President Tom Alvord reminded everyone of the Holiday Party January 24, The Open House February 21 with guest speaker Mike Aron, the Fall Contests on March 20 and the April guest Marilyn Jess. We are encouraged to sign up for roles for the next meeting on the club website. 

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

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

Akshay presented Project #5 “Your Body Speaks” in his speech titled, “Time to Buy a Calendar.”  His speech contained many humorous anecdotes which the audience thoroughly enjoyed. Tom evaluated Akshay, complimenting him on his strengths and offering one suggestion.

Heather presented Project #1 from the “Speaking to Inform” advanced manual. The title of her speech was, “How to Make Brushetta,” during which she demonstrated the proper preparation of the ingredients including the tomato, onion and garlic with professional tools.  The audience was treated to a delicious sample of her recipe.  Charlie evaluated Heather, complimenting her on the content and presentation with one suggestion.

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

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

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

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

Respectfully submitted,

Sharon Roth January 4, 2012

Toastmasters Minutes for Tuesday December 20, 2011

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

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

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

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

1. Guest or visitor to your meeting comments and feedback about the meeting.
2. Speech failures with a funny story (only written in the first person).
3. Your TM club in the News.
4. A member in the News.
5. Member achievements.
6. Why did each of your members join Toastmasters.
7. Every speech has an inspiration behind it, get your members to describe briefly what gave them ideas for speeches.
8. Write-ups of speakers, in person or in the media that you and you club have found inspiring, helpful or knowledgeable.
9. Pictures of your meetings and/or club contests.
10. A brief FAQs and answers.
11. What does your club do to differentiate itself from other clubs or even from other organizations.
12. Speech ideas
13. Table topics ideas and if you have tried them, write about how they work out.
14. Bios of your members (if you have 15 members = 15 blog posts).
15. What each of your members thinks about Toastmasters and how it's helped them.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.

© Heather Turner 2011

August 16th, 2011 Meeting Minutes

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