Wish you all a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year

Dear Eagles,
2012 is almost coming to an end, and what a phenomenal year we had. We achieved President's distinguished for the 11th consecutive year, and the past 6 months since I took on the role of President have been equally great. We always had a great turnout, we always had fantastic meetings thus far, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members and all the officers. Thus far it has been a humbling experience, a rewarding experience and an enriching experience, and all of you with your commitment make the club successful. Thanks.

We had another great turnout this evening. It is always great to see the family members. We had 2 guests , Roger and our good friend Rose coming back after a long hiatus.

We started the night by holding a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. It was the least we could do as a community. Thanks to Kate and Ute ( our past club presidents) for suggesting this.

We had an extended table topics. All the 17 people in the room except for 2 spoke. That was fun. Thanks to all of you for bringing in the gifts and also socks/underwear, this is what the community needs and it means a lot.

Dan, husband of the CEO of Masters Manna , Cheryl, and also a volunteer by himself, gave a brief history of masters manna, the community they serve, their challenges and their next steps. I thought that was great.

We had 3 prepared speeches all touching the spirit of holidays. Sarah gave her icebreaker speech on "celebrating life," where she asked us to accept than discriminate. Sarah has incredible energy and it was the first icebreaker speech ever in the history ( of my experience) where the speaker had made all the members stand in a line and sing happy birthday song. It was confusing but hilarious. Sonia as evaluator rightly pointed her energy, but suggested her to hone the energy and lead the audience with a message. Sarah, you can do it, and looking forward for your next speech.

Jay gave his second speech from CC titled "the art of giving," where with clear examples explained the three classifications of gifts: gifts you expect, gifts you dont expect and the gifts you expect in return ( service gifts or bribery gifts). Jay's speeches are well-organized, well-thought and well-rounded. He always provides a clear mental picture for all of us to imagine, which is not that easy to accomplish. No notes, good eye contact for 2nd speech is incredible. Good job and keep it up.

Rich gave the third speech of the night titled "holidays dos and donts," where he provided us tips on how to be a good host and also to be a good guest. He told us to treat everyone with respect and also to be yourself as others were already taken. In addition to the content, what impressed me most, and was pointed by Kate as his evaluator, was the progress he has made, how Rich has stopped using notes, how Rich was using hand gestures, using the room etc etc, the little things toastmasters teaches us. We can clearly see great strides made by Rich over the course of a few speeches. Add vocal variety, Rich, you have the whole package. Great progress.

As the tradition, Tom P. gave colorful plants as an year-end holiday gift to all the members present at the meeting. Thanks Tom.

Our next meeting is in 3 weeks on Jan 7th of the new year, 2013. We will be meeting at our regular Park & Rec building. Please do sign up for the roles.

Wish you all a Merry Christmas, wish you all a happy holidays and wish you all a happy and a prosperous new year, 2013.

Goodnight and See you all in 3 weeks.

Chandra

It is the Commitment that pulls us through

Dear Eagles,
Sometimes you feel that nothing is in your favor and somehow you need to pull it through, and often times it is by the shear power of the Commitment that gets us through the task. Today was one of those days where we had to rely on the commitment more than the normal. For me it started at home when my two little ones were driving me nuts right before the meeting; once I salvaged the chaos situation at home and escaped, in anticipation of  bliss, to the toastmasters, we realized that park and rec is closed, and we had to meet in the snack room with the loud, annoying noise from the vending machines as the background, but that did not stop us from having fun. To top it all, even the Old Dublin place where we decided to meet for the drinks was having a play and was not open for the customers, oh, you should see my frustration, but then we did end up at Gaetanos and had a really good time. Yes, commitment was the common factor that pulled us through in all the above three minor obstacles that were laid in our path.

We had another fantastic meeting in an extremely hot room, amidst the constant loud humming, with more than 18 members including a guest. ( I felt at home to be honest :)). Lucy was our table topics master and the theme was the holidays with a twist - the topics ranged from "roof over the head holiday" to the "national ding-a-ling holiday " - the topics were different and that added fun. Sarah broke the record for table topics by giving almost a speech :). That was incredible, which means Sarah you are ready for your icebreaker. Richard as humorist also almost gave a speech which came close to breaking Andrew's record on time:)

We had three prepared speeches tonight. Sonia, with New Year fast approaching, started telling how only 8% of the people who make resolutions succeed and a vast majority fail in keeping the resolutions/promises with in a month. She asked all of us to Get SMART - Specific,Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. BTW, people who make resolutions have 10x more chance of succeeding.

Carlin gave her second speech titled "living with purpose and passion" on how Art Bert through shear determination and will power overcame the quadriplegic state he had succumbed to after an unfortunate road accident right before his marriage. Her speech had several memorable quotes, a couple of them being - " you cannot control the events that happen, but can surely control the response" and the other being " focus on what you have and not focus on what you dont". It was a very good inspirational speech and recommend reading the book "impossible takes a little longer" by Art Bert. BTW, Art now gives public speeches, that i think is really cool.

The third speech for the day was given by Andrew titled " Holy fools" where he talked in great detail about Diogenes, their/his philosophy and how he believed in the minimalistic approach, a method perfected by the monks of the East and slowly spread to the West and by which Diogenes was very much influenced. The speech was good with humor and facts interlaced even though it went a few minutes over time.

After this we headed to Gaetanos for couple of drinks after being turned down by Old Dublin. With 11 members present,  we absolutely had a blast. Thanks to all for coming to the meeting and to the few who also joined for the drinks. It was great.

Our next meeting will be at Masters Manna on Dec 17th at our usual starting time of 7.15 pm.
Address: 46 North Plains Industrial Road, Wallingford, CT - 06492

Masters Manna is a non-profit organization catering for the people in need. More information can be found at www.mastersmanna.org. They are in need of underwear and socks for children and adults (especially for plus sizes), so please do bring if you can.

Please do come and please bring in your family members as this meeting is open for the family. Bring in a toy/gift wrapped for young children not more than $10 in value. This is more of a tradition and they become part of the table topics (a tip for the first-timers). Let me be clear, you are under no pressure to bring anything, your presence is most important.

Please do sign up for the roles at www.eagletoastmasters.com, and please do come.

Goodnight and see you all in 2  weeks.

Chandra

Achieved Distinguished Club Status - Thanks to all of you

Dear Eagles,
    I think we do are flying high these days. At the beginning of June when I reluctantly, hesitantly, timidly accepted the role of President kindly offered by Kate, our past President, if you had asked me if we would be distinguished by November, my answer would be of course NO; if you had asked me if we would be having a least 20 members at a meeting in mid November, my answer would be you must be New to the club; if you had asked me if we would be adding 12 new members by November, my answer would be you must be Smoking. Believe it or not, to my utmost surprise, all the above three miracles ( at least to me) have happened, and I have to thank all of you, the officers, the team for us flying high. Amidst of all the above miracles, the common thread, the bond, the glue that ties us together, that helps us achieve the wonders, that helps us reach new heights is the laughter and the fun we have at our meetings..... Yes, for this we are all part of the show - thanks and congratulations to all of us and we should pat ourselves at the back.

We had another phenomenal meeting with 20 people including Deb, Mahesh and Rich as invited guests from 3M, and of course we added Sarah as our new member to our family. Please join me in welcoming Sarah.

Nomophobia - fear of not having a mobile, was the word of the day....

Andrew set the stage for tonight's show by his immaculate acting, voice maneuvering, whistling and howling in delivering the joke. Good job. This was the 2nd longest joke in our club's history... The longest joke is also held by Andrew BTW.

Kate was smooth and instructive as the toastmaster, Joe used Thanksgiving as Table topics tonight and Richard as general evaluator was at his best like he is always.... We can't expect any less from these three...

Lucy gave her 3rd speech titled "You must know the nature of the emergency" where she told us how research went into coming with easy to remember the three numbers "9 1 1," some of us understand the purpose and value of it and some of us abuse it without understanding the consequences not only to self but also putting others in grave danger who are in greater need of that valuable, timely help. She is a great composer of a story and laid it well with personal stories and comical stories from others.... Lucy, magic number for you is 7.

Shari told us the trick of " How to grow the brain." It is rather simple, all you got to do is learn at least 2 languages, I mean become bilingual. She provided us several resources to learn, practice and further develop it and she said it is never too late to get one more language under our wings. Her speech had one of the best closings when she ended her speech in Spanish giving an extra umph to her speech. Great job Shari... As Ute mentioned, give a speech a month... Awesome!

Tami demonstrated us how laughter can be the best medicine ever in her speech. She had the whole room follow her in following the 5 simple rules on how to laugh and generate laugh whether real or fake. Oh BTW, it does not matter whether the laughter is real or fake, but the benefits are real..., who will say no to that? Tami, great job. If you can get the whole room worked up and follow you, that means you are doing a great job... Carry on! Tami's speech was great, everyone laughed, and the speech evaluation given by Tom was equally funny.... He said these memorable words "good introduction, good conclusion and heck of a body," and with that the whole room went bananas...

I gave the 4th speech as a car salesman. I ensured that if there was a hiring manager in the party, I would never ever be considered for the sales job. Thanks for all the support from the members to reach my time limit when I was running short... That was a perfect example of a team effort....

Our next meeting is in 2 weeks on Dec 3rd. Don't forget, we go to a local bar after the meeting and the first round is on the President. So if you dont like me, this is your chance to make me PAY :)

Goodnight, sign up for the roles and see you all in 2 weeks.

Chandra

Warmth of our Club

Dear Eagles,


Sometimes aren't we all left surprised and wondering about when the things are turning out to be much better than expected? I am surely sitting in that lot puzzled, wondering, reasoning out for why (?) when looking at how great the things are at our club!  I think , as analysts say, we are "beating the expectations fair and square," and the reason is quite clear to me, it is the "warmth of our club." We had another phenomenal meeting with more than 20+ members including 3 guests, of which Daya signing on the dotted line.

Richard, as the toastmaster, set the tempo for the night, by making us sit on a journey of laughter. Richard was funny and set the whole room alight :) 

With tomorrow being the Big election night, Tom Corrigan provided us not one quote but a series of quotes from the founding fathers of the country reminding us of the Government's role.

Ian stepped in as the table topics master and with the weather being uncomfortably cold, the theme was rightly on the "winter". Good part was all the 3 guests, Daya (now a member technically), Hollie and Sarah had a stab at the table topics. Oh, Sarah, was hilarious with her sarcastic, cynical humor, where she did not even spare the great poet, Robert Frost....

We had a full roster with 4 speeches, and the two icebreakers were so good that you would not believe that they were indeed icebreaker speeches. Carlin gave her icebreaker speech "all about me," covering the various aspects of her life some of them being the very high moments and some being the unfortunate low points succinctly; she shared with us some of the things she is trying in the process of figuring out of her way after the recent unfortunate turn of events. From her stage presence, you could clearly see that she is not a novice to giving speeches, but the best part of her speech, which struck me, was her can do attitude and her positive outlook towards the future......

Jay followed Carlin with his icebreaker speech on "Lebanon." It was one of the well organized speeches for an icebreaker, in which with his vivid description gave us almost a picturistic guide of Lebanon - the three different regions, the three different landscapes, the three different flora and fauna, the three different cuisines - yes, it was well done. Jay even clarified that not all kids in Lebanon go to school on camels, and not all lamps in Lebanon create the magical Genie :)

Joe gave a speech on "words are friends," where he told us 7 simple steps for an effective speech. The seven being : write for the ear, be specific ( vague is like plague), vivid words, rhetoric devices, reduce jargon, economize and say it correctly. Joe did a wonderful job.

The final speech was given by Kate on "Another kitchen gadget". Oh, Kate had the whole room cracking. Few of us had tears in our eyes because of all the laughing. I can say that this speech would have won the Humorous speech contest at the Division level - Hands down, no question. It was that hilarious when she talked about the vegetable slicer, the dicer, the chopper, the designer cutter she bought at a trade show. The whole room went ballistic when Tom Piekarsky, interjected Kate in the middle of her speech when she was showing us how we can cut the potatoes, the onions, the squashes with a curious question of " Kate, do you actually cook ?"..... Oh it was better than a stand up comedy and yet for free, I should have recorded the speech, it was that awesome.

It was a great night. Thanks to all of you.

BTW, the fall conference is on Nov 17th. Please let me know if you are interested and I can give more details.

Our next meeting is in 2 weeks on Nov 19th, so please do sign up for the roles.

Goodnight.

Chandra

Humorist Speech Contest - Taking Chances

-->

    At the first mention of the upcoming Humorist Speech Contest and a call for volunteers, I felt myself look away as if to put a wall up between those words and myself. Without consideration, I sidestepped the request. Weeks passed, more requests for volunteers were made, but I ignored them all thinking I would be in the audience watching the poor schmuck attempting to entertain me. But, the joke was on me. As it turned out, I would be the schmuck attempting to entertain. A month before the club contest, I received a request from Chandra, our club President, to which I wrote an email declining the appeal. Before I sent that email I remembered Mark Twain's words, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.” It's the reason I joined Toastmasters. There is only one way to overcome fear and that is to confront it.

    I felt the butterflies in my stomach as I accepted the request. I was now competing in the Humorist Speech Contest. I expected my venture to begin and end there. To my surprise, I made it to the area level and then the district level. With each speech I gave I was acutely aware of how right Mark Twain is. Having courage does not mean the absence of fear. It is about feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Fear was present each and every time. Never late, in fact, sometimes it was early. But, if there is anything that I learned, it is that I always pull through unscathed and intact. Although, it is always nice to receive an award you can display on your mantle, it is even better when you learn what it truly takes to overcome fear.

"Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic." --Unknown

Quite an Achievement by Sonia

Dear All,
  Just came back from the Division C contest and I should say it was a fun-filled night. With 24 clubs in contention representing more than 500 members, I would say our club had a very high % of participation. That is always a good news.

For the evaluation contest, our own Ute kindly stepped forward to be the test speaker and of course it goes without saying, as for any of Ute's speeches, that all the attendees were in for a treat. She gave the speech on " It is not what but how you eat matters!" and all the evaluation contestants appreciated the speech and provided some valuable positive feedback. Thanks to Ute for stepping forward.....

Coming to the humorous speeches, yes, we were really laughing and rolling on our backs literally. All the speeches were of very high quality loaded with laughter. In my opinion, they were all pretty good and our own Sonia was placed top 6 of the 500. It is a tremendous achievement, in my opinion, for Sonia considering the fact that she was with toastmasters for a little over 6 months and, moreover,  this was her first ever contest. Congratulations to Sonia for bravely stepping forward and yes, she cleared at least 2 hurdles, the club and the area hurdles during the process. To put in perspective of her achievements- many, myself included :), haven't gone past the area level even after a few attempts - that itself speaks a lot! Sonia clearly matured as a speaker where her speeches embody vocal variety, body language, stage presence etc etc, the very hard things that take time to develop, and Sonia does seem to do it effortlessly now. That is quite an achievement in such a short span with Toastmasters. Sonia, now you know where to set your sight at?  Division and District :) You may hear more from Sonia about her experience.

Congratulations again to Sonia and thanks to Ute.

My personal thoughts: contests are fun, you learn a lot, you progress faster by taking much bigger steps than the normal process and you meet and interact with people from different clubs......

This is my new mantra : Never ever miss a chance to participate in a contest, You never know where it might lead to?

Chandra

Rain or Shine We Rock

Dear Eagles,
This past week was very fluid. We had members sign in for a role and had to drop out in the last minute to address to the situations the life throws at us be it either good or bad, be it sad or happy, be it any. On top, today was especially gloomy with Sun being in hiatus for most periods of the day and, to add to it, we had downpour of rain right around our meeting time. With these events in the backdrop, I was dreading about the member turnout for the meeting and more importantly about the safety. Surprise, surprise, we had a full agenda, we had a great meeting, we had a great turnout with 20+ members including 4 guests, and one guest, Carlin, even signing on the dotted line. That is amazing, thanks to all of you, and it atones to the fact that " Rain or Shine We Rock". Also, please join me in welcoming Carlin.

Sonia, first time in the role of a toastmaster, did a great job today. She handed out agendas to everyone at the start of the meeting and at the end she even encouraged everyone to take on the roles they haven't tried yet! Thanks Sonia.

Joe was our table topics master with the theme as "spice". Joe cleverly rephrased the old saying of "variety is the spice of life" into "spice is the variety of life". We had fun and lots of laughter, and on top we had Hollie, one of our guests, give a shot at the table topics. I thought Hollie was a natural speaker as she was able to deftly include the props of the previous table topics speakers in her narration. That was neat and super cool.

We again had 4 prepared speeches starting with Hyunsoo, who spoke on "blue Monday" clearly demonstrating with great personal examples and scientific data showing no evidence for Monday to be no different than a Tuesday or a Wednesday or a Thursday, with a slight change in perception, rightly so, for the weekends. Hyunsoo has a very unique style in her narrations and she does it with a pleasant smile. I especially liked her conclusion where she told us to not to let the "memories play tricks on our mind".

Rich spoke about the "American night and the American dream", about a play he recently watched at Yale, where the play covered the American history and how people come here from far far lands with the single purpose of providing a better life for themselves and their kin. Rich shared a story of a family from Ecuador who have come here in search for a better life but are currently facing the wrath for not having all the legal documents.... Rich highly recommended the play. (Rich can you please share the details of the play with us?)

Dawit made us aware of the subtle, albeit important, difference between Sustainable Vs Renewable - the main difference being "sustainable" with all the pollution can potentially have a long term bad consequences, whereas "renewable" can replenish without hurting the environment. Dawit speeches are always nice as he provides us stats and shows the direction we need to proceed forward.

As the 4th speaker for the night, I shared my only encounter with Gandhi, I mean Rajiv Gandhi, the son of Indira Gandhi and also the 7th Prime Minister of India. It just happened that the day I saw Rajiv Gandhi sadly was also the day he was assassinated. My mom with whom I went to see Rajiv Gandhi on May 21st, 1991, was totally devastated on the news of the death of Rajiv and after 20+ years, I understand my mom's remorse back then.

Some more good news: Congratulations to Sonia and Rich for finishing their 1/2 CCs.... 5 more to reach the finish line. You guys can do it....

Finally, as I always say, we are doing well, we had another fantastic meeting and please sign up for a role and let the momentum continue....

Goodnight and see you all in 3 weeks on Nov 5th.

Chandra

Hearty Congratulations!

Dear All,

Can you believe it? We won two awards at the humorous speech contest at the area level - Sonia came in 1st and Rich came in 3rd.

Hearty congratulations to both Sonia and Rich.

Sonia will advance to the Division level. I was there, and Sonia's speech execution was flawless and fabulous. Sonia, I think you can set your sight on the District level. You were phenomenal, and in a zone of your own tonight.

Life is like a box of chocolates, truly. Rich kindly agreed to replace Mike at the last minute, and he came back with an award.... This is awesome and incredible. Congratulations Rich!

The Division contest is on Oct. 23rd at Northeast Utilities at 6.30 pm. Please come and cheer Sonia.

Regards,
Chandra

Let us take a moment to celebrate

Dear Eagles,
We finished first quarter of 2012/13 calendar years in flying colors. Three months into it, we have already accomplished 4 goals or 40% of the target for the year as our VP of education stated. All the officers gave their quarterly reports and all of us feel that we are doing good. We also published our first newsletter for the club capturing all the highlights and achievements thus far; our intention is to have a quarterly newsletter. Special thanks to Sonia for designing and editing. All these things suggest we are doing great and we should take a moment to celebrate.

We had a great meeting tonight with almost a full house including 4 guests and of course entertained and enriched by 4 fantastic speeches.

Richard shared the following quote on failure - "failure is not falling down, failure is not getting back up," - Anonymous

Ian was the table topics master with the theme centered on membership and organization. It was great and fun as usual which also had Mike our guest had a go at the table topics. Believe me, Mike convinced most of us including seasoned toastmasters that he actually indeed is a member of toastmasters for a long time even though today was his first toastmasters meeting ever. Lesson - if you want to "Bluff", please get a tip or two from Mike :)

Ute was smooth, clear and lucid as a toastmaster and explained all the roles to our guests. She also played a cameo humorist role.

Coming to prepared speeches, Shari started the prepared speeches section with her speech titled "breaking the ice", where she told us about what she does, what she likes, what kind of food she prefers and what kind of person she is. She told all these things with a natural smile on her face and I felt that her speech had a nice rhythm and ring to it. She even had a prop for icebreaker which is very very unusual and sort of cool. Great job. More than that her favorite color is Orange, which is same as my daughter's. That is extra cool :). I want to congratulate Shari for giving her icebreaker speech with in 2 weeks of becoming a member....awesome!

Jessica narrated us why "reality shows are not real". She is a natural storyteller with such comfort and ease, you would not believe that it was her second speech at toastmasters. She told us why she got into watching TV, primarily for improving language, which transformed later into keeping up with the local celebrity gossip, which finally got fixated into like rest of the country " keep up with Kardashians". Jessica brings subtle humor to her speeches and she ended with a quote saying "watching reality shows, one would learn less history than you learn from watching Titanic movie" ..... That clearly and succinctly sums up the message.

Kate shared with us the folk tale of "the golden touch" where how king Midas learnt through a hard way that gold has its value but it cannot replace the value of life, the value of seasons, the value of change, the value of the aroma, the taste, the value of growing up, the value of pleasure in simple daily things and occurrences. Kate did a wonderful job in bringing story to life, the gestures, the body language, the vocal variety and yes the whole package....and she picked a great manual (story telling) that fits her style and delivery.... Watch out for more speeches from her..

Finally, Sonia gave a practice speech on "boost your street cred" in preparation for her area contest and got feedback from all the members. Her speech gave details on how to improve on the street credibility by the way you dress, the way you talk, the way you walk, the bling, the glasses, oh yes! Everything. All the members rated the speech very high on the novelty and the content, the humor is there, Sonia brings in the mannerisms needed and it has all the pieces needed for it to be a serious contender at the area level. It all comes down to execution and we all believe that Sonia has it....... Sonia, GO FOR IT........

All in all, it was a great meeting and a great night. Please sign up for roles and see you all in 2 weeks on Oct 15th.

Goodnight.

Chandra

Congratulations to all the winners and the participants

Dear All,

Did I say Andrew was setting something special for us and Yes, he did, and the night was special. We had great food, we had sambusas, we had cookies and we had red and white wine flowing and more than this we had a great turnout for the meeting. With Andrew, the contest chair and Tom, the chief judge running the show efficiently, I was able to sit, relax, enjoy the wine and the great food.... Excellent job guys. I can't thank you enough.

Thanks goes to all the volunteers for bringing the food. Thanks goes to all the members and guests for showing up tonight and making the contest a HUGE SUCCESS... And SUCCESS it was.

Special thanks go to Yvonne, our target speaker. The speech was fabulous, it was like a perfectionist putting on a show for us. It was like a feast to hear the speech over the great food. Did I say the contest is about pleasing essentially all the 5 senses - yes, all the senses had a Treat.

Finally congratulations to all the winners and the participants.

Sonia, Mike and Rich came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the humorous speech contest.

Ian, Kate and Jessica came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the speech evaluation contest.

Sonia, Mike, Ian and Kate will represent the club at the area level. The area level contest is on Oct 10th at North East Utilities, Berlin starting at 6.30 pm.

We have more good news, Shari joined as our club member tonight.. Welcome Shari to our family! With Shari joining we reached the magic number 8 of new members ..... 8 = 2 .... That calls for extra celebration and I can sleep well :)

Thanks again to all of you. Our next meeting is on Oct 1st at our usual time (7.15pm) and our usual location. Please sign up for the roles.

Goodnight and see you all in 2 weeks.

Chandra

Club's Quality, Energy and Enthusiasm

Dear Eagles,

With the cool breeze in the air, it seems the days of extremely hot and humid days are finally over. In the past few months, we have seen many weather changes - hot days,  humid days, rainy days, windy days, but among all these unavoidable changes we have one thing staying the same - and that is our club's quality, energy and enthusiasm. We had another solid meeting with a good turnout including 4 guests.

With the humorous speech contest looming, Richard quoted Bill Cosby on how humor helps in many other dimensions  "Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it".

Kate as table topics master did something different, she made the previous table topics speaker to pick the next one... This was really good. There is always something new you learn at toastmasters!

Coming to the prepared speeches, with both the Republican and Democratic conventions done, Richard talked about three kinds of political ads - attack ads, contrast ads and dirty tricks and gave examples of each in his speech appropriately titled as " conventions are over. Let the ads fly". Richard is like an encyclopedia, his speech was loaded with details, facts, valuable information and to be honest it was difficult to keep pace with note taking. Couple of quotes I was able to jot it down - " we all know that politics is a contact sport" by Obama and another by Truman "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen".

Dawit in his speech titled "Peace Corp & me" talked about how the Peace Corp missions enrich and enlighten the lives of both the volunteers and the beneficiaries,  and after a certain time the definitions of providers and seekers may actually reverse. Dawit had a few capturing quotes in his speech like "if you spend 24 months in Africa, you learn to move(dance)" and of course Jessica as general evaluator pounced on that statement and requested Dawit to show some moves in his next speech which Dawit accepted with a smile.... (Body Speaks?) ... So keep an eye on Dawit's next speech and don't miss it if you want to learn some moves :)

Ute gave the speech on "Time to talk about food" where she did not talk about food per se but rather with good demo/gestures showed how different cultures consume food in different ways like use of silverware, use of wood (chop sticks) and of course use of plain hands. And what can I say about the speech?  She packed every  aspect of toastmasters into practice in her speech, be it the props, be it the body language, be it the vocal variety, be it the audience engagement, be it the inspiration... Yes she delivered all in this speech. She noted an interesting observation -about  1/3rd of the world population eat with silverware, 1/3rd with chop sticks and the rest 1/3rd with hands. A simple but phenomenal observation and I commend her in going out of her way to assimilate the different cultures....

Our next meeting on Sept 17th is a contest meeting. There will be food and wine on the table. It is time to put our 5 senses to use -  taste, smell, listen, speak and talk... And no better venue than the contest night. Please come. There will be many roles available like judges, timers, ballot counters etc etc and of course more member involvement more fun.

We have a Target speaker coming from the greater Hartford and the Audience is the best gift any speaker can have. So please come,  let us put on a good show and make the contest a success.

Goodnight and see you all next Monday.

Chandra

Fantastic show tonight

Dear Eagle Toastmasters,

Another night, another meeting and we put together another fantastic show tonight. Friday night we had almost an empty roster except for 3 speaking slots filled, and by Monday afternoon we had a full roster with even a backup speaker.... Yes, this is incredible and this is something very special about our club - stepping in when needed. We had 18 members tonight including our guests Susan and Michelle, and we had Steve sign up as a new member. Welcome Steve to our club/family.

Andrew as table topics master not only lightened the mood but was also very creative with the material he offered as topics. Everyone felt at ease and as a matter of fact Andrew did not have to force anyone to step forward as he had members voluntarily step forward and had a go at it. Yes we all had belly full of laughs.... Thanks and great job Andrew.

Our streak of meetings with icebreaker speeches is still going strong (hope it does not end anytime soon..?) and today Hyunsoo gave her first speech titled "the places i have been", narrating us how she landed in Wallingford after her stops in Seoul (birth place), Canada, Long Island (New York), England and Chicago, in sequential order. Her speech was well written and her soft & soothing voice had the attention of the whole room.

I grabbed the opportunity of an open speaking slot and, for a change, gave a speech on how my pain, anger and sorrow remained the same even after 18 years of the loss of a family member very dear to me. I hope, by sharing this with all of you tonight, my pain, anger and sorrow subside... Really hope and thank you all for the kind words.....

Rachel brings in passion to everything she does. Rachel imposturing as the division lead for the Juice Product Association called on all the fellow colleagues on how important it is for their division to get their act together in time to disseminate facts vs myth about the arsenic levels present in food, especially pertaining to apple juices. For a moment I thought she moved to a new job - excellent job, Rachel.

Ute shared the 4 core values of Toastmasters: 1. Dignity 2. Dedication to excellence 3. Service to the member and 4. Respect for the individual. Thanks for sharing this and I hope we maintain these core values at our club.

In short, we had a fantastic show tonight. Thanks to everyone for stepping forward and making this happen.

Goodnight and note that our next meeting is on Sept 10th.

Chandra

Drinks on me for breaking the Eagle tradition

Dear Eagles,

A new room, a new setting and yet the same great turn out and the same great fun filled meeting. We had another 20+ member turnout, with 2 guests and one signing above the dotted line. Welcome Jay to the Eagle family!

"Don't count the days, make the days count" by Muhammad Ali was one of the 2 quotes provided by quote master, Richard.

We had Andrew as the toastmaster, and he did a wonderful job considering that this was his first time as TM. I want to commend Andrew for reaching out to all the speakers prior to the meeting and setting the tone & the tempo for the speakers and the speeches.

We had 3 prepared speeches tonight. Richard gave his Icebreaker speech titled "Shadow effect", in which he narrated us the story, the relation, the bonding, the emotions, the evolution and the growth of his 2 loves - his daughter Bailey and her (their) horse, Shadow, and how Shadow had a major influence in both his daughter and also their lives, and he ended by saying  "No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle taking care of the horse," which had an appropriate addition "taking care of the horse" to the famous Winston Churchill's quote. Richard kept us so captivated that we did not realize that he was 2 minutes over time, which in itself is phenomenal for an icebreaker speech!

Mike followed Rich's speech with his icebreaker speech titled "Who is Michael". Oh, Mike had several stories with in a story. I really liked the way he connected the mini stories of his childhood, his family, his work, his education, his passion, his love...... He had this gentle, soft natured humor to his narration that, oh yes, he got the room worked up....

Lucy gave her 2nd speech titled "Memories," where she described vividly with great detail and examples how the meaning of vacation is so different for parents and children - parents want vacation for relaxation and stress-free whereas children want vacation for just the opposite "Chaos"... what better way to sum up the wide rift in the expectations......?  Lucy is like a "Wordsmith," where her narration is like a poetry or a well written prose, and the choice of words and the quality of the content keeps us beholden.

All in all, we had a great night filled with 3 fabulous speeches. Congratulations to both Rich and Mike for giving their first speeches, and my apologies to both of you for forgetting to give the "icebreaker" mementos - our club tradition; extra drinks on me for both of you for this unforgiving mistake of mine :)

Club level Evaluation and Humorous speech contest will be on Sept 17th, so start working on your humorous speeches. 

As mentioned, we will have 4 speaking slots from next meeting onwards. The agenda already shows these changes, thanks Joe.

Sign up for the roles, goodnight and see you all in 2 weeks.

Regards,

Chandra

Alcohol Works but Eagle Rocks!

Dear All,

It was a hot and a "dry" day but that did not stop us from having another great and fun filled meeting. "Dry" in the sense that we did not have alcohol served in the meeting after 3 consecutive meetings where alcohol sort of stole the show; and even then we had 20 members  including 4 guests, out of which 3 signed on the dotted line. That is Great and Welcome on board to the new members!

With record high temperatures this year, Ian, as table topics master, aptly chose "Heat" and various connotations of Heat like hot, hotter, etc as the theme for tonight's table topics. The whole room went quiet when Ian asked for volunteers to talk about the "hotter person" - I don't know what everyone was thinking but I know for sure that Kate (past club president) was thinking about George Clooney and I was thinking about Catherine Zeta Jones...( Now you guys know what Presidents think like , I mean eagle club presidents), but Robin broke the ice by stepping forward and started talking about her grandmother as the hotter person. Robin had the whole room cracked up in her 2 min table topics speech... Timely thinking and Great Job Robin!

Rachel with Area Governor hat thanked all the past club officers for the last year Club's achievements and then installed the current officers. It was very formal and this was a new experience for all of us... Looked very formal but Rachel with her magic touch made the whole episode very enjoyable.... Rachel also used her charm in making 5 members commit (voluntarily) for completing their CCs and 3 members for finishing their ACs( I have the names written down.. No ESCAPE. :) ).. Thanks Rachel for making my life very easy.

Ute stepped in when 2 speakers had to back out in the last minute and it was an appropriate continuation to where Rachel left off. 3 EEEs always sum up Ute's speeches.. Engaging, Energy and Enthusiasm... And this speech was no different. She makes it look very easy.....

And of course best for the last, we had an icebreaker speech given by Dawit who joined our club only in the last meeting. Dawit took us through his journey from Ethiopia to Europe to New Haven. Dawit has a Ph.D and he is carrying out research on coming up with early diagnostic tools for cancers like pancreatic cancer in particular at the Yale school of medicine. Dawit claims to be stubborn (?) though he does not look like at all and he loves soccer apart from research.

Finally after today's meeting I am convinced that it is our club's energy, chemistry and the atmosphere we create are the reasons for the recent good turn out for the meetings and not the alcohol..... So  Alcohol works but Eagle rocks!

Of course as usual please sign up for the roles and please contact me or any of the officers if you want to speak and there are no slots available.... We can always try to accommodate.

Goodnight and see you all in 3 weeks on Aug 6th. 

Regards,

Chandra

Great start for 2012-13

Dear All,

We just had our first meeting of the 2012-13 and what a start it was. We had a good turn out with 2 guests and 2 new signed members, champagne and food on the table (many thanks to Ute) and with the music in the background, it was a perfect setting for the perfect start.

It was heartening to see all the three prepared speeches come from the new members and they all did a wonderful job. Andrew ensured that we all had plenty of laughs with his speech on Jokes, by sharing the history of some of the jokes; he also shared a fart joke that can be traced back to 2500 B.C. With all the laughter, Andrew concluded his speech on a philosophical note saying even in the era of iPhones, airplanes etc etc, the basic common things like family ties, sharing a joke with close ones etc etc are still the underlying themes that bonds us/society.

Jessica gave her icebreaker speech by letting us all know about her a bit more. I was very impressed in the way she was able to, with ease and comfort, weave in about her family and background while answering two questions (i) why graduate school and (ii) why chemistry major. We all love icebreakers!

Santy shared how eventful his 2012 birthday was, where he had experienced a mix of emotions ranging from the excruciating pain due to the bleeding from his finger to the pleasant surprise party he received from his friends.

All in all it was a great start. As I said, in my opinion, toastmasters is of the members by the members and for the members and it is for us to steer and take advantage of.

Goodnight and see you all in 2 weeks.

Regards,
Chandra

Eagle Toastmasters Meeting of June 18, 2012

Eagle Toastmasters:  June 18, 2012

6-7pm:  Rachel worked with Sonia, Tami, and Elaine, giving them insight into the use of the new TM website. Thank you, Rachel.

President’s Remarks:  VP Education-JoeToday’s Toastmaster:  Tom C.

Humorist:   Bret

Quotemaster:  Robin

“Some men see things as they are and ask why.  Others dream things that never were and ask “why not”.  George Bernard Shaw

 “If you can dream it, you can do it.  Always remember this whole thing was started by a mouse.”  Walt Disney

 “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”  C.S.Lewis

Word of the Day  Ian

Exigent:  adj., requiring immediate action.  The fire caused exigent circumstances.

Table Topics:  Rachel cleverly used value pack coupons as topics for extemporaneous speaking.

Speaker 1
Robin—CC, “Persuade with Power; 5-7 minutes; “Life Is Just a Bowl Full of Golf Balls! Or Inspiration in a Jar”

Congratulations to Robin on her 10^th Speech, allowing us to become “President’s Distinguished for a 11^th year in a row.  We have the required 9 points, but are going for a perfect 10.

Robin spoke about an article entitiled, “The Journey to Fulfilling Your Dreams” by Janet Grace Ortigas.  It stated that while we all want to fulfill our dreams and desires only a small per centage actually do.  She persuaded us to prioritize our goals by examining them outside the box with, of all things, a bowl full of golf balls, beads, and confetti-like sand.  That’s Robin for you!

 Speaker 2,

Joe—CC Demonstrating; 5-7 minutes “Why not Salt, No Rocks; As Joe searched for a topic, While Joe was onsidering speaking about folding sheets, brewing coffee, and tying a tie, we all proceeded to fall asleep.  Then he created a room full of excitement as he donned his apron and revealed his recipe for the “margarita”, a refreshing summer repast.  He clarified some misconceptions about tequila, stating that high quality tequila does not need salt and that it comes from a cactus. 

Speaker 3,
Sonia—CC, #3; 5-7 min.; “Weight Loss Obsession”.  Sonia revealed her thought process as she was trying to lose the 20 pounds gained in her early years in college.  While researching the ads for chemical solutions, diets, and exercise machines, she finally realized that the answer was balanced nutrition and exercise.  She was then able to lose the 20 pounds in 1year without financially investing in diet programs, pills, or exercise gizmos.

Speaker 4:

Andrew—CC, Icebreaker; “Life and Learning”; Andrew needs to be commended for diving into his icebreaker.  Being creative, he used his talents to give teachers a run for their money in high school.  Using his artistic ability, Andrew forged a career for 30 years as a Tatoo Artist. Though his reputation was not as a student, he is on the verge of completing his Bachelor Degree because of his appreciation of life-long learning.

General Evaluator:  Robin

Evaluator 1:  Chandra for Robin—Robin persuaded us to keep adding to life, never losing sight of priorities.  Robin left us with visual images as she took out her inexhaustible bag of  tricks that allowed us to see that there is always room for more in life. “The only one stopping you is you”.

Evaluator 2:  Rachel for Joe-Joe did a fabulous job of demonstrating as he too brought out his bucket of tools.  His props fully engaged his audience as they actually experienced his speech topic.

Evaluator 3:  Ian for Sonia-Sonia has great natural potential, using very effective body language as a beginning Toastmaster.  She related her journey to weight loss experiences and research which culminated in the simple solution of balance, nutrition, and exercise—how profound.

Evaluator 4:  Rich from 1 State Street for Andrew-Rich has an effective conversational storytelling style and a sense of humor—important for an effective public speaker.  He even ended with a quote.  After this impressive icebreaker, he is well on his way to passing his public speaking requirement.  

Ah-Counter:  Tami

Timer:  Jessica
Grammarian:  Lucy

President’s Remarks:  Joe, VP Education

By the end of June, we will be one of 2 clubs with the award of President’s Distinguished for the 11the year in a row.  We will have a perfect 10.

Our guest, Rich, a 25 year Toastmaster Member, advising us to learn and enjoy the trip! 

            Eagle TM is certainly enjoying the trip!!

20 were present including 8 guests or new members.

June 23rd TLI - 4 officers from our club got trained

Dear All,

Just want to give  a quick update on today's TLI. Four officers from our club - Lucy, Sonia, Elaine and myself have attended the training.

This was my 2nd TLI and my first as President elect. In short the TLI was good. It was good to hear everyone emphasize on the "Members" and at the same time focus on the DCP ( distinguished club program) and the CSP ( club success program). I sat through the DCP course given by Will Ryan and The Better speakers lead to the Better Clubs course given by Don Smith. Both Will and Don are very accomplished speakers and were very comfortable in answering many of our questions and concerns. I also sat through the open forums for Presidents hosted by Jeff Sobel, the in-coming District Governor. This session was good and realized how difficult many clubs find to become distinguished club forget abt President's Distinguished. During this session it dawned me on the magnitude of our club's achievement of President's Distinguished for the 11th consecutive year. I felt proud to be part of Eagles for a moment during the session. 

Lucy, Sonia and Elaine thanks for attending the TLI. I hope you found it useful . Please share your thoughts with us.

 

Regards,

Chandra

President's distinguished for the 11th consecutive year- a feat to celebrate

Dear All,

We had our last meeting of the 2011-2012 year and what a night it was. We had 4 prepared speeches including 1 icebreaker from Andrew. Andrew closed his speech with the quote from Einstein "once you stop learning you start dying."

Joe really stole the thunder by telling and showing us in exquisite detail how to make a good margarita. His margaritas were so good that he was asked/forced to open a margarita counter and he served drinks for all the members who wanted to try. I had a margarita and I personally would rate Joe's margarita very very high in my favorite drinks list.

Sonia shared with us how a simple choice of balanced diet and exercise would go a long way in losing the extra weight most of us would like to get rid of with out relying on the pills, gizmos etc etc. Congratulations Robin for finishing CC. Robin gave a speech on fulfilling our dreams and she quoted that " the only thing stopping you from fulfilling your dream is YOU."

And finally, with Robin's CC, we achieved Presidents distinguished for the 11th consecutive year. Rich Couture one of our guests yesterday and also a past district governor (2004-05) shared this interesting stat that only 2 clubs out of 150+ in our district have achieved this feat so far and we are one of the 2. We should be all very proud of this accomplishment and take a moment to celebrate (Joe's margaritas already set the tone).I would like to thank all the members for this achievement and especially Kate for her leadership.

Our next meeting, the first for the 2012-2013, will be on July 2nd at our usual location. Please join and of course sign up for the roles.

See you all in 2 weeks.

Regards,
Chandra

Eagle Toastmasters Meeting of June 4, 2012

President’s Remarks: Kate

Today’s Toastmaster: Rachel

Humorist: Tom C.

Quotemaster: Udaya       

Word of the Day Joe “Guitapens” ambush or trap

Note: This is the word that a student spelled to win the National Spelling Bee.

Table Topics: Robin presented a thought-provoking topic—Colors

Speaker 1

Robin—CC, IYour Body Speaksr; 5-7 minutes, “Hiking, Are You Ready?”

Robin gave us a comprehensive list of items for our backpacks when hiking:

· Sunscreen

· Insect spray

· Water

· Map

· Compass

· Snack bar

· Hand Sanitizer

· Hat

· Sweatshirt (in case…)

· Rain pants and coat )in case…)

· Treking pole

· Lighter for fire (in case…)

· Headlamp (in case…)

· Whistle (in case…)

· First Aid Kit in case

· Hiking boots with socks and sock liners

· Wine for celebrating at the top i(n case you get there)

Speaker 2,

Kate—CC, Your Body Speaks,, 5-7 minutes, “One Person’s Junk Is Another Person’s Treasure”

Kate Inspired us to take a look at tag sales as a source of bargains, including money-makers. Congratulations to Kate on her 10^th Speech.

Speaker 3,

Uta—CC, Icebreaker, 4-6 minutes, “Potatoes & Bread or Rice & Beans?”

Uta gave yet another inspiring speech. She spoke about her new life where she will be donating money to make a difference in the lives of 20 children in an orphanage in India. She is helping to finance a well for water, communicating through skyping.

General Evaluator: Kate

Evaluator 1: Udaya for Robin—Robin’s props added power to the delivery, allowing us to remember what is important. Her body language, not only spoke to us, but yelled quite loudly, as she used body language at least 50% of the time.\

Evaluator 2: Joe for Kate—Kate’s vocal variety was remarkable as her range went from a whisper to excitement, drawing us into her world. She used role playing at each of 3 tag sales, allowing us to feel like we were there. Her use of pauses added effectiveness to her vocal variety.

Evaluator 3: Tami for Uta—Tami evaluated Uta’s 16^thIce Breaker. Uta’s journey from the past to the present and into the future touched our hearts, as she inspired us with the emotion in her voice.

Ah-Counter: Lucy

Timer: Sonia

Grammarian: Tom P.

*Reminder to members: 

· Use--“I hope….” Rather than “…hopefully”

· “Kids” are goats

· Try to avoid “a lot” unless you mean a car lot or a housing lot

· Avoid: …and….and…and…

President Kate:  New Officer

• President: Chandra

• VP Education: Joe

• VP Membership: Ian

• VP Public Relations: Raches (Sonia, Tami)

• Sgt. Arms: Lucy

• Secretary: Elaine

• Treasurer: Uta

One more speech from Robin and we have 9 points. Uta can bring us to a perfect 10.