May 18th Meeting - "and the Emmy goes to....."

Eagles,

Another great meeting Monday night! TV night was a night where we not only celebrated TV, we also got to learn something new about each other. From John B telling us he watches 2-3 hours each day to Ute sharing that she doesn't even own a TV.

What TV night would be complete without Emmy Awards? Here we go.....

Best presentation of an invention: John Bimonte - the "Toastmaster Startup Kit" (a headband and wristbands for new people that, ahem, perspire when they speak)

Person that made me feel oldest: Meghan Neller – As Quotemaster, Meghan quoted Gilmore Girls (never heard of them)

Person that made me feel youngest: Richard Freeman, who told us he liked Rat Patrol (I read about them in social studies class)

Reference that made some of us wish Google was around in the 60s: Ian Brooks for his Diana Riggs reference.

Best live performance of a TV sound track: Tony Centorino for his a Capella performance of the “Ballad of Gilligan's Isle” (Sherwood Schwartz is rolling in his grave)

Best visual description: Heather McKelvie for describing how Mr. Rogers told her through the TV that he wanted to talk to her Mom. Heather asked her Mom to come to the TV while she was, hmmm, indisposed

Best Educational speech: tie between Robin Corrigan's Go for the Gold tutorial on Toastmaster awards and Kate Kelly for teaching us about Susan B Anthony through her interpretative reading.

Best alternative to sleeping at church: Deb Haggett for her persuasive speech on how our clergy can learn to be better speakers

Thanks to all mentioned above as well as the following that took on meeting roles…..Jeff Torone, Allie Centorino, Sandra Centorino, Tom Corrigan, Vin Messina, Kevin Tran, Ute Brinkmann, Joe Oddie and Ruchi Pandey.

Thank you for another fun evening! See you on June 1st! There are roles available….please sign up for something!

Tony

Cinco de Mayo

Eagles,

May 4^th was  a fun evening that showcased what Eagle and Toastmasters is all about!

Our meeting had a festive “Cinco de Mayo” feel to it. That is, until Allie the Humorist told us it is actually “Sinko de Mayo”. Our Toastmaster, Rachel, regaled us with her entire Spanish vocabulary, which was only exceeded by the six Spanish words Sandra had on her Table Topics display!

We had two guests from other Toastmaster clubs, Aparna and Paul. While it is really fun “showing our club off” to potential new members, it is especially gratifying hearing compliments from members from other clubs……..We have a great club! It is a privilege having guests like Aparna and Paul contribute to our club with table topics, evaluations, and positive energy. I hope to visit their clubs sometime.

My lasting impression of Monday’s meeting, was John Bimonte’s Icebreaker! John stepped up to perform his Icebreaker a month early when a speaker slot opened. John permeated his speech with eye contact and his vocal variety was remarkable for a first speech! He is off to a great start!

Robin presented a very informative speech that summarizes the Toastmaster Communicator and Leadership programs…..If you remember nothing else about her speech, please know that she is a wealth of experience in this area. Please reach out to Robin or any of our more experienced members if you have questions or needs in this area.

A note about the agenda…….For several of you, “life got in the way” resulting in you having to remove your name from the 5/4 sign-up sheet. Each one of you respected the Eagle family by letting me know as soon as you found out you could not make it….Thank you! I look forward to your participation in future meetings. To those of you that did participate, some on short notice, thank you for stepping up! It is great to know we have “each other’s back”.

I would like to close with a short message about playing “Taps”. I spoke about playing Taps at my Dad’s military ceremony, which took place in the Sarasota National Cemetery in 2012. Shortly before my Dad’s burial, my cousin (also a trumpet player) told me that the Service personnel would play a recording of Taps unless I lined up a trumpet player. My cousin flew down to Florida....I played Taps and he played the echo.

There is an organization that will line up a bugler - www.buglesacrossamerica.org. If you know of anybody that needs a bugler, just go onto the site to request a player. You can also reach out to me and I’ll see what I can do to help. Every Serviceman and Servicewoman should be entitled to a live player!

Get ready for TV night on 5/18! Please log onto the website and sign up for something!

Tony

PS. Congratulations to our new officer-elects, Kate Kelly, Heather McKelvie, and Meghan Neller! I will provide more of my thoughts about this over the next few days