December 18th Meeting

Our last meeting of the 2017 calendar year was held in the BYK Conference center. It was short and sweet, so that we could move out to the lobby and enjoy refreshments while doing a round of table topics by the fire.

Sandra Centorino was Toastmaster for the evening. We happily welcomed two new members – Markus Schumacher and Celina Dorn. Tom Piekarski served as the humorist and Ian Brooks gave the quote of the day, "Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection." – Winston Churchill.

To keep the meeting short, we only had two speakers. Ute Brinkmann delivered speech #9, Persuade with Power from the Competent Communicator manual. Her speech was titled Giving, and she spoke of the importance of giving to those who are less fortunate than we are. There are many ways to give – we can donate time, money, and resources. By doing so we can give hope to others in this world.

Maryanne Shirshac gave Speech #6, Vocal Variety, from the Competent Communicator manual. Titled “Holly Days”, Maryanne spoke about her cat, Holly. Holly came into Maryanne’s life as she was mourning the loss of her previous cat. Holly has left pawprints on Maryanne’s heart, which is something to which other pet owners can relate.

The general evaluator was Nilani Shankar, and Ian Brooks and Stephen McGirr evaluated the speeches. Functionary roles were: Ah-Counter – Heather McKelvie, Grammarian – Salvatore Romano, Timer –Melinda Torgerson.

After the evaluations and functionary reports were given, the group migrated to the lobby for snacks and socialization in front of the fireplace. Deborah Haggett led a holiday session of table topics. All in all, it was a fun way to celebrate our time together as Toastmasters.

December 4th Meeting

Once again, we met in the BYK Conference Center – an interesting change from our usual venue. 

Jaime Fisher, our Sergeant at Arms was first on the scene to ensure the room was ready for the night and to open the meeting with the bang of the gavel.

Eagles President Ute Brinkmann announced that next meeting (Dec. 18) is the holiday-themed meeting, and everyone may contribute by bringing something delicious to share. (Sign up on the agenda!) Perhaps some holiday attire, if you’ve got an ugly sweater you’re itching to show off?

Tom Corrigan was the Toastmaster for the evening. 16 members and 8 guests (yes 8!) were present.

Robin Corrigan was the humorist and told a funny story about a failed attempt to impress someone.

Robin also presented the Quote of the Day – from Adam Steltzner’s book The Right Kind of Crazy. I failed to write down what his quote actually was, but take a moment to Google him if you don’t know who he is – he’s an incredibly interesting guy! I think I’ll be reading that book!

Grammarian Paula Erardi presented the word of the day, which was Complicity.

Tony Centorino was Tabletopics Master and used the time to crowdsource us for ideas on how to get clubs to gain more visitors and members. Along the idea of having themed meetings, he asked us to speak for 2 minutes on various themes, such as books, travel, children, and music. Heather, Jaime, Paula and Robin all participated.

Our first speaker of the evening was the club’s prodigal son, Curtis Reddick. (Welcome back to the club, Curtis!) Curtis spoke from the Competent Communication Manual, project # 9 (Persuade with Power). Curtis’ speech was titled Rebel Against Mediocrity. Curtis packed his speech with information about how we can better ourselves. Just by being part of Toastmasters, we strive to rise above the status quo! He recommended a book called Organize Tomorrow Today, and reminded us that consistent behavior is what leads to change.

Nilani Shankar was up next, completing project #3 (Get to the Point) from the Competent Communication Manual. Nilani spoke about how she was introduced to the therapeutic techniques of tapping and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) from a fellow graduate student at UConn. She took us through the history of these therapies and even had us participate in a quick demo of self-tapping.

Speaker #3 was yours truly, Heather McKelvie. I chose project #1 (Speaking to Inform) from the Advanced Communication Series, Speaking to Inform.  In The Art of Zentangle, I attempted to introduce Zentangle to the group, explaining what it is, how it got started, and then how to do it. I brought examples of Zentangle books, as well as my own artwork, and even did a quick demo on the easel, but unfortunately, I found the time was up before I had completed the speech! Lesson learned: You can’t fit 20 minutes’ worth of material in a 5-7-minute speech!

Kate Kelly closed out the speech portion of the evening with her speech, entitled Take a Giant Hike. Her title was a play on words, as she talked to us about hiking at Sleeping Giant! A big part of her speech was on the importance of having a trail map so that you can anticipate the type of terrain you’ll be encountering, and find a gentle way back to the parking lot once you’ve had enough.

Jaime Fisher was our General Evaluator. Kate Kelly, Robin Corrigan, Sandra Centorino and Tony Centorino evaluated each speech respectively.

Other functionaries were: Curtis Reddick, Ah-Counter, and Stephen McGirr, Timer.

Our next meeting will be held on Monday, December 18^th at BYK. It will be a holiday-themed meeting and will include pot-luck. Be sure to see the agenda on eagletoastmasters.com to sign up!

See you then!

Heather McKelvie

Eagle Secretary

November 20th Meeting

Hi Eagles!

Our November 20^th meeting had a new venue – the conference center at BYK! We’ll meet here temporarily for the next several meetings, as our usual location has other plans.

The meeting was opened by our Sergeant at Arms, Jaimie Fisher. We had 14 members and 5 guests in attendance.

Club President Ute Brinkman welcomed us and mentioned that Ian Brooks was about to complete his Competent Communicator for the second time around!  She also reminded us that it’s good to look around at other clubs to visit, or even give a speech there.  Ute reminded us that the holidays are coming up fast and we’d like new ideas for our December 18^th holiday meeting.

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Kate Kelly. Tom Corrigan was the humorist and had us all chuckling about how a husband had apparently already picked out his replacement wife, should his current wife die before him.

Ute Brinkman delivered the word of the day, which was Zonked, meaning to be exhausted.

The Quote of the Day was delivered by Sandra Centorino, taken from the book Kindness Boomerang: “Pay for the coffee. It’s not the coffee that will be remembered, but the kindness.”

Ian Brooks was the first speaker of the night. His task, taken from the Competent Communicator Manual was to Get Comfortable with Visual Aids. Ian gave us a brief history of early recorded sounds – as much as one can fit 30-40 years of sound in a 7-minute speech. He brought along a phonograph and played some old records for us. He also demonstrated the fragility of the old thermoset plastic records by breaking one with his bare hands!

Jaime Fisher gave us the Best Holiday Survival Guide with Kids. Since it is commonly thought that it takes 100,000 hours of experience to become an expert, Jaime qualifies as an expert in dealing with children. She had three helpful tips for anyone who may be spending time with kids this holiday season. 1. See kids as an asset in helping you be more mindful. They are mindfulness minions! 2. Consider skipping gifts. Sponsor violin lessons, or karate, or take them somewhere to have a memorable experience instead! 3. Remember the most important gift of all – make the time to spend with family and friends, even those relatives you don’t agree with. To simply listen to another is a gift.

Our final speaker of the evening was Chris Gaffney. He spoke from an advanced manual The Entertaining Speaker. In Meaningful Thoughts, Chris spoke about three people who he admired as inspirational thinkers. 1. Tom Bodette, who states his mind in a clear and reflective way. 2. Garrison Keillor, the master of nostalgia, who not only makes you think of it but feel it too. 3. Andy Rooney, the former curmudgeonly commentator from 60 Minutes. Chris also shared that he is now sharing his own meaningful thoughts on his new blog: www.uncommondiscourse.com  

Table Topics was moved to the post-speech portion of the evening, to make the best use of time. Robin Corrigan was the Table Topics Master. Robin got creative with this one, turning it into a crime scene, with all the participants as suspects! The scene was Sun Studios recording studio, and the crime was the stolen golden guitar! Kate was the detective, while Tony was the Elvis impersonator, Heather was the “real” Elvis, Tom P. was Johnny Cash, Ian was Carl Perkins, Curtis was Jerry Lee Lewis, Nilani was Diane, and Sam Phillips was played by Tom C. One by one, each suspect had to explain what they were doing during the hour break when the guitar went missing. In the end, Detective Kate determined that it was the Elvis Impersonator who had stolen the golden guitar!

The general evaluator for the evening was Heather McKelvie. Robin Corrigan, Paula Erardi and Tony Centorino evaluated each speech, respectively.

Other functionaries were: Ah Counter, Stephen McGirr (who is ruthless in this role!), and Timer, Nilani Shankar.

The December 4^th meeting will be held in the BYK Conference Center again. Hope to see you there!

Heather McKelvie

Eagle Secretary

November 6th Meeting

Hello Eagles!

As usual, the meeting was opened by our Sergeant at Arms, Jaimie Fisher.

Eagles President Ute Brinkmann announced that our club had won the Smedley Award for gaining 5 members between August 1 and September 30^th.

Ian Brooks served as Toastmaster for the evening. 14 members and 2 guests were present.

The word of the day, presented by Grammarian Tony Centorino, was Assuage – meaning to ease or lessen pain, as with get-well cards or flowers.

Heather McKelvie was the humorist, and told a nutty joke about some complimentary nuts in a bar.

Nilani Shankar presented the Quote of the Day – from Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles. “Don’t believe everything you hear – even in your own mind.”

Sandra Centorino was Tabletopics Master. In honor of Monday being International Kindness Day, Sandra had participants share what they would say in a letter to someone who deserved their appreciation. Ian, Heather, Melinda (a guest), Salvatore (another guest!) and Paula all contributed.

Our first speech of the evening was delivered by Amy Demas. Amy’s project was from the Technical Presentations Manual – (1) The Technical Briefing. In Revolutionary Front Desk Training, Amy demonstrated the training she would provide for a dentist office staff when switching to a cloud-based recording platform for their phone system.

In speech 2, Jaime Fisher spoke from the Competent Communication manual – (5) Your Body Speaks. What’s Inside an Acorn? was inspired by Jaime’s then 2-year-old son asking what was inside of an acorn, and Jaime responding with the bright answer, “A Tree!” Jaime explained that, just as the material inside the acorn requires time, energy and patience to grow into a big tree, we too can reach our full potential through consistent, deliberate daily efforts.

Ute Brinkmann also spoke from the Competent Communication manual – (5) Your Body Speaks. In Little Knights, Ute told us how she began making simple sugar cookies for the Merchant Marines. She soon grew bored of the plain cookies and began adding pizzazz with stamped rolling pins and cutters. Over the years she has amassed quite a collection of unique and in some cases, intricately detailed cookie cutters, stamps and molds, which she passed around for us to see. Decoration adds love and sunshine to the cookies, but no additional calories. In Ute’s words, people from Uzbekistan to Asia decorate their food. I think I speak for the club when I say the best part of Ute’s speech was that she brought little bags of cookies for each of us to sample!

Tony Centorino delivered speech project (9) Persuade with Power from the Competent Communication manual entitled You Own It.  Tony spoke about how we each have our own individual journeys, but we share a journey together as a club. For Tony, who has worked at GE for over 20 years, it means a lot to him that GE has been around for 125 years, and Toastmasters has been around for 120. Both have well-established cultures and seemingly endless resources. This means that we can grow as much as we want with Toastmasters. Our club has a healthy mix of “Senior” members – those who have been around for a long time, “Junior” members – those with 3-5 years’ experience, and “Newbies” – those who have joined within the past 3 years or less.  Our club is owned by the members and run by the members.  Tony’s message to us is that we can be in the drivers’ seat! Reach out and do what you can for the club and for yourself. Ask for any help you need – resources are available.

Stephen McGirr was our General Evaluator. Speaking of resources, Steve mentioned that he had compiled some resources for the General Evaluator role and was willing to share with whoever needed them. The General Evaluator Role is in the Competent Leadership Book 6 times!

Tony Centorino, Chris Gaffney, Kimberly Lewis, and Richard Freeman all served as evaluators for the evening. Other functionaries were: Nilani Shankar, Ah-Counter, and Paula Erardi, Timer. 

See you next time!

Heather McKelvie

Eagle Secretary 

September 18th Meeting - Evaluation and Humorous Speech Contest

The September 18th meeting was a special one - it was our fall contest! Many members chipped in and brought food and drinks to keep us fueled throughout the evening.

Jaime Fisher served as Contest Master, Peter Penev was Sergeant at Arms, and Deb Haggett was Chief Judge.

The group consisted of 17 members, 5 guests, and one guest of honor - the target speaker, Richard Peck, DTM, First Vice President of Toastmasters International.

As the target speaker, Richard's role was to give a speech for the evaluators in the evaluation contest to evaluate. (Make sense?)

In his speech, More Than Just Words, Richard asked: "How do you use words to take people on a journey? When used properly, words can be extremely powerful." He went on to compare FDR's famous Pearl Harbor speech with an earlier draft, showing how the right words can have a much more powerful impact than those that first come to mind. He encouraged us to keep the 4 R's in mind when preparing speeches: Reinvent, Renew, Revitalize and Rewrite! Be mindful that your words take people on their journey, not yours.

Evaluation contestants were Joseph Oddie and Stephen McGirr

For the humorous speech contest, there were four contestants/speeches. In order of appearance:

1. Sarah Anne Ouellette / How Shit Can Set You Free
2. Brad Leete / My First World Record
3. Sandra Centorino / 17 Seats
4. Maryanne Shirshac / iLost

After each contestant, there was time for the judges to complete a checklist, which would be used to determine the speech contest winners. (This was also true for the judging of the evaluation contest.)

Once the judging forms had been completed, the ballot counters and chief judge retreated to another room to tally up the results. The rest of us mingled and enjoyed the refreshments.

Finally - drumroll please - the winners were announced.

For the evaluation contest, Joseph Oddie took first place, and Stephen McGirr second. For the speech contest, Brad Leete came in at #1, and Sandra Centorino came in second.

All four of the winning contestants would then go on to compete at the Area Contest, which was held in Waterbury on October 12th.

September 11th Meeting

The September 11^th meeting opened on a somber note, with Ute Brinkmann reading a poem remembering that fateful day. But she added a positive thought – the date 9/11 in European style stands for November 9. On that day in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.

Amy Demas served as Toastmaster for the evening and suggested that we move Table Topics to the end of the meeting to make sure we had enough time for all the speeches.

The word of the day, presented by Thom Knowlton was Imagine.

The first speech of the evening was given by Kate Kelly. It was entitled “Pay it Forward” and was taken from the Advanced Manual – Specialty Speeches (2) Uplift the Spirit. Kate recalled that immediately after 9/11, humanity was at its best. People were kind and rushed to help each other and check in on each other. As often happens after tragedy or disaster, people reacted with love and concern. Kate asked, how do we keep that good spirit going? She then answered that we must always pay it forward to keep the kindness going. We don’t need to wait for another attack or disaster to motivate us.

Speaker 2 was Heather McKelvie (yes, that’s me!) who delivered a speech from the Storytelling Manual (3) The Moral of the Story. A Tale of Two Squirrels took the audience on a journey with a pair of squirrels – one who was very goal-driven and the other who was a bit less so. The story ended with a twist when the goal-oriented squirrel (Filbert) was snatched up by a hawk and the lazy squirrel (Marshall) went on to live the life that Filbert had once dreamed of for himself. The moral of the story was that you can plan all you want but you never really know how things will turn out in the end.

Joseph Oddie was the third speaker of the evening. He also chose a project from the Storytelling manual (4) The Touching Story. In “Face Your Fear” Joseph spoke about his paralyzing fear of public speaking that struck during his junior year of high school. From then on, his life choices were influenced by this fear. It took him 20 years before he confronted it by attending an improv class and even then, he wanted to run out of the room. But he stuck to it and was euphoric afterwards. He went on to try his hand at stand-up comedy. Each time was a little step forward. Joseph’s message to us was that if you don’t face your fear head-on, it will follow you throughout your life.

Our final speaker of the evening was Stephen McGirr, who gave his final speech from the Competent Communicator Manual (10) Inspire Your Audience.  Steve’s speech was entitled “What Will You Become?” He spoke about the three values he lives by: 1. Find Answers, 2. Be a Mentor, 3. Focus. When Steve was a child, he saw a Nostradamus documentary that cause him great distress. As he grew older he was crippled by his fears, suffering panic attacks that prevented him from going out and enjoying life. After consulting with a psychiatrist, and focusing on personal development and leadership training, he found answers to his struggles, became a mentor for others and has learned to focus on love and positivity, rather than the negative things in life. We too, can move past our own fears and use our experiences to help others.

Jaime Fisher lead table topics for the evening, which were a series of interesting questions such as: If you had a superpower for one day, what would it be? What was your favorite childhood toy or game? And, if you could learn a new skill, what would it be? Sarah Ouellette, Maryanne Shirshac and Brad Leete all participated, and then we were out of time!

Thomas Piekarski was the general evaluator for the evening, while Anne Lee, Brad Leete, Paula Erardi and Joseph Oddie evaluated each speaker.

August 21st Meeting

Hi Eagles!

I arrived at our August 21^st meeting expecting another small group. Boy was I wrong! We ended up with a total of 22 people – 8 of whom were guests.

Jaime Fisher was back to bang the gavel and begin the night. I (Heather McKelvie) served as Toastmaster.

As Humorist, Tom Piekarski told a risqué joke about a nun giving two priests an eyeful while on vacation.

Paula Erardi gave a quote from Frederick Lewis Donaldson about the seven social sins.

Following in Tony’s footsteps from last week, I also served as Topicsmaster. I brought in a grab bag of items and asked people to come up, randomly choose an item and then speak about it for 2 minutes. Sandra and Steve both found sunglasses and talked about their experiences with the solar eclipse. Jaime, inspired by a stuffed giraffe, told us about her struggles as a minimalist parent with children who hoard stuffed animals. Chris found a “clock man” in the bag and spoke about how it was a super hero action figure. He convinced us that it was a valuable collector’s item. One of the guests, Sarah, gave it a whirl and impressed us with her thoughts about pearls.

Then it was time for the main event – the speeches!

T Poirer gave the first of the three icebreaker speeches of the evening. She spoke about her nervousness and shared a poem she wrote about the nervousness and fear. As Sandra would later emphasize, T took the energy from her fear and turned it into courage!

Nilani Shankar’s icebreaker was inspired by the Jim Rohn quote from the previous meeting. She spoke briefly about her 22 years of formal education and then dove into her self-education. She discovered that self-hypnosis could help her memorize 25 pages of piano music, and has gone on to study how hypnosis can be used to help others.

In her icebreaker, Anne Lee started off by telling us how her family moved from Korea to Bangkok, where she learned English in an American school, only really taking it seriously once the math problems became word problems and she had to rely on probability to get the answers right. Anne came to the US for high school and college. She wanted a practical career, so she became a doctor and practiced radiology for 20 years. She then tried her hand at house-flipping, developed interested in real estate and became a broker! She says that when you want something in life, opportunities will come to you, and that America really is the best place to make that happen.

Amy Demas then gave a speech from the Advanced Manual – Special Occasion Speeches, Speaking in Praise, called “Thank you, Light” Amy praised light for three of it’s greatest characteristics – Radiance, Energy & Momentum and Guidance.  She concluded by reminding us that we can empower and motivate, just like the sun. 

Jaime Fisher wrapped up the evening as General Evaluator. Speech evaluators were Sandra Centorino, Amy Demas, Steve McGirr and Jaime Fisher.

Other functionaries were Paula Erardi: Ah-Counter, Nilani Shankar: Grammarian, and Richard Freeman: Timer.

Our next meeting is September 11^th. Ute suggested that the theme for the evening be National Day of Remembrance.

See you then!

Heather McKelvie

Eagle Secretary

August 7th Meeting

Hi Eagles!

Although our August 7^th meeting was sparsely attended, everyone there stepped up to fill roles and make the evening an enjoyable one.

There were 8 members and 4 guests – two of whom joined as members by the end of the meeting!

Stephen McGirr banged the gavel to start the meeting, and Tony Centorino served as Toastmaster.

Sandra Centorino humored us with a joke about an old married couple – in honor of her and Tony’s recent wedding anniversary. I wonder how many dolls Sandra has crocheted over the years?

Stephen McGirr stepped up to give a quote from Jim Rohn about the significance of self-education.

Tony Centorino - in one of his many roles that night – led Table Topics with a travel theme.  We got to hear how our fellow Toastmasters have set off alarms at customs and security thanks to contraband items such as untreated wood and full water bottles. Kate shared a truly cringe-worthy story of how her suitcase was critically battered by the baggage handling system and had to be delivered to her in a giant trash bag.

Tony Centorino switched hats from Table Topics Master to Toastmaster to Speaker #1 (can you keep up?) and delivered speech #3 from the Competent Communicator Manual: Get to the Point.  Tony spoke about his journey through Toastmasters, from the day he and Sandra discussed it over coffee at Dunkin Donuts, to joining Eagle in June 2014, and progressing as a speaker and a club officer – taking on roles such as Club President, VP of Membership and Secretary. Today Tony is Area Director and he concluded his speech by outlining his goals for mentoring the clubs in our area.

Ute Brinkmann delivered speech #8 from the Competent Communicator Manual: Get Comfortable with Visual Aids.  A Humble Wooden Stick was our opportunity to take a good look at a violin bow. Ute brought enough for everyone! After she handed out the bows, she explained what they are made of – wood from Brazil, horse hair from Mongolia, a “frog” with mother of pearl inlay from Germany. We were surprised to learn that high-quality bows such as the ones Ute had entrusted us to hold were worth $15 - $17,000!

Kate Kelly wrapped up the evening as General Evaluator as well as speech evaluator for Tony. I evaluated Ute’s speech.

Other functionaries were Stephen McGirr: Ah-Counter, Fred Swiderski: Grammarian, and guest-turned-member Nilani Shankar, who stepped up and took on her first role as timer

Our next meeting is August 21^st, which is just around the corner! Sign up for a role today to help make it another successful night.

See you then!

Heather McKelvie

Eagle Secretary

July 17th Meeting

Hi Eagles!

Last night was another great meeting. There were 14 members and 5 guests – one of whom became a member by the end of the evening. Please join me in welcoming Kimberly Lewis as our newest Eagle!

Jaime Fisher took on the role of Toastmaster and made the job look easy. She’s a natural and not once became nonplussed by the responsibility.

Fred Swiderski was the humorist, and amused us with a joke about aquatic predators. Maryanne Shirshac shared a quote from her favorite children’s book, The Little Prince.

Sandra Centorino handled the Table Topics portion of the evening and integrated a game called Sparked. Each contestant – er, table topics speaker – spun a wheel to determine their question category and then Sandra chose a relevant question from that category. A lot of people got involved – Maryanne, Amy, Steve, Tony, myself and Jaime all participated.

For the speech portion of the evening, Tony Centorino gave an after-dinner speech, from the Advanced Communication Manual, The Entertaining Speech. Tony told a humorous story about a visit to a movie theater in Vermont where just one employee was running the whole operation. He tied this in to how the Eagle Toastmasters club has pulled through the years - sometimes relying on very few members to take on multiple roles in order to get the job done.  He shared with us the 3 P’s – Product, Process and People. Without our members (people) doing their part (process) we would not have the successful club (product) that we do!

Kate Kelly then revisited the Competent Communicator Manual and gave an Icebreaker speech called Why I don’t have a Tattoo. Kate took us on a journey through significant moments in her life and how she might have marked these memories with tattoos – that is, if she wasn’t afraid of needles and the permanency of tattoos.

The third and final speech of the night was given by me - Heather McKelvie. It was from the Advanced Communication Manual, Storytelling. Go Fly a Kite was the story of my childhood kite-flying experience gone wrong. My hubris lead me to not only lose my brand new kite, but to cause a power outage to the entire neighborhood!

Amy Demas performed as General Evaluator and evaluated Tony’s speech, while Fred Swiderski and Tony Centorino evaluated Kate and Heather. 

Other functionaries tonight were Richard Freeman: Ah-Counter; Stephen McGirr: Grammarian; Chris Gaffney: Timer

Our next meeting is August 7^th. It will be here before you know it! Sign up for a role today to help make it another successful night.

See you then!

Heather McKelvie

Eagle Secretary

July 10th Meeting

Hello Eagles!

Our meeting tonight was well-attended for a summer evening. We had 12 members and two guests – one of whom became a member by the end of the evening. We welcomed Jaime’s friend Theresa as a guest, and Tom and Robin’s friend Lou, who is now our newest Eagle!

Jaime Fisher banged the gavel for the first time as Sergeant at Arms. Ute Brinkmann kicked off the meeting with a Presidential Welcome that included a summary of the TLI training that was held this past Saturday in Hamden. All 7 officers attended, as well as one enigmatic member who also serves as an officer in another club.

Ute mentioned new ideas she will be implementing this year, such as the presidential welcome letter which will be handed out to guests. On the back of this letter is the new member form - to encourage guests to sign up as soon as the spirit moves them.

She also introduced “The 15-Minute Speech Preparation Plan – A 12-Step Worksheet” to serve as a handy guide for generating a speech in a quick and orderly fashion. I intend to give this plan a whirl in planning my next speech.

Fred Swiderski served as our Toastmaster for the evening. He was also the humorist, and had everyone laughing with his clever “walk into a bar” jokes. Sandra Centorino inspired us with a quote from Jay Danzi reminding us that our smile, personality and affect are personal business tools that we carry with us all the time.

As Table Topics Master, Paula Erardi had some thought-provoking questions on the theme of time. Tom P., Lou, Sandra and Theresa all gave interesting and timely responses.

Jaime Fisher was the first speaker tonight, which started off with a hilarious Q&A session wherein she demonstrated the dramatic reactions her children have had to simple requests she has made of them. As the audience, we were to try and guess what she had asked of them to elicit such responses.

Ute Brinkmann then gave her speech, “V for Volunteer” where she shared how she bakes cookies every week for the merchant marines, and how she has learned that when you put your heart and soul into something and treat as more than just a task, you will flourish and grow. You get out what you put in.

Kate Kelly was the final speaker for the evening, and she gave a toast (complete with real wine!) to the best Toastmasters club (that’s us!). She gave credit to the outgoing officers who served for the past year, and mentioned the incoming officers. Most important of all are the members themselves – we pick each other up and have made great friendships along the way.

Thank you to the evaluators – some who stepped up at the very last minute! Stephen McGirr was the General evaluator, and speech evaluators Chris Gaffney, Tom Piekarski and Robin Corrigan.

Other functionaries tonight were Tom Corrigan: Ah-Counter, Robin Corrigan: Grammarian, Heather McKelvie: Timer

Last, but not least, some of our new officers made announcements at the end of the meeting. As Sergeant at Arms, Jaime asked that we each take a turn giving her a hand setting up and taking down the Toastmaster swag at each meeting. Stay tuned for more from Jaime on how to sign up for this role.

Paula, VP of Public Relations has big plans for promoting our club through social media. She’s also happy to hear any ideas or suggestions from the club, so don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with her.

Our next meeting is only one week away, on July 17^th. Be sure to log in to the site and sign up for a role.

See you then!

Heather McKelvie

Eagle Secretary

June 19th Year End Meeting

Eagles,

The last meeting of our 2016-17 Toastmaster year took place started at the Parks and Rec and concluded at Joseph Oddie’s home…..Lots to report!

Congratulations to our new officers….and thank you to our outgoing officers!

President Amy Demas opened up the meeting by leading the election process of our new officers.

	Incoming 2017-18 Officers	Outgoing 2016-17 Officers
President	Ute Brinkmann	Amy Demas
VP Education	Kate Kelly	Tom Piekarski
VP Membership	Ian Brooks	Ian Brooks
VP Public Relations	Paula Erardi	Ute Brinkmann
Treasurer	Meghan Palumbo	Maryanne Shirshac
Secretary	Heather McKelvie	Tony Centorino
Sergeant at Arms	Jaime Fisher	Richard Freeman

Our officers officially begin their term on July 1^st.

Toastmaster Sandra Centorino led an action packed meeting with 20 members and 2 guests. The meeting started with three speakers and ended with Table Topics around the faux camp fire at the Oddie residence, surrounded by the small of oven baked smores! Let’s get to it…..

Steve McGirr, was our first Speaker, giving a speech about his views of friendship…..a memorable and apt speech given our meeting celebrated the old and new friendships we’ve all made at Eagle.

Maryanne Shirshac followed with her speech about the importance, and challenge, of getting a good night’s sleep……During a break, several people approached Maryanne sharing their thoughts on the subject…..This is one of the many reasons Toastmaster meetings are so enjoyable.

Tom Corrigan, Speaker number 3, gave a speech about how he has “given up” in his gardening pursuit fed the critters! Tom had expostulated the local wildlife from helping themselves to his garden, but it was a losing battle.

Thank you to all of our evaluators: General Evaluator, Tony Centorino, Speech Evaluators Robin Corrigan, Steve McGirr, and Kate Kelly.

….and Thank you to our Technicians…..Grammarian Jaime Fisher, Timer Richard Freeman, and Ah Counter Kate Kelly.

Table Topic Master, Steve McGirr, led a Fire Side Chat edition of Table Topics at the Oddie residence. Our participants were aided by fellow Eagles and adult beverages!

Thank you, Joseph and Donna Oddie for welcoming us in your home for an evening of friendship and celebration. It was a delight to enjoy each other’s company “off campus”.

Our next meeting will take place on July 10^th, followed by another meeting on July 17^th. Note that we will NOT meet the first Monday of July. There are many agenda items open so please log onto www.EagleToastmasters.com and sign up for something!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Secretary

May 15th Meeting

Eagles,

Last night’s meeting was a full house, attended by 19 committed members and 5 interested guests!

Tom Corrigan stepped in as Toastmaster, leading a meeting that included three Speakers. As Humorist, Tom channeled his inner Mark Twain, sharing numerous humorous observations.

MaryAnne Shrishac’s quote of the day helped us understand the difference between interest and commitment. Jaime Fisher led Table Topics, providing members and guests an opportunity to share their thoughts on vacation spots. Our members and guests showed not one iota of reluctance to share their favorite destinations.

Our first Speaker, Fred Swiderski, gave his Icebreaker…..Fred shared his passion for learning with the club. Fred was followed by Steve McGirr, Speaker #2. Steve gave his second speech, sharing his passion about fitness. Steve explained how he transitioned from his (previously) favorite food groups of candy, meat, and potatoes to his new favorites of fruits and vegetables. He also gave Ian Brooks a run for his money as Grammarian by teaching all of us a new word – “tsunamic”.

Kate Kelly was Speaker #3, giving a speech about Emma “Grandma” Gatewood, who hiked the 1258 mile Appalachian Trail three times! Kate’s speech was based on the book “Grandma Gatewood’s Walk”. For those of you that are looking for speech ideas, think about a book or magazine article you recently read as they are tremendous sources for ideas!

Thanks to all of you that participated, including the functionaries not mentioned above: Stephen McGirr (Timer), Brad Leete (Ah Counter), Robin Corrigan (General Evaluator), Tony Centorino, Heather McKelvie, and Paula Erardi (Evaluators).

Club News

The District 53 Spring Conference takes place this Saturday, May 20^th…….Jaime Fisher will be competing in Table Topics, and Sandra Centorino will be leading an educational session. Please click on the below link for more information.

http://d53.toastmastersdistricts.org/District53Conferences.html

We are heading into the home stretch of our 2016/17 year with two meetings left (June 5^th and 19^th). Following our June 19^th meeting, we will meet for a social gathering (more information to follow). Our last order of club business will be to determine our officers for the upcoming 2017/18 year that begins on July 1^st. These roles are open to anybody that is interested……Ute provided a newsletter that summarizes the roles. If you are interested, please reach out to Amy Demas (abcdemas@gmail.com), or any of the club officers.

See you all on June 5^th!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Secretary 

May 1st Meeting - May Day! May Day!

Eagles,

Our May 1st meeting, with Yours Truly, serving as Toastmaster, featured an Ice Breaker, a Labor Day Lesson, and a History Tour Double Feature!

Fred Swiderski served as our Humorist, telling us a story about where the parrot found the Frenchman. He was followed by Brad Leete, who provided us a quote from the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.....Brad broke the Eagle Toastmaster record for longest memorized quote from a movie!

Ian Brooks served as our Table Topic Master where he called 6 Toastmasters to the lectern. For those of you that could use a "Red Book Project", and did not absquatulate when called up, seek out an Eagle that saw you give your TT for Project 1 credit.

Bernard Bostic gave his Ice Breaker where he offered several life lessons such as "you're either growing or going backwards". Bernard took a big step forward by giving a well organized story of his life, while stumping Ah Counter, Steve McGirr with 0.0 ah's and ums!

Tom Corrigan took us for a tour at the Museum of the American Revolution. bought us lunch, and then gave an after lunch speech where he finished the tour. A vivid way of sharing his love of American history and teaching us a few things!

In between Tom's speeches, Ute Brinkmann, shared a fascinating account of how Labor Day came to be in her speech "Just Another Day".

A word of thanks to the functionaries not mentioned above.....Heather McKelvie (Grammarian), Richard Freeman (Timer), and Kate Kelly (General Evaluator). Our Speech Evaluators included Joseph Oddie, Brad Leete, Fred Swiderski, and Sandra Centorino.

Other News

We are heading into the home stretch of our 2016-17 TM year (it ends on June 30th). Amy Demas led a discussion on what Eagle's officers do and Ute Brinkmann provided descriptions of each role in the news letter. 

If you are interested in increasing your participation in Toastmasters, please consider any of the 7 officer roles. Feel free to reach out Amy (abcdemas@gmail.com) or any of the officers to learn more. 

Note that each year, several officers change so if you are at all interested, please reach out! Also know that the President has a 1 year term limit, so that office is definitely open!

Also....Congratulations to Sandra Centorino. Sandra has been selected to be an educational speaker at the upcoming District 53 Conference in Bloomfield CT on May 20th. Sandra presented a trial run of "Heroes don't look like they used to"......Thanks to the inputs from our club, she is in the process of adapting her speech to a 40 minute version!

Our next meeting is on May 15th, with Joseph Oddie serving as our Toastmaster.....Please sign up for something! 

And bring your Red Book so you can check off another project!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Secretary

4/17 Meeting

Eagles,

Tonight’s meeting featured 15 members and 7 guests. Welcome to Eagle, Stephen McGirr….and to Fred Swiderski, welcome back!

As tonight’s Toastmaster, Deb Haggett, led a very lively proceeding. Ian Brooks opened up with one of the shortest jokes in recent Eagle memory. Jamie Fisher provided the evening’s quote of the day.

Our members and guests demonstrated their speaking acumen throughout our meeting. Ute Brinkmann egged on our members and guests with an Easter version of Table Topics. Many of us learned that “thriller, filler, and spillers” is a gardening term. Stephen was asked to talk about taxes….Allie Centorino decided to talk about taxes instead of gardening!

Sandra Centorino took on the ambitious goal of giving a Keynote address as part of her Advanced Communications manual. Sandra gave an inspirational speech to urge us to take the “Alternate Route”, encouraging us to incorporate simple heroic deeds into our life and into the lives of others. Amy Demas served as Sandra’s evaluator.

Joseph Oddie, gave a humorous speech about his family’s experience at the Lion King. We learned that “hakuna matata” is an old African term for “don’t take the train from Fairfield to Grand Central if you want a seat”! Joseph’s speech offered a very entertaining and poignant story through the eyes of his grandchildren. Jaime Fisher evaluated Joseph’s speech.

Many thanks to our functionaries not mentioned above…..Chris Gaffney as the Ah Counter, Amy Demas as the Timer, and Yours Truly as the Grammarian and General Evaluator.

As tonight’s grammarian, I noticed the use of the word “anyways” and mentioned that the correct term is “anyway”. The omission of the letter “s” is explained in the following link for those of you that are interested.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/is-anyways-a-word/

Finally, it is a real pleasure and privilege for each of us to enjoy the members and guests that attended this evening’s meeting. We look forward to seeing all of you at our next meeting on 5/1! By the way, I will be the Toastmaster……please sign up for something!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Secretary

3/20 Meeting - Area Speech Contest!

Eagles,

Last night, Eagle hosted the Area Speech Contest.....Once again, we showcased why we are the premier club in our area, providing an enthusiastic audience, a couple of contestants, and plenty of food and refreshments!

Congratulations to the Eagle participants! Chris Gaffney moves on to the next round in the International contest.....His speech "Dumpster Full of Memories" is helping him build his "Trophy Case of Memories"! Jaime Fischer was the Table Topic runner up......not bad for a Toastmaster Rookie! Jaime not only advanced her craft as a speaker, but maybe she'll be able to talk her way out of a speeding ticket!

Thanks to all of you that participated! At the risk of missing some names, I would like to recognize some of our participants. Thom Knowlton served as our Contest Master, Richard Freeman as our SAA, and Jacqueline Fuller served as our Refreshment Master, becoming a budding photographer in the process!

So many of you contributed to our contest in multiple roles....Serving as a functionary, providing food and refreshments, and being an audience member. They say 90% of life is just showing up. Being an audience member is a huge way of making our contest a vibrant celebration of Toastmasters!

The next contest round is the Division contest taking place at Eversource on 4/13.....Please consider coming to the contest and rooting for Chris! 

Tony Centorino

Eagle Secretary

3/6 Meeting - It's a Speech Contest!

Eagles,

Last night, Eagle Toastmasters held our club Table Topic and Speech competition. This is the time of year where each and every Toastmaster Club around the world has a special “contest agenda” for Table Topics and the International Speech.

As usual, Eagle did not disappoint…..We had 20 Toastmasters, 2 Guests, and 1 Area Director participate in our contest as Speakers, Functionaries, Bringers of food/refreshments, and Audience Members. “Contest Season” is a celebration of Toastmasters aimed at bringing out the best in everybody!

Let’s get to it……For Table Topics, congratulations to Joseph Oddie, who earned 1^st place. Runner up is Jaime Fischer, and Second Runner up was Peter Penev. Jamie and Peter are two of our newest members who jumped into the pool with both feet putting forth their best efforts! All three Table Topic participants had to give advice to their 10 year old selves and their advice was unique as the talents they put forth!

As for the International Speech, congratulations to Chris Gaffney, who earned 1^st place. Runner up was Tony Centorino. Chris gave a captivating speech about a “Dumpster Full of Treasures”. Chris put his speaking talents on full display and showed that speeches can literally come from anywhere! Yours Truly gave a speech about the “Character Scrapbook”, channeling Hal Holbrook in the process!

Chris and Joseph will advance to our Area Contest which will be held at our next meeting on 3/20 at a special time of 6:30! Please arrive a little early to ensure our contest starts on time!

More congratulations and thank yous are in order…..Deb Haggett and Paula Erardi served as our contest chairs. They did an outstanding job of organizing this year’s event, earning a major Red Book Credit! Tom Corrigan, Robin Corrigan, and Amy Demas served as our Judges…..Congratulations! Heather McKelvie served as our Ballot  Counter, Richard Freeman as our Sergeant at Arms, Kate Kelly and Jacqueline Fuller as Timers. Congratulations and Thank You for stepping up and taking on a role!

Finally, to those of you not mentioned above, Thank You! By being an audience member and bringing a food/refreshment item, you helped make our meeting a success! Last night brought out all of the best of Eagle!

Our next meeting is on Monday March 20^th at the Special Time of 6:30! This is the area contest, hosted by Eagle. Thom Knowlton is our Contest Chair and he needs our help! We have an agenda to sign up for refreshments. If you are looking to participate in a functionary role, please reach out to Thom at Oldthom52@gmail.com. Thom needs our help to ensure another successful contest!

See you on March 20^th!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Secretary

2/20/17 Meeting

Eagles,

Tonight’s meeting, led by Toastmaster Tom Corrigan, showcased the greatness of our club and our members!

Many clubs have told us that they are challenged to find one or two speakers for their meetings while their members take on multiple functionary roles. At tonight’s meeting, Eagle Toastmasters filled the agenda on very short notice thanks to the depth and experience of our membership.

Two of our more experienced Eagles stepped up. Kate Kelly and Joseph Oddie. Joseph notified us of a last minute conflict which provided others the opportunity to sign up….and sign up they did! Sandra Centorino and Deb Haggett stepped up and signed up! Tonight’s meeting blossomed into an educational/multi-media experience!

Speaker #1, Kate Kelly, gave us an overview of Microsoft One Note via computer and overhead projector. She showed us several interesting applications of the often overlooked Microsoft icon that is on our computer. (Hint: it looks like a notebook). Congratulations to Kate as tonight’s speech completed her Competent Communicator’s milestone.

Speaker #2, Sandra Centorino, gave a Facebook Live demo using her iPad tethered to her cell phone. If you are Sandy’s Facebook friend, you can see what she did by looking at her feed. If you’re not a friend of Sandy, well……send her a request!

Speaker #3, Deb Haggett, used a prerecorded video on a video monitor. Ironically, “video Deb” was the only speaker that observed the timer cards hoisted by our Timer, Jaime Fisher.

Thanks to our other functionaries not mentioned above……Paula Erardi - our Grammarian, Robin Corrigan – Quote of the Day and General Evaluator, Brad Leete – our Jokemaster that told us about the talking, lying dog, and Peter Penev – Ah Counter. Yours truly served as the Topic Master and Evaluator. Allie Centorino and Jaime Fisher served as Evaluators as well…….It is always refreshing when our newer members serve as Evaluators as they offer fresh insights.

Our next meeting will be the Speech and Table Topic Contest on March 6^th…….We have a signup sheet for the contest (we have open roles and would love to see more contestants) as well as a food signup sheet (note that the club will provide pizza as our main dish).

Please be on the lookout for more messages on the speech contest!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Secretary

2/6/17 Meeting

Eagles,

Tonight’s Super Meeting was our third in four weeks with 22 members, 2 of which joined this evening! Paula Erardi, tonight’s Toastmaster, presided over an action packed meeting.

Welcome to Jeannette Bronsord and Peter Penev, our newest members!

Tom Corrigan, our Topics Master encouraged all members, newbies and seasoned members alike, to create new sports using combinations of equipment that ranged from pool cues, playing cards, and boxing gloves among other things. The goal was to replace the Super Bowl with a new sporting event…….Or maybe Tom was just trying to empty his garage of sporting goods collected over the years. Let me just say that the Super Bowl is safe – for now!

Robin Corrigan was our Humorist for the evening, and Joseph Oddie served as our Quotemaster.

Kate Kelly, Speaker #1, overcame her fear of needles to give blood. Her speech persuaded us to do the same. Joseph Oddie, Speaker #2, told us the parable of the Frog and the Scorpion, teaching us a life lesson along the way.

With only two schedule speeches, we had an opportunity to add a couple of items to the agenda. Sandra Centorino requested help on some speech ideas for a Keynote Speaker Project that she is considering. True to our Eagle Values, Sandra received a lot of Super advice.

Thom Knowlton, generously shared his DVD with the time remaining to show us a speech from World Champion Mohammed Qahtani…..Thank you, Thom!

Special thanks to the functionaries not mentioned above….Robin Corrigan as Evaluator #1 and Tony Centorino as Evaluator #2 and Grammarian. Heather McKelvie served as our Ah Counter, Deb Haggett, our Timer, and Amy Demas as our General Evaluator.

Some Housekeeping…..

Our Club Speech Contest will take place on March 6^th. Please sign onto the Eagle Website if you are interested in competing in Table Topics and/or International. If you are not competing, please consider signing up for a functionary role, which is also available for the taking!

Our next meeting is on February 20^th. Tom Corrigan will be our Toastmaster. Please go onto www.EagleToastmaster.com and sign up for something!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Secretary

1/30/17 Meeting

Eagles,

Last night was a special “off week” meeting. As Tom Corrigan, our General Evaluator said, “This was a typical meeting. We all learned something and had a lot of fun, which we do on cold winter nights and warm summer evenings”.

We had 18 members, including our two newest members, Brad Leete and Jacqueline Fuller. Welcome, Brad and Jacqueline! We also had a guest, Peter Penev, who participated at the suggestion of his fiancé. We also had cameo appearances from Sam Scale, Teddy Treadmill, and Ash “call me Ashley” Smokerson.

Kate Kelly served as our Toastmaster for the evening, which featured a full agenda.

Sandra Centorino led a Table Topics “Let’s Make a Deal Style”……She allowed the contestants, I mean members, to choose between the topic in hand or select the topic behind door #2. Our newest member, writer Brad Leete, participated as well.

Speaker #1 was Your Truly, who gave a speech about New Year’s resolutions and keeping the media honest. Speaker #2, President Amy Demas, completed her Competent Communicator with a warm speech that showcased the different types of Toastmasters we have at Eagle.  Speaker #3, Heather McKelvie, gave a speech out of the Story Teller’s advance manual. She told us a folk tale called “The Blue Light”.

Last but not least, was Speaker #4, Joseph Oddie, who gave an advanced manual speech on how to inform. He informed us on how to evaluate speeches using the PET method.

Special thanks to our functionaries……Humorist - Ute Brinkmann, Grammarian – Allie Centorino,  Ah Counter – Robin Corrigan, Timer – Richard Freeman, and our evaluators, Joseph Oddie, Thom Knowlton, Robin Corrigan, and Deb Haggett.

Our next meeting is next week, February  6. Please log into www.EagleToastmasters.com and sign up for something!

Have a great week!

Tony

Eagle Secretary

1/16/17 Meeting

Eagles,

It was great for us to get “back in the saddle” for our first meeting at the Parks and Rec. Ute Brinkmann served as our Toastmaster for a New Year’s Day theme. Our meeting also celebrated Martin King Jr…….In the word of our Grammarian, Allie Centorino, celebrating New Years and MLK Day on the same day was “Efficient”!

As has been our tradition, Ute opened up the meeting with a toast of effervescent beverages. Heather McKelvie (welcome back!) provided us a quote from Dr. King. Ian Brooks shared a humorous story that referenced how to bury and keep a treasure simultaneously. Robin Corrigan provided us interesting Table Topics using props!

We also had two guests this evening…..Susan (President of Valley Shore Toastmasters) and Brad. Thank you, Susan and Brad…..We hope to see you at a future meeting.

Tonight’s speeches were apropos for the occasion. Tony Centorino gave a speech about Diversity. Joseph Oddie gave a speech about overcoming adversity (“you receive what you believe”). Chris Gaffney achieved his CC this evening with a speech about hope (“Hope is a natural resource”)….Congratulations, Chris!

Special thanks to all of the functionaries mentioned above as well as Kate Kelly (General Evaluator), Tom Corrigan, Robin Corrigan, and Amy Demas (evaluators), Maryanne Shirshac (Ah Counter), and Paula Erardi (Timer).

Our next meeting is on January 30^th (a “bonus meeting” if you will). Kate Kelly will be our Toastmaster, and  we have plenty of open roles! Please sign up early and often!

See you all on January 30^th!

Tony