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