September 23 Eagle Toastmasters Meeting

Eagles,

We had another full agenda at Eagle Toastmasters last night. Seeing our 20 members and 4 guests gathering proved to be propitious as we started right on time and ended almost on time.

Jaime Fisher served as our Toastmaster of the evening with an auspicious opening. She shared how Eagle helped her achieve her goals by providing a supporting environment where she could “fail forward”. To quote the Wizard of Oz, “it was always in you”, Jaime! Toastmasters is about bringing out what is in all of us!

Ute Brinkmann opened up with a humorous story on  how to save a million dollars simply by using a pencil. Paula Erardi provided us our quote of the day, instructing us to dip our gloomy Mondays in glitter.

Speaker #1, Ric Zabor, gave a speech that was relevant to….well, all Earthlings! It was a “re do” of a speech he had done several months back. Ric tried new things and applied lessons learned from his previous version.

Speaker #2, Eric Krausz, also gave a “re do” with an introspective speech. He told us that “life is not fair…but it’s not unfair either”.

Kat Calhoun, Speaker #3, gave us an Icebreaker about her storied life in Toastmasters. She shared her experiences from her early days in “Melba Toastmasters” (yes, that was a real club) to her participation and leadership in over seven Toastmaster clubs from coast to coast.

Joseph Oddie, Speaker #4, gave a speech titled “Crime and Punishment”. Joseph’s speech was 3 speeches in one! He shared his knowledge about the factors of criminogenic behavior (thank goodness for spellcheck), the story behind a terrible tragedy at a bakery in the 1970s, and his interaction with two people that will spend the rest of their lives behind bars. If you were not present to hear his speech, I encourage you to ask Joseph about it.

Sandra Centorino, our Table Topics Master, was singlehandedly responsible for disclosing secrets that our fellow Eagles were keeping. I learned that if I carpool with another Eagle, I will make sure they wear glasses and avoid driving by McDonalds. I also learned that guinea pigs and bassoons actually do mix. Our fellow Eagles can picture their esteemed Club Secretary walking down the fashion runway!

Thank you to all of you that served in functional roles. It is the Ah Counters, Grammarians, etc that enable us to have a fulfilling and educational experience! The functionaries included Steve McGirr (ah counter), Diana Grippen (Grammarian), Markus Schumacher (Timer), Joseph Oddie (General Evaluator and Speech Evaluator), and Speech Evaluators Ian Brooks, Christine Austin, Kate Kelly, and Tony Centorino.

A couple of announcements:

Virtual Meeting

On September 30, Sandra Centorino will be leading a Toastmaster Virtual Meeting. It is full of speakers! She is looking for a few good Eagles to evaluate. Whether you speak, serve as a functionary, or simply watch online, please consider participating! The link to sign up is below:

https://calendly.com/sandracentorino/toastmasters-virtual-meeting

Dues

Dues are….due! If you haven’t already paid, please send a check ($54.00) to Maryanne Shirshac at 1 Bayberry Court, Cromwell, CT 06416.

Our next online meeting is 9/30. Our next Eagle Meeting at the Parks and Rec is on 10/7. Many roles, including Toastmaster, are open!

See you all at the next meeting!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

September 9th - Eagle Toastmasters Meeting

Eagles,

Another action packed speech filled meeting at the Wallingford Parks and Rec……Let’s get right to it!

Sandra Centorino, our Toastmaster, presided over the meeting of 21 people, 3 of which were guests.

As the Humorist, Chris Scoppetta told us a story of how a “5 fingered discount” resulted in only 3 beers for a warrior celebrating a conquest.

Barbara Flagg shared a quote inspired by the memory of her husband….”Endeavor to Persevere”. 

Following her quote, the Table Topic speakers, led by Table Topicmaster Ric Zabor, endeavored on a variety of questions. We learned that Tom Piekarski wanted to dine with Russian Spy, Julia Child. Diana Grippen shared a moment that made her day. John Sepple shared the biggest challenge of his week……and Christine Austin shared her excitement about a project at work.

On to the speakers…..

Speaker #1, Tony Centorino, shared some insights on financial planning that he read from a book called “The Power of Zero”. This was from the Speaking to Inform project manual.

Speaker #2, Ute Brinkmann, shared a story about her negotiating skills with somebody in the market for a viola. Her story was told with simple props and price tags that reminded me of “The Price is Right”. (Ute – If I didn’t know better, I would think you were watching that on TV.)

Speaker #3, Omar Ghannam, showed his multiple personalities in a captivating Icebreaker. He gave a captivating speech…..but only one of his personalities walked out with the Icebreaker candy.

Last, but not least, our President Markus Schumacher, gave a speech utilizing visual aids about the virtues of reducing waste….making me rethink how I discard my trash.

Thank you to all of the functionaries that participated…….Speakers are nice, but it is the functionaries that ensure a fulfilling experience for everybody. The functionaries included Kat Calhoun – ah counter, Paula Erardi – timer, Ian Brooks – Grammarian, General and Speech Evaluator.  Diana Grippen, Chris Scoppetta, and Eric Krausz rounded out the cadre of speech evaluators.

Kat Calhoun has taken on the ambitious initiative of starting up a bilingual Toastmaster Club. There is a meeting coming up on 9/23 at 7:00 am…..If you are interested in participating in this club or supporting Kat please reach out to her at kat_calhoun@yahoo.com.

Our next meeting is on 9/23…..we have many openings on the agenda, including Toastmaster. Please get onto the site and sign up!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmaster Secretary

August 19, 2019 Eagle Toastmaster Meeting

In the absence of our faithful secretary, Tony Centorino, I have the privilege of emailing out the meeting notes from our August 19th gathering.

If you were not able to make it tonight, you missed a full and exciting meeting which included 17 members, 4 guests and at least two references to the idea of time travel! 

Ian Brooks served as a very capable toastmaster, ushering us warmly and efficiently through the descriptions of functionaries, table topics and prepared speeches. 

Eric Krausz served as Table Topics master with the theme of superlatives! Eric brought out the most in us as he asked questions which highlighted many favorites in our members. Lynn spoke fondly of a favorite family member. Maryanne described interactions and adventures with her favorite friend.

Ian filled us in on his favorite historical time period, while Omar set a high bar by telling us about the most competent person he knows, his boss! Steve finished off by elevating our very own Ian as one of his favorite thought leaders, and artful mixing in a story of well remembered date in time. 

For Prepared Speeches Ute worked toward level 3 of her leadership path, by contrasting a strict and rigid view of mentor-ship with a focus on strong connections and building authentic relationships. Safe to say she's throwing out the limiting ideas, and holding on to the good!

Ross Grippen brought a fresh voice to our group with his Ice Breaker speech. Ross's speech titled "Reasons Why I  Joined" explained to us why he joined Eagle Toastmasters. Ross spoke kindly of our club while giving us many reasons to look forward to his future speeches. 

Next we had a real treat---our first musical performance in a speech! Maryanne brought us Mozart by way of twinkle, twinkle little star with the help of her violin and her courage to face her fear of receiving feedback. Maryanne dazzled us with humor and showed us the power of listening and excepting feedback through music. 

Eric Zabor strayed from his typical position of dealing with number and exact values, by dabbling in the humanities. Eric lead us through a journey of poetry by way of music lyrics. His theatrical speech demonstrated poetry can be found in some very catchy places. 

Our Virtual Meeting is Tuesday August 20th. Also, be on the look out for communication and details from Kat Calhoun about the new club she is chartering and opportunities to serve in this mission. 

I will end with food for thought brought to you by Jackie Fuller and her chosen Quote of the Day.
" Be thankful for what you are now, and work towards what you want to be tomorrow."

Your Substitute Secretary-
Jaime Fisher