Eagle Toastmasters June 15 2020 Meeting

Eagles,

Our June 15^th meeting included 14 members and 1 guest. Tom Corrigan, Eagle Toastmaster’s most seasoned member made his debut as the virtual Toastmaster. After a brief roll call and acknowledgment of John Bates, a Cheshire Toastmaster who was technically a guest, we dived (or is that dove) into the meeting.

Speaker number 1 was Alexis Kozmon, with her Icebreaker speech. Alexis told us that she joined Toastmasters to gain skills that will help her give presentations to audiences and her leadership at Bridgeport Hospital. Alexis shared her anxiety about public speaking….Her Icebreaker was an auspicious beginning to her Toastmaster journey! We also learned that she has 2,385 days until retirement (I think it’s 2380 now).

Christine Austin, Speaker #2, who is working on her Motivational Strategy Path, gave a speech about “The COVID Coaster”. Her project was about understanding her emotional intelligence. She shared observations about how being cooped up at home 24X7 has been affecting her. To accomplish this project, Christine journaled her feelings and observations.

Chan Myae Kyi was our Table Topic Master. Chan encouraged our members to speak out on such hard hitting issues as “what 3 wishes would you make of your genie” (Michelle Madeaux) and “what will the world be like in 2030” (John Bates). Diana Grippen shared a story about her favorite book and Sandra Centorino talked about what would be her favorite day. (This day involved your Eagle Toastmaster Secretary doing dishes….so I can assure you, that would not be my favorite day). Debbie Herget offered a movie recommendation as a non sequitur (Miss Congeniality). Debbie…I know you did more than that but my notes are unreadable.

Speaking of books and non sequiturs….Fellow Eagle, B.W. “Brad” Leete, just published a book about his experience of not speaking for 30 days. The title is “30 Days of Silence”. Brad ended his silence at an Eagle Toastmaster meeting last year.  It is available on Amazon……spoiler alert…he speaks at the end. (or not…I haven’t read it yet.)

Thanks to all of the dignitaries not mentioned above that made our meeting another fun night in. Robin Corrigan, General Evaluator….Speech Evaluators Tony Centorino and Sandra Centorino. Grammarian Ross Grippen and Ah Counter, Markus Schumacher. Last but not least….Maryanne Shirshac our Timer.

As for “dived” versus “dove” either word is acceptable…..both are used in American and British English…”dove” tends to be used more in America. (Ian Brooks, what say you on this subject?)

Our next meeting is scheduled for July 6^th. The agenda for the next 4 meetings are up on www.Eagletoastmasters.com. Please sign up for a role!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmaster Secretary

Eagle Toastmasters June 1, 2020 Meeting

Eagles,

Tonight's meeting featured 15 members, 2 speeches, and many Table Topic speakers. We also got a glimpse into what our new Toastmaster year will be looking like.

Ian Brooks served as our Toastmaster and got the ball rolling by introducing Deep Tawari as Speaker #1. Deep's speech was a follow on to his Ice Breaker from our last meeting where he shared his sense of curiosity with the club.

Kat Calhoun, Speaker #2, gave a speech about Reading to Learn. Kat spoke about the academic experiences and triumphs of children in grade school. 

Sandra Centorino, our Table Topics Master, exhorted our members to give reviews of the most random things. In case you were wondering....Danette Fitzgerald gave Heaven a thumbs down, Robin Corrigan gave Tullamore Dew Whiskey 5 cups, Ann McGuire gave the porta potty a -10. Ross, Alexis, and Jaime shared their insights on the steam room, Whole Foods, and Zumba respectively.

Special thanks to the dignitaries not mentioned above that ensured a fulfilling meeting....Yours Truly as General Evaluator and Grammarian, Diana Grippen and Christine Austin as Evaluators. Tom Corrigan as Ah Counter...and Robin Corrigan as Timer.

President Christine announced our new slate of officers for next year, once again highlighting Eagle's deep bench of dedicated and capable members. Drum roll please.....

President - Christine Austin

VP Education - Ute Brinkmann

VP Membership - Chan Kyi

VP Public Relations - Ann McGuire

Sergeant at Arms - Deep Tawari

Secretary - Ian Brooks

Treasurer - MaryAnne Shirshac

Congratulations to all of our new officers....Deep and Chan are "officer newbies" with Christine and Ann heading into their first full year in the officer ranks. We are blessed to have Ute and Ian, a couple of very experienced officers, as part of the team!

Our next meeting will take place on June 15th as a virtual meeting. An agenda for us to sign up will be put up shortly.

Finally....for those of you who interested in participating in an early morning bilingual experience, where you'll find Ahs and Ums to be the universal language of filler words, please consider attending the Bi Lingual Toastmasters meeting. Please reach out to Kat Calhoun (Kat_Calhoun@yahoo.com) for the details!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

Eagle Toastmasters 5/18/2020 Meeting

Eagles,

Tonight's meeting featured 18 members, 4 guests, and 1 birthday girl....Happy Birthday Debbie Herget!!!!

Let's get right to the action.....

Speaker #1 was Sandra Centorino. Sandra gave a presentation to educate us on the 7 club officer roles. Sandra explained how the officers individually, and collectively, lead our club to help us grow as public speakers and leaders.

Speaker #2 was, hmmmmmm.....Sandra Centorino! Sandra's project was to interview several Eagles Toastmaster officers. The interview provided the interviewees opportunities to share why they became officers. Each officer had his or her own story about why they chose to serve our club. While the reasons for each officer was different, the one thing they shared was a deep connection to our club!

Now a message from our sponsor.....

May is "officer month"! By the end of May, we need to elect an officer team. If you have any interest in serving our club and gaining valuable leadership experience, please reach out to any of our current officers. Feel free to reply to this email and I will share your interest with the officer team.

Back to our meeting.....

Speaker #3, Deep Tawari, gave his Icebreaker entitled Curiosity and Honesty. Deep share an insight about how several childhood experiences deeply influenced the type of adult he became.....all based on honesty. As Deep's speech hit the six minute mark, he decided to defer his story about curiosity for a future meeting.....Now I'm curious!

Joseph Oddie, Speaker #4, gave a speech titled Grape Expectations. Joseph shared a story about how cherry picking a few grapes made him a bad apple....Joseph shared how a tough lesson he learned as a young man has lasted him a lifetime.

Tom Corrigan, our Table Topicsmaster, provided our members and guests the opportunity to talk about what they like most about summer. Our speakers had the opportunity to share how they are looking forward to summer by sharing experiences from summers past.

Many thanks to all of our dignitaries not mentioned above that made tonight's meeting another terrific experience! Ian Brooks, General Evaluator and Grammarian....Evaluators Ann McGuire, Christine Austin, and Robin Corrigan. Evaluator and Timer, Markus Schumacher...and Ah Counter Chan Kyi.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday June 1st. We will put up the agenda shortly...please sign up for something!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

May 4th Eagle Toastmasters Meeting

Eagles,

Tonight's meeting featured 12 members, 1 guest, and 5 cats!

Ann McGuire, tonight's Toastmaster, solemnly announced that her cat was a no-show. 

Speaker #1, Sandra Centorino, spoke out of the Pathways Visionary Communicator Path about a small project that she is leading. She explained the scope of her project, which is to educate and motivate our fellow Eagles to consider taking on leadership roles. Please join us on May 18th to learn about the seven officer roles. Sandra will also show a short video clip of a panel discussion of 4 officers.

Joseph Oddie, Speaker #2, gave an impromptu speech called "When Opportunity Knocks, Cross the Picket Line". Joseph shared a story about how he outsold his competitor (at a price premium, no less) by processing blood during a labor strike.

While the evaluators were feverishly completing their evaluation forms, Ian Brooks, led a COVID 19 inspired Table Topics. We learned that Maryanne Shirshac likes white wine, and about how Diana and Ross Grippen try to "do more doing and less time being". Kate Kelly shared the perspective of her Australian coworkers during these challenging times.

Special thanks to all of the dignitaries that made tonight's meeting a success....Not least of which is Ann McGuire, a first time Toastmaster! Other functionaries include Tony Centorino (General Evaluator, Evaluator, and Ah Counter), Omar Ghannam (Evaluator), Kate Kelly (Timer) and Ian Brooks (Grammarian).

Our next meeting will take place on May 18th! Please log onto www.EagleToastmasters.com and sign up for a role!

Tony Centorino - DTM

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

April 20th Eagle Toastmaster Virtual Meeting

Eagles,

Last night, we had 15 people join us for a virtual meeting. Here is why we were all smiling….

It all started with our Virtual Sergeant at Arms, Sandra Centorino, starting up the meeting…..on time. She opened up with her usual high energy, introducing our President and Toastmaster of the evening, Christine Austin. Christine got right to the point and introduced Speaker #1……Tony Centorino.

Yours Truly gave a speech about his High Performance Leadership Project, Pathways Now! (That is “Now” with a “!”). Tony shared the results of his project along with the talent and teamwork that ensured the project’s success. A very, very, special thanks to the team….Sandra Centorino, Kate Kelly, and Christine Austin!

Speaker #2 was Ann McGuire. Ann spoke from the Pathways Persuasive Influence Path Level 2 project “Introduction to Toastmaster Mentoring”. Ann talked about the many mentors in her life, specifically naming 5 of them……She also coined the de facto word of the day when she said “luuuuv mentor”. Ann’s overall message is that you can learn something from everybody….her call to action was for each one of us to think about who our mentors are.

Maryanne Shirshac, our third speaker, spoke out of the Pathways Project “Connect with your Audience”. Maryanne’s project was to speak of a topic that would be unfamiliar with her audience. Her topic was accounting. Maryanne explained that accounting goes far beyond the numbers…..Accounting is about collecting, analyzing, communicating and presenting. Maryanne also shared that she joined Toastmasters to help her with the communicating and presenting. Something she did well in her speech!

While the evaluators were feverishly completing their forms, Diana Grippen, ran our Table Topics. Diana engaged almost all of the remaining Eagles that had non-speaking roles. We learned how Deep Tawari keeps his sanity during our physically isolated times, Sandra’s adventures to Florida in an RV, Debbie Herget’s humorous moments, and how Maryanne was locked in her bathroom. We learn the strangest things at Toastmasters! My apologies to Abhi Palande for not hearing his Table Topic as I was engrossed in trying to complete Maryanne’s evaluation form.

Thank you to all of the dignitaries that participated in our meeting not mentioned above….Chris Scoppetta (General and Speech Evaluator), and fellow evaluators Christine Austin and Tony Centorino. Ann McGuire served as our Grammarian…..and Markus Schumacher humbled many of us as the Ah Counter….complete with a screen share of bar charts. If he keeps this up, he will be the permanent Ah Counter!

Our next meeting will be another virtual experience (really!) and will take place on 5/4. Please sign up for a role……Ann – please sign up to be our Toastmaster….you will luuuuuv it!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmaster Secretary

April 6th Eagle Toastmasters Meeting

Eagles,

Our April 4^th meeting featured 14 enthusiastic members, including one new member, and three speeches!

First things first…..A warm welcome to Debbie Herget, our newest Eagle Toastmasters. Although we didn’t have an official quote of the day, Debbie summarized our meeting with her quote at the end when she said that our meeting was “very very very cool”.

For those of you wondering what a virtual meeting looks like, please tune into our YouTube channel……

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCfKW3ANHtI4VcdXRXruwfw

What was particularly remarkable was that our meeting started and ended on time….7:00 PM to 8:00 PM. This is a testament to Sandra Centorino who served as our Toastmaster for the evening.

Let’s get to the speakers.

Joseph Oddie was Speaker #1. Tonight was Joseph’s first meeting since coming back to Connecticut on March 1^st entitled “Just for Today”. Joseph shared a story about a parolee he recently worked with and shared three simple words of advice: Sit, Walk, and Reach Out. Joseph’s words of wisdom are particularly useful during our current pandemic. I encourage you to listen to his speech on YouTube.

Ross Grippen, Speaker #2, told us a story of an unsung Revolutionary War Hero Joshua Mersereau. Joshua and his brother, Justin, accomplished many things during their life. Not least of which was providing General George Washington intelligence that saved him and his troops. Perhaps the most interesting fact is that the Mersereaus were Ross’s ancestors.

Last but not least was Speaker #3, Sandra Centorino. Sandra’s speech, I’m not for Everyone, was about the communication style that she learned from a Toastmaster quiz…..something each one of us Pathwayers do early in our Pathways journey. Sandra shared three challenges she learned from the quiz and from her recent diagnosis of having ADHD. She shared some simple solutions that helps her cope with her weaknesses while leveraging her strengths.

Special thanks to our dignitaries without whom our meeting would not be possible….Ian Brooks, General Evaluator and Evaluator. Chris Scoppetta and Joseph Oddie,  Evaluators. Tony Centorino, Ah Counter and Grammarian and Christine Austin, Timer.

Our next meeting is scheduled for April 20^th and will be another virtual experience. The agenda will be up shortly….Please considering signing up for something!

Please embrace Sandra’s challenge to invite one Toastmaster (can be Eagle, can be from another club) to join us on April 20^th!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

March 26 Eagle Toastmaster Virtual Meeting

Quaroutine – A sequence of actions regularly followed during a period of temporary isolation

Eagles,

Last night 13 enthusiastic Eagles combined the routine of having a Toastmaster meeting with the temporary state of isolation!

Sandra Centorino, our Virtual Sergeant at Arms opened up the Zoom link at 6:45 as our members filed in on their computers. The meeting started at 7:04 as a few technologically challenged stragglers “entered the room”.

Sandra introduced our President, Christine Austin, who then introduced Toastmaster, Sandra Centorino!

Kat Calhoun, Speaker #1, gave a speech from the Strategic Relationships path. Kat stood before a red curtain background dressed in stunning garb appropriate for the occasion. She accepted the Ray of Sunshine Award. She accepted her award gracefully….and gratefully. During her speech, she told us to stop and smell the flowers. Apt advice for Eagle’s first Ray of Sunshine recipient!

Speaker #2, Christine Austin, spoke from the Motivational Strategies path on the topic of mentoring. Christine engaged the audience by asking them if they’ve ever had or wanted a mentor. As a self-proclaimed “Go with the Flow Person”, Christine shared how a mentor encouraged her to improve her public speaking confidence by joining Toastmasters in 2018.

While our evaluators were completing their evaluation forms, Sandra Centorino served up Table Topics to everybody in the club. Sandra’s topics included some hard hitting topics such as “water, toilet paper, or chocolate”, “new quaroutines”, and “what do you like about virtual”.

Diana and Ross Grippen tag-teamed their Table Topic, and Danette Fitzgerald regaled us with the exciting moments of her day during these unusual times (dropping off trash in the dumpster and picking up her mail). Danette – if you are getting the same kind of mail Sandra and I get, I hope you are going to the mailbox first so you can promptly deposit it in the dumpster! Thank you to Chan, Markus, Maryanne, and Omar for participating in Table Topics as well!

Thank you to our dignitaries for serving in functional roles not mentioned above….Tony Centorino as General Evaluator and Ah Counter, Ian Brooks and Markus Shumacher as Speech Evaluators, Deep Tawari as Timer (armed with his green paper plate).

A couple of announcements:

Pathways Seminar – Our Pathways Seminar will take place virtually on March 30^th at 7:00 PM. The agenda and meeting links can be found on our Eagle Toastmaster site. I will send you at least one more reminder between now and then.

Dues – Our Dues Due Date has been extended to April 30^th. If you received a personal email from our Treasurer, Maryanne, it is not because she’s asking you to send money to Nigeria so you can get rich quick……Maryanne offers several ways to pay your dues. You can pay old school (by check, like I did) or you can pay online via Venmo. Please work out the arrangements with Maryanne.

Our next meeting will be on the first Monday of April (April 6^th). This will be a Virtual Meeting. An agenda to sign up will be available over the weekend……Please sign up for a role!

Be safe and healthy!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary