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

Eagle Toastmasters March 2nd Meeting

Eagles,

Our March 2^nd meeting included 20 members, 4 speeches, and many firsts packed in 90 minutes of fun!

Our new Sergeant at Arms, Ann McGuire, banged the gavel at 7:15 sharp. Omar Ghannam, one of our newer members, led us on his maiden voyage as a first time Toastmaster. Omar also reported some good news…..he found his wallet!

As our Humorist, Robin Corrigan taught us a new word…..”intaxification” – the feeling one gets when they receive a tax refund.

Deep Tawani, another one of our newer Eagles gave us his first quote of the day. He was followed by another Eagle’s first….Table Topics. Danette Fitzgerald led a creative Table Topics where our impromptu speakers accepted awards ranging from Dream Profession to the winner of the Mundane. As the Cashier from Aldi’s was not present, Michelle Madeaux accepted the award on her behalf.

Maryanne Shirshac, Speaker #1, gave us an interesting spin on Toastmasters Mentoring. Maryanne taught us that mentors may be hidden in plain sight. In Maryanne’s case, it was her neighbor Judy.

Ian Brooks stepped in as Speaker #2. Ian gave an impromptu speech about how justice was served for a young nursing student.

Erik Krausz, Speaker #3, gave a speech about Routines. Erik is a big fan of personal development books and provided us a unique perspective on the importance and benefits of creating a routine.

Tony Centorino (that’s me) was Speaker #4, giving a demonstration of how to buy a quality dress shirt. Tony’s speech contemplated life’s most critical issues ranging from stitch count, crinkle tests, and well-constructed yokes. As Ann McGuire said during her evaluation….”Who knew?”.

Tony also gave a Pathways moment about how to sign up and claim credit for your Toastmaster meeting role. If you are reading this blog post, then maybe you read the attachment provided with our meeting notes!

General Evaluator, Ian Brooks, ran the second half of the meeting….finishing exactly on time! Our Evaluators included Lauren Bruno, Tom Corrigan, Ian Brooks, and Ann McGuire. Tom Corrigan served as our Grammarian, Sandra Centorino served as our Ah Counter, and Michelle Madeaux as our Timer.

Some Announcements……

Virtual Meeting – Our next Virtual Meeting will take place on Thursday March 26^th from 7:00-8:00 PM…..just show up! If you would like to join us, please click on the following link to register and place a meeting reminder in your calendar. https://calendly.com/sandracentorino/toastmasters-virtual-meeting

Pathways Seminar – On March 30^th at 7:15, we will hold a Pathways Seminar. This event will include speakers, “how to” presentations, and lots of carbs! Our Seminar will take place at the usual Eagle Toastmasters meeting room. Please join us! Please invite Toastmasters from other clubs…..If you know somebody that is considering Toastmasters, invite them too! A perfect occasion to learn along with us!

Our next meeting will be on Monday March 16^th…….We are looking for a Toastmaster among other choice roles. As Omar can attest, if you sign up as our Toastmaster, good things will happen!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

Eagle Toastmasters Week of February 17th

Eagles,

Our February 17^th meeting included 21 members, 5 guests, and 1 missing wallet! More on that wallet later….

Christine Austin opened up the meeting as President and Toastmaster.

Your humble Secretary (me) served as our bi-partisan Humorist with funny quotes from Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

David Garner, one of our newest Toastmasters, rose to the occasion as a last minute volunteer for quote of the day…..”Proceed and be bold”! The first three speakers, among our newest Eagles, did just that!

Diana Grippen provided our meeting’s Pathways Moment by sharing her experiences that have enabled her to complete Level 2. As a Pathways Pedestrian, Diana is not about to put the kibosh on her progress...The word of the day from our Grammarian, Ross Grippen. Appropriately, we had four Pathway Speeches!

Speaker #1, Danette Fitzgerald, provided her Ice Breaker speech from the Innovative Planning path. She told us about her journey as a covert stutterer. It is rare to hear an ice breaking speech with as many layers as Danette’s. She explained the various types of stutters, avoidance behaviors, and wide range of emotions she experienced along her journey.

Speaker #2, Omar Ghannam, gave his Evaluation and Feedback speech from the Dynamic Leadership path. In his speech, Omar applied the feedback from his previous version of his story about how he lost his wallet. Sadly, one area of improvement that did not happen involved the actual wallet itself….It was never found.

Speaker #3, Lauren Bruno, accompanied by one of our guests Judy Bruno (her Mom) gave a speech about Brand Identity and Design. She taught us that the first five seconds of a brand is critical in attracting clients. This was speech #2 of the Evaluation and Feedback project from the Dynamic Leadership Path.

Speaker #4 has been an Eagle Toastmaster longer than the first 3 speakers combined! Sandra Centorino gave a speech titled “Just Show Up”. Sandra’s speech project was “Communicate Change” out of the Visionary Communication path. Sandra leads our monthly virtual meetings at Eagle…..Including a Virtual Pathways Seminar that took place on February 20^th. Sandra shared a simple message in person, which was reinforced by “Virtual Sandra” as a video message.

Jacqueline Fuller served as our Table Topic Master. Called into duty at the last minute, Jacqueline asked each Toastmaster what they wanted to be when they grew up……The range of answers from our enthusiastic speakers leads me to believe that most of us have not grown up yet!

Thank you to all of you that participated in our meeting, whether it was in one of the above-mentioned roles or our functional roles not mentioned above…Ian Brooks, General and Speaker Evaluator, Tony Centorino, Kate Kelly, and Eric Krausz, Speaker Evaluators…….Kat Calhoun, our Ah Counter, and Ryhon Solheim, our Timer.

Our February 17^th meeting was just the beginning!

On February 20^th, we held a Pathways Virtual Seminar. Our Seminar was a “how to” meeting about Pathways. Christine Austin gave an Icebreaker speech, showing us how to access Pathways to download her project and to upload her evaluation. Kate Kelly served as Christine’s evaluator, showing us how to complete an online evaluation. In between, Sandra Centorino, gave a speech that explained the general structure of the Pathways program. Tony Centorino shared some key Pathway materials and terminology.

The above-mentioned seminar included 21 virtual attendees….This was more than 3X the highest attendance from our previous virtual meetings! A link to the virtual meeting replay is below.

PATHWAYS VIRTUAL MEETING

For those of you that are interested in checking out a virtual meeting, please click on the above to see what it was like. If you just want to “dip your toe in the water”, you can join the meeting as an observer. For those of you that have the desire to work on your online presence, I especially encourage you to click on the above link. Yours Truly has some opportunities for growth here…..Others, such as Sandra, Christine, and Kate nailed it!

Our next meeting will take place on March 2^nd….Omar Ghannam is our Toastmaster. He’s looking for a few good Toastmasters to sign up for some choice meeting roles!

Have a great week!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

Eagle Toastmasters February 3rd Meeting

Our February 3^rd meeting featured a total of 23 members and guests and a fun filled meeting.

Tony Centorino served as the Toastmaster.

Danette Fitzgerald opened up the meeting with a funny story about how she parlayed a raise by telling her boss that she was in high demand…..It’s what she didn’t tell her boss that earned her the raise!

Ian Brooks provided several quotes of the day with words of wisdom for those of us that are in sales. The key lesson was that “if you don’t think you are in sales, then think again”.

Sanda Centorino provided a Pathways Moment that lasted precisely 1 minute and 7 seconds. She shared her experience of being stuck in Pathways as a Sideliner and how she learned a couple of keys that will turn her into a Pedestrian. We are holding a couple of Pathways Seminars aimed at helping make Pathways easier for you. Details are below.

Speaker #1, Tony Centorino, gave a speech on how to create the best club climate. Tony shared how each one of us can, and in many cases do, contribute to a positive climate at our club. I’d like to emphasize one point……Eagle is committed to providing speaking slots to anybody that wants to speak. If you are 90% sure you will speak, please sign up! If you want to sign up and the slots are full, then please reach out to our President (Christine) or VP Education (Ute). They will do what they can to ensure you get a slot.

Ryhon Soheim was Speaker #2. Ryhon gave his Ice Breaker speech on the Persuasive Influence Path. Speaking without notes, Ryhon gave us the condensed version of his life story that led him to IBM. Well done, Ryhon! On to speech #2!

Omar Ghannam was Speaker #3. He shared a captivating story about moving into his new home and losing his wallet (again). He taught us that our brains have a tremendous capacity to store information….It appears Omar’s brain is so full that he has no room to store the information on where is wallet actually is. The one thing that I learned is that it wasn’t in the fruit bowl!

Sandra Centorino was our Topic Master for the evening. Sandra took full advantage of her expanded time slot by inviting a total of nine “Newbies” and members that had non-speaking roles to take a card off of the Love Wheel and tell us what they love…..It was groovy!

A special thanks to the functionaries that were not mentioned above….Brad Leete (Timer) who did good…Grammarian, Ian Brooks, who told Brad he actually did well. General Evaluator, Kate Kelly, and her band of merry evaluators, Ian Brooks and Eric Krausz….and our Ah Counter, Ann McGuire.

See you all on February 17^th!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

Ringing in The New Year - 1/6 Toastmasters Meeting

Happy Sunday Eagles -

The 6th marked the first meeting of the year - and a big one at that! With 23 members and 5 guests, we needed an additional table and chairs to handle the overflow (Holy cow).

Ann McGuire, our fill-in Sergeant at Arms, opened up the meeting. Ute Brinkmann brought in a variety of vegan sweets and bottles of bubbly stuff. Christine Austin, our new President, gave a toast…..and just like that, Eagle Toastmasters rang in the New Year!

Tom Piekarski, served as our Humorist and Brad Leete provided us his quote of the day.

Speaker #1, Tony Centorino, gave a speech introducing his High-Performance Leadership project called Pathways Now! The goal of the project is to create a club full of Pathway Pedestrians….budding speakers and leaders that are learning at their own pace. More to follow!

Speaker #2, Maryanne Shirshac, gave a speech from the Pathways Dynamic Leadership path. Maryanne shared what she learned about her leadership style (she is a “Democratic Leader”).

Carlos Perez, Speaker #3, gave a speech from the Innovative Planning Path. We learned about a time where Carlos went from feeling intimidated by more experienced students in his class to becoming a black belt. It was an inspirational story and a good reminder of what we can accomplish if we focus on self-improvement, one step at a time.

And speaking of self-improvement, Eric Krausz, Speaker #4, spoke about self-improvement books. An avid self-improvement book reader, Eric shared his disagreement with the critics of this genre by saying “ignoring self help wisdom is a sin”.

Ann McGuire led our Table Topics….she avoided the temptation of asking New Year resolution questions and led our members to speak on topics ranging from outer space travels to the wardrobe our descendants will wear 100 years from now.

Thank you to all that served in functional roles…Ian Brooks, Grammarian, Robin Corrigan, Ah Counter, Sandra Centorino, Timer. And thank you to our evaluators, Omar Ghannam, Kate Kelly, Tom Corrigan, and, Joseph Oddie.

And for those of you not mentioned above….Thank you for joining our meeting! The room was full of energy and was a great kickoff to the New Year!

 Upcoming Events 

Our Next Virtual Meeting - Thursday, January 16th at 7:15pm

Sandra Centorino will be sharing the meeting link, or you can find it at our Eagle Toastmasters home page.

Our next meeting - Monday, January 20th.

There are many open roles…Please sign up for something!

Pathways Seminar - Monday, March 30th

Stay tuned for more details!

Christine Austin

Eagle Toastmaster President

12/16/19 Holiday Celebration!

Eagles,

Our Holiday Celebration Meeting was full of friends, food, and fun! We had 21 members and 4 guests. It was a terrific end to the year and a transition to new beginnings.

Yours Truly served as the Toastmaster of the evening. Ian Brooks, fresh off a trip from Edinburgh Scotland channeled his inner Scot to provide a quote. As humorist, I went to the tried and true “somebody walked into a bar” joke. The reaction of the audience indicated my joke was more “trying” than “true”.

As we did not want to delay the festivities, we dove (“dived” also acceptable) right into the speeches.

I gave the first speech, out of the Better Club Series, on the topic of Mentoring. I shared my memories of mentoring Brad Leete and how mentoring can serve as the lifeblood of a thriving club. I was delighted to see fellow Toastmasters reach out to others to form new mentor/mentee relationships.

Ute Brinkmann was Speaker #2. She shared her holiday experiences as a youngster in Germany and in the US.  As the Japanese say “Kyūjitsu no ie” which means “Home for the Holidays”. (Thank goodness I don’t have to pronounce the meeting minutes.) We are very fortunate to have places we can call home for the holidays….even more fortunate when we can share with others!

Kat Calhoun was Speaker #3. Her speech was titled “Wanna Be a Leader”? Kat shared how her life has been full of leadership experiences and opportunities. Kat explained how she learned and adapted her leadership styles….Just as important, she saw how people that may not look like leaders on the outside were strong leaders because of what they had on the inside.

Last, but not least, was Markus Schumacher, Speaker #4 with a speech entitled “Reward Yourself”. Markus has been working on a project at BYK that required extensive travel and that he made time to “smell the roses” or, in this case, view a beautiful sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge in California. As beautiful as his picture was, I’m certain seeing it first hand was breathtaking.

After the speeches we moved right to the BYK fireplace where Sandra Centorino hosted a holiday version of Table Topics. We heard stories about childhood memories and old movies…and making new memories and watching new movies.

Speaking of old and new…….Our December 16^th meeting marked the handing over of the gavel from President Markus Schumacher to our new President, Christine Austin. With Markus moving back to Germany in January, Christine will preside over a thriving Eagle Club starting next month! Thank you for serving our club, Markus….and thank you, Christine, for stepping up!

Lastly, a thank you to everybody who joined us for this special meeting…..And to those that served in roles not mentioned above - Ric Zabor (Ah Counter), Ian Brooks (Grammarian), Paula Erardi (Timer), Kate Kelly, Joseph Oddie and Christine Austin (Evalutors).

Our next meeting is on January 6^th! Please log onto www.EagleToastmasters.com and sign up for something!

Have a blessed and safe holiday!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

Minutes from Eagle Toastmasters October 21st Backwards Meeting

Our president Markus Schumaker got the idea of doing the meeting  backwards from a Toastmasters Leadership Training.  Carlos Perez loved the opportunity to do his first time as Toastmaster backwards, as he and his college roomates used to call each by their backwards names!

The General Evaluator, Ian Brooks, had predictions about the evaluations to be given.  He had fun saying everyone’s name backwards.

Each evaluator spoke to the strengths they knew the speaker had, and predicted content based on the title of the speech.  Eric spoke about the meaning of the number three.  Christine joked about eye contact not being important, and the speaker should face the other way!  Michelle spoke about the wonderful aspects of a speech.

Dignitaries gave made-up numbers for each job.

For Table Topics, Kat had volunteers tell stories first, then the question was asked.  Amazingly, the questions did apply to the stories!

Markus’s speech told of his experience as an exchange student.  He spent six months in Finland.  On the ferry, he met a man who taught him about the rule of thirds to take better pictures.

Kat described her journey as a leader in Toastmasters, where she learned to be an  invisible leader empowering others.

Diana spoke about her experiences in her old boots with her son, hunting.

Ric brought the quote of the day inspired by Omar Coffee.

Humorist Ann read a Woody Allen story about living a backwards life-dying first, then the nursing home, etc.

Dignitaries gave their job descriptions at the end of the meeting.  The timer Maryanne showed the red card first, then yellow, then green, which was disconcerting!

Markus ended the meeting with the beginning!  He commended Carlos on the great job he did as Toastmaster.

Respectively submitted,

Lynne Grobsky

October 7th Eagle Toastmaster Meeting

Eagles,

Our October 7^th featured 19 attendees, 4 speeches, and numerous “dignitaries” that ensured a fluid and fulfilling meeting.

Ian Brooks, our Toastmaster led our meeting with an action packed agenda.

Lauren Bruno, our Quotemaster, explained that we are exactly where we should be….which was certainly true for at least 18 Eagles and one guest.

Kat Calhoun, our Humorist, told us why the scarecrow joined Toastmasters.

Ian served as the meeting’s Grammarian. Jacqueline Fuller hijacked Ian’s Word of the Day responsibility by selecting the word “so”. By doing “so”, Jacqueline shifted the count of this filler word over to the Word of the Day.

Christine Austin was Speaker #1 and Table Topicmaster. For this combined Speech/TT project, she led a session of impromptu speaking on funny and animal stories. This led to a funny moment where Ian exceeded his time limit because Ric Zabor (Timer) forgot to track Ian’s time. It appears Ian’s riff on the pleasure of doing nothing inspired Ric to do the same!

The next three speakers shared the common thread of how to apply skills we learn from one time and place can be applied elsewhere.

Speaker #2, Kate Kelly, gave a speech about the “Famous Flying Fortress”. Kate’s inspiration was from a book called “The Checklist Manifesto”. She explained how checklists, a longstanding practice used by pilots, can be applied to other business endeavors.

And speaking of business endeavors, Ute Brinkmann, Speaker #3 shared her business acumen with the club. As a small business owner with the gift of working with string instruments, Ute explained how she has applied her business skills to generate additional streams of income.

Speaker #4, Ross Grippen, gave a thought provoking speech on the history of rhetoric. Ross demonstrated how lessons learned by Plato over 2400 years ago are useful to all of us today.

Thank you to all of our functionaries, or as Sandra Centorino (General Evaluator) said “dignitaries”. Our dignitaries included Jacqueline Fuller (Ah Counter), Ric Krausz (Timer), Sandra Centorino (General Evaluator) and Speech Evaluators (Kat Calhoun, Ric Krausz, Omar Ghannam, and Carlos Perez).

Our next meeting is scheduled for October 21^st and is a special meeting. Please log onto Eagletoastmasters.com and sign up for a role!

Tony Centorino

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary

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 

8/5 Eagle Toastmaster Meeting - Worthy of a Panegyric

Once again, Eagle Toastmasters had another action packed meeting with 4, no 3, ahh…4 speeches! Yup…..4! Our meeting started with 17 members and 3 guests and ended with 20 members and zero guests!

Steve McGirr opened up the meeting as the Sergeant at Arms and introduced Toastmaster Steve McGirr!

Ute Brinkmann served as the President with a few business items….Let’s get right to it.

Item #1 – Kat Calhoun is spearheading a bilingual (Spanish and English club) with 2 demonstration meetings scheduled for September 12^th at 6:30 in the Community Room at the Fair Haven Library. There will be another demo meeting at a location TBD at a date TBD. If you would like to overcome your fear of public speaking in 2 languages, then this is the meeting for you! (Spanish fluency is not a requirement.) For more information, please contact Kat at (707) 823-3544 or at kat_calhoun@yahoo.com.

Item #2 – Sandra Centorino is leading a virtual meeting on Tuesday August 20^th. This meeting offers you a great opportunity to participate in an online setting that is becoming increasingly popular in the workplace. Your level of participation can range from just attending and watching, to giving a speech, or anything in between……and nobody has to know about the Sponge Bob pajama bottom patterns you may be wearing during the meeting. (Ute – that’s a TV character.) The link to sign up is below.

https://calendly.com/sandracentorino/toastmasters-virtual-meeting?month=2019-08

Let’s get into the action, shall we?

Ann McGuire opened up the meeting with a joke that taught us that the Lion may be the King of the Jungle but is no match for a smart monkey.

Speaker #1 was Tony Centorino, who spoke out of the Special Occasion Speech manual. Tony accepted an award for Sales Professional of the Year. I received several “love notes” from my fellow Toastmasters (thank you)…..One of them indicated that maybe I’m wishing myself to success….hear hear! (or is it “here here”?). Let’s all resolve to continue writing each other notes!

Speaker #2 was Chris Gaffney  who read from the Interpretive Reading Manual “Let America be America Again”. Chris started out by introducing the speech and then completely transforming himself into the authoritative Thurgood Marshall. Little did Langston Hughes (the original author) know that his poem would be as meaningful today as it was when he wrote it in 1935. This poem was not panegyric.

Speaker #3 was Diana Grippen, who has become a regular at the Eagle Toastmaster Speaking circuit. Diana gave a speech that was as sweet as Isomalto-oligosaccharide!

Speaker #4 was a last minute addition to the agenda….Michelle Madeux’s Time is Money theme as it relates to applying beauty products was thought provoking…..an average of 7 minutes to apply cosmetics and 6 minutes to remove add up to almost an entire workday per month!

Jaime Fisher led Table Topics….Little did we know that we had a room full of budding art critics!

Thank you to all of the functionaries that ensured our meeting, ahem, functioned! Ross Grippen (Grammarian), Ian Brooks (General Evaluator and Speech Evaluator), Chris Scoppetta (Evaluator), Tony Centorino (Evaluator), and Ric Zabor (Evaluator). John Sepples served as our Ah Counter and Kat Calhoun served as our timer.

Thank you for making it another special evening at Eagle!

Our next meeting will be on 8/19……Lots of open roles…..please sign up for one!

Tony

Eagle Toastmasters Secretary