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