Chilling, Relaxing and having Fun with Friends

Dear Eagles,
After a long long time we did not have any guests at our meeting, but then it allowed us to chill, it allowed us to relax, it allowed us to take actions on the bucket list of items that were being postponed.

Today, it goes with out saying, we had fun. We had Richard as table topics master surprised all the table topics volunteers by asking them to bridge their favorite activity with phrases like why "do the people below equator roll down", "sals alarm clock", "large families like of Van Gogh's with weird names". It was absolute fun, but the volunteers did a fantastic job.

We had 5 excellent speeches ranging from the value of free enterprise read by Tom Corrigan, Help Willy's Friends - a non profit organization for pets narrated by Robin, Be There for the orphanage kids - an experience shared by Ute, Winter Wonderland - a picturesque description of all kinds of winter activities described by Lucy and then the Magic Bus - a tale of struggles of a poor student reminded by Andrew. All the speeches were excellent.

Today, as a group, we decided to buy the projector for the club. Is there anyone tech savvy who wants help us in the selection process? That would be most appreciated. We will get this by end of March if not sooner. Today we decided to extend the meetup membership this year. It costs us $144 per year. We have money now, but for a small club like ours, we cannot afford $144 every year. It is not sustainable. Our Treasurer to look into possible solutions.

Club level spring international speech contest and table topics contest will be held on March 18th. I highly encourage everyone to participate. Speech contest will be 5-7 min and the table topics from 2-3 min. We need contest chair, judges, timers etc etc.... Please let me know if you are interested in taking any of the roles.

Last year we benefited from conducting a workshop. This year we will have it on April 1st. Lucy to  check the room availability for 1st. Let us all be involved and make the workshop a resounding success. This workshop is open for guests and members as well. If you want to volunteer and contribute, please let us know.

As I said earlier, today we had fun, we relaxed and we chilled. Please sign up for the roles.

Goodnight and see you all in 2 weeks on March 4th.

Chandra

Eagle Achieved Select Distinguished Status

Dear All,

When the temperature reads 27 F on the car dash board and we still have a room full at our meeting, then we are doing something right, something special as a club; when we have 9 guests at the meeting and we still have the same amount of fun, if not more, then we gel together well and make everyone feel warm and comfortable; when we attain Select Distinguished Status with 5 more months still to go, then we are clearly on our path to success of reaching the ultimate goal of President's Distinguished for the 12th year in a row. This is incredible and thanks to all of you for your participation, for your commitment and for your contributions.

Today we had another great meeting with 4 very good speeches including an icebreaker. Kate gave a speech on "Love or Lunacy", where she described her road trip ordeal from east coast to west coast with her son. Kate, with couple of minor modifications, your speech will be a very good contender for International Speech contest.

Daya gave his second speech on "Technology in the classroom," where, though he is a proponent of technology, reminded us that technology should assist in finding a solution and not become the solution. Great message Daya.

Susanne gave her icebreaker on "Dancing to Perfection," where she told eloquently about her grandparents, parents, friends, daughter and even her career assisted with pictures. That was great and looking forward for your next speech.

I chipped in for Joe and read the text of Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech given in 2005 titled "you've got to find what you love." Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish is the message. Please listen online if interested. I highly recommend this speech.

All in all, we had a fantastic meeting. We laughed, we mingled and we had fun. Thanks.

Please sign up for the roles for our next meeting on Feb 18th.

Happy Valentines to all of you.

Goodnight and see you all in 2 weeks.

Chandra

Minutes of January 21, 2013-Speech-a-thon

Sgt at Arms: 

President Chandra:  We used this meeting for a Speech-a-thon, as there were 6 speeches.  We also needed to sub roles, as 12 members showed up despite the snow and poor weather.

Toastmaster:  Uta very capably allowed the meeting to carry on as if all was planned.

Table Topics:  Ian allowed members to speak about their enjoyment of the “cold”—quite appropriate for those of us who ventured into the night under these winter weather conditions.

Speaker 1:  Joe—Storytelling #1 The Folktale; 7-9 minutes.  “Gold Tree and Silver Tree”

Joe shared an old Celtic Folk Tale passed down by oral tradition.  He entertained us by speaking without notes.  He captivated our attention by creating quite a gory scenario, as typical of many ancient stories.  The best part was the triumph of good over evil despite what appeared to be a lost cause.

               

Speaker 2:  Tom P. Interpretive Poetry, 6-8 minutes; “The Mad Gardner’s Song”

Tom spoke about Lewis Carroll and his Life, as well as about his Poem.  Carroll was a Logician, Anglican Deacon, Photographer, and Inventor, as well as an author.  He was known for his ability at word play, logic, and fantasy.  Tom brought out his use of the “rule of three” used in memorable speeches:  ex. Friends, Romans, and Countrymen (Shakespeare); Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Jefferson); The Few, The Proud, The Marines (USMC).  Toastmasters also encourages the use of 3 main points in speeches.

The poem allowed Tom to picture the mad gardener walking around shouting at inanimate objects, and people thinking them to be entirely different things.  His thought-provoking statement was, “Some days I feel like the Mad Gardener myself”. 

Speaker #3: Jay—CC  #7–“Get to the Point”; 5-7 minutes; “Gun Violence”

                Jay spoke about the human, media, and gun control aspect of gun violence.  He spoke about military strength.  He about how the media promotes violence, with video games, Hollywood, and high tech TV shows inciting watchers to take action.  His plea:  Take action now—allow your children to have real life experiences so they know that the real world is not all violence, media, and Hollywood.

Speaker #4:  Rich—CC—“Research Your Topic”; 5-7 minutes; “Stents, A Small Medical Marvel”

                Rich relayed interesting information about how stents saved the life of a friend with 4 blockages. 

Previously, this person had no time or ability to exercise.  There is technology out there to help people.  Physicians inserted the stents with a balloon, so that the metal stents expand and become part of the artery.  Now, this person makes time to exercise and is able to do so without numbness and leg cramps.

Speaker #5:  Hyunsoo:  CC #3 “Get to the Point”, 5-7 minutes; “Protect Yourself from Flu Epidemic

                Hyunsoo gave a very timely and informative talk on what we can do to protect ourselves from the flu.  There are now 2500 confirmed flu cases in Connecticut, making the epidemic bigger than the previous 2 years.  One is highly contagious, especially 1 day before developing symptoms and 5-7 days after becoming ill.  The Center for Disease Control has 3 guidelines for prevention:

1.        Get the flu vaccine each year:  3 types of flu can be prevented with one shot.  The shot has a 50-70 per cent success rate.  It is not too late to get one at the local drug stores.

2.       Take action to prevent the spread:  Wash hands with soap and water, scrubbing the back, between fingers, and under nails; rinse with running water for 20 seconds (you can sing “Happy Birthday” to make the time go faster”; use tissue for coughing—then dispose of it.

3.       If you think you have fever, cough, sore throat, headache, body ache, and tiredness, anti-viral medicines can help if you take them within 2 days; also, one must eat right and exercise to strengthen the immune system.

Speech #6:  Chandra—Specialty Speeches, Uplift the Spirit, 8-10 minutes, “Look into the Mirror”

                Chandra gave the speech he will deliver at the District Jan Jam.  He reminded us that we are mirrors that reflect what we are.   Our personality, character, and core beliefs change with time.  The important constant in whatever we do is love.  Love is the oil for the engine that runs the planet. We should enjoy life, treasure our experiences (learning from the negative; gaining pleasure from successes), and have fun.    Chandra hit on the reason we come to TM even in the dead of winter.

General Evaluator:  Ian

Evaluator #1:  Elaine for Joe

                Joe’s delivery allowed us to hang on every word, as he attracted our attention by the phrase:  “eating the heart and liver of Gold Tree”.  We realized that violence in stories goes back to ancient times.  However, “good triumphs over evil” and “jealously brings self-destruction” come out as positive themes. 

Evaluator #2:  Joe for Tom P—Tom gave us insight into the author, as well as his poetry.  The rhythm and language of the poem enhanced the delivery.

Evaluator #3:  Chandra for Jay—Jay cleverly did not take a position, but encouraged us to act the way we feel would be most beneficial.  He was well organized, using the rule of three.

Evaluator #4:  Daya for Rich—Daya performed his first evaluation, complimenting Rich for his supportive research and clear purpose.

Evaluator #5:  Ian for Hyunsoo—Ian complimented Hyunsoo for coming across as a well-organized professional, with an effective, conversational delivery.

Evaluator #6:  Rachel for Chandra—Rachel solicited support from the group in agreeing that Chandra encouraged us by very effectively bringing out his main points in story-form.

Ah-Counter:  Ian

Timer:  Rachel

Guest Comments:  Though half the membership did not attend because of weather, those present pulled together an effective meeting.  Our guest gained knowledge, while being entertained and appreciated the value of evaluation.

President’s Remarks:  Everyone spoke, as only 12 were present.  He reminded officers and members to attend the Officer Workshop on Jan. 30. 

Our first Speech-a-Thon of the year

Dear Eagles,
Today we had our first speech-a-thon for the year and we were treated with 6 fabulous speeches covering a wide range of topics. We covered folk tale of Silver tree and Gold Tree, we heard the Mad Gardner Song by Lewis Caroll, we were made to think and take action on Gun Violence, we were provided great details on Stents, we were encouraged to take flu shots to protect ourselves and finally we were asked to Look into the Mirror of our character. That was awesome.

Today, considering the snow and the cold, we had a good turn out of 12 members. We even signed up Susanne as our newest member. Not only that, Susanne has committed to jump right in to give an icebreaker at our next meeting. That is fabulous and please join me in welcoming Susanne.

Today, many of the members could not come due to the weather, due to the not-so-safe driving conditions, due to other personal reasons, but then we showed our improvisation skills, we showed our adaptability, we showed our relentless commitment. Susanne, our guest, even played a cameo Sargent-at-Arms role - special thanks to Susanne and everyone who stepped forward. That is something to be proud of.

Today was one of the meetings where everyone of the member present had a chance to speak, not once, but multiple times. Always there is a brighter side.....another example for "less is more", it just depends on the perspective :). That is always something to aim for (everyone speaking, improving and developing the skills).

Remember the following dates: Jan Jam on 26th, TLI training on Jan 30th and Feb 20th.Please contact me or Rachel (area governor) for details.

Thanks again to all of you for coming and making it into a great and fun meeting. See you all in two weeks on Feb 4th and please sign up for the roles.

Goodnight.

Chandra

The Promise, the Excitement and the Freshness

Dear Eagles,

A new year, a new beginning brings in the promise, brings in the excitement and brings in the freshness. It is often very difficult to maintain the balance between the above three important qualities. Often times, one or the two or all the three qualities are very much compromised in many of the situations, but surprisingly at our club we tend to maintain a very healthy balance between all the three - often by member participation, many times by the quality of the speeches, and sometimes by alcohol. Of course today we saw all the three things: member participation, the quality and the alcohol in full display. That is great and thanks to all of you.

We had a wonderful meeting with close to 20 members and Mike as our guest. We started the meeting with our traditional New Year toast of Champagne. Thanks to Ute for the champagne and the toast. She also baked us cookies and provided the crackers and cheese along. 

Ian as quote master provided three quotes from Winnie-the-Pooh, Alexander Graham Bell and the Saint Buddha - three very diverse personnel belonging to very diverse fields/background and three very different times in history, but all the three quotes were very inspirational.

We were all treated with 4 very high quality speeches. Daya gave his icebreaker titled "Believe it or not" where he somehow revealed his self by taking us through a journey by cleverly answering the following two questions: (1) do you believe the established thought as "Truth"? - by answering he told about what his core beliefs are and how he gave his children the freedom to decide rather than force and (2) do you think we should do what we love? - this he answered by telling how he followed his passion for computers, his grad school, his work and how he has fallen in love with toastmasters. Great job, Daya. Looking forward for more speeches from you.

Kate followed with her speech titled "Man's best friend", where she narrated a touching story of the relation of Doug and his best friend Buster, the dog. How Doug in the process of gaining his older brothers attention had almost lost his life if not for the timely rescue of Doug to "heaven" by Buster. Kate is an excellent storyteller and she takes all the audience on a ride as if we are sitting on a simulator and experiencing in real.... Fantastic job....

Tom gave the third speech on "a failed experiment", where he realised during his recent visit to national constitution center in Pennsylvania, how in early 1900s Government with the help of several religious and other groups tried to curb the rampant drinking especially in the working class by Prohibiting Alcohol, how the whole experiment was a big fiasco etc etc... All this was good, but I liked the ending the most. He celebrated after the tour by going to a bar and drinking and he brought all the members champagne to drink on the occasion.  Thanks Tom, two drinks in a night of course multiplies the FUN.

Robin gave the final speech for the night on "Robots are Amazing", where she took us through the evolution of Robots and how a 3000 plus-component controlled robo-tuna with 4 ft long built in 1994 at MIT became a one foot long robo- fish powered only by 10 components by 2009 again designed by MIT. By mid 2010 the robo-tiny became a 4 inch long fish designed by an organization based in Japan powered by magnetic actuators. It becomes even better, by 2012 we have self propelled Nova (robo-fish) that can be put in a Fish tank. The demo was awesome and Elaine, the evaluator, was so thrilled that she is sure of getting one. Robin ended the speech with a question "what next?" ( of course in my head the answer was "real fish with flesh and blood", then we will go a full circle :))

Some Decisions that need to be taken:

We have  $1000 in our club's account. Please send in ideas on what we can invest in that can equip the club to meet the needs of the current and future members. One idea is a projector, but please throw in ideas and we can decide the next meeting.

All in all it was a great night. Thanks again to all of you. Our next meeting is on Jan 21st. Please sign up for the roles.

Goodnight and see you all in 2 weeks.

Chandra

Eagle Toastmasters Newsletter Issue 2, Q2, 2012/13

Wish you all a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year

Dear Eagles,
2012 is almost coming to an end, and what a phenomenal year we had. We achieved President's distinguished for the 11th consecutive year, and the past 6 months since I took on the role of President have been equally great. We always had a great turnout, we always had fantastic meetings thus far, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members and all the officers. Thus far it has been a humbling experience, a rewarding experience and an enriching experience, and all of you with your commitment make the club successful. Thanks.

We had another great turnout this evening. It is always great to see the family members. We had 2 guests , Roger and our good friend Rose coming back after a long hiatus.

We started the night by holding a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. It was the least we could do as a community. Thanks to Kate and Ute ( our past club presidents) for suggesting this.

We had an extended table topics. All the 17 people in the room except for 2 spoke. That was fun. Thanks to all of you for bringing in the gifts and also socks/underwear, this is what the community needs and it means a lot.

Dan, husband of the CEO of Masters Manna , Cheryl, and also a volunteer by himself, gave a brief history of masters manna, the community they serve, their challenges and their next steps. I thought that was great.

We had 3 prepared speeches all touching the spirit of holidays. Sarah gave her icebreaker speech on "celebrating life," where she asked us to accept than discriminate. Sarah has incredible energy and it was the first icebreaker speech ever in the history ( of my experience) where the speaker had made all the members stand in a line and sing happy birthday song. It was confusing but hilarious. Sonia as evaluator rightly pointed her energy, but suggested her to hone the energy and lead the audience with a message. Sarah, you can do it, and looking forward for your next speech.

Jay gave his second speech from CC titled "the art of giving," where with clear examples explained the three classifications of gifts: gifts you expect, gifts you dont expect and the gifts you expect in return ( service gifts or bribery gifts). Jay's speeches are well-organized, well-thought and well-rounded. He always provides a clear mental picture for all of us to imagine, which is not that easy to accomplish. No notes, good eye contact for 2nd speech is incredible. Good job and keep it up.

Rich gave the third speech of the night titled "holidays dos and donts," where he provided us tips on how to be a good host and also to be a good guest. He told us to treat everyone with respect and also to be yourself as others were already taken. In addition to the content, what impressed me most, and was pointed by Kate as his evaluator, was the progress he has made, how Rich has stopped using notes, how Rich was using hand gestures, using the room etc etc, the little things toastmasters teaches us. We can clearly see great strides made by Rich over the course of a few speeches. Add vocal variety, Rich, you have the whole package. Great progress.

As the tradition, Tom P. gave colorful plants as an year-end holiday gift to all the members present at the meeting. Thanks Tom.

Our next meeting is in 3 weeks on Jan 7th of the new year, 2013. We will be meeting at our regular Park & Rec building. Please do sign up for the roles.

Wish you all a Merry Christmas, wish you all a happy holidays and wish you all a happy and a prosperous new year, 2013.

Goodnight and See you all in 3 weeks.

Chandra