Meeting Minutes - February 18

What a great meeting we had last night! It is important to mention the great attendance and the fact that two guests came to the meeting. The cold weather did not scare anyone away from participating in a fun and educational meeting at Cedar Hill Toastmasters. 

Paul, Sergeant of Arms was also the Toastmaster of the evening. Lyn made everyone laugh with her trivia humor questions. Next, Paul introduced the word "frangible". 

In the speaking portion of the meeting, two Icebreaker speeches were presented by the new members. First, Katie spoke about her life experiences and how they had helped her realize that she wanted to live a life of no regrets. Then, Nikki presented the evidence that humans have a tendency to assign meaning to events in life thus often creating negative events in their minds that actually never happen. In addition, Paula presented a speech on her High Performance Leadership project. We learned about Paula's efforts to help Cedar Hill Toastmasters earn the Distinguished club recognition during the time when she was the club President. Paula shared the experiences and challenges she had encountered while working on this goal. 

Eliot put together the Table Topics questions by selecting a Toastmaster theme. The topics ranged in the level of difficulty, but all participants managed very well in their impromptu speaking roles. 

Evaluators, Timer and Grammarian provided some helpful feedback to all speakers. Larry evaluated Katie's speech, John evaluated Nikki's speech and Anna evaluated Paula's speech. Kevin presented the Timer's report and Joyce provided a thorough Grammarian report. Martha, as a General Evaluator wrapped up the evaluation portion of the meeting. 

John addressed a couple of club business topics. First, he announced that the Spring Speech contest at Cedar Hill will take place on March 17. The contestants will compete in two categories - Tale Tales and International speech. Next, John reminded of the mentor program offered by the club to all members. 

Paula took roles for the next meeting, which will take place on March 3.

Respectfully submitted, 

Martha Danielewicz

Cedar Hill Toastmasters

Secretary 

Meeting Minutes - February 4

The first meeting of February was well attended on the part of Cedar Hill Toastmasters members in addition to the three guests. 

Paul provided the opening remarks welcoming everyone to the meeting. 

John, serving as a Toastmaster of the evening, announced in the very beginning that it was the Appreciation Day at Cedar Hill Toastmasters. John encouraged everyone to participate in this celebration by paying a compliment to a fellow Toastmaster every time he/she took the stage. Eliot presented the Word - "jentacular" and many stood up to the challenge of using this word throughout the meeting. Larry brought some humor by introducing a joke. 

Three speakers presented their prepared speeches. Lyn's speech was from project 7 of the Competent Communicator, Research Your Topic. Lyn presented a wealth of information about the Groundhog itself, the tradition behind celebrating the Groundhog Day and the associated activities, in a very interesting format. 

Next, Anna shared her knowledge about mindfulness and meditation and also provided some tips on how to make it part of our daily routine in order to counteract the stress. This was project 3  from the Competent Communicator, Get to the Point. 

Veronika presented her Icebreaker speech and she revealed her love for the adventure and travel to distant places, such as India. In her speech, she also highlighted her educational and career accomplishments. 

During the Table Topic session, Marla presented questions to volunteers who wanted to practice the impromptu speaking. The theme was Valentine's Day. Amazingly, all guests were participating in Table Topics!

Prepared speeches were evaluated as follows: Martha evaluated Lyn, Kevin evaluated Anna and Elizabeth evaluated Veronika. 

Larry tracked the Grammar and gave his report. Elizabeth was the Timer. Joyce provided the General Evaluation. Among her comments, she brought up the need for using the Toastmasters preferred way for announcing the speakers, including their name and speech titles. 

Paula took the roles for the next meeting, which will be held on February 18. 

John wrapped up the meeting thanking everyone for complimenting other fellow Toastmasters, for the words of appreciation expressed during the meeting. 

Also, he addressed a couple of business items, such as a reminder about the mentorship program and the upcoming events: 
Jan Jam - February 13, 12-4pm, Manchester Church of Christ
Cedar Hill Toastmasters Open House event - February 17, 6:30-8:00pm Lucy Robbins Welles Library in Newington. 

Respectfully submitted, 
Martha Danielewicz 
Secretary 
Cedar Hill Toastmasters