COVID-19 Update

 COVID-19 Update -

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we will be meeting on Zoom until further notice. If you are interested in attending a meeting as a guest, please click the Contact Us item within the  
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Select this link to access out Club website:  Cedar Hill Toastmasters 

Cedar Hill Toastmasters Members

Thanks for your interest in our club.  We hope to hear from you soon !

Happy New Year from Cedar Hill Toastmasters !

At the beginning of every New Year many of us make resolutions. For example, losing weight, exercise more often, eating healthier, spend more time with our loved ones, just to name a few.

If one of your resolutions is to become a stronger communicator and leader, you should consider attending one of our Cedar Hill Toastmasters meetings as a guest. When you do, you will quickly realize that our club provides a friendly and supportive environment designed to assist you in becoming a better speaker and leader. 

As a member, you are provided educational materials that will help you develop your leadership and communications skills in the form of projects.  Each project is designed to develop a specific skill that serves as a foundation for future projects. Think of it as building a home. You can’t Sheetrock until you first pour a foundation, build the frame, install the plumbing, electrical and of course, pass inspection.

We also provide a mentor program where new and experienced members can receive guidance and advice from one or several of our mentors. 

Plan on stopping in for a visit soon. You will be glad you did.

Happy New Year from all of us at Cedar Hill Toastmasters!!

Cedar Hill Toastmasters has a New meeting location

Cedar Hill Toastmasters has moved our meetings to a new location !

We will now be meeting at:

Middlewoods of Newington
2125 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111
First Floor, Community Room

We will continue to hold meetings on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month. 7PM

Directions to our new meeting location can be viewed by selecting the Meeting Information / Directions tab located on our club WEB site.   Cedar Hill Toastmasters WEB site

We are excited about our new location and hope you can join us for a visit !

Step out of your "comfort zone"

Many of us live the majority of our lives in something known as our “comfort zone”.  We tend to do things that are very familiar and don’t require much extra effort. It’s like how water always travels the path of least resistance. 

This is natural, but it’s also beneficial to “step out” of our “comfort zone” from time to time. Doing so helps us gain knowledge and at the same time, build confidence. This is also true as a member of a Toastmasters club. 

During regular meetings, members give presentations on projects taken from various manuals. After every presentation, the speaker receives an evaluation from a fellow member. The evaluation highlights the good pieces of the speech and also provides examples of areas for improvement. This valuable information provided during the evaluation validates the good habits of the presenter and identifies items to improve upon.

Although a member’s first few speeches can prove challenging, members become much more comfortable as they continue presenting speech projects. They naturally become more confident and speeches can eventually become part of their “comfort zone”. 

Twice a year, clubs hold speech contests. They are speech competitions that allow members to “step out” of their “comfort zone” in a friendly, but competitive environment. Member speeches are judged with awards given for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place. The competition’s 1^st place winners move onto the Area contest where they compete against the 1^st place winners from other clubs.  

Challenge yourself to become your very best

These contests allow members the opportunity to challenge themselves by creating a presentation that may win at the club and possibly the area level.

At Cedar Hill Toastmasters, we held our fall speech contest on Thursday, September 21^st. Several great speeches were presented. Congratulations to all our contestants!

Our regular meetings will resume on Thursday, October 5^th.

We hope to see you there!

Paul Horvath

Cedar Hill Toastmasters Club

2017-2018 Vice President Membership

Help along your journey to becoming an accomplished Communicator and Leader

Most individuals would like to improve their communications and leadership skills. When speaking with people, we hear a number of reasons why they would like to sharpen these skills.

Many are moving into work positions that may require additional responsibilities including increased leadership. These positions usually require an individual to perform presentations at various levels within the company or organization.

Some people wish to become better speakers to feel more comfortable speaking at life events outside the workplace. For example, giving a toast at a wedding, speaking at a fundraising event, performing a eulogy for a deceased friend or relative,  just to name a few.

Whatever drives you to become a better communicator and leader, we can help.

When you decide to become a member of our club, you will not be alone. You will quickly realize that all our members support one another in order to achieve goals.

We also offer a mentor program for our members to help them along their individual Toastmasters journey. Just as a ship navigating on the sea uses lighthouses for guidance, a new or longtime Toastmasters member can take advantage of a mentor for guidance in order to achieve their goals.

Our mentors are club members who have been with Cedar Hill Toastmasters for many years. They have given numerous presentations and have held leadership roles within and in most cases outside our club environment.

The mentor program is provided on a voluntary basis. Whether you choose to have a mentor when becoming a member is your decision. You can also request a mentor at anytime during your membership.

Remember, it's all about you.

We want to make sure you have a strong and supportive environment for your journey to becoming a proficient communicator and leader.

Please feel free to visit us at one of our upcoming club meetings!

Meet our new Cedar Hill Toastmasters officers

Our new club officers for the 2017-2018 term were inducted during our last meeting.

From left to right:

Larry Wood - President,  Marie Jeudy - Vice President of Public Relations,  Eric Krausz - Secretary.

Kevin Finn- Treasurer,  Paula Zajac - Sergeant at Arms and Paul Horvath - Vice President of Membership.  Charmayne Harris - Vice President of Education (not present for photo) 

Congratulations to all newly elected officers !

Meeting Minutes - June 6

Cedar Hill Toastmasters rock! We had 21 people in attendance at this meeting, including several guests. 

Our Sergeant at Arms, Paul, began the meeting with a short introduction and gave the floor to Larry, the Toastmaster of the evening. Since there was a considerable number of guests, Larry explained all the roles throughout the meeting. Mohamed gave the word of the day "cajole." Several speakers met the challenge by using the word. Joanna delivered not only one but three jokes and she got everyone laughing. 

We had three speakers - Elizabeth, Joyce and Joel. Elizabeth gave a speech entitled "Family Ties" from the Entertaining Speaker manual as she spoke about her life situations, often funny but true, which helped her to strengthen the bond with her son. Next, Joyce delivered a speech from Communicating on Television manual. Her speech "To Toastmasters Clubs of America" was an invitation to use filming of Toastmasters meetings to help members improve their presentation skills. The final speech was Joel's travelogue of his latest trip to two notable tourists spots - Milan, Italy and Barcelona, Spain. 

Eliot as a Table Topics Master announced a summer theme for the table topics session. The participants were given a subtopic and their challenge was to create a question within this subcategory and then answer it. 

Lyn as General Evaluator led the Evaluation portion of the meeting. Martha evaluated Elizabeth's speech and John evaluated Joyce's speech. Ramon delivered the Timer's report and Kevin was the Grammarian. 

Larry concluded the meeting by getting some feedback from the guests and then turned the meeting to John, our club President. John reminded about the mentoring program available to all the members. Also, he expressed his gratitude to the club for serving the role of Cedar Hill club President during this Toastmaster year. 

Paula took the roles for the next meeting to be held on Thursday, July 7. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Martha Danielewicz
Secretary 
Cedar Hill Toastmasters

Meeting Minutes - June 2

Another great night at Cedar Hill filled with learning and laughter! There was one guest in attendance that evening. 

The meeting was started by Paul, Sergeant at Arms, who commented on the weather and asked the audience for some gardening tips to grow the zebra grass. 
Elizabeth served the role of Toastmaster of the evening. Throughout the evening, she shared the tips she had learned from the featured speakers at the recent Toastmaster District 53 Spring Conference. 

Ramon presented the word of the day - "diction". Then, Paul, as a Joke Master entertained the audience with a couple of jokes. 

The prepared speeches were presented by Mohamed and Martha. Mohamed gave the Icebreaker speech about his childhood adventures in Sudan and later moved on to talk about his career choices that had challenged his communication skills. Martha presented a roast speech from the Special Occasions Speeches manual, a roast of our club member Joyce, filled with some good natured humor. 

Lyn led a creative and challenging Table Topic session. Each participant was tasked with creating a weather report to the undisclosed audience (only known to the Table Topic Master and the speaker). This task triggered a lot of laughs and the participants did their best to deliver an interesting weather forecast reports. 

Eliot was the General Evaluator, who was assisted by Kevin as Grammarian, Larry as Timer and two speech evaluators. Joyce evaluated Mohamed's speech and John evaluated Martha's speech. 

Elizabeth concluded with the thought from the Toastmaster conference about the importance of having a mentor in any undertaking and especially in Toastmasters. Next, John reinforced this thought by mentioning the mentoring program at the Cedar Hill Toastmasters. 

With the upcoming new Toastmaster year, the idea of voting in on the slate of new officers was brought up to John's attention. He called on Secretary to read the proposed slate of new officers. Since there were no other nominations from the floor, the voting took place and as a result the nominated officers were unanimously voted in for the new year starting July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017.

Before concluding the meeting, John took roles for the next meeting scheduled for June 16. 

Respectfully submitted, 
Martha Danielewicz
Secretary 
Cedar Hill Toastmasters 

Meeting Minutes - May 19

Before the meeting begun, Joyce introduced some housekeeping items related to filming of our club'sToastmasters meeting. Paul, Sargent of Arms began the meeting with a moment of silence to honor those who lost their lives in the Egyptian plane crash. Paul served the role of Toastmaster of the evening and explained clearly the sections throughout the meeting since we had three honored guests in attendance. 

The word of the day " gaucherie" was presented by Joyce. Eliot put his humorous hat on and delivered some entreating jokes. We had two speakers - Larry and Lyn. Larry delivered a speech "Trains" from the Entertaining Speaker series, revealing his passion for watching trains. He gave some insight on this hobby and provided additional entertainment with the use of visual aids. Lyn presented a speech entitled "Inspiring Sustainability" from CC manual, Project 8 - Using Visual Aids. She introduced the inspiring sustainability ideas such as composting, permaculture, roof top gardens and vertical gardening just to name a few.

Table Topic session was shared by Elizabeth and Mohamed. Their questions challenged the imagination of the participants. It's not everyday question on what you would do if you were invisible or had the super powers. 

Martha was the General Evaluator. Kevin evaluated Larry's speech and Paul evaluated Lyn's speech. Joel delivered the Timer's report along with some helpful tips. John was the Grammarian who presented a thorough report and some helpful suggestions. 

Before closing the meeting, Paul inspired members to look into the mentoring program available at the club. Then, John, our President took the roles for the next meeting scheduled for June 2. 

Mentor program enables Success !

M any individuals hesitate joining a club like Toastmasters because they have a fear of public speaking. Some resist because they feel very intimidated as being labeled  “the new kid on the block”.

As a long time member of the Cedar Hills Toastmasters club, I can assure you that both of these apprehensions are easily remedied.

 

At Cedar Hills Toastmasters, it is our belief that every member is important. In support of this belief, we offer a voluntary mentor program. This program matches a new or existing member of Toastmasters with a more experienced club member. The mentor will provide information about our Cedar Hills Toastmasters Club as well as the entire Toastmasters organization. You will have the opportunity to meet the individual mentors and decide who would be the best match to help you achieve your goals. You can change your mentor or even stop your mentoring program at any time. It’s all up to you. 

  

The important thing to remember is that at Cedar Hills Toastmasters, you are not an island!

  

A mentor is an experienced club member who will assist you in the preparation and execution of your speech projects. Mentors provide ideas on how to overcome the apprehension of standing in front of a group when delivering your message. They will also assist in finding speech topics you feel most confortable with and guide you through the many techniques that will make you a better public speaker.

  

If becoming a better speaker in on your ”bucket list”, I hope you consider attending one of our club meetings in the near future to see what we're all about.

You will be glad you did!

Paul Horvath

Cedar Hill Toastmasters Club

Sergeant at Arms

Meeting Minutes - May 5

Paul, Sargent in Arms, welcomed everyone to the meeting and reminded that May 5th is known as Cinco de Mayo. Eliot, who was the Toastmaster of the evening, provided some historical background for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. Elizabeth introduced the word of the day "acrimonious". Larry presented an entertaining joke. 

The speaking portion featured three speakers. Kevin gave a speech entitled "Three Strikes" from the Competent Communicator manual, project 5 - Your Body Speaks. Kevin spoke about baseball, a favorite American pastime and he enhanced his speech content with body movements. Joanna presented her Icebreaker speech from which we learned more about her favorite hobbies, running, painting and travelling. Paul delivered a speech entitled "The Toastmaster Educational Program and You" from the Successful Club Series. Paul not only informed us about the educational tracks and awards but also inspired everyone to always work toward a goal on the Toastmasters journey. 

Table Topics session was presented by Joyce in a very creative and innovative way. Joyce started with a fragment of a tale and instructed the participants to continue the tale in one minute increments. Although it was challenging, everyone seem to have fun with this activity. 

Kevin was the General Evaluator. Michelle, a Toastmaster guest, evaluated Kevin's speech, Larry evaluated Joanna's Icebreaker and John evaluated Paul's presentation. Paula was the Timer and Lyn was the Grammarian. 

Eliot gave an overview of the meeting, thanked all the participants for their contributions and complimented on the meeting timeliness. Paula, VP Education, took the meeting roles for the next meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 19.

John wrapped up the meeting with the reminder about the mentoring program at our club. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Martha Danielewicz

Secretary 

Cedar Hill Toastmasters

Meeting Minutes - April 21

Although it was a nice Spring evening and the weather was very pleasant, last night's meeting at Cedar Hill Toastmasters was well attended, and we even had two guests in attendance. 

Paul, Sargent in Arms, began the meeting announcing the press release published in Rare Reminder about Cedar Hill Toastmasters' Spring Club contest. Kevin was the Toastmaster of the evening. Anna presented a challenging Word - "thrasonical". Due to the absence of the assigned Joke Master, there was a competition between Larry and Paul to deliver a joke and we ended up with two jokes. 

The prepared speeches were presented by Paul and Kevin. Paul delivered an inspiring speech from the Leadership Excellence Series about Motivating People. Paul spoke very clearly about the main principles on motivating others, the principles that could be applied in any environment. Kevin's speech " You Want Me to Do What" was part of Project 3 "Get to the Point" from the Competent Communicator manual. Kevin spoke about engaging in Toastmasters by performing various roles, participating in district sponsored activities and challenges, e.g. Charged Up Toastmaster incentive. 

Marla was the Table Topic Master and challenged the volunteers from the audience with random questions on various general topics - morning routine, best movie/book, best gift, highlight of the week. 

Eliot was the General Evaluator assisted by the speech evaluators and technicians, Joyce as Grammarian (who delivered very thorough Grammarian report) and Martha as Timer. 

Larry evaluated Paul's speech providing feedback to the speaker and also gave the audience some helpful tips on project management and slide presentations. Anna was the evaluator of Kevin's speech by providing concise and valuable feedback. 

Eliot commented on the timing requirements for each section of the meeting and concluded that the club is doing a better job sticking to the time slots, but he mentioned that there was some room for improvement. 

Paula concluded the meeting by taking the roles for the next meeting scheduled for May 5. Also, she reminded about the upcoming District 53 Spring Conference in Windsor Locks on May 21.

Respectfully submitted, 

Martha Danielewicz

Secretary

Cedar Hill Toastmasters

Meeting Minutes - April 7

Paul, as sergeant at arms, started the meeting by pointing out three members of Cedar Hill Toastmasters, Joyce, Elizabeth, and Martha had a group photo in the April issue of Toastmasters magazine.

Three guests were present.

As Toastmaster for the evening, John Calderbank pointed out that April 7 was "beer day."

The word of the day, aphorism, was given by Joyce. Several people gave examples of aphorisms during the evening.

Larry gave the joke for the day.

Marla gave her Ice Breaker speech telling of her fear of public speaking and how it influenced her psychology path in college.

Kevin practiced a speech he will be giving at the Area Speech contest.

Larry, doing Table Topics, had people pull words out of a bag and talk about that word, such as family, religion, and Spring. One of the guests participated.

Paula, as General Evaluator, called on Anna to evaluate Marla and Eliot to evaluate Kevin. Kevin also asked for general comments from members as to how he could improve his speech.

Anna gave a detailed grammarian report. Paul gave the timer's report.

After the meeting was adjourned, John reminded people of the Area Speech contest, Friday @ 6PM, 256 Church St, Middletown.

Larry presented certificates for the Speech Contest.
Tall Tales - Kevin, 1st place
International - Kevin, 1st place
                        - Paul, 2nd place
                        - Joyce, 3rd place


Respectfully submitted,
Joyce Boncal

Spring Speech Contest

This Thursday, March 17, Cedar Hill Toastmasters club held the Spring Speech contest. Participants competed in two categories - Tall Tales and International Speech. Tall Tale represents a highly improbable tale with a twisted plot. International speech, on the other hand, presents the universal topics that everyone can related to. 

Larry was the Contest Master who led the contest seamlessly. There were two contestants in the Tall Tales category - Nikki with a speech "From Deep Within the Woods" and Kevin with his speech "Right?" They kept the audience entertained and on the edge of their seats. 

Next, three contestants competed in the International Speech category with very inspiring messages,  Joyce with her speech "We All Have Them", Paul with his speech "Change the World" and Kevin with his speech "I Was Robbed."

While the ballots were counted, Contest Master interviewed the contestants. This was an opportunity to learn more about the contestants and their interests. The Contest Master presented the certificates of participation to all the contestants, expressing thanks for taking part in the contest. 

Finally, Paula, Chief Judge, announced the first, second and third place winners. Kevin won in both categories and he is advancing to Area level contest. 

Congratulations to all the contestants! Good luck to Kevin on his next contest. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Martha Danielewicz

Cedar Hill Toastmasters 

Secretary

Meeting Minutes - March 3

Dear Fellow Toastmasters, 
The meeting was well attended by the Cedar Hill Toastmasters, there were three guests in attendance and a guest speaker from another Toastmaster club. Great meeting, lots of laughs and learning. 

John was the Toastmaster of the evening. Elizabeth presented the Word "ruminate", which was a hit of the evening and many incorporated this word in their speaking. 
Mohammed was the Joke Master. 

We had three prepared speeches that evening. Kevin spoke about the dreams and aspirations as part of Using Visual Aids project. Rick, the guest speaker, in his speech contemplated the subject of happiness and what holds us back from pursuing our dreams. Lastly, Paul volunteered his motivational speech about the benefits of completing the Competent Leadership manual. 

In the Table Topics section, Anna challenged the participants with the creative and thoughtful topics on our dependence on the computer devices and social media on one hand and unplugging on the other. 

Lyn was the General Evaluator assisted by the speech evaluators, timer and grammarian. Larry evaluated Kevin's speech, Paula evaluated Rick's speech and Kevin evaluated Paul's speech. Elizabeth presented the timer's report and explained the use of timing cards to the guests. Martha was the Grammarian.
John wrapped up the meeting and introduced Larry as the Contest Master for the upcoming Spring speech contest to be held on March 17. The contest will feature two categories, Tall Tales and International speech. Larry handed the contest forms to those who volunteered to participate in many different capacities, speakers, judges etc.

We will see you all on March 17 for the Cedar Hill Toastmasters Club contest. 

Respectfully submitted, 
Martha Danielewicz
Secretary 
Cedar Hill Toastmasters

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