Meeting Minutes - January 21

Our club officers met prior to the regular meeting to discuss Cedar Hill Toastmasters open house event scheduled for February 17 at Lucy Robbins Welles Library in Newington. Joyce will be sending an email to the members with a blurb on how to advertise this event on the social media. 

Larry was the Toastmaster of the evening making sure that the meeting ran smoothly. Anna brought some humor with the Joke of the Day. Then, Joyce presented the Word - "kvell". Members seem to like this word and they came up with ideas on how to use the word throughout the meeting. 

We had three speakers last night. First, Joel shared his stories from the latest trip to Cuba and provided some helpful traveling tip. John, as a second speaker, presented an impromptu speech on accepting his role as a President of Cedar Hill Toastmasters. Finally, Elizabeth delivered a folk tale "The Ugly Duckling", a project from the Storytelling advanced manual. 

Elizabeth was also the Table Topics Master. Table Topics participants were asked to select an item from the box full of items and tell everyone a story associated with this item. Among the items picked were - TV remote control, teddy bear, paint samples etc. 

Kevin served as a General Evaluator. Eliot evaluated Joel's speech, Joyce evaluated John and Paul evaluated Elizabeth's speech. Veronika served a Timer for the first time and did a great job tracking time requirements for the speaking assignments. As a Grammarian, Anna provided members with some feedback and suggestions. 

John addressed the club' s business on a couple of issues. Also, he reminded all members about the mentoring program available at our club. Then, Paul took the roles for the next meeting on February 4.

Respectfully submitted, 

Martha Danielewicz 
Secretary 
Cedar Hill Toastmasters

Help spread the word about our "drop-in" event

You can help make this event a success and increase the membership of Cedar Hill TM.
Email your friends and/or place on Facebook:

Have you ever wondered what Toastmasters is all about? Come to the Cedar Hill Toastmasters "drop-in" event to get your questions answered; pick up one of our magazines; enjoy some refreshments. Feb 17, 6:30-8:30 PM (come anytime between those times- stay a minute, stay an hour), Newington Library, 95 Cedar St, Newington, CT.

Joyce, VP PR

Meeting Minutes - January 7

It was the first meeting in the New Year for Cedar Hill Toastmasters. What a night - we had 5 guests in attendance! 

Paul was the Toastmasters and he very diligently explained the meeting roles throughout the meeting to help the guests understand the flow. 
Eliot presented the Joke of the Day. Elizabeth in her role as a  Word Master, introduced the word "benevolence". 

Larry presented a dramatics speech entitled "Alone With Self", a project from the Entertaining Speaker series. In a creative and dramatic manner, Larry showed us a progression a person undergoes a transition in their life from a "selfish" newborn requires care and nurturing to a mature individual who cares for others and contributes to the family and community. 

Anna in her role as a Table Topic Master, brought a whole array of questions starting with reminiscing about Christmas and New Years celebrations and ending with topics on New Year's resolutions. All members participated in the Table Topics, including some guests. Kudos to the guests! 

Joyce evaluated Larry's speech. Elizabeth presented the Timer's report. Kevin served as a Grammarian and reminded everyone of the common grammatical errors. He also noted that several members used the word of the day skillfully. 

Paul wore many hats at the meeting - Toastmaster and General Evaluator. He also took the roles for the next meeting which will be held on January 21. 

Have a great weekend! 

Respectfully submitted, 
Martha Danielewicz
Secretary
Cedar Hill Toastmasters

Happy New Year from Cedar Hills Toastmasters !

Happy New Year

2015 is over and we all look forward to 2016!

With the New Year beginning, most of us spend time reflecting on the events from the past year while, at the same time, make plans for the New Year. The majority of us also make New Year’s resolutions, some that we will remain faithful to and others that will fade away.

Resolutions such as, joining a health club, spending more time with family, volunteering, taking up a new hobby, going back to school or running a marathon for the first time, just to name a few.

If one of your resolutions involves becoming a better public speaker or leader, you should consider attending one of our Toastmasters meetings.  By attending our meeting, you will see first-hand how you can develop your speaking and leadership skills in a friendly, supportive environment. You will also have the opportunity to meet with our club members.

If you decide to join our club, you can progress at your own pace and can even request a mentor who will assist you in achieving your own personal goals.

Our club is here to help each individual member achieve their speaking and leadership goals.

Why not plan to attend a meeting soon.

You will be glad that you did!

Paul Horvath

Cedar Hill Toastmasters Club

Sergeant at Arms

Developing your Leadership Skills at Toastmasters

The majority of new members who join our club do so in order to develop their public speaking skills. At Toastmasters, there are actually two skill sets we develop. The first skill is obviously public speaking with the second being to develop a member’s leadership skills.

As a new member, you are provided two manuals. The first manual provides information on developing your public speaking skills and the second to develop your leadership skills.

Many new members of our club focus their efforts on their public speaking skills and tend to ignore their leadership development. I make an effort to remind our members not to ignore their leadership development. I believe the two skill sets augment one another and should be developed simultaneously in order to gain the maximum benefits from being a club member.

The leadership manual consists of ten projects focusing on many aspects of leadership.  Each of the ten projects focus on developing specific leadership skills that include listening, critical thinking, providing feedback, time management, planning and implementation, organization and delegation of tasks, facilitation, motivating, mentoring and team building.

The majority of these projects have the club member taking on various roles during our Toastmaster meetings. The meeting roles include being the Toastmaster, General Evaluator, Speech Evaluator, Grammarian, Table Topics master and Timer.

These meeting roles allow you to develop new leadership skills while also developing your communications skills, providing the opportunity to participate at a meeting even when not giving an actual speech. You will also be supporting our club as a valued member of the team.

Several of the projects develop organizational skills outside the Toastmaster meeting roles for example, organizing a club speech contest, working on a public relations team or becoming a mentor for a new or existing member.

This may all sound very intimidating to you but remember there are many club members, including myself, who are more than happy to mentor you along the way. When you join our club, you are among friends who share the same club goals and values.

By developing our communications and leadership skills simultaneously, we become stronger as individuals and as a club.

Remember that no club member is an island. We all become better members when working as a team together!

I hope to see you at one of our future meetings!

Paul Horvath

Cedar Hill Toastmasters Club

Sergeant at Arms

Meeting Minutes - December 17

Paul as SAA, started the meeting.

John was Toastmaster for the evening and gave the meeting an unusual twist. Prior to the meeting, John passed out a questionnaire to everyone with about a dozen questions such as the number of years you've been in Toastmasters, an animal you'd like to be, the best and worst Xmas gifts you've ever received, an age you'd like to stay at, etc. Then as Toastmaster for the evening, everytime he (or anyone else) introduced someone, John then gave an introduction for that person using the information from the questionnaire.

Joyce gave the word for the day which was nemoplilist.

Kevin stepped up to do a joke.

Anna gave her second speech entitled, "Christmas Eve Polish Style." She informed us of the customs in Poland practiced on Christmas Eve such as looking for the first star of the evening as well as the variety of foods eaten.

John, working from an advanced manual, practiced introductions throughout the evening.

Paul did Table Topics asking questions related to the Christmas.

Larry was grammarian noting some unusual "double ands" by Joyce and Kevin but noted Anna's expression of exclamation was perfectly fine.

Paul gave the timer's report.

Elizabeth as General Evaluator called the evaluators up to give their reports. 

Kevin evaluated Anna's speech giving her a few points to improve upon.

Larry evaluated John's work (speech) with almost everything noted as "excellent."

Elizabeth noted how much she enjoyed Anna's speech since she too was Polish. She also noted there was some "whispering" in the background during the meeting but overall it was a great evening.

Mike brought in a bowl of apples and mandarin oranges for everyone to enjoy.

The meeting actually ended early- about 8:23PM.  The next meeting will be January 7, 2016.

Respectfully submitted,

Joyce Boncal

Meeting Minutes - December 4

Great night at Cedar Hill - lots of laughter and learning in a very supportive environment. 

The meeting was started by Paul, Sergeant of Arms, who reminded everyone about the upcoming winter in spite of a warmer weather pattern that we had been experiencing lately. 

Kevin was the Toastmaster and did a great job moving the meeting along and explaining each section of the meeting since we were honored with a presence of a guest. 

Anna gave the Word of the Day - otiose. Then, Larry brought some humor with the Joke of the Day. 

There were three speakers presenting the prepared speeches. Lyn's speech entitled "Christmas" was quite entertaining as Lyn talked about different ways people approach Christmas preparations and gift giving. It was project 6 from the Competent Communicator, Using Vocal Varieties. 

Next, Martha presented a speech "Nutrition Traps", project from Speaking to Inform manual. She educated the audience about the consumption of sugar and how sugar is lurking into our food on a daily basis.

John gave a speech from Special Occasion speeches manual. He presented a "roast" speech in recognition of Cedar Hill Toastmaster member, Kevin. 

Eliot as a Table Topics master challenged the audience with the topics related to winter. We all know that winter will eventually arrive so this was a prelude to what we need to think about when the winter is here. 

In the educational section of our meeting, Larry evaluated Lyn's speech, Paula evaluated Martha's speech and Paul evaluated John's speech. 

Paul was the Timer and Anna was the Grammarian. We were reminded of bad habits, such as starting the sentence with these popular filler words, "so" and "now."

Finally, Joyce presented the General Evaluator's report praising the Toastmasters contributing to the success of last night's meeting. 

John, our President reminded everyone about the mentor program at the club and encouraged members to take advantage of it. 

The meeting roles for the next meeting were taken by Paula. Cedar Hill meets again on December 17. 

Respectfully submitted by 
Martha Danielewicz
Secretary 
Cedar Hill Toastmasters