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

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