Meeting Minutes – July 17, 2008

Our Mission: The Travelers Noontime Toastmaster (TNT) Club is dedicated to helping individuals improve themselves by sharpening their speaking, listening and thinking skills, all of which are necessary for success at work and at home. We provide a supportive environment with opportunities for public speaking and leadership development.

Chairperson: Holly Gaspar

Toastmaster: Roger Arnold

Timer: Greg Fennell

Grammarian: Sid Yudowitch – Today’s word of the day was transcend which means: to rise above, go beyond.

Quiz Master:

Roger’s Toastmaster tip for the day was – Mind Over Manner. Using an old kung fu reference, Roger explained to us that physical minds can race a lot. However, if you practice yogic breathing – basically breathing while consciously thinking about it – you can slow your mind down and maybe help relieve some stress in the process!

Speaker 1:

Ed Roerster, “1 st US President From Norwich, CT?” (CC #3; 5-7 min.) [Actual Time = 6m 28s]

Today Ed explained to us how the first President of the United States was actually from CT! He opened his speech with some examples of famous CT born leaders, then went on to give us a brief history lesson on Samuel Huntington. Samuel was born in 1731 in Windham, CT. He was a self taught lawyer who moved to Norwich in 1774 to become more involved in helping to form a centralized government. While in Norwich he obtained funding for the Old State House, settled the Treaty of Hartford, and got heavily involved in the Articles of Coercion. He then went on to become the president of the Continental Congress for 2 terms, and eventually become the President of US in Congress Assembled. Thus, essentially on paper becoming the first President of the US.

Evaluator: Lisa Lew [Actual Time = 2m 39s]

Speaker 2:

Michael O’Brien, “Schopenhauer peers behind the curtain” (AC # 5, Speaking to Inform, The Abstract Concept; 6-8 min.) [Actual time = 8m 07s]

Michael’s speech today was about the famous philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. He opened his speech by explaining to us that Arthur (who was influenced by Emmanuel Kant) believed in 2 layers of reality. The phenomenal world which is comprised of our everyday perceptions of life, and then the nominal world which hides behind the phenomenal! Emmanuel thought the phenomenal world was comprised of heavens and moral law, but Arthur took a more pessimistic viewpoint. When he “peered behind the curtain” he saw a monster, he saw how people were destroyed by their constant desires to want more. He saw many examples of this when he studied human behavior. For example, why is it our first instinct to grin when we hear that someone has passed away? Or why do government officials risk everything they have for a cheap affair?

Arthur came up with 2 solutions to avoid this “monster” – one was to renounce the world and give up seeking for gain. The other was to focus on the timelessness in art objects and enjoy art for its own sake (in a dis-interested manner). Arthur loved to listen to formal music and found it helped him to focus. Michael actually tried listening to more formal music as research for his speech, and did find that it helped to quite his mind a little. At the end of the speech, Michael reminded us that it is always hard to find peace in the present moment, but through appreciation of art, we can help to focus our mind.

Evaluator: Dan Guinan [Actual Time = 3m 53s]

Table Topics:

Chairperson – Ismat Mahmood. For today’s table topics, Ismat gave the speaker a picture and asked them to explain to us why they took it J

1. Chris Rucci: Picture of a person holding 2 pieces of fruit or vegetable…. [Actual Time = 1m 26s]

Chris took this picture back in 1992, 5 years into his Pulitzer award winning career. He took the photo in Washington on an apple orchard where they were doing experiments with fertilizers. One apple was fertilized and one wasn’t. He especially loved this photo because of the excellent light composition.

1. LaTasha Smith: Picture of the Hartford landscape…. [Actual Time = 36s]

LaTasha took this picture on her new digital camera so she could always remember the place she has lived for the last 7 years. It encompasses all of her memories of this city, and she hopes to actually make it into a postcard!

1. Kristi Bathgate: Picture of a cowboy roping in a horse… [Actual Time = 1m 35s]

Kristi took this picture on her trip to Texas, where she brought her 5 year old son to show him a real cowboy. During that trip they watched cowboy competitions and took a picture of the most exciting thing that her son saw that day.

1. Marsha Pritchard: Picture of some guys on a truck….[Actual Time = 1m 19s]

Marsha took this picture in Columbia when she went there to learn all about how they make rice! Marsha recently became a vegetarian and fell I love with this special rice, so she wanted to spend some time with the earth and see how it was made. She was even able to bring a bag back to share with her friends and hopefully make them vegetarians too!

General Evaluator:

Kristi Bathgate

Kristi thought the meeting went fairly well. She liked the explanations given by the technicians when explaining their role, and she really enjoyed all of the table topics. Kristi also enjoyed the way that Michael gave Roger a prepared intro to his speech. Finally, she liked how the evaluators re-iterated the purposes of the speeches and suggested that be something we all do going forward. A couple of suggestions that Kristi had – bring copies of your evaluation form to the meetings and make sure the agenda is correct.

Quiz Master:

Tracy Miranda

Today, Tracy listened very intently to all of our speakers and came up with some good questions for the group. It seems like everyone listened well – we got 2 out of 2 right! Great job everyone!

Club Business:

Due t o time constraints, Holly informed us of some club business and said that e-mails would be forthcoming with additional details:

• We are looking to get a new room to hold our meetings
• We are working on the scheduling issue (not everyone can view the schedule from it’s current location)
• Sid sent out some contest information and we are really hoping for good participation!
• We are trying to win the Schmedley award and are looking to get 5 new members between 8/1 and 9/30.

Next Meeting: June 26, 2008

1. Chairperson: Steve Petro
2. Toastmaster: Mary Semeraro
3. Speaker 1: Steve DeBenedet
4. Speaker 2: Mary Serafino
5. Speaker 3: Helene Talbot
6. Table Topics: Harshida Patel
7. General Evaluator: ***OPEN***
8. Evaluator 1: Dan Guinan
9. Evaluator 2: Sid Yudowitch
10. Evaluator 3: Holly Gaspar
11. Timer: Sridhar Nissankararao
12. Grammarian: LaTasha Smith

If you change your availability for your assigned roles, please e-mail VPE Bob Kirkendalland let him know .