May 19, 2011 - Theme: Backwards Meeting in Time

Hello Fellow Linguists of Listowel and Friends,

Thursday's Linguists of Listowel meeting was our annual "Reverse Meeting" where we had a very fun meeting that was filled with lots of laughs. This is a unique meeting whereby we start at the end of the meeting agenda and work towards the beginning of the meeting agenda at the end of the night. The first people, in speaking roles, somewhat dictate or foreshadow what will be said or done by the speakers to follow next (power of suggestion). This makes for a very unpredictable series of events.

There were 11 members in attendance. Our Inspirational Thoughts for the night was "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards" and never look backwards or you'll fall down the stairs". I was the Chairperson for the meeting and gave the Closing Remarks by reviewing how well the meeting went and some thoughts on things being backwards.

We then discussed our Summer Meeting schedule and how are booth worked at the Home and Lifestyle show. Then George Nichol as General Evaluator, evaluated our evaluators and went over what we did well and some grow points during the meeting. Keith Stoltz as Table Topics Master gave the award to Keith McCluskie where he told us why his kids don't have friends over. For table topics, Keith Stoltz had us all speak about whatever we wanted first and then he told us what our topic was.

George Nichol introduced our evaluators. Heidi Menzi evaluated Lorna's speech and we did a round table to evaluate Leo's speech. Lorna VanderPloeg's speech "A Day in My Feathers" was very entertaining as she told us what her pet bird (Stella), who is a Caique, sees everyday. Next Leo Brisebois showed us some Negotiating skills in his very informative speech.

Jane Stoltz held the role of Grammarian and she challenged us to use the word "Gobbledy-gook" which means jargon and she went over the history of the word. It was used by everyone at least twice and Wayne Stoltz used it a whopping 55 times. Keith McCluskie held the role of Toast and Timer and he gave our toast to Canada.

I had Lorna VanderPloeg introduce her guest Stella. Then for the Chairperson's Opening Remarks, I told everyone some of my favourite things that are backwards like one of my all time favourite movies (Back to the Future). Sharon Diehl did a great job introducing the theme of the meeting and the chairperson for the evening.

Hope to see everyone at our next regular meeting on Thursday.

Brent