April 26, 2012 Theme: Everything Backwards

 A lot of fun and sustained laughter was had at this meeting as a result of the backwards theme. One member even had his shirt on backwards. Chairperson Keith McCluskie adjourned the meeting promptly at 7:15 p.m.  Heidi was General Evaluator and noted that tonight's speakers all spoke with confidence and lots of descriptive words.  Jill gave the Timers Report and noted that some of roles took hours to complete!  Audrey provided the Grammarian's Report and advised that members used the word of the evening a record 83 times.  Keith Stoltz announced that Val was the winner of Table Topics, much to Val's surprise.  Vern provided the Inspirational Quote for the evening and read a touching poem called "Crabby Old Man".
 
George evaluated Leo's speech, noting that Leo started out very quiet but ended up loud and aggressive.  He commented on the dance steps that Leo did on the way back to his seat after his speech.  Jane evaluated Tony's speech and said it was a very serious speech and she noted that he tripped on the way up to the lectern.  She said he used lots of exaggerated gestures he also used the word of the day too many times in his speech.  Jane was surprised that Tony sang "Tip Toe Through The Tulips" on his way back to his seat.  Sharon evaluated Val's speech stating that Val walked around the room and grabbed at the shirts of members of the audience while speaking.  She noted that Val had lots of sustained eye contact and had to keep her notes in her hand when speaking.
 
Keith Stoltz handled Table Topics and let each member speak for one minute on any topic they chose.  Then he told them what their assigned topic was.  Needless to say, the speeches varied greatly from the topics assigned by Keith.
 
Leo presented his Educational Module called Asserting Yourself Effectively and provided a handout.  Audrey assisted him with role-playing and Leo tried to assertively work with Audrey to fix a problem but ended up telling her she was going to do things his way!  Tony did his 5th speech on gestures.  It was called Sign Language and he demonstrated many of the common day-to-day signs that people use.  He tripped on the way up to the lectern and fell into Keith McCluskie's arms.  Tony also demonstrated awesome singing skills on his way back to his seat.  Val did her 8th speech with the goal being to persuade the audience to agree with her point of view.  Her speech was titled It's Time To Take a Stand and she did her speech backwards starting with the conclusion and ending with the introduction.
 
Jill provided the Toast to Canada and toasted all of the farmers who are now waiting for rain.  John read "The Backwards Poem" both backwards and forwards. Audrey said the word of the evening was "And" and "DNA".  She said "and" is a conjunction which is a connecting word between two sentences.  She told members what "DNA" stands for but no one could repeat it.  Jill accurately recorded the laughs for the evening at an astounding 159 laughs.  George provided Joke of the Day about an e-mail that a husband sent to his wife that went to the wrong address and was received by a widow who was astonished at what she thought was an e-mail from her dead husband.  Keith handled agenda changes.  New member inductions were postponed until May 10th.  Keith provided his Chairman's Welcome and then Sharon called the meeting to order at approximately 9:00 p.m.