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Fellow Toastmasters,

Twenty members and five guests were present when, for the first time in decades, NPS Toastmasters held a “Backwards Meeting”! As expected, this was hilarious… everything in the room was placed in the reverse position from where it normally resides (lectern, banner, timer, etc.), and things went in reverse from there! President Glenn Tolle opened the meeting by adjourning it, and then calling on guests. He then thanked backward-dressed Robin Walker for being the Toastmaster of the Day (see photos). Robin started by calling on Vote Counter Karen Woodson who announced the “results”, and her prognostications were probably pretty close to what might have been had we actually voted. (It would have been neat to start with a can full of completed ballots, pulling them out one-by-one as the can went around the room, but I guess that would have been too hard!) And so it went… Ah Counter, Grammarian, Evaluators, Speakers, and Table Topics in that order. Of course, we had to play the role… if the Grammarian mentioned something we said, then we had to say it when our turn came! Perhaps the funniest incident occurred when General Evaluator Brian Anderson said that Evaluator Glenn Tolle shouldn’t speak in such a monotone…. When Glenn spoke, he maintained a monotone only with extreme effort… I thought he was going to explode!

The speakers went along with the backwards theme by tailoring their speeches to the evaluations they had received beforehand. Peter Blouin presented three ways to lower automobile insurance premiums and got in his plugs for Notre Dame. Ned Powley recreated the famous 1984 Macintosh super-bowl commercial for us, and Luke Lazzari (even giving his speech backwards, and it still made sense!) spoke about dog training in a condominium.

Table Topics was better yet - the participants spoke for two minutes on a subject of their own choosing, and Table Topics Master Shenequa Mitchell then had to figure out the topic! Starting out was Warner Howser, who spoke on - you guessed it - taxes! As did those who followed.

Thanks to VPE Robin Walker for his thorough and innovative efforts at a successful backwards meeting!

Special note: Our guests included Past Area Governor Rachelle Onishi, plus a very special returning past member - Cantemir “Charlie” Ahciarliu, CTM, who is a LT Colonel in the Romanian Air Force. A former international student at NPS, Charlie was a member of NPS Toastmasters from May 2002 - March 2004, and was visiting the U.S. with his family. Thanks for coming back to see us, Charlie!

For better listening, thinking and speaking,

Carl Thormeyer, DTM
Club Historian

Here is Robin in his DoMT mode, taken by our fearless and intrepid leader Glenn Tolle. You can view other pictures from the meeting here.