The Theme is .... I can't Remember! ;)

Toastmaster extraordinaire, John Armstrong lead us through a funfilled Friday which was graced by thirteen members and four guests, including the President and VPE of the Rainbow TM Club of San Francisco who visited to share the NPS experience. John's theme of remembering and forgetting tied the meeting together beautifully as best as I can remember - that is why we have the video.
Table topics was won by Tonya Holloway who doubled as Best Evaluator - presented by GE Arnie Buss.
Elizabeth Mitchell gave a touching and humorous #7 speech prompted by her forthcoming 20th high school reunion. Carl Thormeyer presented his annual rendition of Lectern ettiquette - essentially what to do and not to do when on center stage. Fred Sadler presented three personal stories for his #3 speech from the advanced manual "Humorously Speaking" for which he won Best Speaker. You've got to see the ending to see - "did he really do that?"

Glenn Woodson and Arnie Buss win NPS Oscars!

Glenn Woodson and Arnie Buss are club contest winners!
Our annual Table TopicTable topics contestants responded to Contest Chair Art Testani's sound and light show with these answers -

Elie Ishag:


Glenn Woodson was voted the winner of the Table Topics contest:


Fred Sadler came in second:


And here is the slide show that the table topics contestants watched and responded:


International Speech Contest Chair Fred Sadler orchestrated these three outstanding renditions-

John Armstrong gave his #9 CC Manual Speech - California Driving:


Second place went to Glenn Woodson, Fear:


The "oscar" went to Arnie Buss for Are We Here Yet?

Carl Thormeyer ably presided over both contests as Chief Judge.

Two new members were voted in and inducted, Natasha Shilova and Rick Pati:

NPS TM Club Anniversary

Friday the 13th saw TMOD and DTM Carl Thormeyer lead 14 members and 4 guests in a recognition of the 38th anniversary of NPS Toastmasters Club #2032, which was chartered on 16 February 1971. Although not a charter member, Carl was physically present at the charter presentation dinner in the LaNovia room in Herrmann Hall on 25 February of that year. This day, 38 years later, Carl spoke about the club history as one of the featured speakers. (Note that an updated club history is also posted on our Web site under "Club Documents".)

There were fewer attendees on Friday due to several members volunteering at the AT&T Pro-Am tournament in Pebble Beach, but it was a great meeting nonetheless!

Cathy Lee's Opening Remark consisted of a long scroll of printouts about our TMOD whom she had "googled"!




David Perez led an outstanding Table Topics session for four participants. New member Craig won both "Best Table Topics" and "Most Improved":




Our other speaker, Christina Hicks, gave a funny and creative speech from "The Entertaining Speaker" advanced manual entitled "The Worst Invention" - which in her mind is the autoflush toilet! Her efforts - a must see on this week's blog - earned her "Best Speaker":



Christina was ably evaluated by Elizabeth Mitchell:



Carl Thormeyer's speech on the history of NPS Toastmasters:

The History of NPS Toastmasters Part I:



The History of NPS Toastmasters Part II:


General Evaluator Fred Sadler awarded "Best Evaluator" to Tito DeJesus, for his insightful evaluation of Carl Thormeyer's speech from the Entertaining Speaker manual. Tito's evaluation:


One of the guests was former Toastmaster (from another club) Linda Bittner, who works at NPS. Linda is looking for volunteers to introduce speakers at the upcoming Radio Fest conference on March 7-8. Let Fred or Carl know if you are interested.

Remember - Club International Speaking and Table Topic Contests will be held at our next meeting, February 20, 2009

Here Comes the Judge!

With 18 members and three guests present, "Judge" Emilie Staryak presided over a spirited meeting modeled after a court room proceding with each functionary given an alternate title in "law-speak". This beautifuly organized event was full of excitement in spite of the rain outside our Glasgow 389 home.


Craig, our newest member ably counted the votes and awarded the trophies.


Art Testani won Best Table Topics for this response to a question from TT MasterTito DeJesus:


Sweeping Best Speaker and Most Improved Speaker honors was Club Sgt - at - Arms Antonio Valle who delivered a moving Icebreaker entitled, My First:


Joe Tacker's evaluation of Tony's Icebreaker:


Club Past President, Angi Anderson - visiting from Santa Barbara - gave a beautifully crafted speech #4 in the advanced manual "Humorously Speaking," Moving On with Grace and with as Little Sobbing as Possible:


Cathy Lee won Best Evaluator from GE Karen Woodson for her evaluation of Angi's speech:


Thanks to Acting Videographer Glenn Woodson!