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Three Club Contests coming soon

1) Online Speech Contest: February 25, 2025 

Contestants will deliver a 5-7 minute speech online. Winners will go on to the online Area contest, the online Division and District contests. Every member is eligible to participate. 

For more information about the online contest, contact Contest Chair, Yvonne; or to volunteer as a judge, contact Chief Judge, Marvin.

2) Two In-person Contests: March 4, 2025

Table Topics. Every member is eligible to participate. Contestants will deliver an impromptu answer to a question in 1-2 minutes. Winners will go on to the in-person contest up to and including District.

International Speech contest. Only members who have complete both Levels1 and 2 in Pathways, or have achieved a DTM may participate. This is the only contest which goes on past District to Regional, then World semi-finals and World finals.

For more information about the In-person contests, contact Contest Chair, Mona; or to volunteer as a judge contact Chief Judge, Marvin.

Four new members inducted

Nandini, our VP membership, led a creative new member induction at the last meeting with Igniters' new members: Luis, Slav, Marci and Olu. 

As she introduced each one, she told us a few facts about them to help us to get to know them. Our members gave them a heartfelt welcome with cheering and clapping and a pledge of encouragement and support.

Nandini, also announced that we now have 36 members in our enthusiastic and vibrant club. Way to go, Igniters!

Igniters is Vibrant and Growing

January 21, 2025 News

Igniters now has 33 vibrant, enthusiastic and fun members!

During the meeting, we found out just how important shoes are when Trish presented her Icebreaker speech. Who knew? Congratulations, Trish!

Nandini led a formal induction in which our members enthusiastically welcomed new member, Barbara.

Photos courtesy of Rebecca

With a big drumroll, Nandini also announced the winners of the Fall Open House contest for bringing guests and new members to the club. Luis generously donated a painting for the prize.

Winners:

First place - Marvin, Second place - Bentley and Third place - Darlene; honorary mention - Ksenija

Our Area Director, Fola and her family dropped in and enjoyed the energy in the meeting. We were delighted to welcome several other guests as well. What a fun meeting!

Laughing with the FunnyBones

On Saturday January 18 2025, three contestants were acclaimed winners of the BattleField of the FunnyBones. The audience laughed and clapped as ten contestants shared their funny stories on a wide range of topics, such as: the value of participating in a contest, solving problems, the dangers of going to a doctor and knowing when to Run!!!

After an afternoon of laughter, it was the audience's turn. They were asked to vote for their top three favourites on their smart phones using Menti.com. Marvin, Molly and our District Director, Daisy, guided the technologically impaired and finally the results were in!

The top warriors were:
1st:     Kuda S. with his speech "Run!!!"
2nd:    Jeff K. with his speech "Ignorance is Bliss"
3rd:     Dave D. with his speech "Problem Solved"

Daisy D42 Director, Dave D, Darlene COG, Kuda, Jeff                                        Jey

 

Photos courtesy of Marvin H. and David W.

Congratulations to all the contestants, including our own Jeff and Jey, and to the organizers of this highly entertaining event. 👏😊

While we waited for results, Nandini spoke about the Circle of Gold role in the upcoming contest season. She invited other members of the COG team, Laura and Darlene, to share their experience and a few of the contestants to speak about the value for them. We were excited to hear that most of the contestants and the audience members have been involved in COG in the past!

Dynamic December!

Dec 17 - A wonderful party of fun, food, and friendship.

Ugly sweaters rocked the evening, with models walking the catwalk. Congrats to Ellen, Rob, and Glen for their winning fashions!

Gifts were unwrapped, Table Topics - members shared why they had the best present! Oh yes! Gifts were stolen :) Lots of fun gifts including a screaming goat! Mona was delighted!

A huge thank you to Diane and Glen for their kindness in hosting. A huge round of applause to welcome Marci as a new Igniter! Happy Holidays Igniters! Each one of you makes our club better. See you in person on Jan. 7.  A great time to work on your goals for the New Year!

Dec 10 - Ellen gave an inspiring Keynote and finished her Level 5 to a standing ovation! Congrats Ellen on your achievement! She inspired us by sharing strategies she had learned as a leader, contestant, and joining Toastmasters! " Let your speech be better than silence - or be silent!" One memorable tip to help in delivering a speech - write your speech, rip it up, and write again. This way you internalize your speech. Let's get ripping and delivering!!

 Nandini VP Membership had a fun induction for new members Emma and Jeremy. The members offered their support and encouragement and cheered for our new members. We learned some fun facts about Jeremy. He can speak Spanish at an intermediate level, backpacked to 10 different countries, and enjoys physics and space. Emma also loves to travel including a European river cruise, lived in Japan and survived an earthquake, and has had several brain surgeries and looking forward to marrying her fiancé. Cant wait to hear more stories!

100 Years Of Toastmasters! District 42 Celebration!

Igniters on Dec 6, celebrated with Toastmasters from many clubs in Calgary at the Royal Taste Chinese Cuisine. Igniters Ali, Marvin, Nandini, Mona, Yvonne, Ksenija, and Jey along with friends Dorothy, Myrna, Dana, and Mary. Over 80 members came to connect, network, and   enjoy an 8 course tasty Chinese meal. 

Igniters were making a splash! Ali helping with audio, Mona (voted by our table) to dance with 5 other lucky Toastmasters to the song by Mrs. Claus aka Molly Hamilton. Marvin shared his passion for TED Talks at the Calgary Advanced Club. 

Daisy the District 42 Director shared her passion for Toastmasters and we all celebrated with delicious cake. The evening had Dave speaking ( a member for 50 yrs), a few dancers, and yes Elvis made an appearance!! Dancing and singing across the stage, Marvin entertained the audience with Jail House Rock!  

Nandini VP Membership

Celebrating Achievements

Pathways achievements

Level 1, Visionary Communications - Chamila 
Level 1, Engaging Humour - Darlene
Level 5, Strategic Relationships - Ali

Reaching Out in D42

Ellen - new member of D42 Dispatch Team
Nandini & Marvin - Pathways Education Team
Fola - Area 6 Director

Turning Pages achievements

Darlene - online presenter for Turning Pages with Kelly Kaur, 

                "Bring Your Book to Life"
              - participated in her first book signing event with Turning Pages

                 Her book Laughter Makes You Stronger, based on her

                Toastmaster speeches, was published in 2024.

Congratulations Igniters!

Humour Tournament a Success

Our final open house in November was the funtastic November 26 Humour Tournament. 

We were delighted to welcome our new member, Emma. Welcome also to the guests who assisted us with roles, applauded enthusiastically and enjoyed the fellowship and the snacks.

Our Tournament Master, Mark led us adroitly through the tournament with an amazing eight humour contestants: Ali, Marvin, Glen, Trevor, Jeff, Jey, Diane and Elaine.

They all had uniquely funny stories to tell. Will we ever forget Marvin crawling through his cat door, or Diane demonstrating the attributes of a perfect outhouse, or Elaine's husband's prosthetic leg sticking out of the pool while they tried to rescue him? Every speaker had a story that tickled our funny bones and left us giggling, chuckling and laughing out loud.

                    And the winners are:

                    1st place - Trevor

                    2nd place - Jeff

                    3rd place - Diane 

All eight contestants gave us a gift of laughter - a royal treat indeed. Congratulations all!