Monday, July 27, 2015

Igniting Spirits - July 21

Our club banner with it's many awards is a great centerpiece to circle around for a picture.
Once aga in we had a large group in attendance for our July 21 meeting with Marion, our VP of Membership, acting as Toastmaster.  We had excellent participation with three speeches, table topics ,and  a joke of the day. 
The three evaluators presented their views of each speech with skill and the general evaluator, Nandini , shared her thoughts with enthusiasm.  Reports from the ah-counter, grammarian and timer were followed by Ayanna leading us though the Quizmasters questions. Everyone eagerly participated.

Friday, July 17, 2015

Happy Birthday Chris

Congratulations to our new President, Chris for celebrating his birthday with us. 

We had a large group of twenty plus members and guests to chat about "summer food" and even some discussion about our favorite cool down drinks during this past heat wave.   Mark did an tremendous job as Toastmaster, keeping us on task and time, and adding humour throughout the July 14 meeting.

Welcome to Three New Memebers

Marion arranged the new members induction with Ayanna presenting a short history about Marmadou, George,  and Vic and Marion presenting the pledges for new and old members to agree.

We are excited to have three new members with varying backgrounds to add interesting speeches to our agendas.  We look forward to their Ice Breaker presentations.

Either/Or Method of Table Topics

Glen lead us through a excellent table topics as he explained his conception of an either/or demonstration with a three part answer. Chris G. talked on "ice cream or popsicles" , Mona discussed "spit or don't spit watermelon seeds, Chris C had to decide between "handles or no handles on corn on the cob" and last but not least we had Marvin tell us his preference between "fruit smoothies and frozen yogurt." We had excellent answers, whether truthful or not, the idea was to pick a side and validate your choice.  Our four experienced members did a superior job of showing us Table Topics at it best.

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Table Topics - A Blast From The Past

We enjoyed the presentation that were given after speakers chose a prop from the bag that Michel kept hidden until Laura, Lisa and Edward picked them, for Table Topics.  The speakers were asked to describe their pick as if they were talking to a five year old. Although most of us have used a floppy disk, VHS tape, and a cassette tape,  it was fun to look back to the 80's and remember.  Michel is holding a Walkman that remained in the bag.

New Member Induction

Marion, our VP of Membership, lead us through the induction of two new members, Lisa and Laura.  She also welcomed Sterling back to Igniters as he has been away.  It is terrific to watch our club grow in numbers. 
We had a rip-roaring meeting on July 7, 2015 as we celebrated with a Stampede Theme.  Many members dressed the part with hats and boots as we brought some country to the Parkdale Community Centre.  Sheriff Stephen did an excellent job keeping the cowpokes on schedule and filling in interesting Stampde trivia throughout.  Introductions moved around the room with talk about our favorite parts of the Calgary Stampede and I was amazed how often food was mentioned.  I was nice to have our guests, Mamadou, Kenneth and Jasmine participate and share their feedback on us.
 
 JianLi and Julie entertained us with well prepared speeches, How I Came To Be Here (CC#1) and Plan For Your Future (CC#2) respectively. 
 
Marion did an excellent job of our two new member inductions.  I am pleased to say that Igniters has received a  Talk up Toastmasters ribbon for achieving 5 new member in Feb & March 2015. Come for a visit as we have even more guests who have joined as they see the value of Toastmasters!
 
We rounded out our meeting with excellent evaluations and reports from our volunteers.
 
 YaHoo see you next week. 
 

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Meet Our Two New Competent Communicators

Way to go Stephen and Marion! District 42 (AB & Sask) recognized them for achieving their Competent Communicator. This is the first manual of ten speeches. Thanks to Nandini for an awesome presentation explaining their successes  and what new-comers need to do to achieve this accomplishment.