IGNITING SPIRITS

We traveled all over during our Igniters meeting on Tuesday July 21^st. Our toastmaster Elaine started the expedition right at 7:00 PM with the theme worldly travel. The word of the day was travel and our Grammarian Emma introduced the challenge word  - expedition.  

We buckled our seatbelts immediately for our smooth travels over our 1.5 hour expedition. And what an expedition it was! We started with a mentor moment by Jey who spoke about our strong mentoring program in Igniters where he emphasized mentoring fosters growth for both the mentors and the mentees as both parties share and learn while standing shoulder to shoulder.

We then switched gears to listen to Derrick’s icebreaker speech where he regaled us with stories of his childhood in Nova Scotia and how his desire to ski compelled him to move to Calgary where he met his future wife who turned out to also be from Nova Scotia. We also got to hear about how he proposed to his soon to be wife while cycling across Canada in 80 days. 

We were then treated to a speech by our Mentoring Coordinator Mona who spoke about her expeditions with leadership where we learned that having a challenge stirred leadership in her. She was a District Director of District 42, which developed her listening skills, and in turn helped her establish her own counselling business. Skills developed in Toastmasters transfer to our personal and professional lives. A key message she shared is:

Are you showing that you’re listening to the words they express?

Are you hearing their words?

People want to be heard, understood, and validated.

Then we set off on a journey with Table Topics! Our Table Topics Master, Trish, challenged speakers with three adventurous travel questions Jey defended his choice of a window seat as though his life depended on it. His reason? He's hoping to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights someday.

Chamila shared how a quick trip for gas turned into an unexpected expedition after a traffic jam, hailstorm, and a check engine light transformed a simple errand into a repair adventure. Derek recalled a travel mishap in France that ended on a heartwarming note. After leaving his bike outside while searching for a campsite, a kind Frenchman invited him to pitch his tent in his yard instead.

As always, members voted for the Table Topics winner, and this time the honors went to Jey. Congratulations, Jey and may your next window seat come with a dazzling display of the Northern Lights!

Our club is blessed with excellent speech evaluators. First, we had Ali evaluating Derek’s Icebreaker speech , then Jey evaluated Mona’s speech and Marvin was our Table Topics Evaluator. Our General Evaluator was Ksenija. Everyone gave positive and constructive feedback to help participants learn and grow.

We enjoyed traveling via the stories shared and some members even shared photos of their world travels via their zoom backgrounds. We enjoyed Emma’s backgrounds of Amsterdam, Bratislava, Zurich, and London.

Our next meeting is Tuesday July 28 and is in-person at Parkdale Community Association located at  3512 5 Ave NW. All are welcome! We start at 7pm. Emma will be Toastmaster with a theme on beating the heat. We will have a speech from Diane and our Division E Director, Lina, has a special announcement. Come and join in the fun!

VP PR Emma