A Spooky Good Time at the Meeting

Nandini, our Toastmaster, didn't let our meeting be hijacked by pirates unless we needed to fill the role of grammarian or Ah-counter.  Costumes were encouraged, but not required, and some were udderly entertaining, especially during Table Topics thanks to Frode.  We celebrated Halloween as the meeting theme and it was a spooky good time!

CC#6 My Vegas Vacation

Anne went to Las Vegas and told us about it.  There were death defying magic shows and late night Black Jack games.  The fireworks on New Years Eve were spectacular to watch with friends to celebrate the beginning of the year ahead of us with the same amount of new adventures, fun and friendship that we had during the trip.









We were delighted to have Division J Director Poorna visit us. She came to give the engraved Division J Table Topics Trophy. She also gave an inspirational speech about being a Toastmaster in Dubai and attending other Conferences in the Middle East. It is always great to have guest speakers share their ideas and passions! Thanks for your encouraging words about the friendly, fun, and creative meetings at Igniters!

Igniters 10th anniversary an amazing success.

The organizing committee for Igniters organized a fantastic 10th anniversary celebration this past week. We had people from many different nearby clubs join us for the celebration. Including: Our sister club Miracles, Literally Speaking, SAIT Sayers, Smart Speakers, CTI Techtalkers, Speakmasters and To The Point.

On entry, our guests entered a door prize draw, enjoyed a slideshow, and well organized potluck. A silent auction was planned with many items up for bid, and attendees had an opportunity to bid. Of course there were a lot of chances for camaraderie and socializing.

Mona and Diane long-term Igniters members started the festivities, complete with boas and dancing.  The founding members of Igniters were introduced along with an explanation of some of the many places that the club has met over the years. Our toastmaster Marvin continued the fun by sharing past highlights. He organized this event with his High Performance Leadership team. 

Division Governor Doris spoke about her experiences with Igniters and some of the more long term members of the club. She then presented a Competent Communicator ribbon to Stephen, who had completed his first ten speeches for our tenth anniversary. Stephen's CC also gave us a perfect triad with our club completing all ten of our goals for the year as a result. Congratulations Stephen!

Charter Member Anthony then took the lecturn and led us in a very motivational talk about the power of an idea when you have many people to help bring it to life. Anthony had us all participating and clapping as he married his speaking skills with his singing.

Our club president Nandini, then led us in a toast to some past and current members -- and a tribute for Jane a charter member who had recently passed away in March. Jane had written a special message to honor Igniters on their anniversary. Keith Past District Governor and past member had written a poignant message to honor members and his special memories of Igniters. Thanks to all who sent messages!

Bob who is the longest term member of Miracles, spoke next about the impact that Toastmasters has had on his life. Bob is now no longer afraid to speak in public and feels more confident as a result. Pat (past Igniter Member) took the lecturn next and shared stories about fond memories of joining Igniters, meeting members, and giving Table Topics.

Glen led us in a fun table topics session which featured several guests and past members. All of our speakers explained the value of toastmasters to them. We were all very inspired.

We finished the evening by lighting the candles on a big chocolate cake and gathering around for a great group photo.

Congratulations to all who contributed to make this evening such a success!

Stretch your Skills!

I attended the J41 Evaluation and International speech contest at SAIT.  If you didn't attend you missed out on a very enjoyable event. It was great having Glen, Marvin and Margaret there Igniting Spirits in their contest roles.

Congratulations to Nandini our Club President, who won the International speech contest. She presented poised (with her beautiful smile) and confident.  She owned the stage and the passion flowed throughout her speech about - Not Just Yet! There were 5 other contestants who did really well too, but I knew Nandini was the winner. Way to go girl!

Way to Go!  Chris G. our VP of Public Relations, who was flashing a suntan from his trip to California, presented his Evaluation for the test speaker. The test speaker only joined Toastmasters four months ago - brave soul.  Chris did a very good job - outlining the method of his evaluation and shared strengths and helpful tips for the speaker to improve. He said he was very nervous but he didn't appear to be. He came in 3rd out of 6 Evaluators. Congratulations Chris!

It is always nice to sit back and enjoy others speaking.  I sat beside two contestants(whom I didn't know were speaking)and they didn't appear the least bit nervous. I was surprised when they got up and spoke. Toastmasters can really help members learn ways to be more confident. Practice makes perfect!

You will have to plan to attend next time. There are many opportunities for contestants, judges, and contest official to keep learning. Division J Contest is on April 10. Go Igniters!

Marion
 

Luck of the Irish at Igniters!

 

Our St. Patrick's meeting on March 17 was very "festive". Marion our Toastmaster for the evening, started out with some interesting history regarding the holiday and that was followed up by two awesome speeches by Mona from the entertaining manual and Nandini was getting helpful feedback from the members.

 

Green was definitely the lucky color for the night with Margaret winning the best dressed prize! A supply of green vegetables!

Tip: from our VP Education Daryl. Your first speech or IceBreaker Speech is all about introducing yourself to your Toastmaster's club, it can be a personal, general or humorous story but it is yours.

The main point is structure developing an opening, body and close. Maybe 3 main points for the body, a dramatic opening and something we can take away as members to summarize your points and a call to action.

 

Let's all wish Nandini  and Chris G luck in the upcoming J41 Area Contest.

 

Bren

 

Igniters Sizzle This Week!

You could feel the energy! Great turnout! Marion VP of Membership - inducted three new members Ayanna, Margaret, and Mark in a warm and friendly ceremony. Igniters pledged their support to help our new members grow!

Two more members had a great time and are also joining! Diane as Toastmaster radiated warmth, smiles, and energy. Members had fun with her theme on authors and actors. The members couldn't wait to share their favorite books made into movies. Bren gave a heartwarming tribute to Robin Williams.

Guest speaker Asghar from Westhills Toastmasters shared "My Recipe for Peace" through the 3 P's - Plan, Play, Persist. Who knew we would find the recipe for peace tonight at Igniters?!

Creative Marvin brought props and new members sizzled sharing 1 - 2 minute impromptu speeches. Bren picked the stuffed dog and gave a touching story. Silvia wore colorful leis and  shared her love of dance. Cat wore a sports helmet and creatively related to being a nurse. Margaret used a lantern  as mediation lights up the soul. Newest member Anne used a magnifying glass to share her passion for geocaching and looking for treasure.

This week - a twist with two evaluators giving them feedback. Chris G gave helpful tips on their introduction, body, and conclusion. Michel gave tips on delivery on body language and movement. Thanks Bob for visiting from Westhills and sharing helpful tips. Michael had two teams to see who were the better listeners! Imagine leaders who could listen better?!! Looking for a fun place to work on your goals and learn. Igniters is the place to be!

This week's meeting was a Barn Burner.

We had four speakers to start the Barn Burning at this week's Igniters Meeting. The first speech came from Marion who delivered her Competent Communicator speech #10 to earn her CC! Next up was Michel who delivered his first project toward his ACB. Nandini was next with a project from her ACB manual to "fan the flames" a bit more and congratulate Marion on her accomplishment.

We were very happy to have a full house this week and you could feel the excitement in the room from the moment you walked in. We were very happy to have 6 guests join us this week! We took a short break to enjoy some delicious cake that was baked for us by Mona. Thanks Mona for the delicious treat!

Immediately after our short break we got back into the prepared speeches with another Competent Communicator speech number 10 from our guest speaker Jennifer who joined us from the Westhills Club.

The fire just kept building as we moved into our evaluation portion of the meeting. Our General Evaluator Chris G. lead us into four great evaluations led by four very experienced Toastmasters. First up was Glen evaluating Marion's speech, Chris C. took the lectern next to evaluate Michel. Iris (Guest Evaluator) gave a very effective evaluation of Nandini's speech by also echoing Nandini's opening. Our last evaluator Mona evaluated Jennifer's speech. Since the theme of this meeting was evaluations, we held a contest for the best evaluator. Mona and Iris received an equal number of votes to make a tie in the evaluation "contest" for the week. Adam W. our area governor joined us and led us as our Quizmaster at the end of the meeting.

Congratulations to all of the participants who helped to make this week's meeting such a great success. The fires are going to just keep burning more brightly in the weeks to come. We are going to continue to see great turnouts and excitement at every meeting!

You don't want to miss any of it!

Igniters group for our Feb 3rd meeting.

Igniters gather around the Toastmaster banner at our February 3rd. meeting. We were very fortunate to have 3 guests in attendance tonight!

Way to go Igniters.

Igniters / Miracles joint meeting a Great Success.

Igniters and Miracles enjoyed another evening of camaraderie. We held our second joint meeting of the year, lead by Michael. The roles were split between the two clubs with many of us stepping up to make this a great meeting.

Glen lead us in table topics with a twist. Each speaker was required to begin and end his/her speech with a word that began with the letter M.

We then had a short break where we had a chance to mix and mingle -- and of course we were able to eat more delicious food!

After our break we moved into the prepared speech portion of the meeting with two Igniters and one member of Miracles taking to the stage.

Our meeting ended with Michael from Igniters reminding us that no matter if we reached our personal best tonight, we showed up and gave it our best shot!

Our two clubs always have a fantastic evening together. I believe that we have similar feeling clubs and above all we are all very supportive.

Thanks Miracles for hosting a fantastic night of camaraderie once again. You can tell by the smiles on the faces of our members that it was a success.

Igniters and Miracles are holding a special joint meeting January 20th!

Tuesday January 20th, 2015
2035 - 26A Street SW

Meeting will be held in the Unity Church

Potluck starts at 6:30 PM

Come Join us for an amazing evening of camaraderie.

Igniters Christmas Party 2014!

Igniters gathered at Marion's home (VP of Membership) for our yearly Christmas Party. Everyone brought pot luck items. Marion went out of her way and made us all delicious lasagna, punch, deserts and salad. Thanks so much for all the work you went to to provide us with a great environment for our party Marion!

We finished the evening with a White Elephant gift exchange. In an interesting twist we were all required to participate in a round of table topics before we could choose a gift. Marvin and Nandini also brought a series of sticky notes for our backs and we were required to try to deduce who we were by asking questions of each other.

All in all I believe everyone enjoyed a fantastic evening together. We will enjoy a short break and then we will reconvene in January.

Igniters and Miracles enjoy another fantastic joint meeting!

Igniters and Miracles enjoyed a fantastic joint meeting this week.

Toastmaster Marvin led us in an evening filled with three prepared speeches and an educational session. A rousing table topics session followed. Our evaluators provided some fantastic feedback to help all of our members grow.

The linchpin of our meeting was a fantastic potluck where we were all able to gather and mingle. We are looking forward to many more meetings with our sister club Miracles.

Amazing meeting August 19th 2014.

Igniters had a very busy and successful meeting on the 19th! We inducted 4 new members and celebrated two birthdays this month, as well as recognizomg Dianne for her hard work completing her Advanced Communicator Gold! We celebrated together with some home made muffins filled with cream cheese and cherries.

We are looking forward to celebrating each other's achievements this week during our annual joint meeting with Miracles Toastmaster Club. Please come and join us for a pot luck and camaraderie on August 26, 2014 at 6:30 PM.

Igniters Summer Open House a smashing success.

Our open house was a great success!

We included 16 members and guests in an evening of inspiration led by our guest speaker Iris. Iris encouraged us all to climb aboard the Toastmasters train by convincing us all of the benefits of Toastmasters.

Our Igniters speaker Daryl spoke about how technology, Toastmasters, and people relate.

Our past president Marvin let us in a rousing Table Topics session, we were fortunate to have two of our guests take part as speakers! Our Toastmaster Chris presented awards and passed out door prizes that were  donated by our members. Nandini, our president closed the meeting by inviting comments from our members, and leaving us with an inspirational quote.

We also enjoyed some commaraderie over a potluck.

Year End Celebration a great success.

Igniters enjoyed time together tonight for camaraderie and to celebrate each other's accomplishments over the past year. We started out the evening with a delicious potluck. Outgoing president Marvin led us in an Awards night celebration. Thanks Marvin and your helpers for putting on such a great night!

Keep an eye on the blog over the next couple of weeks as we share details about the awards and our accomplishments.

Come one, Come all to Igniters open house!

Igniters Toastmasters will be hosting an open house at the Nifty Fifties Hall at the Parkdale Community Center on July 15, 2014 6:30-8:30 pm.

We plan to have guest speakers, a table topics session and of course ample time for a potluck and some camaraderie.

Please mark your calendars and save the date!

Look at these Lucky Igniters Leprachauns!

Igniters wear green to show their St. Patrick's Day Spirit in fine form! Our Toastmaster for the evening Mona wore her best brilliant green tie.

Nights like these show why we have such a vibrant club. Thanks to all who went the extra mile to make this a fun night!

Back Row : Gio, Glenn
Center : Marion, Marvin, Nandini, John, Mona, Diane, Adam
Front : Chris

Amazing joint meeting between Igniters and Miracles Toastmasters.

On Tuesday January 14th. Igniters and Miracles Toastmasters enjoyed a joint meeting at the Unity Church. Our evening matched the word of the day - Camaraderie!

After enjoying a pot luck meal we quickly got down to business. Four very passionate Table Topics speakers got us off to a great start!

Our intermission was filled with some Didgeridoo music graciously supplied Trevor from Miracles TM.

Prepared speeches were next on the agenda followed but a great chance for everyone to rekindle old relationships as well as to forge new ones!

We also welcomed Nicholas from Bedstone Olympics Toastmasters club and a couple of guests into our fold.

I hope we will be able to make this joint meeting a yearly event.