Guests are always welcome! Friendly support. Our weekly meetings alternate between Zoom and In person at: Parkdale Nifty Fifties - 3512 5 Ave NW. ** Please contact us for zoom link first at info@igniterstm.ca.
Every Tuesday Night, 7-8:30pm.
Zoom Meetings -Sep 15, Sep 29, Oct 13, Oct 27, Nov 10, Nov 24, Dec 8, Dec 22.
In Person Meetings - Sep 8, Sep 22, Oct 6, Oct 20, Nov 3, Nov 17, Dec1, Dec 15.
What do you get when you put Toastmasters together, divide everyone into groups, ask some important questions and add cinnamon buns?
Once a year, we pause our regular meeting routine and ask
What are we doing well? What could we do better? And what makes Igniters such an amazing club?
This year, our members had plenty to say!
Welcome to our new Igniters Yousef, Em, Nathan and terrific Tyler is back! A huge appreciation to all our members who have renewed.
President Yvonne led our Moments of Truth, with our VP Education Trevor helping organize a clear agenda.
Members split into groups and tackled six key areas:
1. First Impressions
2. Membership Orientation
3. Fellowship and Variety
4. Program Planning and Meeting Organization
5. Membership Strength
6. Achievement Recognition
Each group discussed what we're doing well, where we could improve, and how we can make Igniters even stronger.
Then everyone came together to share their ideas. There were plenty of suggestions and more than a few we should definitely do that!
Yvonne followed up the next day with a summary. The executive team will add action items to our Club Success Program and review feedback at executive meetings. A great discussion is even better when it leads to action!
Stepping Up and Stepping Forward
After a bit of a speaking break, she stepped back up and delivered a strong Keynote about immunity and helping others, earning credit for Level 5 in Pathways: Prepare to Speak Professionally.
She's now preparing for a Keynote in front of 100 people in October, with helpful feedback from Nandini who offered her suggestions on how to connect with a bigger audience. Feedback from the members will build her confidence.
Igniters - a safe place to Try it. Get feedback. Improve. Then take the next leap.
Looking Ahead
Our Division G Director Ali also shared exciting news! The Spring Conference will be in Calgary, featuring the International Speech and Evaluation Contests.
And, of course, great ideas are even better with snacks.
A productive evening? Absolutely. A thoughtful evening? Definitely. A cinnamon-bun evening from Elaine? Even better!
At Igniters: we learn, we support, we celebrate and we keep making a great club even better.
Nandini
VP PR Committee
You might
recall a blog post on August 19, 2026 announcing that 2 members of Igniters
were announced as Area Of The Year award winners. To refresh your memory Ali was
Toastmaster of the year and Nandini was Public Relations of the Year. I didn’t
know at that time that Diane was also selected as Area Director Of The Year.
Igniters therefore had 3 members that advanced to the next stage, Division E.
And low and behold, all three of our amazing members were selected as Division E
Of The Year award winners!
Division E
Toastmaster Of The Year: Ali
Division E
Public Relations Of The Year: Nandini
Division E Area Director Of The Year: Diane
We look
forward to cheering them on at the District 42 Of The Year Awards on October 3.
Emma VP PR
We’ve all
been to an event or work meeting that involved Icebreakers. These are usually
silly games to get you interacting with
people so you can network or develop a working relationship. I even went
to a dating event once that started with an Icebreaker game. It was interesting
to see who was more interested in completing the game versus connecting with
other attendees.
Your
speaking journey in Toastmasters begins with the Icebreaker speech, which is
the first Pathways project where you deliver a 4-6 minute speech in front of
your club members. The best part is knowing the subject of the speech – YOU!
You do need to narrow it down to fit within the timeframe, but you get to
choose what you share, whether it’s about your childhood, family, hobbies,
education, career, why you joined Toastmasters, or some mix of what you would
like others to know about you. Your Pathways module will help you to organize
an effective speech with an intriguing introduction, engaging body, and
compelling conclusion.
During our
most recent in-person meeting, Tamil delivered his Icebreaker speech titled “One
more step.”. He sprinkled humor throughout his personal stories about family,
education, and his best year yet. Congratulations Tamil! I am looking forward
to more of your speeches!
If you’re interested in improving your communication skills, come visit us at Igniters as a guest to see if you would like to join us as a member to develop your skills. Our next meeting is on zoom on Tuesday Sep 15, 2026, 7-8:30pm. Please email us at info@igniterstm.ca to get the zoom look. We look forward to meeting and eventually helping you deliver your Icebreaker speech!
Emma VP PR
Who says you can't have fun while developing your communication and leadership skills? Certainly not Igniters. During our last zoom meeting, we held a games night and fun was definitely had! Hosted by our Toastmaster (Game Show Host) Nandini, we learned and laughed!
We still stuck to the tenets of Toastmasters with a prepared speech by Ali, fun table topics by Marvin, evaluations and twists on supporting roles such as Grammarian and Ah/Um Counter.
We certainly had fun practicing facial expressions, as we know that face and
visual cues have power. Here's a few moments caught on camera:
Jey - reaction after stepping in something unexpected
and Marvin - big smile after winning the lottery.
Elaine did an excellent rendition of a pirate while answering the table topics question "What makes for a great weekend, as a pirate?"
Our Grammarian Chamila had us saluting rather than waving our hands when the Word of the Day, Spontaneous or Challenge Word, Tranquility, were used. Our Ah/Um Counter, Emma, incentivized us with a pretend $100 jackpot where every filler word used reduced the jackpot by $5. Our remarkable members finished the meeting with the $100 in tact by mastering the art of the pause rather than using wasteful filler words (ah, um, so, like, ya know).
Overall, we had fun as can be seen by our group pic.
If you would like to have some fun while improving your communication and leadership skills, Igniters is the place for you! Join us at our next in-person
meeting on Tuesday Sep 8, 7-8:30pm. The location is the Parkdale Community
Centre located at 3512 5 Ave NW.
VP PR Emma
Celebrate good times, come on!
(Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on!
(Let's celebrate)
I know you know this song by Kool & the gang so hum along with me. At Igniters,
we view celebrating members as an important and fun part of Toastmasters. Recently
we’ve had a lot of reasons to celebrate. During our August 25th in-person
meeting, we celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, and icebreaker speeches.
Yvonne’s
birthday was August 25
Marvin’s
birthday was August 20
Mona’s
birthday was August 18.
Nandini
delivered an Icebreaker speech in her new path, Presentation Mastery, where we
learned we all have a little lion within us – ROAR!
2 of our
members celebrated 10 years with Toastmasters – Ksenija and Yvonne. Both have
been active members within our club, taking on meeting roles, delivering
speeches, and being Club Officers. Yvonne is our current President and Ksenija
is Treasurer. Both have also been active outside the club through roles such as
Area Director.
The celebrations actually began a few days earlier when 4 Igniters (Nandini, Marvin, Emma, and Ali) attended the in-person Division E Leadership Training on August 22 hosted by our Division E Director, Lina.
The training was my first event as part of our new District. District 208 came into existence on July 1, 2026, and encompasses all of Alberta and Montana. Unfortunately, we said good by to our Saskatchewan Toastmasters but hopefully our paths will continue to cross occasionally.
The training kicked off with speaker Val, sharing how great clubs don’t happen by accident. Instead, they participate in key activities such as the living club success plan, holding moments of truth, and using the Distinguished Club Program, DCP to measure your club’s health. By all accounts Igniters is a healthy club. We are about to submit our Club Success Plan ahead of schedule, have held a Moments of Truth session and earned 3 DCP points already with 24 members and multiple guests recently.
Then we
broke into our individual club officer sessions. I learned and made connections
in the VPPR session lead by Vesna, while Nandini lead the VP Membership
training with Marvin’s assistance and Ali lead the VP Education session. Things
were learned, connections were made, and fun was had.
Toastmasters
is not only a place to learn communication and leadership skills. It’s also a
place where friends celebrate the good times.
Celebrate good times, come on!
(Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on!
(Let's celebrate)
Come celebrate with us at our next meeting, which is on zoom
on Tuesday September 1, 7-8:30pm. Nandini is our Toastmaster and she is hosting
a fun games night. Email our club at info@igniterstm.ca
to get the zoom link. I hope to see you there!
Recognition is an important part of Toastmasters. Recently our Past E6 Area Director, Diane, shared some exciting recognition news with our club.
The OF
THE YEAR awards, referred to as our “OTY’s”, include Rookie,
Public Relations, and Toastmaster. District 42 OF THE YEAR awards recognize our
hard-working leaders’ dedication, commitment, enthusiasm and service from July
1st – June 30th each year.
Past Presidents lead the nomination committee in each club.
In June this
year, 3 of our outstanding Igniters members were awarded the club OTY awards
for 2025/26:
·
Nora: Rookie OTY
·
Nandini: Public Relations OTY
·
Ali: Toastmaster OTY
These 3
nominations were then forwarded to the Area E6 Director, Diane, for nomination
at the Area Level. Four TM clubs comprise Area E6, and all the nominations
received from the 4 clubs were rigorously reviewed by Diane and her Committee.
At our
meeting on August 11, Diane was thrilled to announce that 2 exceptional
Igniters members are winners of these Area E6 OTY awards:
·
Nandini: PR OTY
·
Ali: Toastmaster OTY
These
winning nominations have been forwarded to Division E for nomination at the
Division Level.
On Saturday,
September 12 at 10 am, Division D and E will be hosting an online OTY
award presentation. Mark your calendars now and plan to attend to support
Nandini and Ali in moving forward to the Division Level!
We have such a great club full of members that actively participate in their and other members' development. These OTY winners definitely brought their development and contributions to our club. Congratulations all around!!
Emma VP PR
