It was a
sweltering 28C day on Tuesday July 28th when Igniters held our in-person
meeting at Parkdale Community Association. We were honoured to have our Division
E Director Lina Liu visit our club and her feedback was that she’s always
learning and laughing when she visits Igniters. Tonight was no exception. We
learned ways to beat the heat, how to be a blogger and we laughed through table
topics. I know I left the meeting feeling energized. Did you?
Emma was our toastmaster. A perk of being Toastmaster is that you select the meeting theme and Emma used it to find ideas how to beat the heat. The Question of the day was What is your best suggestion for how to beat the heat at home. The word of the day was sweltering. The challenge-word of the day introduced by our Grammarian Ksenija was stuffy. We were blessed on this sweltering and stuffy day that the air was running cool in our meeting room, so it was cooler in the room than outside, which made for a pleasant evening especially for those of us not coping well with the heat. I for one valued not sweltering for an hour and a half in a stuffy room. In fact, some of us toyed with the idea of bringing sleeping bags and pillows to sleep there that night. Spoiler alert: None of us slept there that night but we did enjoy the hour and a half that we were in our meeting, not sweltering in a stuffy room.
Our members did not disappoint and I learned a few things beyond the typical methods of run the AC despite the electricity cost, close blinds and windows during the day and open at night, plant trees outside windows, choose clothing wisely, go to the basement if you have one, use lots of fans, and drink cold libations. The creative minds suggested putting your head in the freezer, putting an ice pack on your head, opening apartment door to hallway when board members aren’t paying attention, and heading out of your back door onto the deck.
Here I am putting the back deck suggestion into play. This is my set-up on my 3rd floor condo deck where I conveniently have trees on the other side of the deck. It is cooler outside than it is inside my condo. My husband set me up on his laptop and here I sit with the wind blowing while typing this blog outside instead of inside in my stuffy, sweltering den.
Our speaker tonight was Diane, DTM who is a long-standing toastmaster who likes to challenge herself to keep growing. Her speech on Tuesday was her level 4 project Write a compelling blog from the Effective Coaching Pathway. By completing her speech, she completed her Level 4 in Effective Coaching.! Congratulations Diane!!! The speech was titled “I Am a Blogger” We learned a lot from Diane especially myself who is now blogging as the VP PR of Igniters. She reviewed 3 strategies to manage her doubts and increase her skills. First, she took a 6-week class at the library called Blogging and Podcasting for Beginners. Second, she decided to engage an editor. Lucky Glen gets to review and edit her posts. Third, she got feedback and uses it to shape the future. I personally learned a lot from Diane’s speech. She is an excellent speaker fully using the range of vocal variety, gestures and facial expressions to knock home her message. I was so pleased to hear her speech “I am a Blogger.” We are inspired!
After a
short break for socializing and snacks we were graced with humorous Table
Topics, led by our amazing VP Education, Trevor. As Table Topics Master, Trevor
encouraged the use of fibs in the participants’ 1–2-minute impromptu responses.
His question was the same for all 4 participants with simply a location
difference. “You just returned from an amazing vacation and can’t wait to tell
us all about it.” The twist was that the locations were all made up so all the
participants had to go on was a name of a made-up place. Marvin spoke
about Kaelenor. Trish sold us on the virtues of Marazal with
alliteration while wearing her Chanel suit with fabulous shoes. Derrick
walked out the back door, was hit on the head in Valeska. As I write this, I am
still unsure if he spent 5 days in hospital or was this his epic fib. Lina
had just returned from Zandaria. All 4 regaled us with stories of food,
weather, and stairs that replaced a gym. There was laughter all around!
Our members
stood in for members unable to attend the meeting, which is very appreciated by
all Toastmasters trying to hold an effective meeting. Thank you, Ali,
for stepping into the GE role, Derrick for taking on um-ah Counter, and Trevor
for being such a fun Table Topics Master. Well done, Team! The flexibility of
our members is a strength of our club.
Our Table
Topic Evaluator, Glen followed Trevor’s leed to show us how to fib
by structuring his feedback with the acronym FIB for his feedback structure.
Each participant brought humour to their responses and we all enjoyed a few
good chuckles.
Fabulous –
what he found fabulous
Improvement
-opportunity for improvement
Best – what
he liked best
Our table
topics winner this week was Trish! Congratulations Trish!!!
Besides
enjoying her visits to Igniters, Lina presented our club with 2 awards.
We earned awards for both the Blueprint for Success, and the
True North Awards.
The Blueprint for Success recognizes clubs that demonstrate strong
leadership planning and growth foundations. The requirements include
1. submitting
the Club Offer Officer List by June 30th, which we did with plenty
of time to spare to ensure leadership is established for the new program year
2. having at least four
club officers complete Official training by August 31st. We had all
7 club officers trained and are up and running under the leadership of our
President Yvonne and
3. developing
and submitting the Official Club Success Plan by September 30th,
which is in progress.
The True North Award recognizes clubs that show continuous commitment to members and the community through strong engagement, leadership, and year-round activities including maintaining momentum during the summer months This achievement reflects Igniter's dedication to providing consistent opportunities for members to learn grow and connect. Our club continues to meet throughout the summer. We are taking a little bit of vacation in August by focussing on our in person meeting every second week and skipping the zoom meetings. The In-person meeting dates during August are August 11 and 25. To be clear, August 4 and 18 are vacation days, meaning no meetings.
Speaking of meetings, our next in-person meeting is on Tuesday August11 at Parkdale Community Association located at 3512 5 Ave NW. We begin at 7pm. All are welcome! We will be treated to 3 speeches by Diane, Emma, and Yvonne.
It looks like this heatwave is
forecasted to end on Sunday when the high is a more manageable 24C. First, we
will have to survive Saturday’s high of 35C. To avoid over heating and
sweltering, come join us at our next Igniters’ meeting on August 11 where I am
sure you will laugh and learn! Until then, stay cool.
Emma VP PR
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