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!

June 17 meeting recap.

Nandini led us with a rousing evening of talk surrounding restaurants and eating out.

Marion, Daryl, and Marvin took the stage for our speech section of the meeting. Marion spoke about her experience in a hurricane in the United States, Daryl spoke about how to find the best burgers, and Marvin provided us some background for our year end social.

Diane (l) surprised Mona (r) with a Thank You for purchasing  timing lights for the use at our club meetings.

Everyone is welcome to attend our year end social next week.

Tuesday June 10th meeting recap.

Our Toastmaster Chris C. began our meeting with a three point introduction, which gave us all a challenge to start.

Marvin gave us a great educational session about how to improve the opening for speeches. We all had a chance to explain how we have successful incorporated some of Marvin's ideas during our Toastmasters careers.

Michel led us in Table Topics with his "Book of If". All 6 members in attendance took a turn at speaking, with Nandini taking home the Table Topics Trophy.

The best part of our meeting tonight is that we managed to have a fun full meeting with only 6 members!

Meeting recap.

We had a fun meeting with our members joined by our newest Igniters Adam and Sylvia.

Diane shared in her inspiring speech 3 key tips from Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut.

Going  after your dreams.

1) Attitude - be prepared.

2) Be a 0!

3) Negative Thinking

What do 2 and 3 mean?! Come to meeting next week and talk to Diane or an Igniter. :)

The New District 42 Prairie Horizons newsletter is out. Link below. Great tips and fascinating Toastmasters.

Igniters are in the issue. Picture of Michel who along with another Toastmaster Dave who helped during the flood. Michel kindly nominated Dave for an award.

http://issuu.com/district42/docs/ph_-_volume_3_final_copy

Check the link to read Inspirations 2 by Shaila- stories and tips about Toastmasters achieving their DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster). We were honored to be included.

Marvin  - great tips for new toastmasters among other stories

Nandini - how joining TM helped her as a leader and lessons along the way.

Hope to see you next week!

Nandini

VP PR Igniters

The most recent member to join Igniters.

Please help us at Igniters to extend a warm welcome to our newest member Silvia!

Incoming Executive Members.

Please welcome our incoming Executive members for 2014! From left to Right :

President : Nandini
VP Education : Daryl
Treasurer : Abinov
Past President : Marvin
Secretary : Diane
Seargent at Arms : Chris C
VP Public Relations : Chris G
VP Membership : Marion

Adam is presented with Ribbons.

Awards:

We had an award ceremony with Adam receiving his CC and CL ribbons from club president Marvin.

Election:

We had two dynamic campaign speeches during our election for VP Membership. Congratulations to our winner Marion, and thank you to Charter Member Michel for making every day a membership campaign!

Announcements:

Nandini announced a new member Adam which to give us a total of 20 members. Igniters qualifies for the Distinguished Club Program! One more member completes goal 8 to lift Igniters from the bronze status in the DCP to silver status.

We would love to add one new member!

Igniters have our new sandwich board.

We would like to thank Marion for completing work on our sandwich board. We are sure that this will increase our membership due to increased foot and car traffic stopping by.

Great job Marion!

Mona places second in the Division Speech Evaluation Contest!

Igniters is very proud to announce that Mona has won second place at the Division Speech Evaluation Contest!

Congratulations Mona on your amazing achievement!

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

Mona wins the Area Speech Evaluation Contest!

We are excited to announce that Mona has won the Area Speech Evaluation Contest! Mona moves on to the Division contest. Congratulations Mona on your amazing accomplishment!

Right: Area Governor for J41, Chris
Middle: Mona
Left: VP Membership Adam

Igniters International Speech Competition results!

Our Club Contest included an International Speech Competition. Chris G took first place with his speech entitled "Great at 98!"

Mona won second place with her speech "Beastly Contests". Congratulations to both Toastmasters! Chris will continue at the Area Contest March 25th.

Igniters Evaluation Club Contest results!

Igniters held their Speech Evaluation Club Contest on March 11. Adam and a great group of volunteers worked very hard to pull off a very successful evening! We were also fortunate enough to enjoy socializing around the potluck table.

Mona finished in first place and will continue on to the Area competition! Chris G finished in second place and Chris C finished in third place.

Congratulations to all of the finalists!

Susan achieves her half Competent Communicator Award.

Congratulations Susan for completing your half Competent Communicator award! We know you will continue to work hard toward your Competent Communicator Goals.!

Chris achieves his half Competent Communicator Award

Congratulations Chris for completing your half Competent Communicator award! We know that you will continue to work toward your goal of Competent communicator!

Adam is awarded his competent communicator award.

Conratulations Adam on being the latest member to complete your Competent Communicator goals!

We are all sure that you will be continuing to grow within the toastmasters umbrella.

Giovanni Chajon completes his Competent Communicator Designation.

Gio has completed his Competent Communicator Designation. Club president Marvin is pictured with Gio at our last club meeting February 12, 2014.

Congratulations Gio on the hard work you put forward to complete this milestone! We look forward to seeing you complete the next goal in your Toastmaster journey.

Gio also puts a lot of work into solidifying our weekly meetings, and for that our entire club is thankful!

February 4th. Meeting

It was a cold, cold night on February 4, 2014. We had a rousing meeting complete with 2 speeches and of course Table Topics. Gio gave a great speech about dreams that landed him in the winner's circle this week for Table topics. Congratulations Gio!

We have a lot of events coming up. Keep watching the blog for the details.

Igniters Role Checklists

I have shared a Google Document to aid in preparation for Igniters Toastmaster meetings. It is my hope that by using a check-list approach we can all be better prepared each week, allowing us to focus more on great content!

After clicking the link you may copy and paste the portion that you need and edit anything you wish. Some of the formatting will be lost, but you should have no problem fixing the formatting in a word processor.

If you use one of the check-lists please take time to suggest an improvement or addition. I will make edits and your suggestions will make future meetings even better!

Link to Google Docs

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.

Igniters have returned from our break.

Igniters returned from our Christmas break with our first meeting on January 7th, 2014. We are looking forward to a joint meeting next Tuesday.

Merry Christmas from Igniters!

We celebrated Christmas and a successful year together as Toastmasters.

Thanks to Mona for being a gracious host for our very enjoyable evening.

Igniters are on Christmas break.

Igniters will be on Christmas break until the New Year. Please watch our blog for pictures of our Christmas get together this week. We would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.!

Igniters awarded three ribbons.

Glen, Past President of Igniters Toastmasters club in Calgary, proudly displays three ribbons earned during his presidency. From left to right: The Founders Award ribbon is awarded to a club that helps sponsor a new club. The Sunshine Club ribbon is awarded to a club that meets at least once during July and at least once during August. The Club Fitness ribbon is awarded to a club that submits an updated membership roster and an updated July club officer list to Toastmasters District 42. 

Congratulations! Thank you to all members who contributed to earning these awards!

Igniters induct our newest member!

Please help us to warmly welcome Steven to our toastmasters club.

Left: Area Governor for J41, Chris
Middle: New member Steven
Right: VP Membership Adam

Nandini has been chosen as an Ambassador!

Nandini has been chosen by Toastmasters International to be an Ambassador! In the process of applying for this position Nandini was required to answer essay questions, and provide credentials and references. We all know how hard Nandini works to make Igniters Toastmasters such a great club to be part of!

If you would like to learn more about the Ambassador roles :
http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/RevitalizedEducationProgram/Ambassadors.aspx

Congratulations Nandini on your achievement! Toastmasters is lucky to have you as an Ambassador!

Igniters' new member.

We are very excited to introduce one of our new members at Igniters Toastmasters. Adam led a formal induction of Marion at our meeting on November 5th. Please help us to welcome Marion!

Diane wins the Division Table Topics competition.

Congratulations for winning the Division Table Topics competition Diane! Diane now advances to the District competition in Fort McMurray.

Diane from Igniters wins the Area Table Topics contest.

Congratulations Diane for winning the Area Table Topics contest at the Smart Technologies building, Calgary. Diane will advance to the Division contest in Table Topics. Congratulations for your fantastic performance Diane!

Diane places second in the Area Humorous speech contest.

Congratulations Diane for placing second in the area Humorous speech contest! Dianne's speech "Be a Fish" was edged out by Rosario's speech "Super Mom". Congratulations Diane for a great showing at the Area contest.

Igniters' club Humorous speech results.

Congratulations Diane for winning the club Humorous speech contest. Diane will now advance to the Area contest.

Igniters Table Topics contest results.

Congratulations Diane for winning the Igniters Table Topics Contest.

Chris C placed second.

And Christopher H placed Third.






Nandini, Gio and Christy present the certificates to each contestant. Congratulations to all of the competitors for participating and for their achievement!

Glen wins the Making a Difference Award

Glen has been an enthusiastic and dedicated member of Igniters for the past five years and has served as our President for 2012-2013. He had a challenging year to help us move to a better location and our club really enjoys our new home. He and his executive team fostered a fun learning environment for our club to achieve Distinguished Club status.

He completed several speeches towards his Advanced Communicator Gold and is currently an Area Governor in 2013-2014 and on his way to achieve his DTM. 

Glen deserves this award as he truly has made a difference to our club. Thank you Glen for your contributions to Igniters and congratulations on your award.

2013 Executive Induction ceremony

Club Executive induction for 2013 President Marvin, VP Public Relations Nandini, VP Education Gio, Area Governor Chris H, Sargent At Arms  Sina, Secretary Christy, VP Membership Adam, and Treasurer Abhinav (missing).

Spirit of Success New Member

Congratulations Adam for winning the Spirit of Success New Member award!

Diane wins the Spirit of Success Igniting Spirits Award.

Congratulations Diane on achieving this award.

Michel receives his Competent Communicator Award.

Congratulations Michel for achieving your Competent Communicator designation!

Michel receives The Spirit of Success Communication and Leadership Award.

Glen presents the Spirit of Success Communication and Leadership Award to Michel of Igniters Toastmasters. The Spirit of Success award recognizes a new Toastmaster whose enthusiasm, commitment, and achievements represent the spirit of the Toastmasters organization. Congratulations Michel on winning this award!

Rookie of the Year Award.

Congratulations Adam on winning the Rookie of the Year Award for 2013!

Nandini wins the Spirit of Success Speech Achievement award.

Congratulations Nandini on your achievement.

Spirit of Success President’s Choice winner.

Congratulations Christy for winning the Spirit of Success President's Choice award for 2013!

Igniters Grow in the Fall

 Mentoring - Silvina is our Mentoring Coordinator Why would you want a mentor? Support, Advice, Experience, Recognition. Saves you time too! Theme Meetings - Every week we have creative themes and challenge words too. Share your passions and interests! Igniters have fun with politics, theatre, England, Halloween & more. Club Contest - Members learned about leadership skills, thinking on their feet, and humor. Chris - Chairman Results T.Topics                                       Humor 1. Shana                                       1. Nandini 2. Michel                                      2. Dave 3. Mary Jean

This digital scrapbooking design personalized with Smilebox

Congratulations, Jeanette!

Bright and early in the morning, speaking in the dreaded number one slot, Jeanette Williams seized second place at the District Evaluation Contest. Way to go, Jeanette! Next time let's see if they can schedule one a couple hours later.

Content Update

Jeanette is advancing again to the District 42 Spring Convention, after a second-place finish in the Division evaluation contest. Division winner Harvey Taphorn was unable to attend the District contest, so Jeanette will represent us once more ... at least! Evaluation contest is at 8:30 a.m., Sunday May 6 at Radisson Hotel Calgary Airport. Seating is by registration only at http://www.d42takethelead.ca.

Contest update

Igniters are advancing to the Division evaluation contest on Friday, April 20, represented by Jeanette Williams. Jeanette won in our own club evaluation contest, and later the same night gave us a deeply moving speech in the international contest. She placed second in a tough field in the area evaluation contest, but has advanced to Division due to the absence of the winner. Come out and support Jeanette, 6:30 - 9:30 at the Brentwood Sportsplex.

In our international contest, Garrett Ulmer won our club contest with a speech about his daughter's struggle with reading, edging out Dave Brown's speech about changing his name twice. Garrett was unavailable in the area contest, so Dave advanced, and placed second behind an astonishing speech about the power of storytelling from the area winner, Darlene Davies. Darlene's speech is a thing of compelling beauty, anyone who missed it at the area contest, and anyone who wants to speak better, should make a point of seeing it on Friday at the division contest.

Directions to Brentwood are here. Admission is $5.

Congratulations Chris!

Congratulations to Chris Crooks, who completes his stint as Speechcraft Coordinator this Wednesday, March 21.

The job is a huge responsibility, bringing the Toastmasters program into the community with our corporate client, Safeway. It's a challenge for their employees, a challenge for all of us to volunteer and help out, and especially a challenge for Chris, who has held it all together for us.

The last night of the program will be a bit more casual, with extended table topics and a few snacks. No homework for the participants, because district speech contest winners Garrett and Dave have agreed to deliver two of their best speeches from past contests. All Igniters are welcome, we meet at the training center for Safeway, 1020 64 Avenue NE, at 6:15.

My trip to Lethbridge was successful -- Igniters win the District Humorous Speech contest for the second consecutive year! I've been checking with District 42 to figure out if that's ever been done before -- two different people from the same club winning in consecutive years. Going into the club contest, my goal was just to get past the club level. And I remember thinking it wasn't really fair to have to beat last year's district champion to attain that goal. But next year, somebody may have to beat two district champions.

You can take two lessons from my experience if you're thinking about competing next year. One: Even champions remain beatable. And two: If you can beat Igniters, you can beat everyone.

DB

Igniters were out in force at the Division J contest Friday night, and brought home some new hardware in the Division Awards and the Humorous Speech Contest.
Igniters won Newsletter of the Year, for what, the third year in a row? Congratulations to the editor, Eden. She has really thrown down the gauntlet for whatever brave soul is supposed to follow that act.
And I won the division humorous speech contest. I really want to thank again everyone who helped me refine The Evilution of Rock over the last few weeks. Those little bits of paper you collect after a speech? They're actually full of insightful and useful advice! I never really sat down with them and studied them, for two reasons -- one, there haven't been many occasions on which I plan to do a speech more than once. And two, by habit, I've always been kind of solitary in the creative process. I thought I didn't like collaborating. But last night was the sixth time through that speech for me. I've had the time and the motivation to really think about peoples' suggestions, and incorporate a lot of them. When I look at the difference between round one and six, I can see how much I've learned from everyone at the club. Thanks, everyone!
There is just one more round to go: the District 42 Conference, at the Coastal Hotel and Convention Centre, Lethbridge, Nov. 4 - 6. If there are options for car-pooling, let's discuss them after the meeting on Tuesday.

- Dave Brown

Area Contest

Congratulations to Terri and Dave, winners of our club table topics and humorous speech contests. Come and cheer them on at the as they represent Igniters at the area contest, at the University of Calgary Student Council Chambers, MacEwan Student Centre. Thursday, Oct. 6, from 7 pm to 9 pm with registration at 6:30.

It's been a whirlwind summer for Igniters, and we've had some accomplishments that should be recognized:

• Glen Brown, one of the most experienced and supportive long-term Toastmasters around serves our club well in executive roles, and with his keen evaluations and hilarious style as toastmaster. And now Glen has turned his energy back to planned speeches and reached his long-sought Advanced Communicator Silver award. That's about 20 speeches and two presentations, and more work than even that sounds like. Congratulations Glen!






• Garrett Ulmer, last year's district Humorous Speech champion, continues at full speed, and reached Advanced Communicator Bronze with a side-splitting speech about an oblivious uncle versus a rambunctious dog. Congratulations Garrett!

What A Year for Igniters!

Congrats! Presidents Distinguished Club!! How does this happen?
New members, members achieving personal goals, leadership and teamwork in exec., mentoring, and fun dynamic meetings.You all helped! Thanks exec Dave, Dawn, Terri, Nan,Garrett, Tammy, Chris
Way to go Julie for Spirit of Success New Member Award and Pres. Dave for Speech Achievement. 
More photos below.


Big thumbs up - educational goals.  Igniters - your goals for next year?

CC - Competent Communicator - Tammy, Georgi, Dave, Terri
ACS - Advanced Communicator Silver - Mona
ACG - Advanced Communicator Gold - Keith
ALB - Advanced Leadership Bronze - Eden

2 Safeway Speechcrafts - Helping Community - Dynamic leaders  Diane & Jeanette 

Remember the fun meetings?! - Spirit of Success awards, mentoring,  potlucks, contests, ed sessions, and creative themes?  Only more of it this year! Press play  - enjoy the ride.

Personalize your own free digital slideshow

Supporting ESL Members at Toastmasters

At the first meeting of the year, January 4^th, our guest speaker, Yvea Zaels facilitated a panel discussion. The topic of this discussion was how we as Toastmasters can support English as Second Language (ESL) members. Mona Cooley, Keith Lee and Maria Kandaurova were the 3 Igniters who participated in this panel. All three of them offered us practical tips how we can support ESL members. Review and practice their tips below:

Mona’s Tips

· Offer a clear explanation on the importance of Table Topics and why we do it

· Explain the importance of having a mentor

· Explain the value of Toastmasters

Keith’s Tips

· When evaluating keep STRESS in mind

Specific

True – be honest

Respectful

Encouraging

Sensitive – to differences in culture

Strategic – provide 1 – 2 suggestions that would be most effective for the speaker

Maria’s Tips

· Explain all meanings for the word of the day and use it in a sentence.

· Write and display the challenge word for all to see

· Have monthly meetings between clubs so they can practice in front of different people

Let’s work together to help all members feel supported and guided at Igniters.

How will you Succeed This Year?

Nandini gave an inspiring speech "The Gift" and shared how you have a much better chance to succeed at your new years resolutions (goals) from the 9 most powerful words she learned from her friend Ray - By the End of the Year, I want to....
What are your goals?
Feel more confident speaking...be a more effective leader... communicate your ideas more clearly...

Garrett working on his advanced manual - Humorously Speaking gave an a funny and informative speech about investing. What is your dream?

Mona the Mentoring Coordinator gave a survey - all the members completed to keep building on the mentoring program. Mentors can help you get to your goals and dreams faster.

Empowerment Has 3 E's!

This meeting was held on the first Tuesday of the last month of the year and was full of inspiration. Fitting for the theme was Empowerment and Toastmaster Russ offered the crowd "The 3 E's Necessary for Empowerment".

Environment - This is important because if you are in a negative environment (like a bad job) you don't feel very empowered. Toastmasters is a positive and supportive environment, and at Igniters do a fantastic job of creating this atmosphere.

Emotion - Gaining control of your emotions is the key to successful personal empowerment. People tend to do things that they feel like, and avoid things they don't feel like. Therefore, your feelings are a huge part in being able to get yourself to do what you need to do, even when you don't want to do it!

Education - Because we already know what we know, and it's gotten us what we got, in order to get what we don't have, we must learn what we don't know now. Oprah Winfrey said "I think education is power. I think that being able to communicate with people is power. One of my main goals on the planet is to encourage people to empower themselves."

This evening the audience was delighted to hear new member Robin give a cool second speech on "Hip Hop's Contribution to Vocabulary". During introductions we learned that it really takes different strokes to please different folks, diversity makes the world go around!

Some of the tools, tips, and techniques that Igniters shared that they use to motivate and empower themselves are: "working out", "spending time with friends and family", "brainstorming", "a gratitude rock", "delegation", "lip gloss", "music", "daily walks", "lucky bells and bracelets", and even a "pet snake"... albeit it was not real (thank goodness, as some member might have found that very disempowering!)

"Empowerment is not giving people power, people already have plenty of power, in the wealth of their knowledge and motivation, to do their jobs magnificently. We define empowerment as letting this power out. "It encourages people to gain the skills & knowledge that will allow them to overcome obstacles in life or work environment and ultimately, help them develop within themselves or in the society." - John P. Carlos

Growth is Falling into Place!

 Why does Toastmasters work? Practice. Every week you have an opportunity to practice your skills.
SAA Chris has taken on this leadership role and speaks every week and jumps at the chance to speak during Table Topics (impromptu speaking). Members see him speaking more confidently and clearly sharing his ideas. Thumbs up!

Georgi gave an entertaining &  persuasive speech #9 and shared 3 reasons to get a smart phone. Do you have these apps? - Red Laser, Shazam, RunKeeper.

Fall Conference - Keynote - Curling Silver Medalist - Cori Morris
What an inspiring keynote! She shared her values: Passion for figure skating & then curling, Phun (Fun) with Family, and Perspective - "Silver is the New Gold" - She felt like a winner with her silver and her team was celebrated by Canadians from coast to coast. What else helped her achieve her dream?

Press Play for this and more!

Customize a free newsletter design