April Fools Prequel meeting.

Igniters held an exciting April Fools prequel meeting on Tuesday. Toastmaster Chris started the evening by asking all the members to share some of their funniest April Fools experiences.

We moved quickly into an exciting icebreaker from one of our newest members Ayanna. We learned a lot about her origins, and her interests. Ayanna spoke very clearly and confidently. Fantastic job on your Icebreaker Ayanna! 

Daryl our VP of education was next with an educational speech about the Competent Communicator Manual. Daryl used his usual casual relaxed style to teach us a lot about what we needed to know.

President Nandini was next up to present ribbons to Chris and Daryl to celebrate their educational achievements. Daryl has been hard at work completing his Competent Communicator, Competent Leader, Advanced Leader Bronze. He also completed his Advanced Communicator Silver! Amazing job Daryl.

Chris also had a busy year completing his Competent Communicator, Competent Leader and Advanced Leader Bronze. 

Our president Nandini will represent us at the District Contest on April 10, 2015. We hope that everyone can attend and help to cheer Nandini!

We are looking for to another exciting meeting next week.

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
 

Igniting with Ice-Breakers!

We had another awesome meeting!  Mona, the Queen Toastmaster for the night prepared cards to help us understand the Leadership and Communication Tracks that are available in the Toastmasters program.   She was able to explain the process in a fun and educational manner that required participation by all members. What communication and leadership goals do you have this year?

Mark and Bren both gave their Icebreaker speech, the first

speech, and were able to share parts of their lives with the group. Both Mark and I truly appreciate our mentors who helped with our Icebreaker and all the encouragement they have given us though the writing and modifying those speeches.

Glen's scary yet humorous storytelling kept us in suspense until the last line. Glen was working on an advanced humorous speaking manual. Sylvia and Chris both did an excellent job of the Table Topic questions that Marvin asked regarding "spring" and flowers. A fun way to think on your feet and practice a mini-speech.

See you next week - a great place to grow!

Bren

 

 

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

 

Mentoring Makes A Difference!

Mona Cooley, DTM did an awesome workshop and Webinar tonight about Mentoring.  Our members and many guests left with new ways to approach our strengths and challenges in life and Toastmasters.

Do you want support to achieve your personal goals? Let us help you find your strengths and identify your challenges.

We were delighted to have District Governor Doris Henn, DTM (oversees clubs in Alberta & Sask.) visit and we all had an opportunity to sign and have a photo with the Distinguished District banner. The banner will be displayed at the International Convention in Las Vegas in August.

See you next week. Lots of opportunities to grow!

Bren
 

 

 

Club contest results.

Our club contest was a success again for 2015. On the left Chris G and Chris C went head to head in the club evaluation contest. Both contestants evaluated a fantastic speech by a member of Westhills club. Chris G will be representing Igniters at the Area contest.

On the right we had Nandini competing with Daryl for the International Speech contest title. Both contestants took different approaches to their presentation, however Nandini will be representing Igniters at the Area Contest.

We had lots of time for a potluck and some social interaction during the contest. We were very happy to welcome many guests for our contest as well.

Join Igniters in an Innovative Mentoring Webinar on March 10, 2015!

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!

Chris is recognized for achieving his ALB.

Michel makes a presentation to Chris as Chris achieves his Advanced Leader Bronze designation. Chris has worked hard this year and has completed his CC, CL and ALB.

Congratulations Chris on your achievement!

Diane receives her Advanced Communicator Gold Ribbon!

Club president Nandini presents the Advanced communicator Gold ribbon to Diane. During the presentation ceremony Nandini informed us that in completing this goal Diane completed over 40 speeches!

Congratulations Diane on your achievement!

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.

Daryl is recognized for his Advanced Leader Bronze.

Stephen presents Daryl with a gift as recognition in his completion of his Advanced Leader Bronze designation.

Daryl delivered his second speech from the "Successful Club Series" entitled "Finding New Members for your Club."

Congratulations Daryl on your achievement!

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.

Surprise DTM party for Glen!

On January 13th we held a surprise party for Glen to celebrate his DTM and it was indeed a complete surprise to him! Nandini and Diane had worked behind the scenes to invite fellow Toastmasters, and a fake agenda was sent out to look like a usual meeting. In fact, the whole agenda was roasts and toasts for Glen! People who could not attend sent messages that were read aloud to him. There was lots of food and a big chocolate cake with "Congrats Glen DTM on it. We took a group photo and had a photo frame for everyone to sign, so Glen will have a memento of the event for years to come.

Congratulations Glen on your hard work in achieving your goal!

-- Diane

Igniters are visited by Division J Governor.

We had a great meeting this week despite the inclement weather. We started out with an ice breaker speech from one of our newest members Michael. Michael did a great job for his first speech and we all know a lot more about him. Stephen delivered his competent communicator project #8. We then had Nandini pass out ribbons to Igniters who have completed their goals.

Division J Governor Grant paid us a visit this week. He delivered an inspirational speech about what winning really means. This table topics trophy is filled up with names, so it was presented to Igniters for posterity since our club won this trophy 4 times. Way to go Igniters!

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.

Communication Award and New Member Induction

Congratulations Chris on achieving your Competent Communicator Award! This is a wonderful achievement - first ten speeches! The first speech manual covers various objectives including organization, get to the point, vocal variety, body movement, and using props.

Some of the benefits he gained from joining Toastmasters was more confidence, a willingness to take more risks, and practising new skills. Chris has now started his own business!

Igniters celebrated with standing ovations, President Nandini gave a speech honoring Chris, and Mona the Mentoring Coordinator baked treats for us all to celebrate. For every award, a member brings treats on behalf of the club to show our support!

Marion our VP of Membership gave a warm and welcoming induction to our newest member Michael. Great to have you at Igniters and looking forward to your first speech in January!

The theme was Movies and the members munched popcorn and every time the challenge word of director was used the members would knock on the tables. It was a fun evening of learning.

Daryl earns his Advanced Communicator Bronze.

President Nandini and VP Public Relations Chris congratulate VP Education Daryl on completing his Advanced Communicator Bronze award. Daryl works hard for Igniters every week by completing our agendas. Daryl often routinely fills in two speech slots which really helps us to keep our meetings engaging.

Congratulations Daryl on your accomplishment. You bring a lot with you to Igniters.