Guests are always welcome! Friendly support. Our weekly meetings alternate between In person and Zoom at: Parkdale Nifty Fifties - 3512 5 Ave NW. ** Please contact us first at info@igniterstm.ca. Yes, we meet all summer.
Every Tuesday Night.
Zoom Meetings - May 12, May 26, June 9, June 23, July 7, July 21, Aug 4, Aug 18
In Person Meetings - May 19, June 2, June 16, June 30, July 14, July 28, Aug 11, Aug 25
Happy Holidays! We are all looking forward to the annual party where we will be celebrating with good food and fellowship. Of course the fun continues with the gift exchange! Come join us in the New Year, work on your goals and look for more photos coming.
Over the past three meetings we have had many speakers who have been working on their educational goals. Great to have guests enjoy our meetings and return again to learn more.
We even had a Speakers Night last week, as we have many members wanting to give speeches and work on their goals. We will be having this once a month to meet our members needs. Over the past few weeks, evaluators were giving helpful tips and motivating speakers continue to take their speeches to the next level. New members giving ice breakers, members achieving goals through consensus and more experienced members working on toasts and roasts. Great to see so much support for our members working on Pathways or the Legacy program!
Imagine what you could do next year if you started working on your communication and leadership goals!
Dermotalways has a story up his sleeve. Every week he knows how to make us laugh! How does he do it?! He shared some tips to help you become a better storyteller.
Secret #1 A good story should be at least 80% true, the rest can be attributed to a bad memory.
Secret #2 Humour goes a long way and helps to gauge the listeners reactions.
Secret #3 I generally have two endings to my stories...a soft ending and a crash landing. Depending on the audience response I deliver one or the other. Both are the same ending, just delivered differently. For example : if the audience laughs at the sad parts I will go with the flow and deliver in a humorous fashion.
Secret #4 Remember that the story is to entertain the listener, not to feed the ego of the storyteller.
Craig Valentine, World Champion of Public Speaking has a masterful way of helping you communicate with more power? He has some great tips on being a better storyteller. How could this help your speeches? Bonus Secret . . .
We have some terrific storytellers and writers at Igniters. Come to a meeting and meet them. What can you learn this week to make you a better communicator?!
Igniters are a hearty bunch! Although it was snowing, it was a full house. Speaking and a friendly meeting will warm you up quickly!
Tips This Week: Trevor shared in the Meeting Mentor Moment. He has learned to be a better audience member. He turns off phone. Pays attention to the speaker. Listens! Pause - A good pause can do the heavy lifting Speech - Aim for crafted. Not perfectly polished.
Mentoring Power
Our members are able to grow because of the strong mentoring in our club. Marion does a fantastic job of mentoring for the major roles. More members willing to step up.
This week she used her creativity and even created a sign for Dermot - Toastmaster in Training! She shares a script to help newer member learn the Toastmaster role and share the role so they can learn and feel more comfortable.
Congratulations! Nandini finished her Level 3 in Pathways with an inspiring speech about Wellsprings a fantastic resource for providing support and care to cancer patients and their family. Yvonne used the acronomyn H.O.P.E. from the speech to give feedback and getting the audience to imagine a scene will have more impact.
Gilshared his Communication Style of Intitiating and shared his goal of wanting to speak more off the cuff and from the heart. He left us with two questions to think about this week. What is in You? What Is your Story? Mona gave helpful feedback about a well organized speech and focussing on 3 key parts - Heart, Energy, and Purpose. Way to go Lindsay!- she won the TT award this week sharing her insights about fireplace guy on tv.
What can we learn this week?
Our Toastmaster Gil shared the importance of Rememberance and how we all have stories where we have been summoned to make decisions with courage. During the introductions, we all shared our stories and got to know each other better.
Getting Better! Speakers and Evaluators
Glen gave a speech from the Special Occasions Manual. He gave a heartfelt tribute to his father and honored him with an award for his contribution during World War II as a member of the Royal Merchant Navy. We all had a chance to learn more about his work and to appreciate the freedoms we have in Canada.
Congratulations Jeyon completing Level 1 on your 2nd Path! He gave an interesting and interactive speech, where we all got a chance to work on our drawing skills and how our brains are able to take in a visual in milliseconds and know what it is!
Fantastic Marvin on completing your Level 2 in Dynamic Leadership Path.
He shared how his first manager helped to mentor him and had a BELIEF in him. (Build Relationships, Evaluate, Listen, Interact, Encourage, and Follow Up) and as a mentee he would LEARN. (Listen, Eager, Action Oriented, Respond, Never Give Up! He shared stories of other mentors in Toastmasters and our club who have mentored him and helped him grow.
Diane brought homemade tarts to thank all the members for their help in helping her win the Evaluation Contest. She shared the Divsion trophies - great seeing the history of other Toastmasters who have won and a nice way to inspire newer Toastmaters.
A supportive club every week. Come for a visit!
Igniters rocked it at Division E Contest in Cochrane! Great turnout to support our members! Lots of Igniters were involved in helping out at the contest as contest officials.
Congratulations Diane! - who won 1st place in the Evaluation Contest! She gave very helpful feedback to the test speaker who chatted with her after the contest.
Fantastic Marvin! He won President of the Year as he belongs to two clubs and won as President for Calgary Advanced.
Diane and Marvin will be competing for District Contests and District Of the Year Awards held in Lethbridge at the District Conference on May 1-3, 2020. Let's go and cheer them on!
Divison E Director Saya and Division Contest Chair Susan sharing in the excitement.
Evaluation Contest 1. Diane
2. Harvey
3. Shazin
Table Topics Contest
1. Lucas
2. Scott
3. Rick
Lynette Past E Division Director shared testimonials and highlighted many contributions of Marvinfor the Toastmaster community. Other Of the Year awards were presented including Rookie of the Year, Toastmaster of the Year, Public Relations of the Year, and Area Director of the Year. It was an inspiring afternoon of leaders who are making a difference.
Hurray Igniters! Ksenija recieved a Pathways Chart on behalf of Igniters.
Our club was recognized as having members 75% or more enrolled in the Pathways Educational Program. Keep working on your goals. Every week you have an opportunity to get stronger!
Congratulations!! Ksenija our current President presented Yvonne last years President with the President's Distinguished Ribbon.
This is the highest achievement a club can attain with 9 out of 10 goals. This is in areas of education, membership, and leadership. Igniters has achieved this distinction for the past 5 years in a row and other years prior.
This club success is because members are always willing to support each other, mentor and share experiences, encourage new leaders to take on executive positions and encourage members to attain their goals at a fun and friendly meeting. Guests are always welcome.
Stephen in a Pathways speech challenged members to give a speech a month. Some Igniters have taken him up on the challenge! Others are continuing to give speeches regularly.
Next week we have a full agenda with 3 speakers sharing their ideas.
Stephenalso inspired Nandini with a speech using a post it note and she used this to help teach others about emotional intelligience and what she learned in keeping a journal for two weeks. He offered her feedback this week as she shared 3 tips when you are feeling annoyed!
1. Smile and breathe to calm down.
2. Find supportive friends to vent.
3. Journaling can help you become more clear in finding strategies in dealing with difficult people. We all know some!
On Saturday Nov 2 at the Crowfoot Library,Dianealong with other evaluation contestants attended the Division E Circle of Gold. Circle of Gold Team Darlene, Val, and Nandinishared tips on competing. Then along with Glen offered feedback for all the evaluators.
Mike from Transformers was the test speaker and gave a funny and thought provoking speech about missed connections and cell phones. Imagine the days when you didnt have a cell phone! Just like at a contest, evaluators had 5 minutes to prepare their notes and their share their feedback.
The Circle of Gold is a safe environment where members receive support and encouragment, learn from each other, and can strengthen their confidence in speaking. This was Diane's first experience with Circle of Gold and she found it very helpful!
Diane wins Area E6 Evaluation Contest! Way to go Igniters! Glen, Mary, and Stephen showed their support by coming. Great to have friendly faces in the audience!
The Area Contest was hosted by Smart Speakers and our A.Director Jennifer. Mona was a funny SAA and entertained us with introductions after the fact! Marvinhelped as Chief Judge and Marion was an awesome timer! Nandinias Evaluation Toastmaster introduced the Test speaker who shared tips on positive self talk. Dermotshared his experience of being a test speaker at other contests. He learned lots of feedback from the evaluators and really enjoyed the opportunity to develop his speaking skills. Come on out to the Division Contest Nov 2 in Cochrane. A great afternoon of Table Topics, Evaluations, and awards.
How can you step out of your comfort zone and grow? Enter a club contest, help out as a contest official, or learn from others for the next time!
Table Topics Contest
Toastmaster: Yvonne
1. Diane 2. Trevor 3. Chris
We learned alot about our members as they shared 1 thing they do uniquely
:) Evaluation Contest
Toastmaster: Nandini
Thank you to Jey for getting us the test speaker from his other club. Margaret gave a heartfelt and inspiring speech and honored her son.
1. Diane 2. Trevor 3. Glen
Dont you love a good photo where everyone is growing a little taller!!
Marionwas a terrific food organizer and boy were the members delighted. Thanks to everyone for helping out and making the club contest a successful night.
Celebrating!
Great turnout this week! Nice to have one of our guests return for another week. We celebrated frienships and birthdays with baklava. Ayanna won Table Topics this week sharing her tips on how to have fun and still be disciplined.
** Tip: she sets a timer for 15 min and gets down to work! Then she rewards herself. Then she starts the timer again! Combines work and rewards. Congratulations Gil! He was away for the summer and recieved his educational certificate. Igniters every week are working on their goals.
Listening Skills and Creative Thinking
How effective of a listener are you? One way of developing your skills is as an evaluator. Trevor demonstrated specific suggestions and used positive descriptive language to empower the speaker. Gil gave a creative evaluation using Vision, Opportunities, and Confidence to offer strengths and suggestions. Diane F gave an Oreo Evalution! She was thinking outside the box and had us all hungering for more!!
Full House! Pleasure to have two guests visit. Vibrant energy and members were chatting up a storm!
What is your dream job? How Table Topics helped nail an interview!
Member Recognition
Congratulations to Trevor! Won this week for best Table Topic (TT). Great tip when he sat down on the floor and showed us what his friend likes to share with him! ** Tip: Nothing like a good demo! One of our guests showed courage (Word of the day too!) and shared who she likes to talk to at work. She got an extra round of applause for her efforts. Mary as the TT evaluator, took on this role for the first time with humor and had us laughing out loud.
Way to go Devon! He was presented with the weekly Igniting Spirits Trophy. This trophy is given to the member who Ignites Spirits by inspiring us by taking on new roles and stepping out of his comfort zone. Who will win this week?!
Speakers of the Week ** Tip: Chronological order - one way to structure your speech to make it flow more easily. Yvonne has been working on her Pathway speeches and shared her leadership styles in high school, during university and her residency, and dealing with health challenges. She is determined to use her skills to help educate others. Jey used the S.T.A.R. method to help Yvonne get stronger as a speaker.
** Tip: Giving a speech, getting feedback, and applying the feedback to another speech. One of the fastest ways to grow. Ksenija gave a speech about Contests last week, recieved feedback from her evaluator and mentor Marvin, and this week continued to inspire and educate the members with "Contests Part 2" about getting involved in the upcoming Club Contest on Oct 8. Marion had us chuckling with her joke of the day and Dermot as Grammarian had us laughing out loud with his play on words. Glen rounded out the meeting as General Evalutor by offering feedback to the evaluators and the overall meeting. Yes, he tickled our funny bone at times too!
What will you learn next week? Come and stretch your brain and find out!
We learn and laugh alot at our meetings! A great way to spend a Tues evening. Terrific having our Area Director Jennifer visit! She enjoyed our meeting and has some great ideas from Igniters to take back to her own club.
Our Toastmaster Glen brought his sense of humor to a more serious theme of Dental Hygiene. He was wanting us to learn from his experiences. Diane, the General Evaluator gave dental floss to thank evaluators! Marvin used dental terms to give a memorable evaluation!
Meeting Mentor - Chris helped newer member Devon with the timing role. He sat next to him and they shared parts of the role as a newer member was mentored by a more experienced mentor. The Igniters Advantage!
More Mentoring!
Ice Breaker - Naomi gave an inspiring first speech about moving to Canada and what she was able to do to get her dream job. Mona her evaluator gave her feedback and demonatrated a mentor mentee conversation on working on goals. Mentoring Teams - Thurs Sept 12 Mentors discussed issues and Mon Sept 16 - Conference Call with Mentors and Mentees to work on goals.
Preparing for Contests - The Club Contest for Table Topics and Evaluation will be held on Oct. 8. Ksenija our President gave an educational on the purpose of contests, types of contests, and three key roles in the contest. Stay tuned this week when she when she shares Part 2 on Contests.
Table Topic Tips - Jey and Nandini worked together as a team to share ideas and TT tips with the members. Also the judging form and the key criteria were discussed.
* Key Tips: May repeat question to buy time. Answer the question as early as possible. Use stories to illustrate your key points. Personal stories are a powerful tool. Summarize your key points.
Watching speakers and the techniques they use can help us get better. Check out other videos in Members Resources above. World Champion Craig Valentine states you can add more power to your stories with 3 Cs. Tip: Characters, Conflict, and Conversations. Look for these as you watch the video. How can you use these 3 C's to make your next speech stronger? You know where to come to practice!
Devon - warm welcome to our newest Igniter. Great to see our new members stepping up and learning new roles. Members next to you can always help you out.
Stephenshared a speech about mentoring and the value of practising impromptu speaking with a few members. He also had us write on a Post-it note an encouraging note to ourselves to post on the mirror. Tip: You engage the audience when you throw a curve ball or unexpected idea. He then had us pass the note to the right! Encouragement from another member. Congrats on finishing Level 2 in Pathways!
Jey gave an entertaining speech about buying vacation tickets on Kijiji. We all learned a few lessons!! He is embarking on his second Path. He used gestures, vocal variety, and alot of enthusiasm to share his stories. Tip: Keep working on your goals step by step. Wow! Way to go on finishing Level 5 in the Path Presentation Mastery.
Ksenija our President has been learning from various trainings in the city and shared highlights from an excellent session by Lynette T "It's Not About the Points!" and explained about the Distinguished Club Program and how it is all about the success of the members that leads to the success of the club. Inspiring! She shared the goals the members and the club have already achieved just over the summer. Go Igniters!!
Club Executive - Thanks to our dedicated team for their ideas at the executive meeting
We are looking forward to members who were away during the summer. It will be great to have you back!
Ksenija, our President went to another officer training this week and shared "Facts tell, Stories sell!" Watch the 2019 winner of the International Speech Contest at the Toastmaster Convention. What can you learn from his story? How can you tell a better story with more impact?
This week our speakers Yvonne and Marywere sharing stories and the lessons about time management and leadership. Mary shared a tip she learned from Yvonne 500 - 600 words is approximately a 5 -7 min speech. Try it!
New Member Induction - Great to have Naomi join us!
Planner or Spontaneous?
We had a fun meeting learning about our members. Some are organizers and like to plan for travelling and some are more spontaneous.
What books are you reading?Margaret shared a book she is enjoying called Serve to Win by tennis player Novak Djokivic about his diet and fitness plan that helped him with his best season ever. She used it as a prop to ask spontaneous questions and the members shared their favorite books, dreams, and ideas in a 1-2 minute speech. You need to get to the point quickly!
Celebrating Birthdays!Igniters had a fun meeting celebrating five August birthdays. After the meeting fruit, cupcakes and chatting with each other and our guest. You should have been there trying to fit five names as we sang Happy Birthday!
Advantages of Mentoring Plus At Igniters you have the advantage of working with a mentor and also being part of a mentoring team. Mona, Mentoring Coordinator met with new members to share about the benefits and getting a mentor to help with their goals. Save time, grow faster, and learn from others at your own pace!
What leadership skills do you want to develop?Jey was working on his Level 5 in Pathways by moderating a panel with Stephen, Yvonne, and Marvin.
Tip from his evaluator: where you stand is important. You can connect better with your audience. Lindsay a new member was timer and she had to pay careful attention to many timing requirements. Great job! She has been taking on new roles at the meeting and applying some of these learnings at work.
Leadership Opportunities! In August there have been leadership trainings (CLED) and workshops all over Calgary. Igniters has 7/7 club officers trained!
Igniters were giving workshops, Nandinisharing tips on impromptu speaking, Monaon effective evaluations, and Marvin teaching treasurers. Dermot a newer member and Sergeant at Arms networked with leaders. Ksenija, our President supported members and gathered ideas.
A warm welcome to Ayanna, Trevor, Lindsay, Naiomi, and Mina! Great to have you join our club. We are all here to help and support you with your goals. The Evaluation Advantage
This week Trevor gave his icebreaker speech "Three Objects that Define Me" while Jey gave his ice breaker on his second Path "Where Are you From?" Stephen on Level 2 of Pathways, shared about his communication style. Each week our members learn new ideas. The Evaluation Advantage is you get feedback, learn from it and grow. This week, evaluators Chris, Mary, and Vickyhelped the speakers develop their skills by sharing strengths and areas for improvement in an encouraging manner. Not only do speakers get feedback from an evaluator, they also get written evaluations from the members of the club. It doesn't stop there! Yvonne, was the General Evaluator and she gave feedback about other roles at the meeting, and how the evaluators can also improve. Want to learn more about giving an Effective Evaluation? (click for more info) Stay Tuned! Next time the Benefits of Mentoring and Leadership Training President Ksenija inducts new member Lindsay.
Yes our members are growing this summer! Every time you practice, get feedback - you get better.
Great to see many Igniters at the meeting. We had a fun meeting with Marvin as our Toastmaster, sharing tips on wine tasting and vineyards in B.C. Ayanna gave an ice breaker speech in the Presentation Mastery Pathway. She shared why she is learning Spanish and how as a dietician it can allow her to help more people. Muchas Gracias!
Diane, our VP Membership gave an induction for our new members Trevor andAyanna to welcome them to our club. Igniters also gave their support to help the new members grow. Look for more inductions as we have more guests joining!!
Do you want to be a stronger leader? Better communicator? When will you start working on your goals? "Day One or One Day?" Jay Shetty a motivational speaker - shared this idea. You decide!
Margaret, Mona, Diane, Glen, Nandini and Marvin had amazing time at the District Conference in Moosejaw, May 3-5. We enjoyed the 4 contest and learned from our International Director Larry. We shared the excitement with friends while making new friends.
We had an amazing Area Contest Tuesday. Our contestants gave us all Inspirational and entertaining speeches. Congratulations Nandini and Glen, you both gave wonderful speeches and made us proud placing in the International and Humorous Speech Contests. Thanks everyone for supporting us.
