Excitement at the Fall 2009 District Conference

The District Conference is always full of nice surprises but none more than the one just held in Grande Prairie. Sue Milledge and Spencer Fawkes often come to help our club by judging in our club contests. On Saturday night at the banquet, Spence said he was making a special presentation, called Sue up to the podium in front of 180 Toastmaster friends and got down on one knee to ask Sue to marry him. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. A few men said they weren't crying, their eyes were "sweating". Sue said yes.

The humorous speech contest was absolutely side splitting funny with nine speakers from all areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The winner, David Haines, from Division C in Calgary entertained the audience with stories about his latest moving adventure. The lesson was never to allow your friends to label the boxes lest the box with the floor lamp be labelled "stripper pole" or just "stuff". Second place went to Darlene, from CTI Techtalkers, Division J, with her speech about travelling with her Dad. The audience laughed so much that several said their jaws were aching.

Chuck Rose, from Division J in Calgary, came third in Table Topics. The question was "You have just won the Olympic Gold medal. Describe your feelings as the medal is placed around your neck and the anthem is playing in the background." The answers ranged from serious to the sublimely funny. Chuck described how he won the gold for belly button lint picking.

The educational sessions were very interesting. The best part of course was meeting old friends and new. The next District convention will be held in Edmonton in May 2010. Plan to go!

Gaoming wins Area 41 award!

Congratulations to Gaoming who was awarded the Area J41 Rookie of the Year on October 8, 2009 by the Area Governor.

Rookie of the Year is awarded to a new Toastmaster who has been a member less than 18 months and has demonstrated a strong commitment to the Toastmasters standards of excellence; has shown improved performance in communication skills and contributed in other ways to the organization.

Gaoming has been recognized and honoured by both the club and the Area Governor for his dedication to our club, his improvement in communication skills, and his enthusiasm and encouragement of others.

Way to go, Gaoming!

Congratulations to the New Executive Team

The next time you see any of our incoming or outgoing CTI Club Officers, please give them your hearty thanks and congratulations. Our outgoing club officers have served us through some challenging times over the past year, have regenerated our club from 11 members to 19, and are working on completing the last of their duties before their term ends on June 30. The new executive team was elected on May 21, 2009 and will serve our club for the year July 1 2009 to June 30 2010.

Incoming Club Officers

President - Kevin H.
VP Education - Terry
VP Membership - Mary Jane
VP PR - Gaoming
Treasurer - Val
Secretary - vacant
SAA - Chris

Outgoing Club Officers
President - Rosario
VP Education - Mark P
VP Membership - Chris
VP Public Relations - Terry
Treasurer - Ibraheem
Secretary - Basheer
SAA - Gaoming

Winners All!

On March 12 and 19th, CTI members enjoyed our spring speech contests: International Speech and Evaluation. All the participants did very well as many of the speakers and officials were first timers. Special thanks go to Marvin from Igniters, Spence from Valley Echo and Florence from Literally Speaking who all came out from their clubs to help with the judging.

The winners of the club contest are:

Evaluation Contest: First place Rosario; Second place Laurie
International Speech Contest: First place Darlene; Second place Rosario

Rosario and Darlene went on to represent our club in the Area J41 contest, along with the CTI cheering section of Chris, Mary Jane, Jiang, Basheer and his lovely young daughter and Darlene's husband, Allan. An old friend from early CTI, Reza, was also there. What great support they provided with their hugs and beaming faces!

Our club did very well with Rosario placing 3rd in the Area Evaluation contest and Darlene placing 1st in the Area International Speech contest.

Darlene now goes on to the Division J International Speech contest on April 18th at the Cardel Theatre 6010 -12th St SE. The more CTI beaming faces in the audience - the better!

CTI Spring Speech Contests!

On March 12, 2009, CTI Techtalkers will be holding the Club International Speech Contest and the Club Evaluation Contest. Please plan to come as a participant, an official or a very important audience member.

Any paid up member of CTI Techtalkers may participate in the Evaluation contest. My best advice is to try to get as much evaluation experience as you can by volunteering to evaluate club speakers or go and visit another club and offer to evaluate a speech there. You will learn a lot by participating in an evaluation contest as a contestant or as an official. In either case, there will be someone available to answer your questions and guide you in your role.

The International Speech contest is open to members who have delivered their first 6 manual speeches from the Competent Communicator manual prior to the contest. The speech should be 5-7 minutes long and is usually inspirational/motivational in nature.

The First Place winners of our Club Contests will go on to the Area J41 contest in early April. The winner of the Area J41 contest goes on to Division J contest on April 18 in Calgary, then to District 42 on May 1-3, 2009. The Evaluation contest is completed at the District level. But the International Speech contest winners go on to Region IV in June and then the Worlds in August. Members of our club in the past have competed up to the District 42 contest.

Everyone who participates learns something new from participating or from observing the best speakers from our club, area, division, and district. Have fun!

CTI Techtalkers

We are back in full swing after the holiday festivities.