Happy Christmas, Happy Holiday, Happy New Year

We are taking a break for the holidays and our meetings will resume on January 4, 2012. Please come and visit us then.
Until then, may the New Year bring you much joy, health and success.

It's ALIVE!!

The Free Toast Host 2.0 is live! After plenty of work to flip everything onto the new system it is live! I double checked everything so I am 99% confident that I haven't missed anyone or anything! Now... that being said if you do notice something that is missing, wrong, needing more, etc. please let me know via email.

If you haven't checked it out before you can now by using the v1.0 site or the new site. To log in all you need to do is click the "Member Login" link on the left hand side and then enter your name and click the "Authenticate" button. You will get an email showing you how to set up your passwords.

If you have questions please let me know!

An amazing night for CTI

Friday's Division J contest was amazing! Rosario won third place in the table topics competition! Great job representing us.

There are more congratulations to give out! We won 3 out of 5 Division J "Of the Year" awards.

Rookie of the Year – Linda Vanneste

Area Governor of the Year – Rosario Talavera

President of the Year – Val Erickson

A big day for our club! Please give all 3 a round of applause and wish them luck at the District level!

Left to right: Val, Rosario, Keith, Linda

Did Your Funny Bone Get Tickled?

Everyone seemed to have a good time at the club humorous speech contest on Wednesday, September 21- even the four contestants! Evidence? All the smiles and laughter.

Mary Jane entertained us with her "Adventures of the big, new, shiny BBQ". We chuckled when Chris Hecker told us his funny story about the coin toss exam cheater. Jean Francois had fun telling us about the misadventures of a priest and his concubine in "Father Frelon". Finally Darlene did some humorous comparisons of destination honeymoons now and 50 years ago in her speech "Our Destination Honeymoon".

The winners of the CTI club humorous speech contest are:

1st Place: Darlene
2nd Place: Mary Jane



In the photo: Darlene, Val our Area Governor and Mary Jane
(Photo courtesy of Helen)


News Bulletin:
Mary Jane competed at MVP Advanced Club the following evening and won her 2nd club Table Topics contest there. Since she can only represent one Area, she has decided to compete for MVP at the Area G23 contest. That means that Rosario who placed 2nd in our club contest will now go on to compete in Table Topics at our Area J41 contest.

Rosario and Darlene will be looking for your smiling faces to encourage and inspire us. Area J 41 contest will be held on Thursday Oct 6 at 6:30 pm in the University of Calgary Student Council Chambers, MacEwan Hall.

Congratulations to all who participated in the contest - the contestants, the volunteers and our guest judges!

Free Toast Host Facelift

As we all know there has been a re branding of Toastmasters International. With that comes a new version of the Free Toast Host website. I just wanted you to know that I am working on getting everything transferred over to it as quickly as possible and it should be ready in the next couple of weeks.

If you want, you can see my progress here: http://8250.toastmastersclubs.org/. But I will suggest not to sign into the members area until I have sent an email out saying that it is 100% ready to go.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know! Thanks

Humorous Speech Contest

Don't forget to come to CTI Techtalkers' Humorous Speech Contest on Wednesday, Sept 21 from 11:45 am to 1:15 pm!

Results of the Club Table Topics Contest

It was a VERY close race in our Table Topics Contest! The contestants’ impromptu skills were put to the test. Congratulations to our four contestants Jean Francois Amiot, Jon Lambe, Mary Jane McGrath and Rosario Talavera who gave such heartfelt answers to the question “What cause or charity is the most important to me?”

The winners of the CTI Techtalkers Table Topics Contest are:
1st Place – Mary Jane McGrath
2nd Place – Rosario Talavera

Mary Jane will represent our club at the Area J41 contest on Thur Oct 6 to be held at the University of Calgary with Speakmasters as the hosts. Everyone is invited to come to the Area contest to cheer on Mary Jane.

Thank you to Toastmaster Kristi from Literally Speaking who came to help us with judging the contest and to all the CTI members who took on roles to make the contest a success.

Submitted by Helen

Speech contests coming!

CTI Techtalkers invites you to come to our two annual Toastmasters Fall Contests.

On Wednesday, Sept 14 - Table Topics Contest from 12 noon - 1 pm
Hear contestants exercise their impromptu speaking skills as they take turns to answer the same question. They have one to two minutes to give their reply and each will be judged based on speech development, effectiveness and delivery of the response.

On Wednesday, Sept 21 – Humorous Speech Contest from 11:45 - 1:15 pm
Humorous speech is a blast! It is always a fun and entertaining hour to listen to contestants tell their funniest stories. They each have 5-7 minutes to deliver their humorous speech and will be judged based on criteria such as: speech development, audience response, appropriateness and delivery.

For both contests, guests are very welcome. Members please contact Helen if you would like to be a contestant or volunteer for one of the key roles to support the contests. 
Winners of the table topics and humorous speech contests will go on to compete at the next level - the Area J41 Contest on Oct 6, 2011.

Submitted by Helen

Mentoring

This past weekend I was hanging out with my niece. Her and I don't get to spend a ton of time together but I always enjoy the time when we do. I always try to make the time productive and try not to play video games or watch television with her. So I decided to bake some cookies with her. I had her do everything that she was big enough to do. Measure the sugar, pour it into the bowl, mix it with the butter, etc. I usually try to let her figure things out on her own unless she asks for help or I see her struggle with a task.

I think this is the true meaning of mentor-ship. A mentor is not there to hold your hand through every task, they are there to ask questions of or to motivate us when we are having a problem motivating ourselves.

While we were making the cookies, I was cracking some eggs and my niece turned to me and said "Why are you doing it like that?" to which I said "What other way is there to crack an egg". She then proceeded to show me a better way to crack an egg.

The point I am making is that sometimes, as a mentor, we can learn something too. So I encourage you to get a mentor if you don't already have one and if you are feeling up to it, start mentoring someone else. It doesn't have to be a long term thing, it can just be helping a new member through their first time as time keeper.

I know that you will find it as rewarding and beneficial as I have.

Our first Competent Communicator of the year

When you first join toastmasters the idea of doing one speech can be a daunting one, let alone 10. However, after completing each speech the next one seems more attainable. Mitch has inspired us to be better people and to not be "angry Calgarians" in his 10th speech of his Competent Communicator manual. It was a rousing speech that changed some of my thoughts and behaviors when it comes to being angry or upset. Very good job Mitch and I can't wait to see your next speech!

Our Club has Two Division Of the Year Award Winners!

Division Governor, Keith, has recently announced the Division J winners of the "Of the Year Awards". Rosario was awarded Division J Area Governor of the Year 2010-2011 and Linda was awarded Division J Rookie of the Year 2010-2011. Well done, Rosario and Linda!

To put the awards in perspective:
-Three of the five Area Governors in Division J achieved Select Distinguished Area status in the past year and Rosario's Area J41 was one of them.
-There were 27 clubs in Division J who had the opportunity to submit nominations for Rookie of the Year and Toastmaster of the Year.

One of our sister clubs in Area J41, Igniters, received the Division J Of the Year award for best newsletter.
Doris Henn, from Golden Gavel in Area J46, received the Division J Toastmaster of the Year award.

Congratulations to all the deserving recipients!

Welcome to July

Hello, and welcome to a new year for the CTI Tech Talkers exec. team. I have switched up the blog a little. I will try to change it up per season to make it a little more interesting. I have also increased the width of the page so please let me know if anyone is having problems viewing the page.

I will be changing up the links on the side but that won't be for a little bit.

If you have any suggestions please let me know and I will be sure to try to include them.

Thank you,

Kyle

Welcome to Kyle

Today, Kyle will be taking over the blog as the incoming VP Public Relations. He is dynamic, creative and full of great ideas about what he would like to do with the blog and the CTI website.

Please welcome Kyle to his new role and give him lots of great feedback and support and material for stories.

Over to you, Kyle ... have fun!

Val and Linda Win "Of the Year" Awards

The meeting room was vibrating with energy for CTI's annual delicious potluck and "Parade of Champions". Excellent comraderie, great food, awards and inspiring speeches - it was all there!  The creative collaboration of Val and Chris D H gave rise to lots of  fun awards and laughter. 

One of the big achievements this year was becoming a President's Distinguished Club - which Val, our Club President, said means that members are achieving their personal goals and getting value out of the club meetings. Val thanked members of her executive for their hard work and support by presenting each with a gift (roses or snickers bar - a story for another day).

Val (right) CTI Toastmaster of the Year
Presenters: Rosario and Jean Francois

 Congratulations to Val who was awarded CTI Techtalkers Toastmaster Of the Year and to Linda, our VP Education, who was awarded CTI Techtalkers Rookie Of the Year for their outstanding contributions and achievements in 2010-2011. Rosario presented the awards and spoke with enthusiasm about the achievements of both Toastmasters.

"Of the Year" awards are awarded at club, area, division and district levels each year so nominations of Val and Linda have been forwarded to the next level, Area J41.

Linda (centre) CTI Rookie of the Year
Presenters: Rosario and Jean Francois


Mitch presented a powerful, inspiring speech titled "Get in the Game". He challenged us all to forget about waiting until everything is perfect, to get in the game of life now before it is too late. His speech was evaluated with insight, suggestions for improvement and encouragement by David.

Best Table Topics was awarded to Mary Jane who spoke to the question "Would you do renovations yourself or hire someone to do it?" Since Mary Jane has a contractor husband and been through more than 17 renovations, she spoke with authority and humour on the topic.

Thank you to Toastmaster Val ---and to everyone who helped and participated -- for another very enjoyable CTI event. Congratulations once again to all the winners!

Mentoring Transition Ceremony

Take some NHL signals, monkey bread and a guest speaker with spice and you have a room full of laughing CTI Toastmasters.  Darlene was the Toastmaster for the meeting.

Val baked delicious monkey bread as a treat for this special occasion.

In his speech project #5, Chris E. H. explained the basic NHL signals so that we could truly understand the upcoming final Stanley Cup game. As he demonstrated the signals, he had the audience's rapt attention. Afterwards, Darlene led Quick Table Topics where speakers were asked to say everything they could about a topic in 45 seconds. Geetha presented her evaluation of Chris's speech.



Mona, Rosario and Val

Our mentoring transition ceremony was ably led by Mona Cooley, the leader of the District 42 Mentoring Team. 

Mona had gathered our comments prior to the meeting on how mentoring has benefited us personally and in our careers and then fed the highlights back to us so we could see the tremendous value of mentoring in our lives. 


Val and Rosario inspired us with their thoughts on what mentoring means to the club and to us as individuals.

Mona presented certificates and mentor pins to the mentors and district pins with stars to the mentees with the enthusiastic help of our Club President, Val and our Area Governor, Rosario.



Chris was presented with his Mentor certificate
for his work with Circle of Gold.



Darlene and her "star" mentees: Val, Rosario and Mahdia
(missing: Mary Jane)





Mentor Kevin with presenter Rosario



"Star" mentee: Frank (mentor Linda),
"Star" mentees: Geetha and Linda
(mentor Mary Jane).

Val and her "star" mentees: Chris,
Jean Francois, Lynne and Julie



      Present but no photo:
                     -Rosario's "star" mentee, Helen



       Absent "star" mentees:
                     -Geetha's mentee David
                     -Mary Jane's mentee Kyle
                     -Rosario's mentee Jon
                     -Kevin's mentee Mitch
    

Another CTI event filled with warmth, learning and laughter!

Celebrate

Many of the mentoring contracts have an end date in June which co-incides with the end of the Toastmaster year. It's a time to celebrate all the good things that have happened and how both mentor and mentee have grown. It's a time to decide whether to renew the mentoring contracts or transition on to new partnerships. It's a time to celebrate!

The CTI Techtalkers mentor/mentee transition ceremony and celebration on Wednesday, June 15 will be led by District 42 Mentoring Team Leader, Mona Cooley. Mona will help us acknowledge and celebrate the benefits and accomplishments of our mentoring program and those who make it a success - the mentors and mentees.

While the CTI formal ceremony is a great way for the club to celebrate, there are many additional ways to celebrate on a personal level. You might give a card or a token gift to your partner or simply write a heartfelt note. Depending on your interests, you may choose to go out for lunch or for a beer in the pub. Whatever you do, celebrate what you have accomplished together!

Some of the mentoring partnerships contracts will end; the mentor and mentee will transition on to new partners - to new adventures. Some of the mentors and mentees will decide to renew their partnerships and continue for another contract period because they believe there is still much to explore together. Whatever you decide - it's OK. Celebrate!

Plan to come on June 15 to hear two interesting prepared speeches and to participate in the mentoring transition ceremony and celebration.

Club Officer Training Valuable

The Club Officer Training (COT) on Saturday June 4 was attended by Frank, Mahdia, Lynne, Kyle and Val. By all reports, everyone enjoyed their sessions.

As always COT was energetic and informative. Aside from the valuable information learned at each session, there were many opportunities to meet new people and exchange ideas.

We were entertained by an advanced speaker, Judy Arnall, who has been in Toastmasters for 15 years. Judy has become a published author and professional speaker who gets paid --- a lot! That’s just another reason why Toastmasters is much more than the first 10 speeches of the Competent Communicator.

by Val, President CTI

New Executive Elected!

Congratulations to the newly elected club executive team whose terms will be effective July 1, 2011.

President - Jean Francois
VP Education - Mahdia
VP Membership - Lynne
VP Public Relations - Kyle
Treasurer - Helen
Secretary - Linda
SAA - Frank
Past President - Val

Over the next month, they will be learning about their roles by observing the current club officers and meeting with them, Club Officer training, and joint executive meetings. Our club is in very good hands.

Opportunities Ahead

The world needs good leaders! Would you like to be one of those leaders that inspires a team to achieve more than they could ever have imagined on their own? Would you like to be able to develop your skills in a supportive environment before taking on a bigger leadership role at work? Toastmasters gives us the opportunity to safely practice the leadership skills we need for our careers and community activities.

On Wednesday, May 25 CTI will be holding the elections of club officers. If you would like to further develop your leadership skills, offer to take on one of the club officer positions. You are never alone. The other members of the team will help and there are club officer trainings twice a year where you can get ideas and tips related to the role. Several of our experienced Toastmasters have offered to be mentors for anyone who would like to have a mentor for the first few months of the role. Anyone who is interested in taking on a club officer role may contact Val or Linda to indicated you will let your name stand.

Another option is to offer to help on any one of the committees that support the club officers. For instance, I would be willing to help the VP Education by working on the education committee.

Please plan to attend to show your support of the members who have agreed to run for next year's slate of officers.Without a quorum, the elections cannot be held. We have had a great year this year under Val's leadership. We are a President's Distinguished Club. Let's have another great year next year!

Kevin Earns His ACB

Kevin presented his 10th speech towards his Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) at Wednesday's meeting! To achieve his ACB, Kevin presented a total of 10 speeches working on projects from 2 Advanced Manuals. His last speech was from "Interpersonal Communication", which he used to develop very useful, relevant communication skills for the workplace, volunteer activities and home.

Congratulations, Kevin!

The Mighty Four!

Four CTI members, Mary Jane, Linda, Rosario and Darlene attended the District 42 Convention in Regina on April 29 - 30.

On Friday afternoon we were met at the registration table with leis and colourful bags full of goodies and given our name tags. The theme was Catch the Wave. Everyone dressed in beach clothes for the first night which was a social evening where we enjoyed playing beach games or relaxing in the hospitality suite. The walls of the huge banquet room where we had our meals was festooned with club banners from all over Alberta and Saskatchewan.

At breakfast on Saturday, we were entertained and inspired by the keynote speaker, 1994 World Champion of Public Speaking Dr. Morgan McArthur. There were educational sessions, networking time and recognition of achievements in the past 6 months. At the District Council meeting, the new District Officers were acclaimed. Congratulations to Keith Lee, our current Division J Governor, who will take on the role of Lieutenant Governor of Marketing on July 1.

The International Speech contest on Saturday afternoon was a great success. We heard nine very fine speakers! Kevin Mark, Division G, won first place with his speech titled "Help". Chuck Rose, who practiced at our club last week, won second place for Division J. Darlene was the District 42 Contest Chairman. Both Mary Jane and Rosario were volunteers.

Later in the evening, we attended the District Governors Banquet and Dance -all dressed up in our evening clothes and ready to party. Rosario definitely loves to dance!

At 6:30 AM on Sunday morning, Darlene and Linda were up bright and ready for the evaluation contest sound check. Linda was chosen as the test speaker and kept it a big secret until the contest started. She received excellent feedback from nine of the best evaluators in the District. Some of the contestants thought she was an experienced speaker. The audience gasped and clapped for her when they heard afterwards in the interview that she had only been a Toastmaster since June. The winner of the Evaluation contest was Kelly Kaur from Division G, second was Peter Temple from Division C, and Chuck Rose from Division J - all from Calgary.

After the contest, we were treated to a farewell brunch, thanked all the volunteers and said our goodbyes.

Why were your CTI representatives the mighty four?-- Because we had a mighty fine time! We wish you could have been there too. The next District conference will be in Lethbridge in November.

A Fond Farewell to 5 Members

It is always hard to say goodbye to members, especially ones that have touched our hearts so many times and who have worked hard for our club.

Sergey is going out of country for at least 6 months for work. He hopes to come back when he returns to Calgary. Lee, Laurie and Carole have other commitments and are unable to continue. Marc has a new job on the south side and will join a Toastmasters club closer to his new place of business.

Laurie's humorous stories have entertained members since 2008. She has been encouraging and quietly supportive to many members.

Carole is a charter member of CTI - a title she will keep no matter where her journey takes her. She has been an energizer in CTI having served as club officer, as an Area Governor and competed in speech contests. Carole has entertained us many times with stories about her travels and her many interests, including volunteer work with Grandmothers to Grandmothers.

Marc, a member since 2004, has served as club officer in several positions, has competed in speech contests, presented educational sessions, mentored a number of new members and delighted us with his inspiring stories. His smile, enthusiasm and encouragement to CTI members has filled us with energy and helped many of us to achieve our goals.

To all of you - we will miss you. We wish you all the best in your life journeys.

Val Rocks!

Our Val came second in the Division J International Speech contest last night. She delivered her speech with energy, passion and humour and had the audience right there in Thailand with her. Afterwards, audience members could be heard saying "Delete". Congratulations Val!

Bob Gibennus of Westhills was awarded the Division J President of the Year for his outstanding achievements as Club President in 2009-2010.

The results of the Division J contests are:

International Speech
1. Chuck Rose -
2. Val Erickson - CTI Techtalkers
3. Karen Matthews - To the Point

Evaluation
1. Chuck Rose -
2. Marty Avery -
3. Trudy Ko - Speakmasters

President Regan's address to the nation after the Challenger tragedy

"They slipped the surly bonds of earth, to touch the face of God." Very moving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEjXjfxoNXM

To Kill a Mockingbird - Atticus Finch's speech to the jury

A famous speech from the classic movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TgqenWW0I

Tip of the Week

Picture this. You have done a great job of telling the setup part of your joke or humorous story. You have the audience in your hands; they are listening intently. Then as you finish the set up part, you blurt out the punch line without taking a breath, and move on to the next part of your speech. You wonder why there was so little laughter.

Tip: don't rush the punch line! Common mistakes are: saying the punch line really fast, saying it in such a low voice that no one can hear it or stepping on the laughter by moving too quickly to the next sentence in your speech.

Next time try this. Just before the punch line, pause. Let the audience anticipate. Then deliver the punch line clearly, emphasizing the most important words. When the audience laughs, don't step on it. Wait until the crest of the laughter begins to flatten before going on to the next sentence of your speech. Or if you are the humorist, enjoy the laughter and wait until it begins to wane before sitting down. Challenge yourself to take on the role of humorist at the next meeting. Have fun!

Area J41 Contest Results

CTI rocks! Rosario, Area J41 Governor, organized a very well-run contest and Linda did an outstanding job as Evaluation Contest Toastmaster for her very first time. Other CTI members volunteering were Mary Jane (timer), Helen and Darlene (ballot counters), Chris D.H.(judge). Frank, Geetha, Lynne, Jean-Francois and his wife were all enthusiastic audience members. When you consider the miserable weather, CTI did very well indeed.

The most exciting part was of course, the contests. Val represented our club well in both the evaluation contest and the international speech contest. The results were:

Area International Speech Contest

1st - Val  from CTI Techtalkers

2nd - Harry from Speaker's Edge (and Literally Speaking)

Area Evaluation Contest:

1st - Trudy from Speakmasters

2nd- Anuj from Speaker's Edge

In the photo: Area Governor Rosario, Val, Contest Toastmaster Bill

Val will now go on to compete in the Division J International Speech Contest on Friday, April 15. Let's go and cheer her on!

Congratulations, Val!

Prezi

I had many questions on my choice of presentation software last Wednesday. This so call presentation software is not something only on Mac, actually, the software itself is in the cloud. Meaning it's all done over browser from any computer, at home or at work and this is one of the reasons why it's so popular. Absolutely nothing to install on your computer and no memory stick to carry for your presentation - Oh and did I mention that it's all free? (At least the basic subscription, which I have.)

I encourage anyone interested to go to: http://prezi.com/ and view their "Prezi we like" section and see what can be done. If you like what you see, create your own account and start playing with it; 1) Put some text anywhere on the canvas. 2) Maybe some pictures or shapes or image. 3) Use the path tool to tell the application where to go when you press next slide. 4) Press play and enjoy your new Prezi - Deceptively simple.

Rosario Completes her HPL Project!

Congratulations to Rosario who successfully completed her High Performance Leadership (HPL) project when she presented the project results to the club on Wednesday. Rosario's HPL, the Boot Camp on February 26, was a very successful project that received enthusiastic praise from all the participants. HPL is one more major step completed on her journey to Advanced Leader Silver. Way to go, Rosario!

Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech

One of the great speeches of the last 100 years. Click on the title to view.

Mad Men - Carousel

This is taken from the TV Show Mad Men. In it, the main character Don Draper is making a pitch to clients regarding one of their products. But he doesn't pitch the product in the conventional sense. He tells a story, speaking to them in language that everyone can understand. He couples this strong narrative with powerful visuals from his own life and leaves almost everyone speechless. Listen to his choice of words, note his pacing.

I've watched this a dozen times and I'm still moved by it.

Thanks
Mitch

Tip of the Week

When you are the Table Topics Evaluator, a good rule of thumb is to allow one minute for general comments and about thirty seconds for each speaker. Thirty seconds will allow you to say 3 or 4 sentences (60 - 70 words) OR give one outstanding item and one area for improvement. For example: for 4 table topics speakers you would be allowed 3 minutes for evaluation. Try it the next time you are Table Topics Evaluator!

Tip of the Week

When you are the Toastmaster for a meeting, you will be called upon to introduce speakers in the prepared speech program. Your role is not only to welcome the speaker but to perk the audience's interest in the presentation and to help the audience relate to the speaker. Remember to focus on the speaker in your introduction. It is not about you.

When you introduce a speaker, answer the following questions:

• Why this speaker? 
• Why this topic?    
• Why this audience? 
• Why this time?      

Keep your introductions brief, interesting and relevant. A rule of thumb for length is about 10% of the prepared speech time. Your role is to set the stage for the speaker; establish a connection between speaker and audience; and provide a warm welcome. When you have finished the introduction, always end with the speaker's name and lead the applause. When are you doing your next introduction? Give it a try!

Frank and Mahdia Break the Ice!

Members were on their feet clapping for two of our newer Toastmasters who presented their Icebreaker speeches at the meeting last Wednesday. Frank and Mahdia spoke passionately without notes about their journey to Calgary, their research and our Toastmasters club. David gave his 2nd speech, challenging us to take care of our health by dumping the junk food and taking up healthy eating.

Chris E H took on the role of Table Topics Master, using the table topics cards. Each of the speakers was given a choice of two topics. This brought a lot of laughter as they read out the topics and decided which one to choose.

Toastmaster Val identified some interesting perspectives on our Toastmasters experience in her interviews of the speakers. They liked the following aspects of Toastmasters best: the people, the comraderie, the fun, helping members to achieve their goals, and the opportunity to try new things in a safe environment. Kevin said afterwards that the speaking, listening, evaluating and leadership skills we develop in Toastmasters are absolutely essential to success in business.

Another stimulating and enjoyable meeting!

Tip of the Week

When you are the Toastmaster, do you ever find yourself in the position of wondering how to shake hands with the speaker and get out of the way gracefully? Here's a tip that was passed on to me by a seasoned Toastmaster: shake hands, step back and, still holding the person's hand, guide the speaker in front of you. Then return to your seat. That way you hand over the lectern gracefully and avoid walking in front of the speaker.

What a Contest!

Today, three inspiring speakers spoke to the hearts of CTI Techtalkers and guests as they competed in the club's International Speech contest. Mary Jane told us to "keep busy, laugh and embrace life" in her speech about overcoming challenges "I'm so Lucky!". Val encouraged us to remove the mental clutter and make room for joy in her speech "Delete". Marc gave us examples of how travelling with a lot of baggage can weigh us down and we can travel life more freely if we "Travel Light".

While everyone present agreed all the contestants were winners, the final results are:

1st Place - Val
2nd Place- Mary Jane
3rd Place - Marc.

Congratulations to all the contestants and thank you for sharing your gifts with us! Thank you to Kyle, our Toastmaster and Contest Chairman; to Chief Judge Spence from Valley Echo; and to all the judges and volunteers.

International Speech Contest Mar 9

Come to our club International Speech Contest on Wednesday, March 9. Listen to some great speeches by our three contestants and cheer them on.
The International Speech Contest is the only contest that goes all the way to the International (world) stage. Toastmasters from 113 countries compete at 6 levels: club, area, division, district, International semi-finals and then finally the world stage. The winner of the final International Speech contest is known as the World Champion of Public Speaking.

World Champions of Public Speaking often go on to have professional speaking careers and give back to Toastmasters by speaking for free at District level conferences and conventions. In Regina, at the District 42 convention, April 29 - May 2, the keynote speaker will be Dr. Morgan McArthur, the 1994 World Champion of Public Speaking.

Just imagine, when you are listening to a speaker in an International Speech contest at club level, you may be listening to a future District 42 Champion or even a future World Champion. Two Calgary Toastmasters found out what it was like: Russ Dantu competed at the International semi-finals last year and Rowena Carlson (Romero) competed at world's a few years ago.

Someday it could be you!

Evaluation Contest Results

What a great evaluation contest we had! Eight contestants gave insightful feedback to our test speaker, Kristi from Literally Speaking. Kristi presented a very interesting speech, The Latte Factor, on the value of learning not to excessively spend. Congratulations to all of the contestants.

The winners of the CTI Techtalkers Club Evaluation Contest are:
1st Place- Val
2nd Place- Marc
3rd Place- Mary Jane

Val will now go on to the Area J41 contest on Saturday, April 2. Let's all go to cheer Val on as she represents our club in the Area Contest!

Tip of the Week

Here are some tips from some of the members who attended the Boot Camp on Feb 26:

Mary Jane
Attended the evaluation workshop and learned some ideas on how to evaluate an experienced speaker. I was told to ask the speaker what they are looking for in feedback. I believe that will help me and the speaker too!

Jean-Francois
I found out there was a crazy club that meets every week at 6:45 am!
I liked the handouts that explained the Communication and Leadership tracks. The Leadership track is very interesting. (Ed note: there are some leadership excellence manuals in our CTI library.)
The tips on evaluating were absolutely golden. The COD method (Content, Organization, Delivery) with all the ideas on what to look for will be helpful in the evaluation contest.
Val's tips on speechwriting were very helpful, eg to look for a title at the end after you have written the speech, and to brainstorm after you write your theme statement and then group the ideas.

Linda
TIP Speech Craft
Take a object/subject.
Think of all the different ways you can approach the subject and match it to the requirements for one of the 10 CC speeches.
Example: Cell phone - came up with 8 speech topics in 5 minutes

Darlene
Get ideas for speech topics from the newspaper, the TV, your children, your workplace, or from the hobbies you are interested in. Keep a speech topic file folder and stuff clippings, ideas, notes in it for future speeches.

CTI members were everywhere! Participating with enthusiasm, helping with moving chairs, registration, computers, copying, giving directions, SAA with the workshops and cracker barrels, facilitating…oh yes and organizing! What a great group of people! I am so proud to be a member of this club.

What Happens at the Evaluation Contest?

If you are interested in learning more about how to be a better evaluator, an evaluation contest is a very good source of information. You will see a number of contestants at various levels of experience evaluate the same speaker (the test speaker).

In the contest, contestants first listen to a test speaker (usually from outside the club), then leave the room to write their notes for 5 minutes. Their notes are taken away by the SAA, and then one by one the contestants return to compete, receive their notes back, and give their evaluations on the same test speaker's presentation. After a contestant completes the evaluation, he/she may stay in the room to hear the rest of the contestants.

Watch how each of the evaluation contestants identifies some of the same strengths and areas for improvement, observe the differences in their recommendations and how they comment about the speech. Analyze how you might have done the evaluation and compare with what you see in the contest. Did they offer examples of strengths and weaknesses and offer specific recommendations for how to improve?

The evaluator's main goal is to inspire and encourage the speaker to keep on speaking and to offer suggestions that will help the speaker improve in the next speech. If you were the test speaker, would you have been inspired and encouraged by the evaluator's comments and suggestions?

Tip of the Week

Why do we stand and applaud a Toastmaster who completes their Icebreaker speech? Everyone remembers their first speech! We understand the amount of courage it took to stand in front of an audience and speak for the first time. We stand and applaud to honour and encourage the speaker's effort and achievement.

Toastmaster Leadership Institute News

Six members of CTI braved the elements to attend the Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) on January 26. They report that it was an "awesome" experience where they learned more about their club officer roles, met Toastmasters from all across the city, and had the opportunity to attend workshops.

Kyle was so pumped that he did a whole speech on the topic at a CTI meeting afterwards. Kyle says that the thing that he took from the one session on Evaluations was that there is more than just the sandwich method for evaluating. There are several other methods that he thinks would work better for several situations. We look forward to seeing Kyle use some of those methods over the next few weeks!

Mary Jane says, "I have gone several times to the TLI and I have always enjoyed it. It is great to meet other Toastmasters. People were interested in the Advanced Boot Camp that Rosario is planning. Mona gave the membership session and it was great, and of course lively! It was fun to report that CTI is doing well with membership! Our club had a great turn out at the TLI. I believe there are 75 clubs in Calgary, there were 100 people at the TLI and we had 6 people from CTI."

Our club President, Val went too. She had this message for everyone, "As you no doubt noticed, the TLI provides excellent opportunities to learn what you’re doing right and what can be improved upon. It’s a chance for networking and practicing your speaking and listening skills - all while in a positive atmosphere. The educational sessions this year were superb and I look forward to hearing about what CTI attendees learned.

CTI members who attended helped Rosario promote her Boot Camp scheduled for Feb 26. I’m certain that with Rosario’s enthusiastic leadership and the support of our club members, her Boot Camp will be a success.
I’m proud of you all and proud of our club."

Geetha couldn't stress enough how important these sessions (TLI) are.  "Not only are they very well thought out and presented with so much effort by the trainers to provide a great training experience, they are absolutely free!!! Thanks to my mentor Mary Jane's gentle persuasion, I got to attend the TLI on Jan 26. To me it was a great opportunity to relive the glorious days of a toastmasters experience once again.

The packed 6 hour training session had some great speakers who entertained as they trained and educated the 100 odd attendees on Roles of Executive Committee, Judging, Evaluation for beginners and for advanced speakers, Speech Preparation to name some.

The special evaluation session ''Solutions for Non-native English Speakers Evaluation' in my view was well researched and a much needed entry into the toastmasters curriculum. According to the presenter TM Yvea Zaels, a majority of toastmaster members are non-native english speakers. Her tips on how to evaluate (by consent) on pronunciation, right usage of words, sentence formation while following the general rules of evaluation tied with techniques developed and used by speech therapists will indeed be of great help for members who want to move up to the next level as speakers.

Other two sessions I attended and thoroughly enjoyed were the Judges Workshop conducted by Chief Judge Marvin Henry and the Art of Advanced Evaluation packed with tips on various evaluation techniques from District 42 2010 Evaluation Champion  Nandini Venkatesan, DTM, and past Evaluation Champion Christina Kruis, DTM ."

Editor's Challenge: Thank you to all the contributors who told us about their experience at TLI. In the next few weeks, I challenge each of you to post one more specific tip that you learned that our members can take away and use.

Welcome New Members

Last week 5 new members joined the club. Give a big CTI Techtalkers welcome to Rob, Mahdia, Lynne, Mathew and Frank! To read more about our members, click on the "Members of CTI" page.

Stoke Up the Fire

On Wed Jan 26, members of CTI Toastmasters attended a lively workshop on how to develop strong mentoring relationships. Val spoke about what she has enjoyed most about mentoring and Marc spoke about what a mentor can do to help a member improve his/her speaking skills. Darlene walked the group through some of the benefits of developing the BEST mentoring relationship. BEST = Build, Establish, Support, Transform.

Attendees at the workshop found out that the mentee is the person "driving the bus", the person that determines how fast to go, which direction to go and what success will look like. The mentor guides, supports, coaches and shares knowledge and experiences so that progress is faster and easier.

Darlene emphasized that the mentor doesn't have to know everything. We are experts in only 5 or 6 things at best. It is OK to call upon another seasoned Toastmaster for help.

Everyone agreed that CTI should have a Transformation Celebration in June to celebrate the end of the current partnership agreements, the successes and achievements and acknowledge all the volunteers. A party! Sounds great!

Another Competent Leader Awarded

Congratulations to Mary Jane who achieved her Competent Leader award!

Take a look at the Competent Leader manual to see all the choices you have for accomplishing this award. Mary Jane has been enthusiastically taking on roles at meetings as well as being a great supporter of activities in the club and in the wider Toastmaster community. Mary Jane is our current VP Membership.

CTI now has achieved 8 goals and is one goal away from President's Distinguished Club. Wow!

CTI is among the top 23!

CTI is one of 23 clubs in District 42 that will be awarded the D42 Go-Getter ribbon for achieving Distinguished Club status. There are 256 clubs in District 42!

Four clubs in Division J achieved Distinguished Club status to date: CTI Techtalkers, Silver Springs, Mountain Mumblers and Literally Speaking.

Each member of the club has earned this award through achievements, enthusiasm and support for each other. Keep on rocking!

Competent Leader Awarded

Congratulations to Chris D. H. who achieved his Competent Leader award! Chris has been a strong member of the CTI club, having been an executive member in the past, and always ready to take on a meeting role or help at club events.

CTI now has achieved 6 goals and is one goal away from Select Distinguished Club.