Pathways Master Class
Check out this great webinar on Pathways brought to you by District 99.
This masterclass provides a deep dive of Pathways covering the following topics:
1. Pathways Curriculum Overview (4:40)
2. How to navigate the platform (16:30)
3. How to complete your project (40:05)
4. Basecamp Management (1:27:15)
5. Success Story (1:49:46)
Celebrate 50 Years of Toastmasters
Would You Like to Join Our Team?
Would you like to join our team? We are looking for committed, dedicated and personable Toastmasters to move into leadership roles in District 99. Are you interested in being a Division Director or Area Director? For more information contact before all the positions are filled!
For more information check out https://d99tm.org/nominations/
Upcoming Events
Over 140 Active clubs
Become the speaker and leader you want to be.
Confident, charismatic leaders weren’t born that way. Toastmasters members learn to tell their story. They listen and answer. Through our community of learners, they find their path to leadership.
Over 2000 Members
News
The Value Of Using Effective Facilitation Techniques Is Clear
By Tanya Turner
We’ve all been there. Listening to an instructor read every single bullet on a PowerPoint presentation. Yawn. We all know how poor instruction is detrimental to understanding and retaining information.
Conversely, effective facilitation is fun. It’s easy to stay alert, make connections and stay engaged in a rich learning environment. The value of using effective facilitation techniques is clear–participants more easily comprehend and retain information.
Facilitation Methods 101 is a one-day workshop to learn foundational group facilitation methods. The techniques have a wide variety of applications and can be used in professional, personal and volunteer scenarios – basically, any situation that involves a team. In this one-day interactive session, participants learn skills to:
- Create a safe space where participants feel welcome and comfortable
- Deliver lectures that use best practice
- Receive feedback and identify triggers
- Manage difficult participant styles, such as interrupters and pranksters
- Keep people engaged, energized and learning
The session I attended in March 2018 was hosted at Ideas Inc in Saskatoon and co-facilitated by Penny Nilsen and Linda Holmevik. The preparation and attention to detail demonstrated great facilitation in action. It was interactive and engaging – making use of the skills they were showcasing. A healthy, complimentary lunch was included in the registration cost, too. I left the workshop with actionable tips and techniques that I can use to be a more effective facilitator.
With adult education, each learner brings their own experience and learning to the situation. This creates a unique environment for the instructor who instead of teaching is a facilitator in learning. The facilitator is the leader of a team. The team’s mission is to learn.
If you want to improve your presentation and leadership skills, this workshop is a must!
Back from the Brink – From Facing Closure to Closing in on Distinguished Club Award
By Nick Wilson
Drayton Valley’s Derrick Toastmasters, located west of Edmonton, have just hosted their area contest for the first time in 15 years. It was an extremely high-quality competition, which is driving the club towards distinguished club status for the third time in almost three decades, and powered its champion speaker into the Division B contest with his eyes on the District contest at the Convention.
This energized team’s roll call of success is now: four CCs, three CLs, one ACB and an ACB-ACL pair of awards on target for end-April. Furthermore, it takes a leadership role supporting other widely dispersed clubs in this rural area: Derrick’s president is the dynamic Area 6 Director Von Eric Tandoc.
But it wasn’t always like this. Four years ago the club was down to one member and faced closure – until the then Area Governor Marc Haine put a team of toastmasters from Beaumont and Devon together, who built great camaraderie while traveling for more than a two-hour round trip on long, bitter winter nights to breathe new fire into the embers.
That same year the rejuvenated, now double-digit-member club celebrated its 25th anniversary. The mayor, MLA/government minister, and guest speaker – the semi-mythical club founder Peter Kossowan aka “Mr. Toast” – attended to celebrate its Phoenix-like success. Peter’s torch, sputtered but never went out and now burns as brightly as when he first lit it in Drayton Valley in the previous century.
Today, it’s Von who carries the Derrick torch on visits to clubs up to two-hours away. Of his frequent visits to different clubs and Toastmasters-related activities he says, “It’s rewarding and satisfying to be part of such a dynamic club and help its members reach their potential as I grow with them – I want to help grow the club that is responsible for my growth.“
And as for “Mr. Toast” – the serial founder, who in 2016 became the first Albertan on the cover of Toastmaster magazine for holding the world record for starting most clubs (164 at the time). He’s taken his total to 171, and says “there’s another on the way hopefully before the Convention.”
There will always be more torches to light.