Burrard Toastmasters

New year, new goals. Start 2026 with us at the first Toastmasters meeting of the year. Observe powerful presentations, try your hand at impromptu speaking, and connect with fellow members as you build confidence and communication skills.

🗓️ Wednesday Jan 7, 2026

⏰ 6:00 PM | 📍 1055 West Georgia, 11th floor

Please wait in the lobby; someone will accompany you to the meeting.

On behalf of everyone at Burrard Toastmasters, we wish you a joyful Holiday Season with your families, friends and loved ones.

We will not be hosting a meeting over the next two Wednesdays.

Our first meeting of the new year will be January 7th from 6-8 pm, right on time to get started on these new year goals.

Looking forward to seeing you then!

Tomorrow marks the end of the Burrard Toastmasters year as we hold our very last meeting of 2025.

Our them is “A Toast to Growth”—a moment to reflect on our progress, celebrate achievements, and appreciate the journey we’ve shared as a club throughout the year.

The first half of our meeting will be our regular format with an invocation, Table Topics, and word of the day.

In the second half, we will have our Holiday Party with celebration, conversation and community!

The dress code is Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Holiday spirit!

We will also have a catered Indian meal. Suggested donation of $15.

Join us for this final meeting as we close the year on a high note.

What a meeting we had last Wednesday! It was exhilarating, exciting, and full of laughter and fun.

Our topic was Facts tell, Stories sell and our Table Topics Master Manoj set the tone with a fun twist on Table Topics, taking intriguing new headlines as "Facts" and asking our members to come up with the story to explain that headline. It was a creative exercise in storytelling and a different way to approach Table Topics that was captivating!

The word of the day was "Vivid" and the second half of our meeting vividly captured our interest and attention with our Tall Tales contest.

All five contestants gave us fun and intriguing tall tales in a 3 to 5 minutes format that we enjoyed by everyone.

Congratulations to Alex Janusz, our winner of the Tall Tales contest who gave us a bear of a Tale that had us on the edge of our seats! Alex truly captured the essence of Tall tales with humour, great storytelling, and a twist that was vivid and memorable. Great job Alex!

Congratulations also to the other contestants for taking on the challenge, growing their skills, and embracing the experience of the contest.

Great job everyone!

Join us tonight for a fun and exciting evening of Table Topics and our Tall Tales Contest!

Don’t let the rain spoil the fun and keep you home.

Tonight we guarantee laughter, community, inspiration and a great sharing of ideas.

See you soon!

This week’s meeting theme is “Facts Tell, Stories Sell.”

Facts inform, but stories connect. Whether we’re persuading, inspiring, or leading, it’s the story behind the message that truly sticks. This week, we’ll explore the power of storytelling and how it transforms even the simplest message into something memorable.

In the second half, we’re hosting our Tall Tales Contest!
Get ready for exaggerated adventures, unbelievable characters, and wildly imaginative speeches. It’s one of the most entertaining contests of the year—filled with creativity, humor, and outrageous surprises.

Join us for a fun, engaging, and highly imaginative evening!

📅 Date: Wednesday, December 10
📍 Location: 1055 West Georgia – 11th Floor

Another great meeting in the books!

Thank you to all members and guests for your energy and great participation last night. What a fun meeting discussing all the ways we can turn stress into intentional, long-term joy by changing our mindset and coping skills.

Tanaz was our Table Tooics master and gave us 8 thought-provocative questions. We had some great answers with half of them from our guests!

In the second half of the meeting we had three great speeches. Rob gave his “almost” first ice breaker speech. Magali reminded us to be present and intentional with a fun speech about memory, a car misplaced, and a wow-factor video on the things we notice and the things we don’t. Finally Tanaz’s speech was a practice run for a fundraising event speech she will have to give for work in the near future.

Evaluations were insightful, humour was sprinkled throughout and in the end we all were inspired and learned from each other!

Next week: Facts Tell, Stories Sell! And our Tall Tales Contest!

See you then!!

Our first meeting of December is tonight and the theme is “The Joy of Stress.”

Just in time for the Holiday Season!

Stress is something we all experience—at work, at home, and even on stage. But what if stress isn’t always the enemy? This theme invites us to explore how stress can motivate us, sharpen our focus, push us to grow, and even bring unexpected positives into our lives.

Join us tonight as we dive into this fascinating perspective through speeches, Table Topics, and evaluations that might just help you see stress in a whole new way.

Guests are always welcome!

See you tonight at 1055 West Georgia Street.

Meet at 5:50 in the lobby for elevator access!

Save the dates also for our next two meetings:
December 10: Tall Tales Speech Contest!
December 17: Final meeting of 2025 and Winter Dinner Celebration. Wear your Ugly Sweater for extra fun!

Last night the Club held the elections.

Thank you to our current Executive for their hard work over the 2024/2025 Burrard year:
- President: Alex Janusz
- VP Education: Akash Periyasamy
- VP Membership: Sasha Denysiuk
- VP Public Relations: Aiur Badmatcyrenov/Emmanuelle Forest
- Past President/Treasurer: Ken Bell
- Secretary: Joshua Tafel
- Sergeant-at-arms: The late Ralph Fraatz

We appreciate your contributions in making Burrard a fantastic Club!

And now introducing your new Executive for 2025/2026:
- President: Emmanuelle Forest
- VP Education: Deema Zaher
- VP Membership: Sasha Denysiuk
- VP Public Relations: Tannaz Alesafar
- Past President/Treasurer: Alex Janusz
- Secretary: Nam Phan
- Sergeant-at-arms: Ken Bell

The members of the Executive are there to support members, so do not hesitate to reach out!

Congratulations also to Evan O’Brien and Joe Ashta on delivering their ice-breaker speech! The speeches were funny, with wonderful personal stories, and we look forward to their next one.

Finally, a special thank you to Alumni Onur Aysev, who came for a special visit and also presented a speech with three tips to maintain momentum in your toastmasters journey. Onur is a member of Toastmasters in Chicago and was a member of Burrard 16 years ago.

We love visits from former member!

Next week’s theme is: The Joy of Stress.

Right on time for the Holidays!

See you then.

It's Club Meeting Night and this week’s meeting theme is “The Spirit of Democracy.”

As Toastmasters, we grow by using our voices—and democracy is one of the greatest expressions of that voice. This theme invites us to reflect on participation, choice, leadership, and the collective strength of our club community.

We will also be holding our Club Elections. This is an important moment for us to choose our next team of leaders who will guide Burrard Toastmasters into the upcoming term.

Join us for a meaningful evening of speeches with two new members (Joe and Evan) doing their ice-breaker speech tonight and a Burrard alumni presenting a speech as well.

It's going to be a fun, informative and inspiring evening.

See you soon and guests are always welcome!

Guests: Make sure you arrive at 5:50 pm in the lobby of 1055 West Georgia street for elevator access.

This week at Burrard we are holding elections for our next group of Executives.

Members, this is your chance to have a say and vote for the candidate(s) you feel will help the Club grow while supporting members' goals and objectives.

This is also your chance to volunteer and nominate yourself for a position.

Club leadership helps you grow key leadership skills including organizational skills, relationship building, goal setting, project management and team building.

It's also a great way to earn levels for completing your Pathways.

After the elections, we will have speeches and evaluations.

Guests, join us to see democracy in action and hear excellent speeches!

📅 Date: Wednesday, November 26
📍 Location: 1055 West Georgia – 11th Floor