Speech contests are a Toastmasters tradition. Each year thousands of Toastmasters compete in the Humorous, Evaluation, Tall Tales, Table Topics and International speech contests. Competition begins with club contests and winners continue competing through the area, division and district levels. The International competition has two additional levels — semifinal and the World Championship of Public Speaking®.
This year, facing a global pandemic, the board of Toastmasters International decided on March 14th that all area, division and district contests and events before June 1, 2020 must be held virtually. The District Executive Committee approved that all contests moving forwards in the 2019-2020 year will be virtual meetings. Also note that Toastmasters policy is that all participants must be muted and hide their video except the Speaker and Timer.
Our District Leadership team and Chairs have worked hard to develop the resources below to ensure an excellent virtual contest experience:
Contest Agenda
- Evaluation and International Speech Contests Agenda for Areas
- Evaluation and International Speech Contests Agenda for Divisions
- The agenda should be emailed to all speech contest participants 1 day before the contest.
Resources for Contestants (Evaluation & International Speech):
- Contestant Training & Preparation Slides
- Contestant Training & Preparation Video
- Contact your Area or Division Director to schedule a Zoom prep session to check your audio, video, speaking area, how to hide non-participating videos and how to turn on the gallery view.
- Tips & best practices for contestants:
- Use Gallery View, not Speaker View to compete. Hiding non-participating videos ensures you only see your own video and the timer video while competing. You won’t have to hunt to find the Timer video. Instructions to do this are here.
- If you are in a small room, your computer/laptop microphone and video may be sufficient. If you are in a very large room (ie: basketball court), having a wireless headset or wired headset to your cellphone will provide exquisite sound quality. Please test this at a virtual club meeting or prep session with your Area or Division Director.
- You won’t see or hear the audience while you compete. Remember to look at your camera, not your screen, to ensure eye contact. If you have jokes, remember to pause/slow down to let them laugh as you won’t hear it. If you have call outs – like asking people to raise their hands – remember that you won’t be able to see them.
- If there is a technical malfunction (for example the Timer video disappears mid-speech), you may be given an additional 30 seconds of time (ie: you would not be disqualified as an evaluator until 4 minutes or 8 minutes as an international speech contestant).
Resources for Timers:
- Timer Training Slides
- Make sure you have Green, Yellow and Red timing cards. Use a sharpie to put a large G, Y and R on the respective cards as webcams and lighting can affect the true color of your timing cards.
- There will be 2 Timers. One will be timing and have their video on with timing cards during the Test Speaker, Evaluation and International Speech Contests (be aware you will be visible to all). The 2nd timer will be in the background as a backup.
- You will be emailed final contest details 1-2 hours before your respective contest.
Resources for Chief Judges, Judges (including Tie Breaking Judges) and Ballot Counters:
- Judges Training Slides
- Judges Training Video – resources like printable Judges Guide’s or a spreadsheet of the Judge’s Guide is available here in the video description. You’ll also see how the Chief Judge receives ballots from Judge, the Timing Sheets and how ballot counting is done.
- You will be emailed final contest details 1-2 hours before your respective contest.
- Chief Judge – you will ensure your timers, ballot counters and judges are trained. You will send final instruction emails to these individuals atleast 1-2 hours before the contest. You will brief the judges before the contest.
Resources for Sergeant at Arms:
Resources for the Chief Judge:
- Chief Judge Training Slides
- You will ensure your timers, ballot counters and judges are trained (see resources above). Send final contest instructions to them atleast 1-2 hours before the contest begins. Email templates are available here.
- You will brief judges before the contest begins and make a brief statement to make at the beginning of the contest (see script below)
- During the contest, you will be moved to a Breakout Room by the technical host to count ballots with the ballot counters. Be prepared to share your screen so you can work together to count the judges ballots.
- Work with the Contest Chair to determine who will announce the contest winners.
Resources for the Toastmaster, Chief Judge & Technical Host:
Resources for the Test/Target Speaker:
Click here for an overview of the contests District 57 organizes.
Last updated: 3/23/20
