Page 14 - November 2020 Voices

FROM THE DESK

You Know You Want To

Eldred Brown, DTM - Program Quality Director

Next month the window will open for clubs to rehearse a speech. The thrill
to run their annual International Speech and of winning the contest brought
Evaluation Contests. Most of you will have the me back to compete again next
opportunity to compete in this first step toward year with the speech I had always

the grand title of World Champion of Public wanted to deliver in a speech contest, a
Speaking. Why do you want to? story about a Halloween night on my college
campus security patrol when all hell broke
Develop Speaking Skills Through loose. I learned from that contest how to paint
Competition vivid pictures with words alone and how to tell

Everyone—well, almost everyone—loves to effective stories with body language and a bit of
compete, to vie against others for a prize that over-the-top acting.
only one person can win. Competition creates

a pressure to succeed that you will not normally Learn by Watching the Best
experience in club meetings. You want to craft By competing in or watching speech contests,
a speech that will impress the judges more I’ve seen a variety of speech and evaluation
than another person’s speech so you can be techniques that won. For instance, many of you

crowned the winner. I experienced this the first still remember the mantras our own 2012 World
time I competed in a speech contest, my club’s Champion Ryan Avery repeated in his district
humorous speech contest in 2009. and world championship winning speeches:
I joined the contest because I had a funny “Push past it!” and “Trust is a must!” How many

speech I was going to give anyway about how of you still use catchy tag lines like that in your
to kill a nest of yellowjackets. I was intimidated speeches? I’ve also learned how to take my
by the other excellent speakers in my club, so I evaluations beyond the sandwich method with
thought I had no chance of winning. I thought I’d such creative techniques as Allie Coffin’s 3-2-1

give it my best shot, anyway. At the very least I method and Alexis Mason’s GIFT mnemonic.
would have some fun competing. Thanks to a lot You can even learn from the speeches and
of rehearsal and the Royal Yellowjacket Air Force, evaluations that didn’t win by identifying the
I WON! Even more importantly, I learned how little things from each that could have been done

14 ONE COMMUNITY