Page 15 - January 2021 Voices
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Eldred Brown, DTM - Program Quality Director
to compete in a contest if you’re also webcam and microphone so they can be seen
chairing, judging, timing, or counting and heard throughout their speeches. I am not
ballots for the contest. mandating that all speakers at a speech contest
To judge a contest, you must be a paid speak at the same distance from their cameras, so
member of Toastmasters for a minimum of six each speaker will have the discretion to speak at a
months and have completed either Level 2 in distance where they are most confident that they
Pathways or, if you joined Toastmasters before will be seen and heard clearly. Contest chairs are
the Pathways rollout, six speeches from the encouraged to rehearse with speakers days before
Competent Communication manual. the contest to help each speaker set and mark
their speaking area. While competing, speakers
District Rule for Small Areas should stay within their predetermined frames
/ Small Divisions so they can be seen at all times. A contestant
Eight weeks before the Area contest, if an cannot be disqualified for going out of frame,
Area has four or fewer clubs in good standing, but judges will have the discretion to deduct
two contestants from each club in the Area may points from a speaker’s score for doing so. As a
compete in the Area contest. For this rule, the judge, you won’t see a contestant’s whole body, so
International Speech and Evaluation Contests judge each contestant on how well they use the
count as two separate contests, even when they’re space they have. For further guidance on how
held together in the same event. Similarly, if a to run a speech contest online, I recommend
Division has four or fewer Areas, two contestants that you read the PDF titled Online Speech
from each Area in the Division may compete in Contest Best Practices. Please email me at pqd@
the Division contest. d7toastmasters.org if you haven’t yet received a
copy.
Guidelines for Online Contests May your contests be fun, and may the best
All Area, Division, and District contests person win!
this year must be online. All contestants must
compete in real-time using a functioning
VOICES! | JANUARY 2021 15
