Club Humourous Speech and Evaluation Contests - Sep 5 2011

Our in-house Humorous and Evaluation Speech contests will be held on Monday, September 5, 2011, in place of our regular club meeting. If you wish to participate as a contestant, please register with our Contest Chair, Peter Ho (vpm@toastmasters.org.hk), or with Michael Boynton (vpe@toastmasters.org.hk).

Unlike the International Speech Contest where at least the first six speeches from the CC manual must have been completed in order to be eligible to compete, the Humourous Speech and Evaluation contests have no eligibility requirement other than that you be a member in good standing (have you paid your fees yet?). Everyone, new and experienced members alike, are therefore urged to grab this golden opportunity to improve their public speaking skills by competing.

I believe that this year two winners from each in-house contest will be eligible to compete in the Area level contests to be held on a Saturday between 10th to 30th of September.

Some Stuff You Should Know About the Contests

Speech Timings

Humourous Speeches: 5-7 minutes in length; less than 4.5 minutes or more than 7.5 minutes results in disqualification; green signal at 5 minutes, yellow signal at 6 minutes, red signal at 7 minutes; unlike at regular club meetings, the coloured timing signals will remain aloft until the next one is hoisted or the speech has ended.

Evaluations: 2-3 minutes in length; less than 1.5 minutes or more than 3.5 minutes results in disqualification; green signal at 2 minutes, yellow signal at 2.5 minutes, red signal at 3 minutes; unlike at regular club meetings, the coloured timing signals will remain aloft until the next one is hoisted or the speech has ended.

Contest Rules (from the TI Speech Contest Rulebook)

Humorous Speech Contest Rules

The Humorous Speech Contest follows all rules outlined in the General Rules section of this rulebook. In addition, the following additions and exceptions apply.
1. The subject for the humorous speech shall be selected by the contestant. The speaker shall avoid potentially objectionable language, anecdotes, and material.
2. The speech must be thematic in nature (opening, body, and close), not a monologue (series of one-liners).

Evaluation Speech Contest Rules

The Evaluation Speech Contest follows all rules outlined in the General Rules section of this rulebook. In addition, the following additions and exceptions apply.
1. At the beginning of this contest, a five- to seven-minute test speech will be presented.
   A. The test speech shall be either a contest-type speech, or taken from one of the assignments in the Competent Communication manual.
   B. Contestants are permitted to make preparatory notes during the test speech using materials of their choice.
   C. It is recommended that at all levels of the contest, the Toastmaster giving the test speech is not a member of the same club as any one of the contestants.
   D. The test speaker shall be introduced by announcing the speaker’s name, speech title, speech title, and the speaker’s name.
   E. Neither the manual project nor any objectives that the speaker may have shall be made known to the contestants, judges, or audience.
2. At the conclusion of the test speech, all contestants shall leave the room. They then have five minutes to prepare their evaluation using materials of their choice.
   A. Timing and preparation supervision shall be under the control of the contest sergeant at arms.
   B. Where it is not practical for contestants to leave the room, contestants will complete their five minute preparation in the same room under the control of the contest sergeant at arms.
3. After five minutes have elapsed, no further preparation shall be allowed and with the exception of the first contestant, who shall be called back as first evaluator, all others shall hand all written material to the contest sergeant at arms. Preparation material shall be handed back to contestants as they are introduced to present their evaluation.
4. Introduce each contestant by announcing the contestant’s name twice. Note that this differs from the standard name, speech title, speech title, name, because evaluation speeches do not have titles.