Contest Planning

With our clubs forthcoming Table Topic and Humorous Contests at City Centre Toastmasters, my first reference is going to be the resource on our District's website.  There are times when one can innovate or engage in unique practice which is the personal value benefit for me to explore contests at this blog, but there is also wisdom in not re-inventing the wheel when someone has done the groundwork previously.

The Table Topic and Humorous contests begin at club level, winners go to the Area Contest and the winners of that go to the Division and so the world of these two contests are within the District.  They also provide the fun side to competition because the bar isn't as stringent as the one for the official World Champion of Public Speaking.

My prior club created the definitive guide on how to organize a contest - and this has been revised this year.  While that guide is now universally utilized throughout the district, there are tips that the former club President at City Centre Toastmasters showed me that are really efficient and lean.  So while the "how to" guide is excellent, the search for options isn't restricted to one guidebook download.

While contest Rule Books and Digital Kits maybe available online, I find it best to place a free order with Toastmasters International directly - that way there can be no errors in using out-of-date information.  Technically a Chief Judge can disqualify contestants for not following due process or nullify a club's contest for not having the latest contest rule book present at any given contest.

While it seems laborious to go through a checkout to download free digital contest materials, the order is logged so it is simply a good cross-check that these things have been done on the to-do-list and consequently saving to a file on one's computer where these materials can be found, when they need to be found.  Most contest planning should begin about 6 weeks before a contest - so this is a part of those process steps.

CityVP Manjit
16 Aug 2014