Instead of placing a huge workload on the Chair of a Contest (toastmaster), some clubs have split the role and created the role of Contest Organizer - with the remit of getting all materials ready for the respective chair or chair's if there are two contests and arrange the roles and meeting. On contest day, the chief organizer can relax and watch the contest unfold, and the chair can focus their mind solely on the job at hand.
There is plenty of material available online to
engage in contest planning. The senior leaders of my former club put
together a contest planning guide that is very well written and prepared
called "How to Organize a Club Contest"
How to Organize a Club Contest [PDF] from Confidently Speaking
http://bit.ly/1x0gd8A
The most critical role in contest preparation are not the executive nor
even the contest chair, but setting up a role for a contest organizer.
If that role is not setup then a lot of the load of contest preparation
falls on the VP of Education, and then on the Chair of the specific
contest. The arrangement of a contest organizer provides a position that
that means the Chair can do what they do best and an Executive can do
what they do best.
Having a contest organizer also means that there is oversight between
transitions in the executive, it would not matter if a member is
switching roles from VP of Ed to VP of PR, because the oversight of the
contest organizer will bring the new VP of PR up-to-speed on the needs
of the contest. The contest organizer themselves isn't thrown in the
deep end because the VP of Education will be there to provide advice, or
channel advice from prior contest organizers or members who have prior
experience of event planning for contests.
As VP of Ed or as a prior VP of PR at my former club, at contest time,
my role is secondary to that of the contest organizer as far contest
planning is concerned. It is about ensuring the resources are available
for the contest organizer as the specific contest organizer needs them.
Delegation is leadership, it is not abdication.
When we engage without that role, it makes life tougher for everybody
and my job at Toastmasters is not come out of this a hero, but to not be
seen. If I am the invisible hand to the contest organizer, then that is
a success. It may not be given that members will readily step up to
take the role of contest organizer, but when they do it sure takes a lot
of sweat equity out of contest preparation.
With an Inspirational Speech and Evaluation contest, there can be one
contest organizer set up to serve two chairs, one chair for the
Inspirational Speech Contest and one chair for the Evaluation Contest.
If we spread the organization this way we stop talking about contests
like John Wayne or a G.I.Jane and we make preparation the part we don't
need to talk about, because if it is done well, guests and members will
only notice the contest and not the preparation, which is business as
usual. Toastmasters runs well when there are many unsung heroes rather
than a few last action heroes. Indeed heroics can be a red flag for poor
performance. The curtain call will happen after the contest is
delivered and then it is all about the contest organizer - give people
scope, recognize that scope.
The way to take some of the pain out of a contest away is appoint a
contest organizer, and in so doing that will free up time to do engage
other areas that are more club business related.
CityVP Manjit
23rd December 2014
