A Guide to Chairing
Northrise Club Competitions
GENERAL
These are general notes for running all types of speech contests - International (Prepared), Humorous, Table Topics and Evaluation - at Northrise Club; adapt these notes to the specific rules of each type of contest. See also Introduction to Competitions, Contest Quick Checklist & Contest Downloads There are specific notes for Table Topics and Evaluation Contests below.
Procedure
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Prepare - know what you are going to say, and when. Prepare an Agenda and adhere to it on the day. Work the telephones vigorously before the meeting to ensure that all participants are appointed and are aware of what is needed.
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Read the contest rules.
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Ensure that all necessary certificates and forms (download) will be taken to the meeting. A suitable Topic will be needed for the Table Topics contest.
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Take along any thank you gifts for the Judge/s (and test speaker for the Evaluation Contest), appropriately wrapped.
Contest Format in (Very) Brief
Before the contest, the judges, other officials and contestants are briefed on the rules.
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Chair briefs contestants and Contest Sergeant at Arms (if any).
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Chief Judge briefs Judges Counters and Timers.
Caution - the Chief judge may not be prepared to carry out this briefing - discuss it with him/her beforehand.
Note - the Tie Breaker Judge is not overtly briefed, the position is not to be made public. However, if the person carrying out this role is new, an informal briefing should be done before the contest.
Contest is convened and the audience is brought up to speed briefly by Chair.
Chair acts as Toastmaster introducing successive speakers. In the case of the Evaluation Contest, the first speaker is the Test Speaker, see below for specifics. Each contestant is introduced in turn and one minute is allowed after each speech for the judges. after the final presentation two minutes is allowed.
The Tally Counter gathers up the judging ballots and computes the result. The Tally Ccounter and Timekeeper pass their completed forms to the Chief Judge who will (usually) retire briefly with the other judges to assemble words of profound guidance and wisdom.
Results are announced (usually) by Chief Judge followed by brief dissertation.
Finally, thank yous and farewells, end of contest.
A more detailed set of notes is below.
The Chairman is responsible for the smooth running of the contest.
PARTICIPANTS
Ensure three judges are appointed and from their ranks, a Chief Judge (CJ) selected. Check all other officials have been appointed. The club executive doing rostering will normally have arranged this, but make sure that you are up to speed with any late changes to the roster. Contact each official to ensure they will be at the contest and are fully aware of what they must do.
In addition to three judges you also require;
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Tie Breaker Judge (whose identity should be kept a secret from the meeting according to the rules, presumably to avoid doubts being cast about impartiality)
Time Keepers (2 supposedly, usually actually 1)
Tally Counters (2 supposedly, usually actually 1)
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Contest Sergeant at Arms (not necessarily the club executive Sgt at Arms) for Evaluation and TT contests only.
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Test Speaker (Evaluation competition only).
At club level judges don't need to be external but it helps if at least the CJ is from another club, especially for the evaluation competition. If you are short of people, dispense with Tally Counters (CJ can do it at a pinch), use only one Time Keeper and do the Tie Breaker Judging yourself.
The Chairman is responsible for the smooth running of the contest.
ON THE DAY - BEFORE THE CONTEST
Check with CJ that all contestants and judges have received instructions and forms. (Rules, Code of Ethics and Judging Forms). VPE usually organises these. The eligibility certificate is not usually used at club level. Check certificates and pre-write details that won't change, or ensure that the S@A has this in hand.
Note that the Date, Club Name and Number, President's Signature can all be done prior to the event to save time.
It is a good idea to equip the audience with a judging form to enable them to assess privately their opinion against those of the Judges.
Ensure the Tally Counter and Timekeeper/s know what they must do and that the Tally Sheet and Time Keeping forms are available.
Check the lights are obscured from the view of all but the contestants.
Warn the Table Topics Master that they should avoid calling on contestants if Table Topics are held before the contest. If they intend calling on Judges (and they normally should, to give the Judges other than the CJ a speaking role) they will need to do this while the judges are still in the room, as obviously it can't be done while the judges are out. This is all dependant on how the agenda is structured.
If you are faced with a low number of contestants or last minute apologies and you are chairing the whole meeting including the contest, brief your Table Topics Master that an extended session will be needed. Alternatively use the time for educational or other impromptu exercises to use the extra time profitably. Announce agenda timing changes accordingly at the outset of the meeting.
The Chairman is responsible for the smooth running of the contest.
THE CONTEST BRIEFING
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Verify presence of contestants and check pronunciation of names and titles of speech/es.
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Draw for speaking order.
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Go over the rules with contestants and judges. The Chief Judge is supposed to brief the other two judges, Tally Counters and Timekeepers, but at club contests usually passes this job back to the Chair by default. If the judges are reasonably experienced this doesn't matter but if you are unfamiliar with individual judge's experience it pays to check this.
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Check with speakers for any special requirements (eg. position of props, lectern position, special needs).
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Ask the speakers to familiarise themselves with the positioning of the lights.
AT THE CONTEST
1.Check venue is prepared correctly; timing lights etc. Set up for the first speaker if necessary. You are the Toastmaster in effect and need to put up props for each speaker and remove them as each presenter has finished. Generally the lectern is not needed and should only be introduced if a speaker indicates they need it. Don't forget to remove any props or the lectern after the speaker is finished, during the judge's time out.
2. Welcome audience. Read the rules and times in brief for the benefit of the general audience
3. State that contestants and judges have been briefed and all contestants are eligible.
4. Announce the order of contestants.
5. State that there will be one minute's silence at the end of each contest speech for the Judges to mark their ballots and two minutes after the last presentation for the judges to complete their ballots.
6. Ask the Chief Judge if the Judges are ready. He or she probably won’t have a clue but ask anyway.
7. Ask the Contestants if they are ready and ask the timekeepers to check the lights. You should briefly outline the contest timing - eg; 7 mins +/- 30 secs.
8. NOTE: here you might chose to mention that cell phones, pagers etc be turned off, no music is permitted, no interjections are allowed and that photographs are not permitted. Also mention that the contestants are aware of the location of the timekeeper's lights (theoretically the audience aren't supposed to know where this is).
9. Formally commence the contest.
AND NOW THE ACTION
10. Call up the speakers in turn - announce the name of each contestant, title of speech, title of speech and name.
11. Welcome each speaker with a handshake and smile only ‑do not speak in addition to your announcement.
12. After each presentation, refrain from commenting on the speech, ask audience to be silent and patient for one minute for the Judges to write up their ballots and introduce the next speaker after the minute silence.
The minute should also be used to bring forward the next competitor. The minute can be shortened if you have experienced Judges if you have prearranged with the individual judges for them to signal they have finished before the minute is up.
THEN THE DUST SETTLES
13. At the end of the final contestant's presentation, ask for 2 minute's silence for the judges, and when 2 minutes have elapsed, ask the Judges to hold up their ballots for the Tally Counter/s (if any) to collect the ballots.
14. Ask the Timekeeper/s to pass the time record to the Chief Judge.
15. The Chief Judge should then retire from the room with the Tally Counter/s for the results to be computed and the Tally Sheet and ballots to be passed to the CJ. Note that the contest result is decided on the strength of the ballot results only and the result of the ballot is final (give or take the need for a tie-breaker's ballot). The use of a Tally Counter protects the CJ against tampering charges.
If the Tie Breaker's ballot is needed, the Tally Counter (or if no TC is used, the CJ) should make this need known to you so that you can obtain the Tie-Breaker's Ballot. The ballot being final the judges need only discuss their comments (made through the CJ), they can't alter the outcome.
Should you have overlooked the appointment of a Tie Breaker Judge (perish the thought) and a tie arises, things can be stressful for the CJ. If when asked for a Tie Breaker Judge's ballot you have to admit to this, suggest the CJ add the actual scores from the judges individual ballots and endeavour to break the tie from the result. The individual scores are not important in themselves but their relativity when aggregated should produce a more 'refined' outcome, making the best of a less than ideal situation.
NOTE - the approach of having all judges retire after the contest to compare notes etc is only carried out at club level and is a local addition to the Toastmasters International contest rules. Local convention has it that the CJ will, with input from the other two judges, assemble brief notes as to how well the meeting was run and some pointers to assist the winner compete at Area.
Don't let the meeting lapse while the contest moves from the contest end to the CJ's return. The interim should be occupied with Table Topics or other meeting business per the agenda. Momentum is important. Have spare Table Topics available to cover any gaps and prevent lapses or be prepared to invent topics in line with an earlier theme.
16. Adjourn or hand over to President, Meeting Chairman or Toastmaster, whatever the programme decrees. Ensure that while the judges are out, someone is writing up the certificates for the CJ to award. Leaving this for the CJ to do is not fair on the CJ.
If you are still in control of the meeting (per agenda) ensure that the CJ isreminded when his time is up. Judges have to conform to the agenda timings also. See above re lapses in the meeting.
Don't allow the Tally Counters to remain with the Judge/s after they have delivered their tally. The TC's presence doesn't give the judges total freedom of discussion.
17. When the Chief Judge returns, reopen the contest if the meeting agenda calls for this or if the Meeting Chair does not do this, welcome CJ's return. The CJ will then announce winners and placegetters, present certificates and deliver a brief summary of the contest conduct and pointers for the winner together with (optionally) very general comments for all contestants. This approach is only adopted at club level, at higher levels the Contest Chair would make the announcements, distribute certificates all without comment.
18. When the CJ is finished, thank the CJ and declare the contest closed if the program calls for this. If there is a gift/s for the Judges, this might be a good time to present it/them. This should be arranged with the President.
19. In the most unlikely event of a protest, it must be dealt with before the meeting is adjourned (even if members need to be excused while a protest is sorted out).
20. Hand meeting control to Meeting Chair or President as appropriate. Shoot through.
The Chairman is responsible for the smooth running of the contest.
TABLE TOPICS CONTEST & EVALUATION CONTEST
Most of the above is appropriate to all four contests, however the Table
Topics and Evaluation Contests have particular format differences; briefly:
TABLE TOPICS
At the contest commencement, all but the first contestant leaves the room. Each speaker is given the same topic and allowed to rejoin the audience after they have spoken. The second and subsequent speakers are brought into the room by the Contest Sergeant at Arms during the one minute judging time allowed after each presentation. Two minutes judging time should be allowed after the final delivery per note 13 above. The judges then retire.
EVALUATION
First the Test Speaker is introduced in the normal way (Speaker Name, Title, Tile, Speaker Name) At the test speech conclusion, all contestants leave the room under the control of the Contest Sergeant at Arms. The contestants are then given a timed five minutre interval in which to prepare their evaluations.
The first contestant is then
each brought into the room by the Contest Sergeant at Arms to deliver
their evaluation. The second and subsequent speakers
are brought in during the
one
minute judging time allowed after each presentation. Contestants are
allowed to rejoin
the
audience after they have spoken.
Two minutes judging time should be allowed after the final delivery
per note 13 above. The
judges then retire.
See also Introduction to Competitions, Contest Quick Checklist & Contest Downloads