ORGANIZING A
ROTARY SPEECH CONTEST
The following outline is designed to facilitate your setting up a Rotary Speech Contest in your community’s schools. Sample forms are also identified and available.
- SEND AN ANNOUNCEMENT
SEND AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE CONTEST TO ALL AREA PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOLS ADDRESSED TO THE GUIDANCE DEPARTMENT, ENGLISH (or FRENCH) DEPARTMENT OR SPEECH/DEBATING TEACHERS. INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:
WHO IS ELIGIBLE OR INELIGIBLE TO COMPETE
1. Any High School Student (or High School Aged Home Schooled Student) except a student who has been the District Winner of a previous District 7850 Public Speaking Contest is eligible.
2. However, the child, stepchild, grandchild or step-grandchild of a District 7850 Rotarian is not eligible.
RULES OF CONTEST
1. Subject: Apply this year's theme in everyday relationships with other people.
2. Delivery: A written copy of the speech should be presented prior to the presentation. The speech contestant may refer to the speech during its presentation, but should not be reading the speech word for word, nor should it be completely memorized.
3. Length of Speech: The speech should be no longer than 5 minutes. Penalty points may be added if the speech runs over this time limit.
4. Speech Content: The speech given by each contestant must be original in content and related to the relevance of applying the theme in one’s everyday life.
5. Language: Since Rotary District 7850 is a bilingual district, the speech may be presented either in English or French.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONTEST
This document providing information about the eligibility, rules and procedures should be provided to each school and to each participant, and in addition, a Contestant Registration Form, a sample of the Judges Scoring Sheet and the Speech Contest Poster. The Speech Contest Poster provides details about this year's theme, schedules and prizes. All of these may also be viewed on, or printed from, the Rotary District 7850 Website at Site Page: Speech Contest
STATEMENT OF THE THEME, SCHEDULES and PRIZES
Each year the District will choose between “The 4-Way Test” and the current year’s Rotary International theme. The year’s selection will be on the annual Speech Contest Poster. In addition, the schedules for the four rounds of this year’s contests and prizes to be awarded are also provided on the Speech Contest Poster.
COPY OF JUDGES SCORING SHEET
See Judges Scoring Sheet on the District website.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE CURRENT YEAR’S THEME
Additional information may be obtained at Rotary International web site,
II. COMPETITION PROCEDURES
REGISTRATION FORM
Each contestant must fill out a Registration Form. The Registration Form is available from the District Website. Individual forms will be provided to each school.
Round #1 -Individual Rotary Club Level
Each High School within the club’s local area should be approached to have its students participate in the Speech Contest. Posters with the theme of the contest will be given to each school along with this document, Registration Forms, and a sample Judges Scoring Sheet.
The Rotary Club will have a speech contest committee to set up and coordinate with the participating school.
Each club must have two (2) or more students apply for participating in the contest before it can be held.
A date and time that is agreeable between the participating school, the students and the Rotary Club should be set up for the actual contest. This would work best if it was on school property and during or just after school hours. This contest level should be completed no later than January 31.
A written copy of the speech will be presented to the contest committee prior to the presentation.
The Rotary Club Speech committee will pick a winner using the judging guidelines supplied in this document. If the Rotary Club has more than one high school in its area, they may choose to have a run-off between the winners at each school or combine the schools in the original competition. Judges will pick a winner and a runner-up using the judging guidelines supplied in this document.
The winner of the club’s contest will be eligible to participate in Round #2 - the Area Quarter Finals. If the winner cannot present at the next level of the competition, the runner-up will present and will be awarded the prize.
Round #2 - Area Quarter Finals
Area Quarter Finals are held between competing Rotary Club winners in an Area assigned to an Assistant Governor. Typically, this is 5 or fewer Clubs.
A competition date should be set and agreed upon by each participating Rotary Club Speech Committee Chair and the Assistant Governor, but no later than February 28.
A written copy of the speech will be presented to the judges prior to the presentation. The speech must be essentially the same as presented in the prior level, but minor changes will be allowed. If questioned, the decision if the changes will be allowed will be made by the presiding judges.
The participants will each give their speech to the assembled group and the competition judges. It is suggested that as many Rotarians as possible be there to encourage and support the participants.
The judges should be made up of members from each participating club, but hopefully not members of the club’s speech committee.
There should be a minimum of four (4) judges and a maximum of six (6).
Each judge should remove himself or herself from judging the participant his or her club has sponsored.
Judges will pick a winner and a runner-up using the judging guidelines supplied in this document.
Each Area Quarter Finalist will be eligible to participate in the Round #3 Semi Finals at Rotary District 7850 District Assembly in April. If the winner cannot present at the next level of the competition, the runner-up will present and will be awarded the prize.
Round # 3 - District Semi Finals
The Semi Finals will be held at the District 7850 District Assembly in April. The Quarter Finals winner will be grouped with up to four other Quarter Finalists in two separate groups.
A written copy of the speech will be presented to the judges prior to the presentation. The speech must be essentially the same as presented in the prior level, but minor changes will be allowed. If questioned, the decision whether of not to allow the changes will be made by the presiding judges.
The participants will each give their speech to the assembled group and the competition judges. It is suggested that as many Rotarians as possible be there to encourage and support the participants.
The judges should be made up of members from each participating area. A minimum of four (4) judges and a maximum of six (6).
Each judge should remove himself or herself from judging the participant his or her area has sponsored.
Judges will pick a winner and a runner-up using the judging guidelines supplied in this document.
The two Semi Finalists will be eligible to participate in the Finals, to be held at the District 7850 Spring Conference in May. If the winner of a group cannot present at the next level of the competition, the runner-up will present and will be awarded the prize.
Round # 4 - District Finals
The Finals will be held at District 7850 Spring Conference which is typically held in May. The two Finalists will compete for the District 7850 Championship.
A written copy of the speech will be presented to the judges prior to the presentation. The speech must be essentially the same as presented in the prior level, but minor changes will be allowed. If questioned, the decision whether of not to allow the changes will be made by the presiding judges.
The participants will each give their speech to the assembled group and the competition judges. It is suggested that as many Rotarians as possible be there to encourage and support the participants.
The judges should be Assistant Governors or other qualified individuals. There should be a minimum of four (4) judges and a maximum of six (6).
Each judge should remove himself or herself from judging if the participant from their area is competing.
Judges will pick a winner using the judging guidelines supplied in this document.
PRIZES
Details of this year's prizes are provided on the Speech Contest Poster. All prizes are cash prizes in check form, not saving bonds or other securities.
The prize for speech contest winners at the club level should be $100.00, and will be provided by the individual club.
The prize for speech contest winners at the Round #2 - Area Quarter Finals level will be provided by District 7850 and awarded at the Round #3 - District Semi Finals.
The prize for speech contest winners at the District Semi Finals level will be provided by District 7850 and awarded at the Round #4 – District Finals.
The prize for the speech contest Round #4 – District Finals will be provided by District 7850 and awarded immediately.
III. PREPARATION AND SETUP
PEOPLE AND MATERIALS NEEDED
Judges, see procedures for judges needed at each level of competition.
Each contest will need a tally person to tabulate the judges score sheets.
Each contest will need an official timekeeper.
A podium or speakers dais.
Score sheets for the judges.
Composite score sheets for the tallier.
CONTEST SETUP
Each contestant must arrive at the competition location early enough to check in and be prepared to address the assembled.
The tallier will present the judges with the contestants blank score sheets just prior to the actual presentation.
The timekeeper will start timing the contestants at the beginning of their speech. At the end of the speech, the timekeeper will notify the contestant and the judges if a contestant has gone over the allotted five minutes. The timekeeper will advise to the overage and to the number of seconds/minutes that the contestant went over the limit.
The judges may take a prudent but not overly long time to complete a competitor’s score sheet.
The tallier will collect the contestants completed score sheets and present the blank score sheets for the next contestant to the judges.
The tallier immediately begins recording a composite score from the judges’ score sheets.
The contestant with the highest composite score will win the competition and the next highest scorer will be named as the first runner-up.
The contest winner will be introduced to those assembled. It is also important that the first runner-up be announced at each contest. The prize will be presented to the person presenting in the competition for the next round, hopefully, the winner of the current round but potentially the first runner–up if that is who presents at the next round. If neither the winner nor the runner-up is available to present at the next round of the contest, no prize is awarded for the current level of the contest in this location.
Date of update to this document: 09/08/2010