Contest Resources

Contest Manual: 2023-2024 Speech Contest Rulebook

Contest Chair, Chief Judge, Voting Judges, Tiebreaking Judges, Contestants, and all Contest Work Team members including Timers, Ballot Counters, and Contest SAAs please refer to the latest Speech Contest Rulebook July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024 for guidance, regulations and related info. 

Judge's Certification of Eligibility and Code of Ethics

All judges must have completed Pathways Level 2 and the official judge training to be eligible. Please carefully study the latest Contest Rulebook issued in the contest year, the judging ballots, read the code of ethics in advance and keep a fair fashion to choose the contestants of the top 3 speakers in each contest. On the contest day, before the contest, the Chief Judge will call a judge conference/meeting to review all judging items and important issues. Whenever facing issues of any contestant's originality or eligibility, please file the protest to the Chief Judge and Contest Chair to call a judge meeting to make the final decision.    

Speaker's Certification of Eligibility and Originality

Please carefully read through the qualification guidelines and correctly fill in the information required. The Speaker's Certification of Eligibility and Originality applies to ALL contests! All contestants should arrive at least 10 minutes before the contest to sign the Speaker's Certificate of Eligibility and Originality and then draw the speaking position. All contestants' eligibility should be checked by every level of contest organizer. Ineligible speakers or unoriginal speakers will be disqualified and, therefore, are not entitled to win an award. 
To verify an International Speech contestant's eligibility, please employ the Eligibility Assistant in Club Central.  

International Speech Contest 

Judge's Guide and Ballot  (Rev. 05/2023)

Table Topics Contest 

Judge's Guide and Ballot 

SERGEANT AT ARMS (for Table Topic Contest)

Please try to arrive earlier so you can help set up the meeting room. You will first manage the reception area before the contest. During the Table Topics Speech Contest, you will lead the contestants out of the room except for contestant No. 1. Be sure to collect their electronic devices, such as cell phones, pads, smart watches, etc., to be fair. You have to bring each contestant individually, according to their order, back into the contest venue after the previous contestant finishes his or her speech. 

Evaluation Contest 

Judge's Guide and Ballot 

Evaluation Contestant Notes Sheet 

During the evaluation contest, all contestants listen to the test speaker's speech and take notes on the official Evaluation Contestant Notes sheet, which is prepared by the contest organizer. After the test speech, all the contestants are led to the preparation room without taking any digital devices to prevent any unfair advantages. They have 5 minutes to prepare their evaluation and then wait for the speaking order. When the five-minute preparation time is up, the contest SAA shall collect all the Evaluation Contestant Notes sheets from each contestant. Before each contestant goes on to the stage, she or he can ask to retrieve her or his notes. Each contestant can use more than one sheet of Evaluation Contestant Notes.      

TEST SPEAKER

You have to prepare a 5-7 minute speech that is never heard by any contestant before the contest to be fair. You have the opportunity to get feedback from all contestants during the Evaluation Contest. Please inform the Contest Chair of your speech title at least a week before the contest. If you have any special requirements for your speech such as the PowerPoint file, music, lighting, etc, please let the Contest Chair know in advance.

SERGEANT AT ARMS (for Evaluation Contest)

Please arrive earlier to help with the speaking order drawing and distribute the Evaluation Contestant Notes sheet (if necessary). During the Evaluation Contest, after the target speaker finishes her or his target speech, you will lead all the contestants out of the contest room to a designated room to prepare for their evaluation. Be sure to collect their electronic devices, such as cell phones, pads, smart watches, etc., before they leave the contest room. You have to collect all the Evaluation Contestant's Note sheets from all contestants when the 5-minute preparation time is up. Then you bring each contestant individually, according to their speaking order, back into the contest venue after the previous contestant finishes his or her speech. You can give back each contestant's evaluation notes if they ask for them. After the contest, be sure to return the electronic devices to their owners. 

CONTEST CHAIR and CONTEST MASTER  

The Contest Chair is the person who organizes and monitors the whole contest from the beginning to the end. He may find a contest master to host the contest, or he can perform the role himself. A Contest Master conducts the contest to make sure the process goes smoothly.  

CHIEF JUDGE and The JUDGE TEAM  

The Chief Judge is the head leader of the judge team. He organizes the judging team of seven or more and invites an extra judge to be the Tiebreaking judge. He will finalize the top three winners according to the reports he receives from the Timer Team and the Ballot Counter Team. He doesn't participate in the voting process. He will work with the ballot counters to calculate each contestant's points. All judges except for the Chief Judge will use the official Contest Judge Ballots to vote for the top three after the contest. All judges will present the ballot to the Chief Judge/Ballot Counter Team after they finish choosing the top 3 winners on their ballot. 

SERGEANT AT ARMS 

Please try to arrive early so the SAA team can help set up the contest venue. The SAA team will first help prepare the reception area before the contest. They may also help the Contest Chair or Master with the speaking order drawing 5–10 minutes before the contest starts and display the speaking order and the contestants' info such as their names and speech titles on the board or the screen. During the Evaluation Contest, the SAA team will lead all the contestants out of the contest room to the designated preparation area or room except the first contestant. After five minutes you must collect their evaluation notes and then you will bring each contestant individually back into the contest room according to their speaking order. As for the Table Topics Contest, the SAA team will lead all the contestants except the first contestant to the designated preparation area/room to stand by, and then lead contestants back to the contest room one by one according to their speaking order.

Before the SAA Team leads the contestants to the designated area or room, please remind all the contestants to leave their digital devices in the contest room.  

ASSIGNMENT TAKERS 

Speech Contest: Timer's Record Sheet and Instructions  

Please bring a pen or a pencil. Your team of 2-3 will use a stopwatch or timer to keep track of the time and use the colored flag, board, or lights to signal the time to each contestant during their speech. After each contestant's speech, you write their time on the Timer’s Record Sheet. Your teammates will help monitor whether the record is accurate. This sheet will be given to the Timers on the contest date before the contest starts. Please review it before the contest and learn the correct way of keeping records. Present the record to the Chief Judge immediately after each Contest is finished.  

*** PLEASE KEEP THE TIME RECORDS SECRET!! – Do NOT reveal the time record to anyone except for the Chief Judge. If any contestant is disqualified, the Chief Judge / Contest Chair will announce the number of disqualified contestants (but not their names) during the award ceremony.

Ballot Counter's Tally Sheet  

Please bring a pen or a pencil to perform the duty better. At the end of each contest, the Chief Judge or the ballot counter team will collect the ballots from all the judges. The Ballot Counters will assist the Chief Judge in collecting all the ballots from the Voting Judges. So knowing where each voting judge sits before the contest can expedite the ballot collection process. The Ballot Counter Team must then leave the room with the Chief Judge and tally each contestant’s points on the Counter’s Tally Sheet; this sheet will be given to the ballot counters on the contest date before the contest starts. Please review it and learn the correct way of recording scores/points before the contest date. The Ballot Counter team must double-check the ballot record on the tally sheet to make sure the total points for each contestant are correct. When encountering a tie or more, please ask the Chief Judge to break the tie by consulting the Tiebreaking Judge's Ballot. Be sure to consult with the Chief Judge to exclude any disqualified contestants due to eligibility, originality, referring to other contestant's content, or over/short of time reason. Once the team finishes the task, please present the result, the tally sheets, and all the ballots to the Chief Judge immediately for the final judgment of winners.

*** PLEASE KEEP THE RESULTS CONFIDENTIAL – Do NOT reveal the contest results or any judge's top 3 winners to anyone except the Chief Judge. The Contest Chair will announce the winners during the award ceremony.

PLEASE KEEP THE SCORES SECRET – Each Speech Contest will have a First Place, a Second Place and a Third Place Winners. If there are less than 2 contestants, each of the contestant will be placed. 

Order Drawing Sheet  

Call the participants to draw the speaking order at least 15 minutes before the contest starts. After the drawing, the contest work crew can display the speaking order on the screen or board. 

When conducting an online contest, a random order generator can be employed to decide the speaking order for the contest. Simply enter all the contestants' names and then press the random order key to generate the speaking order. In an online contest, it's suggested to allow the system to generate the order three times and use the last generated order for the contest to ensure fairness.  

https://www.ultimatesolver.com/en/random-order 

OTHER RESOURCES

Conduct a quality speech contest.