Club Speech Competition
We held our third Club Speech Competition for the International Speech Contest. We call this event "Speech Competition" instead of "Speech Contest" because we do not fully follow the contest rule and it would be inappropriate to use the name "Speech Contest." In Toastmasters, all contests must adhere to the Speech Contest Rulebook and related documents except for the club-level selection. Clubs are given discretion as to whether to hold a speech contest or select their representative in any way the club sees fit.
In Shin-Osaka Leaders, we decided not to follow the contest rulebook to the letter because we wanted to add some extra bonus for the club members. According to the Toastmasters contest rule, all contests are to be judged by a group of anonymous judges. Yet, we see this as a great opportunity for all the members to experience judging the contest speeches based on the judging criteria, with 50% devoted to content, 30% to delivery, and 20% to language. Since everybody is a judge, the judges are not anonymous. Thus, to avoid using the word "contest," we call it a "Speech Competition."
At the competition, we listened to three speeches, one by a member who is eligible to compete in the speech contest and two by members who are not eligible yet. There are some requirements to meet to compete in the speech contest, one of which is to have completed both Level 1 and Level 2 of any of the eleven Paths in the Pathways learning experience, Toastmasters' educational program. The two ineligible competitors this time has not met this requirement, but were eager to try delivering a contest-type speech in a contest-like environment. It's great to have members that eager to challenge themselves! After listening to their speeches, we judged the speeches and discussed the speeches and the experience of judging speeches. It was a precious opportunity to learn more about how to structure and deliver speeches.
今回はSpeech Cometition でした。Toastmastersでは Speech Contest という名称を用いるにはコンテストのルールブックに従う必要がありますが、Shin-Osaka Leadersでは審査員が匿名であるとする規定から独立して、全員にスピーチをジャッジするというまたとない機会を持ってもらうために、contest ではなく competition という名称で実施することにしました。コンテストに出場するためには、教育プログラムPathwaysの11のPathのうちいずれかの Level 1 と Level 2 を両方とも終了している必要がありますが、今回出場してくれた3人のうち2人はこの規定を満たしていないにもかかわらず、コンテスト向けのスピーチをコンテストに似た環境でしてみたいということで出場してくれました。こういう積極的なメンバーがいるのは嬉しいことです。スピーチの後には全員でジャッジし、スピーチやジャッジ体験についてディスカッションもするという充実したミーティングでした。
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