Toastmistress Journey - Part 6
In Spring, we had our annual speech contest. It was very different from how Toastmasters handle speech contests. Unless you had a really good reason, you were competing in the contest. My first year in Toastmistress, I had a really good reason. It was my first year.
My second year, I was competing because I didn't have a good reason not to. The role of the Speech Contest Chairman was very important. One week before the contest, the speech contest chairman would hand you a sealed envelope. If you didn't get an envelope, you couldn't decide at the last moment to enter. In your envelope, you would get three words or three phrases. Everyone would have different words, but everyone would have the same formula. It could be that everyone got three nouns or one noun, one adverb, and one phrase, or whatever combination the Speech Contest Chairman decided. One year, I got:
Elephant\
Success\
Horizon
Another year, I received:
A Stitch in Time Saves Nine
Gold
Swiftly
When you were introduced as a contestant,, the Speech Contest Chairman said your name, what word or phrase you chose, and your Speech Title. How you incorporated your word or phrase into your speech was one of the criteria for judging. This discouraged people from preparing your speech in advance. The same process was used for contests at different levels except the Speech Contest Chair would phone you the words exactly one week before the contest, and at higher levels, each contestant would get the same words.
For our contests, we have three judges and none of the judges were Toastmistress members and that included former members. We always had one Judge from Toastmasters. Then, we often asked the Reeve of the Municipality of Dauphin since we met in the RM building. We would ask the Mayor. The first year that I participated, one of the Judges was the female anchor or our local television station. She was very impressed with our program and joined our club. I was her membership sponsor and made the Motion to accept her into the Club.
In Toastmasters, the Judges are given a minute between speakers. In Toastmistress, the Judges let the Contest Chair now when they are ready to proceed. That is because, there is 10 criteria for the Judges to mark the contestants for a total score out of 100. But, the Judges also have a whole sheet of paper to write written comments. Those sheets of paper were like gold to me. To get outside written feedback was so valuable. I really didn't care about winning or losing, but I wanted those sheets of paper. After you spoke, you didn't want the judges to finish too quickly or to take too long. Somehow I managed to win that first contest. I couldn't believe it. I advanced to the next level. I wasn't successful there, but I did get three more sheets of paper !! Those evaluations were extremely important to me.
In my opinion, having three independent judges from outside the Toastmistress program was superior to Toastmasters. Through the years that I was in Toastmasters, there were only a few members who were "trained" and they ended up judging a lot of contests. Every judge has a bias if they not it or not. I know that when I am judging, grammar and sentence structure is important to me. I always speech contests would be more credible if there were judges from outside the program who were a surprise to the contestants. One year in Toastmasters, for example, I was a member of several clubs. Toastmasters who were members of a club that was a member were excluded from judging higher levels. Since most serious contest speakers were members of advanced clubs, this would automatically exclude a lot of very good judges.
The first year that I was competing at the Council level, 10 members of my Dauphin Club came to cheer me on. It really was a wonderful sisterhood.
At the conclusion of my Grade 10 year, I was installed as Vice-President. My journey would continue.
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