We had a full slate of
contestants for our Spring Club Contests. Everyone was in fine
form and raring to go. Armed with some ‘just in case’ jokes in
his pocket, the Contest Chair, Don Ekroth, ran a smooth show,
making sure there was never a dull moment or a lull.
Every contest begins with an Inspiration, and the one this
night was exceptionally well thought out and well delivered. It
was the first official speech Veronica Marshall has presented as
one of the newest members in the club. The theme was based on
competition, with the message to the contestants “to focus on
the process rather than the results”. Definitely a positive and
inspirational beginning.
Toastmasters runs four contests over the year – two together in
the fall, and the other two in the spring. The ones we held last
night were the International Speech Contest and the Evaluation
Contest.
Our club runs these contests ‘backwards’ to most other clubs.
The thought process of most clubs (and probably of Toastmasters
International!) is that the audience is especially waiting with
baited breath to hear the speeches. With that in mind, they
tantalize us by having this contest last! Our thought process is
that the poor Speech Contestants have a whole script to keep
foremost in their minds and we try to put them out of their
misery as soon as possible, so…you guessed it…they speak first
There were three contestants for the International Speech
Contest.
Requirements: Anyone who has completed at least six project
speeches from the first manual are eligible to compete in this
contest. The contestants speak for 5 – 7 minutes on any topic
they choose. We were well entertained by our competitors last
night:
Wilma Atchison, a recreational therapist, explained with passion
and innovation, her role in complex care for frail elderly
people. We saw how complex care for them really is, and learned
about Wilma’s innovative approach to help make this better.
Jan Khubyar, through humorous anecdotes to which we all could
relate, described the little things that get us off edge and
stressed, giving us practical things we can do to “Stress Out,
Not In”.
Neville Cohen donned a chef’s hat and apron, poking fun at
himself while regaling us with the pros and cons of whether to
‘Live to Eat, or Eat to Live’.
There were four contestants for the Evaluation Contest. Anyone
who is a member of Toastmasters is eligible to compete in this
competition.
The Process: A Test Speaker (often someone unknown to the
competitors) gives a 5-7 minute speech, after which the
contestants are taken to another room and given five minutes in
which to prepare. At the end of that time their notes are taken
from them, until one at a time they come back into the contest
room to compete. The Test Speaker was Adam Radlowski who belongs
to SpeakerHub Toastmasters. He gave a delightful, and
suspenseful dissertation on his first and only skydiving
experience.
The competitors, Neville Cohen, Dave Stewart, Li Ying Kao, and
Wilma Atchison were then challenged to tell us their perceptions
of Adam’s strengths as a speaker, and to give him practical
suggestions that he might like to use to make his presentation
even better. Wow! You would think that with four people all
dissecting your speech you would have to have very ‘broad
shoulders’!! Not so…
Good evaluators’ comments are positively focused and these
competitors were no exception
An enlightening, fun part of this evening comes after each
contest is over and the ballots are being counted. This is when
the Contestant Interviews take place. You would never have known
that Ruth Sol was an ingénue in this role. She was perfectly at
ease as she got the Test Speaker and each Contestant to tell us
more about themselves. She put the interviewees at ease with
gentle humour and genuine interest in their answers to her
questions.
Congratulations to every single participant in both of these
contests. They deserve a very big round of applause for
stretching themselves a little further out of their comfort
zones. Many people find that roles they once thought challenging
in our meetings are much easier once they have faced down the
nervous butterflies of competition.
A Special Congratulations to Our Contest Winners:
International Speech Contest First Place was awarded to Jan
Khubyar.
Evaluation Speech Contest First Place was awarded to Dave
Stewart.
Evaluation Speech Contest Second Place was awarded to Neville
Cohen.
The winners will compete at the next level – The Area Contest -
which will be held Monday April 4th in our meeting room.
There are at least 6 clubs in our Area, and the winners from
each of those clubs will compete here on the 4th.
The levels of these competitions go from Club, to Area, to
Division, to District. The District competitions are held at the
big District Conference which takes place in May. The winner of
the District International Speech Contest will go to the U.S. to
that final competition in the summer.
A Very Big Thank You to Jan Khubyar who spent creative time at
her computer making very attractive Participant and Award
Certificates for our candidates
A Very Big Thank You to SpeakerHub Toastmasters, as well We
sent Judges and a Test Speaker to their contests last Wednesday,
and we were fortunate to have an equal number of volunteers from
their club for ours. Over the years it has proven to be an
excellent arrangement!
Looking forward to seeing you all at our regular meeting on
March 28th, and
Club 1085
