Organizing High School Speech Contest
Rotary District 7850 Speech Contest Organizing Rules & Guide for Rotarians – revised Oct 2023
This longer document is meant for Rotarians who are organizing a speech contest for Club Round 1 or Area Round 2 or District Round 3 & 4. It includes the Basic Rules & Eligibility information given to contestants and schools; rules and flow of each Round; preparation and setup, contest script. You’ll also need the contest poster, registration form, and judge & timer score sheets that can be downloaded from the website.
See www.rotary7850.org for other contest related documents, and certificate templates.
CONTEST BASIC RULES & ELIGIBILITY
A. SEEK ASSISTANCE of any interested person to distribute these core four speech contest documents to high school aged students:
Potential Contestants should receive the one page Basic Rules & Eligibility, Contest Poster, Registration Form, and Judge Score Sheet.
B. WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO COMPETE & RECEIVE CONTEST PRIZES
- Any High School Student or high school-aged student who resides in the club’s service area is eligible unless the student has been a previous District 7850 Final Contest Winner.
- There are four Contest Rounds (see poster for dates & cash prizes). All Contestants who win any Contest Round are responsible for participating at the next Contest Round or will not receive prize money (check) from the previous Contest Round. Round 1 Club Check is given at the Round 2 Area Contest. Round 2 District Check is given at Round 3 and Round 3 District Check is given at Round 4.
C. RULES OF CONTEST
1. Subject: Apply this year's contest theme in everyday relationships with other people.
2. Delivery: A written copy of the speech should be presented prior to the presentation.
The contestant may refer to a copy of the speech during its presentation, but should
not be reading the speech word for word, nor does it have to be completely memorized.
- Length of Speech: The speech should be no longer than 5 minutes. Penalty points will be given if the speech is under four minutes or over six minutes. If over seven minutes, the Contestant will be disqualified.
- Speech Content: The speech given must be original in content, and relate to the contest topic and Rotary values.
- Language: The speech may be presented in English or French as appropriate for the sponsoring Rotary Club.
6. The Rules and Format for Speech Contests will remain the same at each Round whether
one or more contestants and whether held in-person or remotely. There are no ties.
D. CONTEST FORMS, RULES AND GUIDELINES
All contestants must be given Basic Rules, Registration Form, Current Contest Poster, and Judge Score Sheet. All contestants will be held responsible for contest information found on the district website.
The Contest Poster provides essential details about this year's topic, schedule, and prizes.
All of these may also be viewed online or printed from the Rotary District 7850 Website:
www.rotary7850.org Site Page: Speech Contest & Rotary Mission, Goals & Values
The following organizing details are for Rotarians who are holding speech contests:
E. STATEMENT OF THE THEME, SCHEDULES and CASH PRIZES
Each year the District will choose a topic that will relate to the “The 4-Way Test”, “Service Above Self” and/or the current year’s Rotary International theme or some combination of the three. The year’s topic will be on the annual Speech Contest Poster along with dates, locations, and prizes for all four contest Rounds. Each Club and Area holding a speech contest must distribute the current contest poster with the date, time, location, and contact person for their speech contest.
II. COMPETITION PROCEDURES
REGISTRATION FORM IS VERY IMPORTANT – Read the Follow Directions Carefully
Each Contestant must fill out a Registration Form and it must be readable. The Registration Form is available from the District Website. Registration Forms should be provided to each school. The registration forms of Winners and Runner-ups must be passed on to the organizer of the next Speech Contest Round. Club Contest Round 1 to Area Assistant Governor for Contest Round 2 and then onto District Chair for Rounds 3.
Round 1 -Individual Rotary Club Contest
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 Basic Rules, Registration Forms, and Judge’s Scoring Sheet.
Club will have a Contest Coordinator to set up and coordinate with participating schools. Contest Coordinator will distribute press releases about the contest and invite the public to attend. Contest Coordinator will act as the Chief Judge who will moderate the Club Contest and supervisor the Judges, Timers and Ballot Counters. No individual Judge score sheet should have a tie. If the final composite score sheet has a tie, the Contest Chair, Chief Judge and/or Ballot Counter must decide a winner and runner-up.
Each Club Contest should be held as prescribed, even if there is only one contestant.
Club Round 1 Contest must be completed no later than February 17, 2024.
Date and time of the contest should be coordinated with the participating school, students, and the Club. This would work best if it was on school property, during or just after school hours. If the contest is held within a regular Rotary Club meeting, time is limited and will need to be carefully managed. Each Area Contest should be held as prescribed, even if there is only one contestant. See more guidance under Contest Roles & Flow and Contest Script.
A completed registration form and a written copy of the speech will be presented to the Contest Coordinator prior to the Club Round 1 Contest presentation.
If the 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. Winner and Runner-up should be chosen using the scoring forms and guidelines supplied in this document.
Winner of Club Round 1 (prize provided by Club) will be eligible to participate in Area Round 2. If Round 1
Winner cannot compete at Area Round 2, then the Round 1 Runner-up will compete in Area Round 2 and will
be awarded the Club Round 1 prize (by Club check) at Area Round 2.
Area Round 2 Contest must be completed no later than March 2, 2024.
Area Contests are held between competing Club winners in the club’s assigned Area and are organized by the Area’s Assistant Governor. Typically, this is five or fewer Clubs. A competition date should be set and agreed upon by each participating Rotary Club Contest Coordinator and the Assistant Governor (AG), for a date no later than March 2. The AG can either be the Contest Chair or Chief Judge or assign someone else to oversee the Area Contest, ballot counting, and certificates. Likewise, if the AG is the Chief Judge, then he/she will assign someone to interview the contestants.
AG will collect copies registration form and speeches from each Round 2 Contestants before the Round 2 Contest. If there is a Round 3 scheduled, at the completion of Round 2, AG will forward copies of registration forms and speeches of their Winner & Runner-Up to the District Speech Contest Chair no less than 2 weeks before Round 3 Contest.
The speech must maintain the same approach to the contest topic, though its examples, order or word choices may be changed. If questioned, the presiding Chief Judge and Judges will decide if the changes are acceptable. The contestants will each give their speech to the assembled group which include competition judges, timers, etc. Encourage Rotarians to attend and support speakers. Ideally no Judge will be from a club sponsoring a contestant. If that’s not possible, then there should be representation of one Judge from each of the participating clubs. There should be a minimum of eight (8) Judges and a maximum of fifteen (15) with a goal of having a balanced mix of male and female judges.
There are no ties. Judges must pick a winner and a runner-up using the judging guidelines and forms supplied on district website. If composite of judges’ score sheets results in a tie, then Contest Chair & Chief Judge must choose one Winner and one Runner-Up.
Winner of Area Round 2 will be eligible to participate in District Round 3.
If Round 2 Winner is not able to at District Round 3 Contest, then the Round 2
Runner-up will participate and will be awarded the Area Round 2 Prize at District Round 3.
See detail on prizes below.
District Round 3 Contest – Usually March/April
When there is a Round 3, it will be held at either a District 7850 District Assembly or the District Conference late spring (the actual date is to be listed on the current contest poster). Area Round 2 Winners may be divided into subgroups for Round 3 District competition or done as one large group. District Officers and the District Speech Contest Chair will decide and publish the location and dates for Round 3 on the current contest poster. Each District Round 3 Contestants will provide a copy of their speech to the District Contest Chair prior to the contest.
The speech must maintain the same approach to the contest topic; though its examples, order or word choices may be changed. If questioned, the presiding Chief Judge and Judges will decide if the changes are acceptable. The contestants will each give their speech to the assembled group, including competition judges, timers, etc. Rotarians will be encouraged to attend & support speakers.
The judges should be AGs or other qualified individuals. Ideally, no Judge will be from a club sponsoring a contestant. If that’s not possible, then there should be fair presentation of one Judge from each of the participating clubs. A minimum of fifteen (15) Judges and a maximum of twenty-five (25) with a goal of having a balanced mix of male and female judges. District Round 3 Contest will have two semi-finalists who will compete at the District Round 4 Contest.
PRIZES – The District Grand Winner's Total Prize is $1,750 and District Runner-up's Total Prize is $1,500.
Club Round 1 Prize of $200 is for speech contest winners at the club level.
This prize will be provided by the individual club, and the club check will be given at the Area Round 2 Contest.
Area Round 2 Prize of $300 is for speech contest winners at Area Round 2.
This prize will be provided by District 7850 and awarded at District Round 3 Contest.
District Round 3 Prize of $500 for each of the two semi-finalists from Round 3.
This prize will be provided by District 7850 and awarded at District Round 4.
District Round 4 Prize of $750 for the Winner and $500 for the Runner-Up.
This prize will be provided by District 7850 and awarded at District Round 4.
Details of this year’s contest dates & location are provided on the Speech Contest Poster.
All prizes are cash prizes in check form, not saving bonds or other securities.
III. PREPARATION AND SETUP
Materials Needed
Meeting room and smaller room for tallying score sheets.
A podium or speaker dais, pens, and easy-to-use timing devices.
Script for Contest Moderator and Contest Chair (see Contest Script).
Score sheets for the judges, timers, and composite score sheets for ballot counters.
Certificates for all participating contestants and one specific for the Winner and for Runner-up.
Roles: Contest Chair/Moderator, Chief Judge, 8-15 Judges, 1-2 Timers, 2-3 Ballot Counters.
Important: Each Judge’s score sheet must assign a contestant to first place, second place, or third place.
The ballot counters must convert first place to a Value of 6; second place to a Value of 3; and third place to a Value of 1. These Values (6-3-1) should be written in the space provided at the bottom of each judge’s score sheet.
Next the ballot counters puts each Value from judge’s score onto the composite sheets.
Any penalties listed on timer’s score sheet should be listed as a minus on composite sheet.
Composite sheet should list every contestant and all scores should be tallied.
Highest is 1st place, depending on number of contestants may have up to three placements.
Remember each Judge’s scoring has a range of 0-50, and is used only by the Judges to assist decision of who is 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. Value of placement is put on the score sheet by ballot counters (only 6 or 3 or 1) and are the numbers used for final score tally.
Contest Roles and Flow
Each contestant must arrive at the competition location early enough to attend the contest briefing: speaking order numbers drawn, the judge score sheet reviewed, and the contest room visited & explained.
Club President can be the Contest Moderator and the Contest Chair can be the Chief Judge. It is the decision of the Club President and Contest Chair who does these roles as well as getting enough volunteers to cover the other contest roles that are listed above. If you’re short on volunteers, reach out to qualified non-Rotarians to volunteer for contest roles, and introduce your Rotary Club to them.
Contest Chair should sign up volunteers for contest roles in advance and review scoring sheets with the Club President and Moderator, Chief Judge, Judges, Timers, and Ballot Counters. Make sure Timers have easy, dependable timing devices.
Create a contest agenda/script with estimated times for each task: such as, the total time per contestant for five-minute speech with introduction and applause is 7-8 minutes; and tallying score sheets is 5-10 minutes. Estimated time for two contestants contest is 20-30 minutes; estimated time for four contestants contest is 45-60 minutes.
If your Club Contest is part of a regular Rotary meeting, the Contest should start as early as possible, before most of the regular agenda. Club President will introduce Contest Chair who will moderate the Speech Contest.
Contest Chair will have contestants draw number to determine the order during briefing before contest starts. Contest Chair will open the contest and explain: contest agenda; 60 seconds of silence between speaker to give judges time (have timer time silence); all electronic devices must be turned off; no one leaves or enters the room during a speech; no conversations during a speech.
Introduce each contestant by their drawn number & speech title.
Do not use the name of the contestant or their school or sponsoring club.
Important to treat and introduce every contestant in the same way.
After all speeches have been completed and while ballots are being tallied, Contest Moderator will present each contestant with a Participant Certificate and possibly interview each student about their interests, challenges, family, or school. 1-3 minutes each depending on the number of contestants. Names of students, schools and clubs can be mentioned in the interview. If interviews are finished before the tallying is complete, insert club activities; such as brags, announcements, or Rotary news. (More details in Contest Script)
Download Rotary certificate template from this site, just insert the contestant’s name, date, etc. (Staples has several blank certificate styles with attractive borders.) Print participant certificates in advance for all contestants. Do one for Winner and one for Runner-Up with names blank. Have Club President and Contest Chair sign all certificates in advance. (Do same for all Contest Rounds)
After Chief Judge and Ballot Counters have collected the score sheets and left the room to do final tallies on the Judge Composite Score Sheet. Chief Judge and Ballot Counters should double check the final tallies and agree on the Winner and Runner-Up. Then write appropriate names on the Winner & Runner-up award certificates. Go back to meeting room and have the Contest Moderator/Club President and Contest Chair presents Runner-Up with certificate, then Winner.
Contest Chair should thank everyone who assists with the Contest; thank all the contestants for participating, and the audience for being so supportive. If contest is held within a regular club meeting, turn the meeting back to Club President.
Enjoy informative, interesting speeches and ideas for projects to advance Youth in Rotary!