I firmly believe, for both regular meetings and contests, that prepared speeches should be scheduled on the agenda before impromptu events. For club meetings, this generally means you should have prepared speeches, then table topics, then the evaluation segment of the meeting. (In advanced clubs, I think there’s an argument for giving evaluations as immediate...

Evaluation Making a good–a really good speech evaluation–is a very valuable life skill, but difficult to master: that is, learning how to give someone feedback to improve and phrase it in a way that leaves the person, not demoralized and criticized, but feeling excited about doing better. The evaluation contest focuses on being insightful and ...

Due to copyright and laziness, I won’t write out the judge’s scoring rubrics in their entirety, but here are some tips based on experience and said rubrics. International This is the only contest that proceeds beyond the District level. This actually continues on up until there is one World Champion of Public Speaking! Last year’s World...

As you know contest season is right around the corner!!! Please go to contests – http://tmvision.org/contests/contestants/international-speech-contest/ or http://tmvision.org/contests/contestants/evaluation-contest/ for ideas and information to help you compete! You will hear David Henderson’s International speech as well as tips and ideas from Lupe...

Every District 55 Toastmaster needs to step out of their comfort zone and participate as a volunteer or as a guest at this conference! I have been to several and see the same faces everytime. I love my fellow Toastmasters but if you miss the conference then you miss the training and the fellowship! Hold contests within your clubs to encourage participation - those that compete pay for their registration or those that complete their educational goals within a designated timeframe can have their registration paid for. Make it fun and challenging. Listen to what Stanley See has to say about chairing the conference.