Speech Contest Master Cheat Sheet

Before the contest, you will want to do the following:
1. Gather the contestants
2. Go over rules
3. Go over what the competition area will be (i.e., just at lectern, up front, throughout the room).
4. Show contestants lighting/timing devices to make sure they know where they are.
5. Draw for position they will be competing in
6. Make sure you have speaker's titles and bios..

After being introduced, you may want to do the following steps:
1. Say Hi
2. Explain what the contest is and why we have the contest.
3. Talk about the rules (but not explain them), then introduce Chief Judge
4. After the chief judge, if they have not done so, call on timer for explanation of timing.
5. Ask if there are any questions from the judges or contestants
6. Announce that the contest will begin.
7. Call up first contestant, introducing them by name and speech title, then speech title and name. No other information is to be presented.
8. After contestant is done, ask for one minute from timer. Remind audience to keep silent so judges may concentrate.
9. Call up next contestant, introducing them by name and speech title, then speech title and name. No other information is to be presented.
10. Repeat step 11.
11. Repeat steps 12 and 13 until there are no contestants left.
12. After the last contestant, have timer indicate when one minute is up. After one minute, remind judges to tally their scores, rip off the bottom of their ballots, and hold them up for the tellers to collect. Remind audience to please be silent until all ballots are collected. There is no time limit for judges to tally their ballots.
13. After all ballots have been collected, invite the contestants up for an interview in the order they competed in. You may wish to have the timer let you know when 2 minutes are up to keep the interviews moving along, but it is not necessary. Interview ends with presentation of Certificate of Appreciation.
14. After all contestants are interviewed, return control to the master of ceremonies.

For all interviews, remember to ask contestants what club they belong to and for how long. You may also wish to ask when their clubs meet to plug the clubs.

All of the above are meant as a guideline. Feel free to mix, match, and mutilate to suit your tastes.