Archive for the ‘Contest’ Category

Toastmasters Club Contests are an absorbing activity for every  Club Excom.  They are a necessary evil that must be organized to encourage competition, take the speakers to the next level and perhaps give them a jump start.  In other words contest is paramount in Toastmasters program; they are a shortcut to faster and bigger improvements.

If contests are paramount why there are no identified structured training programs for Excom, to conduct contests?  Rather the contests are organized with little experience gathered from past experiences.  Organizing club contest attracts challenges of different colors such as

• Finding Contestants.
• Contestants training and awareness.
• Judges: Finding judges; qualified and numbers.
• Role players: Trained role players.
• Resources:  Venue, Documentation;  Trophies; Certificates and Awards

Having said that I believe that any contest phobia can be overcome by “five “activities and they are

1. Planning: No sooner Excom is installed; the team should meet to decide on the most important date i.e contest dates and make an announcement to the club members and Area Governor.  Then identify various activities for the contest.
2. Timeline: Set timeline to complete identified activities.
3. Delegation: Delegate identified activities such as TM1  for getting role plays ; TM2 for getting Judges; TM3 getting the resources; TM for getting contestants; TM4 for organizing the venue and others.
4. Collaboration: Get Excom of  “3” clubs involved and enter into an exchange program for Judges and role plays.
5. Feedback: Set a feedback mechanism; monthly to start with and thereafter weekly,  60 days closer to the contest.

Once you complete Planning, Timeline; Delegation and Collaboration within first 15 days of the new term; half the battle is won.  Now you can focus your attention on  ensuring that you have a District Champion speaker. 

Sharjah Toastmasters Humorous speech club contest was held on Dec. 21, 2011.  The contest reflected energy ,passion and the desire to stretch and strut.

1. The participation in the humours contest was 100% more than the standard club meetings.  Why ? I cannot comprehend the reason, still looking for the motivation.
2. There were 9 humorous contestants and many to applaud their endeavors.
3. The contest participation was overwhelming and contestants flexed their humour muscle stepping out of their comfort zone.
4.  The deliveries had creative topics and am sharing the “9” titles.

i)     Kaleidoscope

ii)    Tom and Jerry

iii)   Seek leave, Sick leave

iv)   How and why TM came into my life

v)    Mr Perplex

vi)   Happily Married

vii)  Living with Time Bomb

viii) End of the beginning

ix)   Health & Time

My salute & hearty congratulations to the first time participants.

Enjoy watching contestants  sail through.

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Enjoy watching the part two of the laughter contest at division - B – may 7, 2011

Division – B contest was held at Emirates Aviation college auditorium on May 7, 2011.
Watch the PhD in Laughter in action.

Dream Big..

Do Bigger….

An inspiring theme and a successful Division – J 2010 – 2011 contest finale was held on April 7, 2011 at the Knowledge Village.  The contest was  hotly contested in the presence of eager and supporting  audience.

The event was sprinkled with motivational speech, music and lofty boundaries by the contestants and witty observations by the conductors extending a fitting finale to the event.

Watch the winners being felicitated

Enjoy watching………..

Every Toastmasters contest is a book in itself and so was Area 8 contest held on March 18, 2011 at Preston University.  Few lessons I learned

1. Murphy’s law – “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” But don’t let setbacks, set you back.
2. Extra Mile: It always pays to go an extra mile.   Especially when your guest is at the other end. Preston University students your hospitality is commendable, Tea and snacks on seats!
3. Failure: Failure is the best teacher and the earlier you fail the faster you succeed.
4. Stick to the rules: All is fair in Toastmasters so long you adhere to the rules.
5. Kudos: A brilliant Area 8 contest and kudos to the TEAM and the leader Jayesh Ved.

Enjoy Watching………….

What we witnessed at the FOY club contest on Friday – 21, January 2011 was a multi-starrer block buster release.   It reminded me of “Slum dog Millionaire” that came as an underdog and went on to win 8 Oscars in 2009.  There was no single performer but a galaxy of performers who went on to make this epic an Oscar winner.    Similarly the FOY team went on to make the contest worthy of an Oscar.

In true Toastmasters spirit, I would like to share what went well and what can be improved upon.  The contest was held at @ Twin Tower {Rolex Building}, Deira; a venue arranged by the FOY toastmasters member.   A great  venue with all the necessary facilities to hold the event.

The four contests were well participated in and we had 8 International speech contestants,  4 humors speech contestants and the largest participation for evaluation and table topic contest.   This reflects the enthusiasm among the members which is seen in level 3 tribe as explained in the famous book “Tribal Leadership” by Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright

There was a houseful audience to applaud and support the contestants.  The panel of judges and contest chair helped to make a tough decision by selecting winners and conducting the session in the best format.

Having said that, in Toastmasters we believe in evaluations that reflect encouragement and areas that could be improved on.   It was a challenge to find areas for improvements but I on lighter note felt that every club must rise to level 4 or level 5 as described by “Tribal Leadership” and in  this context felt that two areas could have been improved on. I.e.

Delegation: By delegation I mean setting a team of SAA to assist & guide.  The objective is to ensure that everyone feels involved and every SAA has a one job to do wherein he can focus his energy to excel.

Awareness : Creating awareness among the role players and audience: how, where, when and what will happen at the contest.  This could be achieved by circulating the do and don’ts to the role players and also putting it on a notice board created for the event. Objective is to create a smooth flow of activities as per the time table and proceeding wherein the proceedings seem like a perfectly choreographed stage show; worthy of an Oscar.

The above two are easier said than actioned.  But in Toastmasters we always work on little improvements.  And little drops make an ocean.

This event brought out the hidden talent among the participants that caught audience and even the performers by surprise.   And it reflected one lesson only –  “You  re-invent yourself when you step outside of your comfort zone”. In conclusion, how could I miss the weather man and those delicious snacks?   Surprisingly Dubai experienced it’s first and perhaps  only good rain of the year on the day of the contest.  And hot drinks along with hot snacks said “FOY family is a big happy family”

Enjoy reading and commenting….