Mississauga Toastmasters Club Contest Tomorrow

Don't forget that our International Speech and Speech Evaluation club contests are tomorrow. Competitors should get there by 9:15 am. See you there for a fun event. This will be our third club contest for the Mississauga Toastmasters year.

Sean Does It Again At Tall Tales Contest

We went into our first ever Tall Tales club contest with only one competitor (me) so this was going to turn out to be a contest demo more than anything else. But when Sean came into the meeting, I immediately asked him if he would do another impromptu speech as a contestant much like he did for the Humorous Speech contest a few months ago. Back at that contest, he took first place too.

Well, not only did he agree, but he did a great job as his speech sounded so well put together that it was almost as if he spent time working on it. Everyone was very impressed by his effort and courage. Even though the judges still voted in my favour, I think Sean is still a winner for being the trooper that he was. In my mind, it really doesn't matter what place any contestant gets because the biggest competition is not the next person, but is oneself. Any contestant who comes up and does his/her thing is a winner.

If we always tell our kids to participate in sports and that winning is not the real reason for competing, then as adults, we should lead by example. Next time contest time comes around, ask yourself, are you really leading by example?

Congrats Sean and I'm glad that you were able to take home yet another contest certificate. And thanks to Mei Yee for being such a good sport as she had to endure being the subject of my tall tale speech.

Clint

President, Comfortably Speaking Toastmasters

Tall Tales Contest

We will have our Tall Tales contest on January 3, 2009. Tall Tales are basically funny and/or dramatic speeches (5-7 minutes) that have exaggerated sections in a story format. Since members enjoyed the last contest, we heard loud and clear and will hold another opportunity for members to compete as well as to do club contest roles for their CL award. Clint will NOT be the Contest Chair or Chief Judge this time since we want to move some of these opportunities for other members in order to get them experience as well as more credits towards their CLs.

So we will need;

Speech contestants
Contest Chair
Chief Judge
Judges
Ballot Counters
Timers

Don't worry if you have no experience as Chair for a contest since we will provide you with all the material required. These are excellent leadership opportunities. This contest, unlike other ones, will not take up the entire club meeting. We will also have time for other meeting components. Speech contestants can have CC manual credit as well. Just ask another member to fill out the evaluation for the CC project you want to fit your contest speech in.

If you are interested in any of these roles, let Clint or Susan know.

Confirmed That Only One Competitor For Each Contest

It has been confirmed that only one competitor from each of the Table Topics and Humorous Speech contests will be representing our Comfortably Speaking Toastmasters club at the area level contest. So that means Dorcas will be our Table Topics rep and Sean will be our speech contest rep. It they bow out, then the second place winners will go in their places. The area level contest is set for September 30 at the Mississauga Civic Centre.

Club Contest Roles and Competitors Needed

On page 65 of your Competent Leader manual, you will see the role for the Club Speech Contest Chair.  Since this role can be filled by only one individual and the opportunity comes around only twice per year, it is a VERY difficult credit to get.  Therefore, this is the last time that I will be offering this role to any of you for the upcoming club contest for September 20.

There were no takers for this key role at our meeting this weekend.  This e-mail will serve as last notice for this particular role.  If I don't get any takers by Tuesday night, either I will assume this Chair role or I will fill this position from outside the club.  I always want to help out our own members by getting all the credits they can but if there are no takers, this credit will go outside.

Of course, other roles like timers, judges and counters will get the Help Organize a Club Contest credit as described on page 38 of the same Competent Leader manual.  We still need volunteers for these roles since it was determined at the meeting that the contest will be a go as we do have competitors.

If you want to be a competitor for the Humorous Speech and/or Table Topics contests, let us know since there is still lots of room.  Again, no preparation need for the Table Topics contest and for the Humorous Speech contest, if you simply do a speech that has some funny parts, we CAN count it as a manual speech towards your Competent Communicator as long as we have someone to write up an evaluation in your manual for you.

So please get back to me for these various contest roles as I would like to start training the contest chair, and judges online before the contest date.

Thanks

Clint

Mississauga Toastmasters Club Contest Set

Our Mississauga Toastmasters club will have its next contest on September 20.  This will be our annual Table Topics and Humorous Speech contest.  Comfortably Speaking TM members can participate as a contestant for either or both events.

We also need volunteers to help out as contest staff.  All volunteers will get a CL credit for helping organize a club contest which is a hard to come by credit.   We need timers, ballot counters, judges and a chairperson.

Please contact Clint if you wish to either compete as a contestant or be one of the contest staff.