LIONS CLUB SPEECH CONTEST

By Shirley M. Carolan, ATM-G

One of the perks of being a Toastmaster, whether fairly new, or an old veteran like me, is that you learn skills that you can use along the way to help others. Once you’ve mastered the fine art of giving feedback to a speaker, when you evaluate their performance, their delivery, body language, voice, pace, pausing, organization and sometimes their content too, you will have opportunities to give feedback to other speakers outside your Toastmaster club. You won’t even have to look for them, they will find you!

When I evaluate a Toastmaster Club member, or I am acting as the General Evaluator of a meeting, I always tell the speakers that we (evaluators) are not paid critics, rather we are there to give “constructive feedback” to the speaker. This helps them to relax a little knowing that we are not going to criticize them. Our goal is simply to point out what they did well and where and how they might improve.

Over the years, I’ve been asked to be a judge in a speech contest for high school teens sponsored by some civic club. At these events, the speakers use numbers as an introduction rather than their names, to eliminate favoritism, etc. Last Sunday was no exception. I was invited by the Encinitas Lions Club to be a judge for their annual speech contest. It is always a thrill for me to do this because I love hearing what our youth thinks, how they research their topic and how they deliver it. It’s a great opportunity to give back to the community.

The topic last Sunday was, I thought, a difficult one: “What Can The America of Yesterday Teach The America of Today!” I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Each student had original content, great quotations and concrete examples. I particularly liked one student who talked about our Founding Fathers and the Right To Vote, along with the Great Depression and the apathetic attitude today towards voting. In a presidential election year it brought home the importance of getting out there to vote!

After the contest, I got to speak to each contestant, congratulate them and give them some personal feedback. They each received a money gift depending on their placement in the contest. It was a win-win situation for all! Here’s to future contests!

Shirley M. Carolan, ATMG
Writer ● Speaker ● Artist
artistwithaflair@att.net
Phone/Fax: 760-732-0663
http://www.shirleycarolan.com
http://www.angelscross.blogspot.com
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