Chief Judge for NOL Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests 2009

It's been a long time since I took on the role of chief judge. Having read the responsibilities of the chief judge on http://members.district15speaks.org/contests.php , there were still small details that I had overlooked.

(1) While briefing the tally counters, overlooked the need to specify a suitable area for collating the contest results and ended up in some corner doing it, while the audience were milling near us during the break.

(2) I forgot to announce if there was any time disqualification.

There were a few hiccups here and there and it would be good as chief judge to give gentle reminders to the appointment holders. For example,

• remind timers to time the one minute of silence and signal to Contest Chair when the one minute is up;
• remind tally counters to collect the timers' record from the timers in addition to judges' ballots;
• remind Contest Chair to invite tally counters to collect ballots at the end of each contest;
• remind Contest Chair to prepare something during the 5 minutes while the evaluation contestants prepare their evaluation speeches (e.g. give announcements, invite other toastmasters to give announcements or tell some jokes).

It's tough to give a humorous speech. Some of the contestants were giving informative speeches! At one point, one judge even came up to me to ask, "Do they know this is a humorous speech contest!!!" Each contest is a learning experience. May the speaker who garners the most laughter win!