A few weeks ago, Bill Bishop put an entry in LinkedIn’s The Official Toastmasters International Members Group on the following:

Is it Toastmaster International official policy that contest judges are to remain anonymous?

He actually put forth this question to research for Addressing the Opposition speech in the Persuasive Speaking manual he gave at one of his clubs, so he wanted to find out from other Toastmasters outside his local district if there really is a rule and if it was necessary to keep the judges anonymous.

If you checked the contest rulebook, there is no mention in any contest about judges either remaining anonymous or if/when they are to be introduced as individuals or as a whole.  So it implied that it is up to the contest personnel to determine on judges anonymity.  However, it appears each district have consistent practices on this and District 30 is no different.  In fact judges anonymity went from one end to another within one year!

Prior to the 2003-2004 Toastmasters year, it was common for the Chief Judge in a District 30 Area/Division/District contests to introduce each judge (except the tiebreaker) individually when that person reviews the rules prior to the contest.  That was done to make sure the judges were spread apart so they did not look at each other’s ballots to influence their own judgment.  In fact some of the contest documentation that District 30 used at that time, such as this I have from 2002, did indicate introducing the judges.

During the 2003-2004 Toastmasters year, the District 30 Governor at that time appointed a District Contest Chair, primarily for political reasons as the person he appointed was a two-time unsuccessful candidate for Lt. Governor of Marketing whom he wanted to showcase at whatever way possible.  Several times at presentations about contests, the District Contest Chair mentioned she was told by Toastmasters International that the contest judges should no longer be introduced and must remain anonymous throughout the duration of the contest.  Not sure anyone questioned that or have pointed out that the rules did not indicate anything about judges anonymity, though the District Contest Chair had been someone that did not take well any questioning or criticism of anything she does.  Nevertheless, all Contest Chairs and Chief Judges that year followed this plan to keep judges anonymous.

When the District 30 Contest Chair eventually became the District 30 Lt. Governor of Education and Training in 2006, she went even further on judges anonymity.  At the Fall contests she attended, she badgered the Chief Judge, the contest judges and the Ballot Counters on getting the judges to not raise their ballots so no one else in the audience could tell who the judges were.  She acted like she was going to panic if that did not happen, to the point I told her she was going overboard and should not “sweat the small stuff”.  She did hold that off during the Spring contests but contest judges remained anonymous.

However when I was judge for the 2010 District 30 Table Topics contest, the Chief Judge of that contest wanted to do the same thing and wasn’t happy when I told her during the briefing that I did mention in my blog that I was going to be a judge.  I told her she was wasting her time dealing with the “small stuff” and being overwhelmed with her duties she moved on to cover the rest of the briefing.

There are merits for Contest Chairs and Chief Judges to keep the judges anonymous, mainly not to be held accountable for the judges’ identities if a contestant had a problem with the results and accused the judges of screwing up the contest.  Then again from what I’ve seen in the past, if the contestant had such a problem, that person generally did not take defeat well and would find some other person or thing to blame for not winning.

I believe that it should be up to the Contest Chair to decide if the judges be anonymous or not.  Perhaps the Contest Chair wants to give public recognition to those who have the unenviable task to determining the contest winner, especially if all the contestants were superb to the point where there was no clear winner.  If we give recognition to Toastmaster members for anything they’ve done, from giving their Icebreaker to serving as International President, why not contest judges?  After all they can be the most critical part of a speech contest!