Time will begin with the first word uttered by the contestant.
However, should the contestant engage in definite verbal or
nonverbal communication with the audience (including the
playing of music or other sound effects, a staged act by
another person, etc.) prior to reaching the speaking position
and uttering the first word of the speech, the timer shall activate
the timing device at that point. If this results in the contestant
going overtime, the contestant will be disqualified.

The green signal will be displayed at five minutes and remain
displayed for one minute. The amber signal will be displayed
at six minutes and remain displayed for one minute. The red
signal will be displayed at seven minutes and remain displayed
until the speech is concluded. No audible device,
such as a buzzer, shall be used for the overtime period.

Please note the top paragraph regarding non-verbal communication, this could also apply to a sign or a PowerPoint slide with something written – the rules can be interpreted to mean that the timing can start even if such material was displayed during the minute of silence and/or prior to the speaker being introduced.

The winner of tonight’s Northwest Division Humorous Speech Contest had his speech title sign up during the minute of silence as the two Sergeant-at-Arms put the sign up on the easel the contestant brought.  As the Chief Timer, based on contest rule 6B, I started timing as the Sergeant-At-Arms left the speaking area and BEFORE the speaker was introduced.  Luckily for the winner, his time came out to be just over six minutes, including the extra time prior to being introduced.  Right after the contest, I told the winner about the rule and suggested that he flip the speech title sign board over to its blank side prior to being introduced at the District 30 Humorous Speech Contest on November 14th.

This was not the first time I dealt with this situation.  When I was Chief Judge for the 2004 Northwest Division Humorous Speech Contest, there was a contestant that set up her PowerPoint presentation to her speech title slide during the minute of silence and prior to her introduction.  A Past International Director was present at the contest and while he was not a timer, had a stopwatch and started timing the speech the moment the speech title was shown.  The contest timers did not start timing until the contestant came up and started talking.  She did meet the time based on that start and came in second place.  The Past International Director informed me that she should have been disqualified because with the additional time prior to her introduction when the starting slide was shown, she would have gone over the maximum allowed speech time.  He pointed out that specific rule, which was the same at that time as it is now, and I agree that she should have been timed earlier.

I learned that lesson at next year’s Northwest Division Humorous Speech Contest when I was the Sergeant-At-Arms and put a contestant’s easel and sign boards on the side prior to the start of the contest.  I told the contestant about this rule and made sure his first sign is covered, he only uncovered it after he started his speech.

I’m sure there are contest officials could interpret this rule differently and may consider a sign board or a PowerPoint slide with any information not part of the “non-verbal communication” listed in the rulebook.  But there are many that disagree.  If you are a Contest Chair, Chief Judge or one of the contest timers, in such a situation go with what can be the “worst-case” scenario and have the timers time a contestant’s speech immediately after that person’s sign board or PowerPoint slide with any information is displayed, regardless of whether the contestant was introduced or not.

Now what if there was a decision made based on facts which resulted in an ENTIRE district going in an uproar?  It just happened recently in District 21 in British Columbia in which the District International Speech Winner was disqualified to compete in the Region I contest.  Why?  Because it turned the speech winner, who was out of Toastmasters for years, returned to her home club on the night of the club contest to rejoin and was asked by her club to compete that night.  What is wrong with that?  At the time of the club contest, the speech winner was not considered a member in good standing with that club because Toastmasters International did not receive that person’s application until after the contest.  The contest rules mentioned it very clearly under Eligibility in page 9:

Be a member in good standing of the club in which he or she is competing.  The club also must be in good standing.  A new, dual, or reinstated member must have dues and membership application current with World Headquarters.

Maintain eligibility at all levels of any contest.  If at any level it is discovered that a contestant was ineligible to compete at any previous level, the contestant must be disqualified even if the ineligibility is not discovered until a later level and has been corrected.

This is similar to what I’ve seen in District 30 as mentioned in an earlier blog entry.  And just like in that entry, the D21 winner was hurt by the decision made after the District Contest.  In this case as she won the contest with a speech that many seemed to both rave and be touched by it (here is her speech at her Division Contest), it appeared everyone in District 21 is up in arms.  Both the D21 conference website and Facebook group page, members took their anger at WHQ believing that yes there was a mistake but it was not the contestant’s fault at all and should be given the chance to compete at the Regional Contest.  One went as far as saying in the Facebook group: “This is yet another example of TMI turning into another faceless corporate entity and the new Governance Model that they are unveiling will further erode the voice of the individual members.”

Unfortunately the members of District 21 based their comments on emotions rather than facts.  They’ve seen someone who deservedly won their District Speech Contest and now with that winner cannot continue, they felt they were unfairly screwed.  Those outside of D21, even those who have seen firsthand similar disqualification stories, looked at it through facts such as the discussion in the ToastmastersPrime Google group.  It was something that could have been prevented at any level, whether it was the contestant, the Club Contest Chair, the Area Contest Chair, the Division Contest Chair, the District Contest Chair, but perhaps they either were not aware of the rules or misinterpret them.  Perhaps because the contestant was returning to TM, the contest chairs and others in D21 only thought of encouraging her to go on as she’s been through a lot in her life.  We could easily blame any of them for not doing their jobs.

Rather than pointing fingers, I think we should let the folks in District 21 accept that something bad had taken place that could have been avoided and look at what they could do in the future to not let this happen again.  And I hope these folks will put aside their emotions and learn the facts that cause this unfortunate situation to happen, hopefully before their Fall Contests start.  It is a lesson to be learned for not just District 21, but for every member and officer in Toastmasters.

At the Business Meeting of that conference, I made a plea with the Club and District officers who attended to either check the TI website to examine their membership roster or contact TI directly through phone or e-mail to verify contestant eligibility for the following Spring contests so that this situation won’t happen again.  The top District 30 officers promised that they’ll take steps not to let this happen again through continue training at DEC meetings and officer training, particularly for the Vice President of Education as they usually chair the club contests.  Sounds like a good idea, right?

Well for whatever reason, history did repeat itself!  I attended Club Secretary training tonight and found out from the presenter that as the Contest Chair for the 2008 District 30 Spring Conference, she DID DISQUALIFY an International Speech contestant prior to the District contests for eligibility as that contestant did not have his October renewal posted.  She used this to make a point about the Club Secretary’s role in verifying the club membership roster by downloading it from the TI website.  Once again both the Area and Division Contest Chairs for the disqualified contestant didn’t do something right, so perhaps the District 30 leadership failed to take action to address this year and a half old problem – given my opinion of them it is not surprising!

Whether your District, or anyone else for that matter, instructs you as a Contest Chair about contestant eligibility, here’s a reminder on how to deal with it, especially as the Fall contest season is under way:

- If you are the Club Contest Chair, go to the TI members website, click on “Club Officer” tab, then “Conduct Club Business” and enter your club number and password (if you don’t have the password, check with another club officer or TI).  Once you’re in, go to “View/Update my club’s membership roster” to look at the membership list – you can download it to an Excel spreadsheet.

- If you are the Area, Division or District Contest Chair, send an e-mail to the Educational Programming department of TI (address is in one of the Club or District Officer manuals) and list each contestant and alternate along with the clubs they’re representing.  You could also give them a call but it does save everybody’s time if you e-mail.

This is something that Contest Chairs need to take seriously and must be repeated even if the previous level Contest Chairs did check for eligibility as something can slip through the cracks.  Otherwise people can get hurt, whether it is the disqualified contestant, the other contestants who lost to that person, or their respective clubs, families and friends.