Youthspeaks

Introduction

The Rotary Youth Speaks Competition is a well established and successful competition organised and promoted by Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland.

It is a four stage competition designed to support and encourage development of effective communication skills. Some stages may have more than one round.

Aims

            This competition aims to offer young people:

• experience in speaking on a public platform as a member of a team

• an incentive to formulate ideas on topical subjects

• discipline in dealing with a topic in a limited time

• the opportunity of learning and practising high standards of expression, presentation and appearance

• impartial feedback and assessment of performance by experienced adjudicators

   

  Who can take part?

   

  This competition is open to teams of three students in full time education in two age groups:

   

  Intermediate  11 to 13 years

  Senior            14 to 17 years

   

  With the age qualifying date of 31 August 2016, it should be noted that some junior entrants may be 11, intermediate entrants 14 and senior entrants 18 at the time of some or all stages of the competitions e.g a competitor who is 17 on 31 August but turns 18 on 1  September is allowed to enter.

   

  Students should enter the competition organised by the local Rotary club through their school, college or other organisation.

   

  Competitors, schools, colleges and other organisations can participate in a district that is outside of their boundary, but can only compete in one club or district.

   

   The Four Stages of the Competition

   

  Local Heats              Organised by local Rotary clubs between September and December. Age group winners of local heats are entered into a district competition. Local Rotary Clubs can be found using the club finder in the top right hand corner of the Rotary website ribi.org.

   

   

  District Competitions

                                      Organised by Rotary between January and mid February. For high numbers of entrants, it may be necessary to hold preliminary rounds prior to a district final. Age group winners of district competitions are entered into a regional final.

   

  Regional Finals       Organised by Rotary between mid February and March. Age group winners of regional finals are entered into the national final.

   

  National Final          Organised by Rotary District 1240. Date TBA

   

  Rotary does not fund expenses of the regional winners to attend the national final.

   

  Competition Guidelines

   

  Format                       Each team member takes one of three roles: chairperson, speaker and vote of thanks. The team should be the same throughout the competition. In exceptional circumstances substitutions may be made, subject to the approval of the competition organiser.

   

                                      Each team member is allocated a time in which to perform their role. The role of each team member is detailed in the procedure section below.

   

  Judges                      Judges with appropriate skills appointed by Rotary will apply the judging criteria and provide feedback to all competitors and mentoring to winners. The judges will not discuss marks and their decision will be final.

   

  A Rotarian will not be appointed as a judge for regional or national finals.

   

  Judging Criteria                Chairperson’s management of the meeting         25 points

  Speaker’s ability to present and develop a topic

  and ability to answer the question                       50 points

                                             Quality and courtesy of the vote of thanks          25 points

                                             Team work                                                                15 points

   

   Total  115 points