Speaker Series Rules - SMU Toastmasters

Speaker Series Rules and Regulations

Eligibility
Scoring - Best Public Speaker
Scoring - Most Improved Speaker

Eligibility

In order to be eligible to participate in the SMU Toastmasters Speaker Series, a student must be:

A paid member of the sponsoring club;
A full-time student of the institution offering the scholarship during the competition and one semester following (the awarding semester);

This restriction is placed on the scholarship to avoid tax issues and to ensure that the scholarship benefits the university through helping its current students.

In good standing with the club;

Good standing with the club is achieved by not missing, or canceling without finding a replacement, more than three formal speeches over the course of the scholarship program (one year). Good standing with the club may be reestablished by making up all of the member’s “strikes” through various opportunities. The opportunity to make up for missed speeches is afforded to the student by being a last-minute stand-in for another speaker, or serving as the Toastmaster for the week’s meeting. Speeches can also be made up through special arrangements with the Vice President of Education. Good standing with the club is to be assessed at the time of signing the application for the Speaker Series and it is the applicant’s responsibility to be aware of his or her status prior to speech events at a sponsor’s facilities.

In good standing with the university;

Good standing with the university includes the absence of an unresolved Code of Conduct, a.k.a. Honor Code violation, and the absence of outstanding financial obligations to the university.

Students missing either the 5th or 10th speech due to club and/or university standing that they are able to restore prior to the awards ceremony, or due to unrelated difficulties are eligible to receive the Best Public Speaker Award. Those missing their 10th speech at the sponsor’s facilities are ineligible for the Most Improved Speaker Award.

Scoring - Best Public Speaker

For the Best Public Speaker Scholarship, scoring is accomplished through the use of Toastmasters Evaluation Sheets for the speech being given, either speech 5 or 10, found in the Communications and Leadership Manual and through a mock interview conducted by the institution's career services office.

For speeches 5 and/ or 10:

To ensure objectivity, the public speaking segment of scoring must involve at least 5 representatives from the corporate sponsor for each speech;

Representatives from the corporate sponsor must be trained in Toastmasters evaluation criteria for the speech being given.

Evaluation sheets are translated into a quantifiable point system;

The three evaluation options in the Communications and Leadership Manual for each speaking criteria are scored as 3 points for excellent, 2 points for satisfactory, and 1 point is awarded for the option signifying a need for improvement.

Each speech's scores are calculated as a percentage of a possible total for that speech, respectively;
The 10th speech can be used in place of the 5th speech;

This has been implemented in order to encourage students' improvement, and prevent dropouts due to discouragement.

The public speaking segment of scoring constitutes 75% of the total criteria weight.

The Mock Interview:

The remaining 25% of the final score is based upon the mock interview;
Scoring for each skill category is to be judged on a 1 to 100 scale;

This scale ensures the most accurate grading, and also helps evaluators differentiate between contestants' performance.

The criteria for the scoring of the mock interview segment will be distributed at least two weeks prior to first the mock interview;
Results are to be calculated in the percentage-based manner used for the public speaking segment.

Scoring - Most Improved Speaker

Club officers use the quantifiable evaluation sheet for speech 10 to score the videotape of each contestant's first speech;
The scores for the first speech are calculated on a percentage scale;
The difference is then found between the score of the 10th speech and the first speech, which are judged by representatives of the club's Executive Board;
The individual with the highest point differential is awarded the scholarship for Most Improved Speaker.

In the event of a tie:

In the event that the top two final scores for either scholarship are not separated by a full one-percentage point, a tiebreaker speech must be given and evaluated by at least five non-biased Toastmasters. This tiebreaker speech may be a speech from an Advanced Toastmaster Manual A or B, or may be the identical speech given at the 10th speech event.

SMU Toastmasters reserves the right to change the terms of the SMU Toastmasters Speaker Series program without prior notice. Such changes may be disseminated through email or by announcements in meetings.

Updated March 16, 2006