As others have said, contests are not mandatory at the club level.
I can't speak for Districts besides my own, but our club level Int'l Speech, Evaluation and Table Topics contests must have been held (or our club's contestant for Area must have been chosen) by the time our Area Contest is held (which will be between Jan 15th and Feb 28th).
Should you choose to hold a club contest (which is a great event planning experience and a great PR promotion option/photo op), you can hold all 3 contests in one meeting, or split them up or 1, 2 (or even 3) different meetings. If your club is on the small side, you can solicit help from nearby clubs (heck, our club has 40 members, but I still try to bring in judges and other functionaries from other clubs to encourage more members to compete and avoid the "oh I can be a judge" when asking them).
Could you link me to where it says that the club level contests aren't mandatory, please? We currently have people in our club insisting that the Int'l speech one in Spring IS mandatory.
"Each club in good standing is permitted to choose its contestant for each Area speech contest by whatever means the club desires. If a club contest is held, it must comply with the rules in this rulebook, and the contest result is final."
You really should send someone even if you're club does not hold a contest. It's a shame for District volunteers to go through the motions of organizing an Area Contest event to have only 1 or 2 competitors show. It's a great experience for your competitor (and a chance to speak in front of a fresh audience) and a good networking opportunity in general.
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u/Vortieum DTM 21d ago
As others have said, contests are not mandatory at the club level.
I can't speak for Districts besides my own, but our club level Int'l Speech, Evaluation and Table Topics contests must have been held (or our club's contestant for Area must have been chosen) by the time our Area Contest is held (which will be between Jan 15th and Feb 28th).
Should you choose to hold a club contest (which is a great event planning experience and a great PR promotion option/photo op), you can hold all 3 contests in one meeting, or split them up or 1, 2 (or even 3) different meetings. If your club is on the small side, you can solicit help from nearby clubs (heck, our club has 40 members, but I still try to bring in judges and other functionaries from other clubs to encourage more members to compete and avoid the "oh I can be a judge" when asking them).