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
'What We Do' Main Pages:
One of the most popular events on our calendar, the regular DNAPQuizzes raise a lot of money for our local charities, supported by the Rotary Club of Abingdon.
moreOn Saturday the 24th We joined other groups in Abingdon on a River Litter Pick. The Sun shone and we all had a great time. We look forward to being involved with the Plastic Blitz next time.
more4000 crocuses planted outside Abingdon Police Station in two hours to celebrate our Rotary Foundation ending Polio across the world
moreWe worked with the Nasio Trust to install water tanks in Tanzania, to provide safe drinking water. Ground water in the region is heavily fluoridised and causes health problems for the population.
moreTwo splendid cups commissioned for our Club's annual Youth Speaks competition. Often won by our talented young people from Abingdon's six secondary schools, our winning teams often go on to the next levels of this national Rotary Competition!
moreThe Club's foreign conscience - here immunising under-fives in India against Polio. There is no cure for Polio but it is preventable with a vaccine. Only two countries now remain endemic. We’ve reduced cases by 99.9% since 1988
moreThe Rotary Foundation is Rotary International's own charity. It does an enormous amount of good in the world. Watch the video The Heart of Rotary for a flavour!
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