Capital City Toastmasters Contest Recap - March 4, 2010

Submitted by Brian S.

International Speech & Table Topics Contests

Spring 2010

We had a full house of Toastmasters plus several guests in attendance! This is always a plus for our club contests, because those of us in the audience get to see stellar performances (from which we can all learn) and offer helpful feedback to the winners, as they prepare to move on to the Area competitions.

Tom P. was our Contest Master (which is similar to the Toastmaster role in a normal meeting). With help from Sgt. at Arms Uzoma N., Tom kept everything flowing smoothly throughout our hour together. After an explanation of the contest rules, the contest began.

Our brave Table Topics Contestants were Gwen V., Kerry L. and Tom B. All three of them gave terrific spur-of-the-moment responses to the question, "How has gravity affected your life?" (Many thanks to Andrew S. for coming up with this question.)

Our inspiring International Speech Contest Participants were Vernita G. and April Y. They both gave top-notch performances, as always. Vernita shared a little bit of herself with us and reminded us of the value in "paying it forward." April showed us the power of our thoughts and words, using photos from a book called The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto. Two terrific speeches by two accomplished Toastmasters!

Richard K. ran the clock, and Mike E. served as Chief Judge and collected the votes from Trey B., Dean D. and me (the Contest Judges). Sara S. served as Vote Counter.

When all was said and done, our winners were as follows:

Table Topics Contest:

1st place: Kerry

2nd place: Tom

3rd place: Gwen

International Speech Contest:

1st place: April

2nd place: Vernita

I want to personally thank all of our contestants and everyone who played a role in our club contest (both as participants and audience members). Each of your contributions helped Capital City Toastmasters to hold another terrific club contest.

Good luck to our winners as they travel to the campus of North Carolina State University on Saturday, April 3rd for the Area Contest! Please come to that contest and support our club's winners as they compete at the next level. Your friendly faces in the crowd will help them more than you know!!! Plus, you will have an opportunity to network with Toastmasters from other clubs and hear more great speeches and Table Topics performances. Let's Go Capital City Toastmasters!