Sheila (Contest Chair) presents certificates to Simon and Rumana while Jacqui (Chief Judge) looks on

We hosted a good International Speech and Evaluation contests evening in March. This is part of the Toastmasters International experience and is designed to offer an additional challenge to members. Winners at club level go on to compete for the Area title and those winners go to Division. Winners of those two contests progress to compete at District 91 level and the winner of the International Speech contest there will compete in the global contest, with the potential to become the World Public Speaking Champion.

All the International Speech contestants gave us a great speech, but there has to be a winner on the night and this time it was Amanda.

We were lucky to have Lizzie from Wokingham Speakers give us an excellent speech using the analogy of cake to explain neurodiversity. This gave the Evaluation contestants plenty of scope for their evaluations. The four contestants all offered commendations on what Lizzie had done well and offered suggestions for improvement.

Winner of both contests was Amanda Bouch, who went on the Area 21 contest on March 14.

Thanks to some helpful feedback on her speech, Amanda achieved second place at Area and this means she get to compete in the Division D International Speech contest on 26 March. Amanda also won the Area 21 Evaluation contest and competes in that too. Good luck Amanda!