RIBI Youth Speaks 2015

A Public Speaking Competition

Mid Herts Rotary Heats

INTRODUCTION TO THE 2015 COMPETITION

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) has, for many years, run public speaking competitions for young people.  Public speaking is an important life skill and is one that Rotarians value.  Rotarians are always delighted to support and celebrate the expertise of young people.

Each year, thousands of young people take part in events that culminate in the regional and RIBI finals to which participants travel from throughout the British Isles to take part. It is a wonderful demonstration of the achievement of those taking part and a great experience of their speaking talent..

We are inviting teams to take the first step on that journey by entering the Mid Herts Rotary heats of the competition, the winners of which will go on to the District semi-finals in February and hopefully to the further levels.

The Intermediate competition is open to students aged 11 to 13 years at 31st August 2014 and the Senior competition to those aged 14 to 17 on the same date.

Teams consist of three young people. The Chairperson has two minutes to welcome the audience, to introduce the Speaker and to inform the audience of the relevance or expertise of the Speaker to the subject of his/her speech.  The Speaker has six minutes for the address and a maximum of two minutes to consider and answer a question that will be posed by a Questioner.  The third member of the team proposes a vote of thanks and comments on the content of the speech and the answer to the question.

The Speaker is free to choose any subject approved by the organisers, with the exception of subjects directly concerning party politics, race or religion. Considerable discretion is urged in the choice of subjects which might be sensitive to members of the audience. 

Entries should be sent to midhertsrotary@ymail.com using the entry form (obtainable from midhertsrotary@ymail.com) by Monday 10^th November.

The competition aims to offer young people:

¨       An experience of speaking on a public platform as members of a team.

¨       An incentive to formulate ideas on significant subjects.

¨       The discipline of dealing with a topic in a limited time.

¨       The opportunity of learning and practising high standards of expression, presentation and appearance.

¨       The impartial criticism and assessment of performance by experienced adjudicators.

Each team comprises three members: 

          the chairperson, 

          the speaker 

 and the proposer of the 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, 2 minutes each for the chairperson and proposer of the vote of thanks, and 6 minutes for the speaker.  The speaker also has 2 minutes to answer a question posed by a questioner.

The winners and some runners-up (depending on the number of teams competing) will go on to the District Semi-Final and hopefully further, to the District, Regional and National Finals.

If you would like a full set of the rules and an entry form, please email midhertsrotary@ymail.com