THE TEN MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR JUDGES TO KNOW

1. Sign the ballot! I hate to think that someone has gone through all the effort of judging only to forget to sign the ballot. If a ballot is not signed, it must be discarded. It has happened more times than I can remember. When I am chief judge, I encourage the judges to sign their ballots before I close our pre-contest meeting just to make sure it gets done. Print your name on the ballot. Print carefully if your handwriting is illegible so that the counters and chief judge know who you are.

2. Make sure the counters can understand your ballot. Remember to place the names with the first place winner at the top. Ignore the numbers on the right side, which are for the counters. If you make a mistake and start drawing arrows (and I have seen it happen), make sure that what you have done is intelligible. If not, your ballot will be discarded.

If there are at least three speakers, vote for first, second, and third. Really. I was chief judge once in a contest in which there were only three contestants. We had to disqualify one ballot because the judge voted only for first and second place, apparently assuming that third place should be obvious.

There can be no ties on your ballot. If you have a tie, you must find some way to break it. I recommend that you look at your Judges Guide and choose the person whose speech reflected the best content.

If you are the tie-breaking judge, remember to rank each of the contestants, first through however many there are. You should have been given the special Tie-Breaking Judge Guide Guide and Ballot which contains spaces to rank nine contestants.

3. Decline the opportunity to judge if for any reason you feel that you cannot be fair and impartial. Such an occasion may arise if one of the contestants is a spouse, sibling, parent, child, or significant other.

Toastmasters rules prohibit a Toastmaster from judging when he or she is a contestant in an upcoming contest. For example, if a Toastmaster has won an area Humorous Speech contest and has not yet competed at the division contest, he or she cannot judge another Humorous Speech contest in the district. If this Toastmaster does not win the division contest, then he or she may serve as a judge at another contest. The purpose of this rule is to avoid any appearance of impropriety. It avoids the possibility that a judge might give a lower score to someone against whom he or she might later compete.

4. Be in the room when the contest is supposed to start. As chief judge, I have had to tell the Contest Toastmaster that we could not begin because the judges were not all in the room.

5. Be a good listener. Do not talk to your neighbors during a contest, especially when a contestant is speaking. Do not go searching through your purse for your pen. Do not think about the food at the back table. Ignore the people who are so rude as to go in and out of the room while a contestant is speaking. Being a good listener helps you to fulfill your responsibility of being fair and impartial so that you can choose a winner.

6. Ignore the timing lights. It is the timers' responsibility to handle timing. If anyone is disqualified on account of time, it will be taken care of by the counters and chief judge. Vote for all contestants as though all have spoken within time.

7. Try the method of folding the Judges Guide and Ballot which places contestant number 1 in the spot marked 9, folding over after each contestant has spoken. It really helps me to pay attention to each speaker and to avoid the urge to compare them while the contest is still going on.

The point values on the Judges Guide are suggestions. I have seen people use checks and minuses and happy and sad faces rather than number values. Use the form in the way that best helps you to choose a winner. Remember that regardless of what contest is being conducted, it is the content of the speech that is worth the most points.

8. If you feel that a speech is not substantially original, you shoul lodge a protest with the chief judge or Contest Toastmaster before the winners are announced. Substantial originality means that you must attribute materials to their sources and must use your own thoughts and words rather than just paraphrasing something you have heard or said. Contestants need to make subjects their own and to express their own perspectives.

9. Remember to take the top portion of your Judges Guide and Ballot with you when you go. Put it in your pocket or purse. Shred it when you get home and put it in your recycling bin. Do not leave it at the contest site. Do not put it in your club file. I was once cleaning out a club file and found one there. I was delighted that the judge felt so highly about me as a contestant, but I should never have seen it. I admit that if I were a contestant and saw a judging form lying where I could see it, I would look at it. Wouldn't you?

10. Do not tell anyone how you judged. It is none of their business. It is hard to be fair and impartial when you think that your judgment may be questioned. If a protest is lodged, do not reveal to anyone what discussions occurred when the judges met to determine the issue of originality.

Sometimes contestants want to talk to judges to find out their thoughts about their speeches. Judges are not evaluators. If contestants want evaluations of their speeches, they should bring their manuals and find people to evaluate their presentations.