Rules and Regulations

Aim

To provide an opportunity for Air Cadets to increase their self confidence; and increase their ability to reason, organize and express ideas;

To promote the citizenship component of local squadron training;

To provide a focus for the effective speaking component of the Senior Cadet Training Syllabus, Junior Leaders Course and the Senior Leaders Course;

To increase public awareness regarding the citizenship and leadership aspects of the Air Cadet program at the national, provincial and local levels.

Official Rules

The Competition

Squadron Sponsoring Committees have the option of sponsoring a "local" Effective Speaking Competition for Air Cadets. "Region," and "Provincial" competitions are conducted by Provincial Coordinators -- working with the Provincial Committees of the League.

1. The "local" Effective Speaking Competition committee is responsible for all phases of the competition at the squadron level. All "local" competitions must be conducted by members of the Sponsoring Committee, in cooperation with the CIC personnel.

2. Regional competitions will be held at times and places determined by the Provincial Coordinators. The Chairman of the regional competition will be determined by the Provincial Coordinators and supervised by them. All regional competitions must comply with the official rules and only the zone winners shall be eligible to compete at the Provincial competition. At the discretion of the Provincial Coordinator, each squadron may send up to two competitors to compete in the zone competition

3. The Provincial Effective Speaking Coordinator working with the Provincial Committee shall determine the date and place of the Provincial Competition.

1. All levels of the Effective Speaking Competition must be sponsored in its entirety by an Air Cadet League Committee.

2. Each competitor shall prepare his or her own oration. The competitor may receive advice in its preparation, however, and may make changes or improvements in the oration at any time during the competition.

3. The transportation of a competitor to a region and or provincial competition and the maintenance of the competitor at the competition site shall be the responsibility of the Squadron Sponsoring Committee.

4. In the event that a first place winner in a local or regional competition cannot compete in a subsequent competition for any reason, the second place winner shall be declared an alternate competitor

Competition Rules

1. Alcoholic beverages shall not be sold, consumed or be present at any level of Effective Speaking Competition.

2. All competitor must receive a copy of the official rules, and be instructed to thoroughly familiarize themselves with these rules.

3. No spectator may enter or leave the audience while a competitor is speaking and no one, including press photographers, shall photograph a competitor during the presentation. The audience must be alerted to these rules before the competition begins, and at various intervals, by the competition chairman. A person should be appointed to enforce these rules. Allow for the use of one video camera at Provincial finals, to be operated by the Provincial Committee, provided the camera remain stationary, and existing room light is used, and the camera is placed sufficiently far from the speaker so as not to obstruct the vision of the speaker and audience. Competitor shall have the option of having the camera off during their own presentation. (The same rule on video taping with appropriate modifications should apply at all local and regional competition).

An interval of no more than three minutes shall be allowed between competitors.

1. Each competition shall have three judges, one timekeeper and one teller.

2. The timekeeper shall be provided with a stop-watch or equivalent timing device.

3. Whenever possible, the judges for all Effective Speaking Competitions should be non-Air Cadet League or CIC and shall not be acquainted with any of the competitors. The judges should be well qualified and bilingual where necessary.

4. The judges, timekeepers and tellers shall not be identified at the time of the competition or by advance publicity, but only after the last oration has been presented.

5. Judges, timekeepers and teller must use the official score sheets furnished by the Air Cadet League.

6. During the competition, the judges, timekeeper and teller shall each be in different locations within the room.

7. Each judge shall render his final decision on all competitors without consultation with other judges or any other person. Each judge, timekeeper and teller must sign his official score sheet.

8. The result of a judge's decision shall be kept confidential; no one shall attempt to discuss a competitor's score with the judge. The organizing committee should provide opportunities for the competitors, after the competition, to consult with the competition judges for feedback in order to improve upon their public speaking skills.

9. After the judges have totalled their scores for each competitor, have deducted penalty points, and have ranked each competitor, the judges shall sign their score sheets and give them to the competition chairman. Each judge's score and rank for each competitor shall then be entered and tabulated for each competitor on the Official Competition Score Sheet. From this form, the competition winner will be determined.

10. In all local, region and provincial competitions, the first, second, and runner-up competitors shall be determined and announced. However, if preliminary competitions are held, then only the first place winner will be announced; or if desired, the top two or three competitors, without reference to their actual position in the competition.

11. For the national competition, the first, second and third place competitors shall be announced. The judges comment sheets shall be placed in an envelope and provided to each national competitor.

Open to all Air Cadets who have not aged out up to and including the day of return to unit from the National Effective Speaking Competition.

Please refer to the Covering memo, Section 1, for the official Effective Speaking Competition topics

Awards and presentations for speakers will vary. Recipients will be given details from the event organizers. Gold, silver and bronze medals for the declared Provincial winner, the 1st runner up and the 2nd runner up, respectively, are provided to the Provincial Committee by the Air Cadet League National Headquarters. Medals for competitions other than the Provincial level are available at minimal cost.

Certificates acknowledging the individual Air Cadet participation in local competitions are also available from Air Cadet League Headquarters.

Regulations for Competition

The Speaker

A speaker has responsibilities which include:

a. Selecting a topic from the official list of topics.

b. Preparing own speech. Speeches are to be the ORIGINAL WORK OF THE SPEAKER. Use proper quotes and credit authors and source of material if referring to another person's work. Prepared speeches shall not be less than five (5) minutes nor more than six (6) minutes, with penalty points if too short or over time allotted.

NO VISUAL AIDS, PROPS, GIMMICKS or the assistance of persons may be used by speakers.

NOTE: A gimmick is any device/stunt or person used to attract attention, e.g. clothing/costume props, singing a song, using taped music in the background, leading a cheer or chant, etc. Quotations are acceptable to use.

c. Impromptu Speeches of two to three (2-3) minutes are planned. For impromptu speeches, the topic will be pre-selected by the senior judge or coordinator. All competitors will give the same impromptu speech. All competitors will be removed from the speaking area. One at a time, each competitor will be isolated, and given the topic in writing in English or French ,as needed, and allowed three (3) minutes to put their thoughts together.

d. Finding out details about levels of competition in which she/he will be a participant (date, where, etc.) and becoming aware of the rules.

e. Arriving early at the competition.

f. All speakers must speak and be ranked at each level (local, region, provincial, etc.) before progressing to the next level of competition.

g. Awards and presentations for speakers will vary. Recipients will be given details from the event organizers.

h. Speakers are encouraged to improve their speeches after each presentation. Speakers are allowed to write a completely different speech for each level of competition.

i. Speakers must speak in either English or French and continue to speak in the chosen language throughout all levels of the competition.

Every level of competition needs an Effective Speaking Committee which has authority over the competition. This Committee is responsible to the Provincial Coordinator responsible for the Provincial Finals.

The Committee has these duties:

1. Select someone to host the event.

2. Select and brief the Master of Ceremonies for the competition.

3. Select and INFORM JUDGES

Explain the Air Cadet program.
Explain the competition procedures.
Encourage constructive comments.
Explain the score sheet

4. Obtain facilities and have them available at least half an hour before the competition.

5. Obtain a P.A. system, podium, time cards, stop watches, any recognition to speakers and judges.

6. Put speakers' numbers and topics on the score sheets in the order that they speak.

7. Provide extra score sheets and extra comment sheets.

8. Prepare impromptu topic.

9. Meet with speakers briefly before the competition to clarify procedures, answer questions, and proceed with the draw to determine the order the speaker will participate eg. 1,2, etc. for the Prepared Speech this order will be reversed for the Impromptu Speech.

10. Supervise timer and teller.

11. Break ties resulting from the competition by having the judges agree on a winner. Tied competitors should not be subjected to a second impromptu speech.

12. Disqualify any speaker who has not presented an original speech and/or who uses visual aids and gimmicks, etc. These speakers will not be eligible to receive an award. Any award will be forfeited to the next deserving speaker. The speaker will also be disqualified from competing in further public speaking competitions.

13. Destroy the score sheets and the teller sheets after the competition. The speakers are not allowed to see these sheets.

14. Prepare and distribute news releases.

Local competitions should start after January 1st of the current training year and the twelve (12) Provincial Champions should be known to League Headquarters no later than May 1st of that same year.

Local competitions should be held under the supervision of the Local Sponsoring Committee.

The country has been broken down into the twelve (12) Provincial Committee jurisdictions. Each Provincial Committee will subdivide their responsible area into regions. The winners in each of the squadrons within the regions will meet for competition which will be run by the Provincial Committees. The winners of the region competitions will then go into a Provincial Final Competition, again run by the Provincial Committees concerned.

Financially the competitions will be joint efforts. Squadron Sponsoring Committees will absorb the cost of Local Competitions. The Provincial Committees will be responsible for the Zone and Provincial Competitions.

Medals for awarding to each provincial winner, 1st runner up and 2nd runner up will be forwarded from Air Cadet League Headquarters.

1. A timer is to indicate the amount of time remaining in a speech as follows:

Prepared: 1 minute, 30 seconds, Time Expired
(35 seconds after 6 minute mark)
Impromptu: 1 minute, 30 seconds, Time Expired (15 seconds after 3 minute mark)
The timer is only to hold the card in front of his/her chest for five seconds and is to remain seated. This is to minimize any distraction to the speaker. A speaker may choose to not have time cards shown.

2. Times for speeches:

Prepared: Not less than five minutes or more than six minutes
Impromptu: Two to three minutes
Speeches are to be timed from the first word spoken from the speaker, which includes the greeting -- salutation.

Prepared speeches: 1 (one) point to be deducted from the raw score for every 5 (five) seconds over or under the allowable time limit, to a maximum penalty of 7 (seven) points.

Impromptu speeches: 1 (one) point to be deducted from the raw score for every 5 (five) seconds over or under the allowable time limit, to a maximum penalty of 3 (three) points.

Time faults must be deducted by the judge before speakers are ranked.

Tellers receive the rankings from each judge, add up these scores, and put the scores in order.

If a Tie ensues between 1st, 2nd and/or 3rd positions, the tie is to be broken by deliberation
between all the Judges.

(see item 11 under The Effective Speaking Committee above.)

1. Judges will rank all the speakers and give this rank order to the teller. Judges break their own ties.

2. One of the Judges is asked to make verbal comments to the assembly in the name of all judges.

3. Judges will be allowed approximately two minutes to mark their scores and to write their comments following each speech.

4. Judges should not judge the same speakers twice in the same training year.

5. Judges are encouraged to put emphasis on the educational value of the experience, so that "winning" does not appear to be the sole purpose of involvement.

Disqualification Criteria

1. Each Provincial Committee should establish a resolution panel to rule on disqualifications.

2. A Cadet should not be disqualified from a competition for lateness, unless they arrive after the last Prepared Speech has begun.

3. Any violation of the Rules and Regulations will result in disqualification from the competition.

Designed by PBDG