Are you planning to get involved in the speech contests in the coming season?
Here is what you may want to know.
District 59 contests this Toastmasters year (2021-2022) will be for International speech and Table Topics, to be held in English, French, and Dutch. The District Contests will be held at the Spring Conference in Montpellier on 20-22 May 2022.
The contests at area, division and district levels will be in person, unless the sanitary situation and the rules adopted by the national governments of Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands, require us to move back online. The default option is, however, in person contests at area level and above. Clubs have the freedom to decide to have contests either in person or online.
Stay tuned for further details. The contest season kicks off in January 2022.
Background
This year, Toastmasters International provided the opportunity to each district to make its own decision on the format of the contests – in person, or online, by 31 July. The District Executive Committee (DEC), which includes the District Core Leadership Team, and all Division and Area Directors, convened in July 2021 to take a decision. Toastmasters International provided the opportunity to select from two options: in person or online, specifying that contests that are decided to be in person can move online in case of force majeure, while online contests could not be changed to in person events.
The D59 DEC discussed both options and opted for flexibility. The decision was made to hold contests in person. To find out more, read the minutes from the extraordinary DEC meeting on 4 July 2021, which were adopted by DEC on 5 September 2021, using the following link : Minutes of 4 July DEC Meeting.