As I mentioned yesterday, it is almost time for clubs to hold their contests for the International Speech contest.

One way in which you can help your club members who are competing is by holding a mini judges training session.

To be a judge, you must be unbiases, you must not judge one speaker against another but the speech and speaker on their own merits.

By going over the guidelines on the judges ballot, if you use them, you'll help your club members who will be judging to understand how to fairly judge each of your speakers.

When judging a speech, you're not just judging the speech but how it was delivered, how the speaker looked, used gestures, eye contact, the language used, if it was appropriate, if the speech held the audience's interest and other fine points.

By having a mini judges training and the meeting before your club contest, your judges will be ready to decide who will represent your club at Area in the fairest possible way.

Another way to help ensure the best speech goes forward is to invite outside judges to your contest. If your District trains judges then you may be able to get a list from your District Governor or District Chief Judge, if you have one. It'll also be a good warm-up for them since it's been a few months since the last contest.

With yesterdays tip on getting your speech ready and today's on getting your judges ready, you should be all set to put your best speaker forward. Best of luck!