I’ve seen a lot of different practices in districts around the world.  I’d like to share my experiences, and make some suggestions on what seems to work best for this tricky topic.

First, most district hold four contests a year, the maximum.  They have two in the August-November period, usually humorous and either table topics or evaluation, and then two in the February-May period, international (required) and then the other one from evaluation or table topics.

The nice thing about this pairing is you have one prepared speech (humorous or international), and then another contest that newer members are less afraid to try (table topics or evaluation).  Some districts swap in tall tales for humorous occasionally.  It also allows new Area Governors to get some practice before needing to run the more visible international contest.

The contests culminate with the district conference, and the best approach is to work back to identify official windows for the various levels, division, area, and club.  These could even be codified into official district procedures by the District Council.

• Division contests are usually asked to be in a window of 2-4 weeks before the district conference
• Area contests in a window of 4-8 weeks before the conference
• Club contests any time before that

The LGET works out the dates for these windows and publishes them on the district web site.  Division and Area Governors then work on finding a venue.  And this is very important: Do not select the contest date before the venue is found!  A good venue is usually hard to find (location, size, cost, etc.), but there’s no value in locking in a date without knowing where it will be.  Find a place to hold the contest, and pick a date based on their availability.  (Do not try to schedule a contest around when the contestants or VIPs are available, it’s impossible to fit into everyone’s schedule!)

Once you announce a contest date, time, and location, never ever change it, there’s no way to be sure everyone who heard it the first time also gets the update (same reason you never ever cancel a club meeting, excepting really obvious dangerous weather conditions or major holidays).  Don’t change it because a contestant can’t make it; that’s why they have a second-place winner.  (Unless it’s the ONLY contestant, anyway!)

The LGET or a designee keeps an official contest schedule on the district web site.  Division contests must be scheduled to not conflict with each other, within that two-week window.  Within each division, the area contests must be scheduled to not conflict with each other, within that four-week window. Two or even three contests could be on the same day, as long as they’re not at the same time, and there’s enough time between them for travel, such as one at 9 AM, one at 2 PM, and one at 7 PM (depending on distances).

The first person who locks in a date/time AND place with the schedule keeper gets it — anyone who comes along later requesting the same date has to choose another date.  (It’s not practical to ask that all area contests in the entire district be scheduled to avoid conflict.)

So if we take an example of a district conference on Nov. 8-9, that means that division contests should be held between Oct. 12-25, area contests should be held between Sept. 13-Oct. 11, and club contests any time up to Oct. 10.

What about admission fees?

Ideally, you find a free location, and ask some volunteers to bring cookies and punch for free, so there’s no costs, but this doesn’t always work out.  If there’s more than a trivial amount of money involved, you’ll want to work out a very simple budget, like this:

• Realistic number of paying attendees (do not include contestants!)
• Room cost
• Refreshments cost
• Trophies and certificates cost (ideally the district provides these)
• Other costs

You can then calculate what to charge by adding up the costs and dividing by the number of paying attendees.  Remember that the district is always financially responsible, whether there’s a surplus or a deficit, the area and division events are part of the district.  Send that simple budget above to the district treasurer for approval (who should share it with the DG and/or LGET too), so they’re not surprised by it.

When the event is over, all admission fees need to be given to the district, and expenses receipts submitted with voucher forms for reimbursement by the district.  If it’s a smaller amount, the district treasurer may allow you to just “net” it with appropriate documentation (i.e., pay expenses directly out of the admission fees, and send in any surplus, or claim reimbursement for the net shortfall).  Talk to the district treasurer first to see how they want to handle it.

Some poor practices I’ve observed:

• Districts telling area and division governors what date their contest is, then they have to find a place available on that date.
• Districts telling area and division governors that any expenses are their problem (which implies any surplus is theirs, a violation of non-profit law)
• Overly rigid contest schedules; if a club in a given area wants to hold their contest after the club window, but before the area contest, why not let them?
• Publishing a long list of holidays when you cannot schedule a contest; let them work it out within their own area or division
• Insisting that the trio must attend every area contest; this just isn’t practical except in very small districts

Sometimes, two areas will combine to hold a joint contest, and this works very well in smaller areas, or when the area has a history of less contest participation.  It makes it easier to draw a good audience and recruit contest officials.  If an area only has a contestant from one club (rare, but can happen), the area contest could be held as part of, or right after, that club’s regular meeting (since contests must be held even if there’s only one contestant).

Remember that contests are only a small part of the Toastmasters program, and at the bottom of the priority list.  Focus on the mission, building and improving clubs and members, helping them meet their goals — but at the same time, do take time to put on a good and fair contest.  Be sure to get the maximum PR value out of the contest, both before (to get good attendance) and after (publicizing winners and following up with non-member guests).

Good luck!