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6. My District has different rules for the various speech contests. Is this permitted?
This situation came up in District 37 (North Carolina). A club was told that the official District rules for the Humorous Speech Contest mandated similar eligibility requirements for the Humorous contest as for the International Speech contest, meaning all contestants needed to have been members on or before July 1 of the current year and must have given at least four (International Speech contest requires six) manual speeches. According to the District officers involved, these were the official rules for all Humorous Speech contests held in North Carolina, contrary to the official rules mailed to all clubs by Toastmasters International which mandated that the only eligibility requirement be membership in good standing in a club in good standing.
The president of the club in question checked with Toastmasters International's World Headquarters and was told resolutely that any District which holds speech contests must use Toastmasters International's official rules, and that Districts are not permitted to change any rules published by Toastmasters International.
This policy of course doesn't apply to contests the District has invented on its own, but for the Big 5 (International, Humorous, Table Topics, Tall Tales, and Evaluation), if your District's leaders have changed the time limits, eligibility requirements, or policy regarding originality (one District supposedly waived the originality requirement for the Tall Tales contest), they're wrong. If they don't believe this to be the case, ask them to contact Toastmasters International World Headquarters themselves. They'll be quickly corrected.
Incidentally, why is this important? Simple: the only official rules most clubs get for the contests are the ones TI mails out. It would be tremendously discouraging to be told after the fact that the rules your club had used for the contest you won were not the official rules as practiced in your District, and, thus, you couldn't compete at the next level. In many cases, "Official District Rules" are known only by those who have a dog-eared photocopy that's five years old (as was the case in District 37). That's wrong. If your District's leaders have changed the rules, tell them they can't; if they say, "Sure we can," please notify Toastmasters International's World Headquarters.
Contests are fun, but it's important to run them the same way everywhere globally. Fairness and a level playing field aren't just luxuries. They're required.
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