Community Judges
Thank you so much for volunteering as a Community Judge! Your investment of time for these students is MUCH appreciated! They value your feedback about their speeches.
The sign up form is here.First Time Judging?
Here are some things you can expect. All of the following will take approximately three hours total.
1. Training
- NO experience is necessary! REALLY! Judges just need to be 18 or older and a high school graduate.
- You will go to a Judge Orientation room upon arrival; people will be available to answer any questions you might have before the round.
- You can watch a 20-minute orientation video before you come.
2. Getting ballots for the event you will judge
- Most Community Judges are brand new to this and don't have any preference for which event they judge. We will randomly assign judges to speech events on a first-come, first-served basis. If you would like to find out more about the 11 speech events we will offer, you can visit this link to read about them. Please note that we will NOT be offering Impromptu at this tournament.
- There will usually be between 5 and 8 students in the room you will be judging, and you will receive a ballot for each individual.
- You will receive ballots sometime after you arrive--before, after, or during Judge Orientation.
3. Watch the round
- This is the fun part! You get to watch the speakers, take notes on their ballots, and enjoy their presentations!
- You will have 2 minutes in between speakers to make notes on their ballots.
4. Fill out ballots after the round
- You will take your ballots to the Judges’ Lounge to complete your comments to these students and include your ranking.
Notes:
- 3-3.5 hour time commitment
- Some parking spaces reserved for you.
- Coffee, tea, and snacks available for you!
- There'll be some times when you might be waiting to get a ballot or waiting for a student to come to the speech room.
- After you judge, we welcome you to judge another round if you are interested!