Chris Murphy

Evaluation Speech 2020 Contest Winner

When I joined Toastmasters in June 2017, I just wanted to give speech after speech. However, one thing that struck me was your improvement is only as good as the feedback you receive. Feedback and specifically speech evaluations are a key but in my opinion an underrated part of the Toastmasters journey. The skill of delivering feedback in a way that helps the person develop both in terms of what they do well and what they can improve on is invaluable, no, it is vital.

I realised that giving effective evaluations was a skill, a skill you can hone. So, I worked on this. I evaluated every speech at our club. I read about evaluations. I went on workshops with notable figures in this world such as Freddie Daniells. Gradually I improved, I saw what I hadn’t seen before, the depth of my evaluations improved and as that grew so my passion and enthusiasm did too. It wasn’t an overnight transformation but steadily speech by speech my language changed, my evaluations changed and people’s reactions to my evaluations, yes they changed too, People wanted my input and so my foundations grew even stronger.

The power of listening

The success of active listening in Toastmasters clubs is based on a process of evaluations. We give feedback to each other on our speeches. We evaluate the roles we take in meetings. Every year we hold a speech evaluation contest, which allows members both to demonstrate their skills and allows them to keep learning and improving. Contestants observe a five-to seven-minute test speech and then present a two-to three-minute evaluation of the test speech. There are four levels to the contest, Club, Area, Division, and District, winners will progress through each level which ends at District level, where all the Division finalists will complete in the District Conference. Our Evaluation Contest winners come from across the District and are listed below.

Year	Contest winner	Club	Division
D91
2019-2020	Chris Murphy	Tunbridge Wells Speakers	H
2018-2019	James Cross	Kings Cross Speakers	C
2017-2018	Chinkata Okpara	Excalibur Speakers	L
2016-2017	Tazud Miah	Early Bird Speakers	C
2015-2016	Ga Lok Chung	City of London, Kings Cross	K
2014-2015	Alex de Jong	Northavon Speakers	A

Year	Contest winner	Club
D71
2014	Simon Bucknall	London Cardinals
2013	John Webber	Solent Speakers
2012	Lynn Cantor	Excalibur Speakers
2011	Chris Boden	Maidenhead Speakers
2010	Jane Cameron	Southside Speakers
2009	Simon Bucknall	Excalibur Speakers
2008	Hilary Briggs	Grosvenor Square Speakers
2007	Kate Atkin	Anglia Communicators
2006	John Evans	Thamesdown Speakers
2005	Bob Ferguson	Excalibur Speakers
2004	Chris Cox	Cambridge Speakers
2003	Janet Rose	Maidenhead Speakers
2001	Ian Rees	Maidenhead Speakers