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Impromptu Speakers for Agriculture
Career Program Area

Goals:

The Impromptu Speakers for Agriculture Program Area is designed to develop leadership ability by providing an opportunity for members to take part in an agricultural speaking activity at the local, state and national levels.

General Rules

Though not required, each individual is highly encouraged to write a general, un-sealed thank-you letter to the career program area sponsor of
the Impromptu Speakers for Agriculture event area. Thank-you letters should be submitted to the Impromptu Speakers for Agriculture coordinator
at the beginning of the competition. If possible, write thank you letters on local or state PAS stationary; therefore, participants will be responsible for their own thank-you stationery and their own writing utensils.

Any participant who achieves 1st Place High Individual in the Impromptu Speakers for Agriculture program area will not be eligible to participate in this
program area in the coming years.

Impromptu Speakers Specific Rules

Subject:
A timely topic will be selected as it applies to each of the following subject areas:
  1. Agricultural Power and Machinery
  2. Animal Production
  3. Crop Production
  4. Forestry and Natural Resources
  5. Horticulture
  6. Agribusiness
  7. Specialized Agriculture (subjects that do not fit into areas above)
Preparation:
Preparation time will be 15 minutes. The starting time for preparation will be staggered to correspond with the order of appearance before the judges.
Participants will either draw for their order of appearance or will be assigned time.

The use of reference materials will be prohibited.

The participants will be free to develop the topic to the best of their ability.

Notes may be used during the speech presentation. Participants will provide their own note cards.

Time limits:
Each speech will be a minimum of three minutes and a maximum of five minutes in length. A 10 point penalty will be assessed for each minute or major fraction thereof under or over the time limit. The timekeeper will indicate to the participant when the three-minute mark has been reached.

Each participant will be allowed five minutes additional time to answer questions from the judges. The timekeeper will stop questioning when the five-minute mark is reached.

Career Program Procedures

  1. Participants will draw for the order of speaking or as assigned by the award program coordinator. If the participant does not meet at his/her assigned time, the participant forfeits participation unless previously arranged with the award program coordinator.
  2. The Impromptu Speakers for Agriculture coordinator will introduce each speaker by name.
  3. Note cards may be used. However, points will be deducted if the use of notes detracts from the speech’s effectiveness.
  4. Competent and impartial persons will be selected to judge the award program. At least two of the judges will have an agricultural background. The judges will score each participant using the rating and comment sheet provided.
  5. Each judge will ask questions of the participant. Questions will relate directly to the speaker’s subject. The full five minutes for questions should be used.
  6. When all participants have finished speaking, each judge will total the score on delivery and questions. The timekeeper’s record will be used to compute the final score. Each judge will then rank all participants. The winner will be the participant with the lowest total numerical rank by the judges.
*Should there be more than 20 participants, it is recommended that the award program be divided into two sections. Participants will draw to determine the section in which they will appear. Three additional judges, one additional timekeeper and two additional rooms will be required. Each section will select the top three participants to appear in the finals where all six judges will select the overall winners.