ROTARY FOUR WAY TEST SPEECH CONTEST RULES

WHO - Contestant may be a freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior in a public, private, or home school and may
have competed and won in previous years.

LENGTH - 5 – 7 minutes with a 15 second leeway (5 points off for going over or under)

DELIVERY - Speech may be memorized or notes may be used, but reading is discouraged. Memorized is
certainly more impressive.

TOPIC - Material must be original in content and be about applying the Rotary Four Way Test to an important
issue in our everyday relationships with other people. The test asks the following four questions:
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to ALL concerned?

Necessary info about the Four Way Test may be found at www.rotary.org
Click “About Rotary”……….then click “the 4-way Test”

Contestants should write a speech with facts, statistics, stories, examples, & quotations. Add some humor
and personal touches, but do not mention
your name, school, or city! At District do not mention your Rotary Club.
Video tapes of previous winners can be obtained from District 5810.
The audience for the club level contest is usually 25 to 100+ adults at a Breakfast or Luncheon meeting. At District,
the audience is a few parents, coaches, judges, & other contestants. The top winners are often asked to present
their winning speeches at the Rotary District Convention and at some other Rotary Clubs.

At District the “Most Firsts” method will be used for tallying results with multiple judges. Two “firsts” and a “sixth” wins
over three “seconds.” Each club may enter one contestant. Once a student wins “first” at the club level, he may not enter
other club level contests. Students may enter no more than two club level contests for this Rotary year. Previous District
winners may compete again this year with a new speech.