Toastmasters District Semi-Finals

On August 12, 2010 I watched 27 Speeches in the New Toastmasters Semi-Finals. These Semi's were created to Replace the former Regional Finals that were held in past years. After re-reading the notes I took during these semi-finals I have come to the following conclusions. 1. That the new Semi-Final process is not as effective as the former Regional Structure. 2. What the former Regional process did was weed out those speakers that won their District contests based on 1 speech. 3. In addition the former Regional process weeded out those speakers that won their District not based on skills but more on popularity. In this years semi-finals I walked away feeling that the majority of the speeches I listened to were of the advanced club level only. 4. I think that more speakers competing at the semi-final level will need to avail themselves of coaching in order to compete at the semi finals. 5. Of the 27 speeches I watched only 4 were of the championship level needed to compete at the International Judging level. 6. Each year many competitiors and audience members walk away from a contest not understanding what happened? Why did the judges choose one contestant over another. Many highly skilled and excellent speakers fall by the wayside due to poorly skilled or biased judging. Will it ever be fair? Probibly not. I will say this. This years winner deserved to win. He was far above those who competed against him.