Nature of the Contest The Community Leadership Contest aims to recognize and reward members who have executed or significantly contributed to the execution of actual projects in their communities that address a problem that the community had. These projects are presented to the Agora community through a contest speech. The speeches in this contest are very similar to those in the "Social Awareness Speech Contest," but they take one step further: they narrate how the member took action, what they did, and how successful the action was. As in the case of the Social Awareness Speech Contest, the speech should include a clear description of a social or personal problem that has a social projection (for example - discrimination, lack of access to water, lack of access to education, lack of communication skills, inequality, etc...). The projects need to meet the following criteria: Must affect many people that are not directly related to the contestant (In other words, the project may not simply be an action that the contestant took to solve a problem that she and her extended family or friends had). Must have been started during the 18 previous months leading to the Convention. Must not have already entered this contest for a different year. The contestant must have had a significant impact on the project, and they must have had a leadership role in it. Although the project doesn't need to be completed by the time of the contest, at least some interim results must be available. Those are real and tangible and not merely estimations or projections. Speech Requirements Speeches about projects entering this contest must have the following elements, and it's up to the contestant to decide how to fit this information in the speech. A clear explanation of an existing problem that affects a group of people An indication of the exact role the contestant played in the project. An explanation of the action taken, its development, and the resources used ( in terms of materials, energy, and people ). The story should also clarify when the project took place (starting time and duration). Difficulties faced and how the contestant overcame them. An explanation of the outcome (if the project is in progress - the interim results). An indication of how the contestant expects things to develop in the future. Will the problem re-appear? Was it removed for good? A reflection on the lessons learned and how they can be applied in the future. If the contestant repeats this project today with the experience and accumulated knowledge of the past project, what would they do differently? The indication of the resources and outcomes used doesn't need to have the precision of an audit - it's enough if it's objective. For example, if the project involved cleaning a beach, it's enough to approximately indicate that "A team of 20 people collected nearly 2 tons of garbage". However, an indication such as "A team of a great number of people collected a lot of garbage" wouldn't qualify due to the ambiguity of terms such as "a great number," "a lot," etc. All of the above elements must be supported with evidence, either press snippets, photographs, testimonies, data, or any other objective proof that the claims are correct. Evidence that is based on subjective perceptions is not acceptable. For example, suppose the problem was water quality in a particular location. In that case, the evidence for a successful outcome cannot be testimonials of people saying that "the water looks better now" or "the water tastes better now." Speeches about projects entering the Community Leadership Contest must have a maximum duration of 15 minutes. Projects and actions must verse on actual problems that do not contradict mainstream, peer-reviewed scientific knowledge. Any project that addresses imaginary problems or favors, encourages, promotes, or uses pseudo-science at any stage of its development (e.g., addressing cholera in Africa through shamanic chants) will be disqualified. Scoring of Projects and Speeches Judges will score speeches according to the following criteria. Each criterion is scored from 0 to 10: Community Leadership Scoring Criteria Explanation Weight Problem Description Will consider how clear the problem description was. 1 Impact Will consider the number of people impacted. The larger the number of impacted people, the higher should be the score. 3 Social Relevance Will consider how serious the problem was for the affected community. 5 Leadership Involvement Will consider the level of leadership exercised by the contestant in the project. Was the contestant merely a contributor, or were they the architect and leader of the project? 2 Outcome Will consider how positive the outcome was for the community. Did the project improve their living conditions? Did they acquire more rights? Did they end up better off? How tangible and objective is the improvement? 5 Supporting Evidence Will consider whether the speaker provided enough evidence supporting the existence of the problem, the action taken, the role the contestant played in the execution of the action, and the outcome. 5 Action Originality Will consider the originality of the project in relation to the problem. 2 Efficiency Will consider how efficient the solution is. Were the resources (both energetic, material, and human) used wisely? Could the same idea have been implemented more efficiently? 2 Simplicity Will consider whether the project addressed the problem in a simple and not overengineered way and whether there were better courses of action to achieve a similar result. 2 Permanence Will consider how permanent the solution is. Was it a one-time effort where the problem may appear in the future again, or was it a durable solution that has removed the problem for good? 5 Problem-Solving Will consider how the contestant solved the problems that appeared during the development of the project 3 Lessons Learned Will consider how powerful and valuable the lessons extracted by the contestant after completing the project and whether they can be applied in the future. 3 Presentation Quality Will consider how compelling the presentation was - structure, transitions, cohesion, delivery, etc. 2 Completion Will consider how close to completion the project is. 10 points should be awarded for projects that have been completed 3 For each speech, the weighted average of the above scores will be computed, and that will be the final score assigned to that contestant. Judges should not be making assumptions about any of these elements unless they're stated in the speech unless the project is within their area of expertise. For missing pieces of information, the score should be 0. For example, suppose the contestant doesn't explicitly indicate how permanent their solution is, and the judge lacks the expertise to make a judgment call. In that case, the score for that criterion should be 0. Titles The winner of any level except the World Final will have the title of “Best Community Leader of (region).”