Pete and Repeat delivered outstanding speeches this year. Sadly, they didn’t get to deliver them at NITOC 2020. Next season, Pete will write a brand new speech. Who is left? Repeat? No, of course not! All enterprising Stoa competitors must comply with Stoa rules and write new speeches next year. The rules state:
Platform speech rule: If the competitor uses a speech topic in any competition in any venue, that competitor may not reuse it in subsequent years of competition.
Interpretive speech rule: Once the competitor uses a selection (book, play, short story, etc.) in any competition in any venue, that competitor may not reuse any part of the published work in subsequent years of competition. The Bible is an exception to this rule.
We appreciate the significant effort competitors have given to their speeches and are sincerely disappointed their season was cut short. However, platform and interpretive speeches from this season may not be reused in subsequent years. Allowing speeches to be repeated offers an unfair advantage. In addition, we believe there is greater value in moving on to new topics and interpretive material each year, allowing students to develop their speech writing and delivery skills. However, if a student prepared a speech that was never delivered in competition, they are welcome to use it next season under the current rules.