Speech Compitition

The 2016 Values Advocacy Council No Blind Faith Youth Speech Competition

2016 NATIONAL SPEECH COMPETITION
Introducing the First Annual Values Advocacy Council (VAC)/No Blind Faith (NBF) Christian Youth Speech Contest; offering cash prizes and open to Christian Youth, ages 12-19. Guidelines are posted below.

Date/Location:
Enter by Feb 15, 2016. Live Finals to be held Saturday, April 2, 2016 in the San Jose, California area.

Location TBD. $25 Entry Fee.
2016 Topic/Theme:“The Role and Influence of Christians on the Laws of Nations throughout History” 10 mins.

Content tips and suggestions from our judges:

  • Has Christianity altered/changed the moral or ethical fabric in a community or its nation throughout History?
  • What happens when secular and non-secular Nations in History started legislating God’s moral laws?
  • What happens when secular and non-secular Nations in History abandoned God’s moral laws?
  • Do God’s moral laws lead to physical and economic prosperity? Does this normally lead to more or fewer liberties for the poor and oppressed.
  • Should Christians care about the prosperity of their nation?
  • Should Christians care about the liberty of individuals in their nation?
  • Was Jesus involved in Politics?
  • Can laws change behaviors?
  • Can laws change attitudes?
  • Is it wrong to impose Christian moral values on non-Christians?

Prizes:
1st Place Winner receives – $1000
2nd Place Winner receives – $300
3rd Place Winner receives – $100

Our Goal:

It is the goal of the VAC/NBF Speech Contest to

  1. Create awareness of the reasons that our Nation’s Judeo-Christian Founding Fathers were compelled to seek and build a freer world at the risk of their lives.
  2. To encourage Christians to participate in our Nation’s Legislation.

Official Contest Rules:

  1. Must be between 12 and 19 years old on April 2nd, 2016.
  2. Open to Christian youth ages 12-19 (all applicants must adhere to The Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed).
  3. Speeches must be 10 minutes or less.
  4. No PowerPoint or other Media is to be used.
  5. Speeches do not need to be memorized. Full or partial notes are allowed.
  6. Student must have written the speech themselves. Help is allowed from adults and others, but the basics of the speech must be from their own research.
  7. Multiple speech submissions are permitted by a single contestant, though only one speech from each applicant will be selected for the finals. However this may increase your chances of being chosen as a finalist.
  8. Contestant may use/reuse speeches from/in other contests.
  9. Speech must be submitted by March 1st, 2016 (see instructions below – this date may be extended by the Judges).
  10. Judges will choose the top 8 speeches from the submissions.
  11. Top 8 Speakers will be notified via email by March 15, 2016
  12. Top 8 Speakers will compete in front of a live audience the San Jose, CA in April 2016 (see above for date and location).
  13. Speech can be changed moderately from original at time of contest. Basic themes must remain the same. Simply submit final script on the eve of contest by email to SpeechUpdates2016@NoBlindFaith.com
  14. On the day of the live presentation the 3 winners will be chosen by using:
    1. 25% of the Live General Audience’s vote (invite your friends and family),
    2. 25% of the attending Pastors’ vote (invite your pastor. To qualify as pastor, must be on staff at a church),
    3. 25% of the attending competitors who did not make the final round’s vote (invite your peers).
    4. 25% of the Invited Judges’ vote.
  15. Must be present to win. DVD entries for the final event will not be accepted. Participants are responsible for their own expenses.
  16. All attendees will be eligible to win other door prizes.
  17. All speeches remain the copyright of the author. However, by submitting a video, the author agrees to allow usage of the video, snippets of their speech & author’s name and likeness for promotion by No Blind Faith and The VAC now and in the future.
  18. Judges decisions are final. Entry fees are non-refundable.

Guidelines and deadline to enter:

  1. Print and fill out the Entry Form completely. (click here)
  2. 2. Make $25 entry fee by check to “No Blind Faith”. Include speakers name and email at bottom of check.
  3. 3. Speech Submission Options: Record video of the speech. (Speeches can be under 10 minutes but should not be over, smart phone recordings are fine. Please use a tripod or a stand for recording) .
    Then

    1. Burn it to a DVD and mail the DVD to us postmarked March 1st, 2016 OR
    2. Create an unlisted YouTube link and upload it. Uploaded YouTube video is the preferred format. Instructions can be found here:
      How to upload a video to YouTube (note, you will be asked to create an account) https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57407?hl=en
      How to make it unlisted (see second point in the article):
      http://mic.com/articles/62163/6-things-you-need-to-know-so-your-private-youtube-videos-don-t-end-up-on-google#.zRXtvt5Je
      Note after the competition, you may wish to make the video public. But it makes sense to keep it private from your competitors till then.
  4. Send your
    i) completed Entry Form (click here),
    ii) the check FOR $25 with payment made out to NoBlindFaith.com,
    iii) the speech script using MLA Format with citations and
    iv) the DVD to Speech Competition, NBF, PO Box 8321, San Jose, CA 95155 postmarked by March 1st, 2016 PST.
    OR
    If uploading a video to YouTube, do all the above but instead of the DVD, email the YouTube URL link to SpeechCompetition@NoBlindFaith.com by midnight March 1st, 2016 PST include your name, phone number and speech title (if sending multiple entries include the Entry Number).

Judging:
Speeches will be judged on historical facts, content, presentation style and how persuasive or compelling they are.

Our Judges:
Will include city officials, business executives, Pastors, Teachers, Authors, Historians, as well as the audience during the presentation. Since 25% of your vote will come from the audience, it will help to bring your family, friends, pastor to support you at the event. Pastors as a group get 25% of the vote. So bringing your pastor is a good idea. Make sure you tell him ahead of time.

The Live Presentation

  1. The live presentation will take place on Saturday April 2nd (Location TBD in the San Jose area) from 6:30pm-9:30pm.
  2. To cover expenses we will charge a small admission fee of $5 a person, $20 a family (2 adults and two or more of their children).
  3. Participants who have entered the competition and have paid their entry fee but are not in the live presentation will be given free entry and will be given VIP seating (and will have 25% of the vote).
  4. Children under 8 are requested to be kept in the lobby area so as not to distract the presenters.
  5. Door prizes (gift cards, books, etc) will be awarded during the event to the audience.

Book Recommendation:
The book “Jesus Is Involved In Politics! Why aren’t You? Why isn’t Your Church?” has a lot of content that will be applicable to your speech.
www.j3ip.comHelpful Links:

No Blind Faith www.NoBlindFaith.com

Jesus Is Involved In Politics  www.J3IP.com

The Values Advocacy Council www.vac.org

Institute for Principle Studies www.principlestudies.org

David Barton www.wallbuilders.com

Alliance Defending Freedom  www.adflegal.org