Tunnel Vision

Sometimes when we hear something or people tell us something, we tend to just take it at face value rather then looking at the rationalisation and what is the purpose of such practise.

I recently attended an Area Contest and I was suppose to be the Ballot Counter. When I reach there, the Chief Judge said that I cant be the ballot counter because I'm a contestant during this term (although I'm from different area).

Then I told her that, I'm from different area, I have done ballot counting even for District Contest which was witnessed by past TLI Chair and District Governor.

Her comment was " I checked with some people and they said that PREFERABLY better to get a non contestant" and "what ever happened in past is past.

The reason was because, I may forge the results to my favorite contestant.

Partially what she said was true. But in Toastmasters, there's an element called integrity. If i don't have such integrity, the past District Governor and Division governors wouldn't have given me the mandate to be ballot counter for the past 3 year.

In addition, If I don't have integrity, I wouldn't have sponsored the banner for a University based club and sponsored my area events during my tenure as Area Governor.

My question was, what if she itself forge the results or the replaced ballot counter whom she appointed was good friend of certain contestants and the new ballot counter could do the same?

What she could have done is to apply mitigating control to ensure fair based results.
1. She could have appointed me as counter/re-checker on the computation rather than collecting the ballots (since she already had an independent.

2. She could have put a mark on the judging ballot sheet that only she knows whether the ballot sheet is original or not.

3. Finally, she could have called the judges and verified if the results documented on the ballot sheet was the actual or forged.

Whatever, it was, I knew that she was new to arena of judging, thus it's learning curve for her. What she could have done is to rationalise the decision and apply applicable controls that would firm her decision.

Luckily, me and another girl was not trouble makers, else it could have been havoc there. My main aim was to go there FOC (hehehe), that's why I wanted to take up the role. Even that, I wanted to help Chun Ming as he helped my club.

Even, if I was out today as role player, there are many more contest to come and definitely I can get it. So, it's not a significant item for me. Whatever, in future I must ensure that she is not the Chief Judge for the contest that I'm attending.