Rotaract Ethics Forum

Each spring, District 5280 Rotaract clubs compete in a forensic competition built around the 4-Way Test.  In past years, competing teams used the 4-Way Test as a touchstone for thinking about macro-economic and overarching social issues.  In 2018, teams are asked to employ the 4-WayTest to analyze issues faced in school, at work, in sports or at home, as well as greater social issues within our society, our government, and throughout the world.  Selected topics may even address historical events.  Teams are encouraged to be creative in selecting their topics and will be judged on their ability to properly apply the 4-Way Test to their chosen topic.  Teams are expected to persuade the judging panel and the audience of  how the 4-Way Test can be of value when weighing the difficult choices presented in their topic.  (Please note: This year there is no list of suggested topics.  Consider your own experiences, social realities and world events.) 

One or more of the Forum judges will be active or retired judicial officers.  Judicial officers look keenly at the logic of what is being advanced and less so at the passion with which it is presented.  Nevertheless, they will consider your poise, verbal skill and textual organization.

In practicing for the competition, you are encouraged to challenge the arguments of your teammates.  Claiming that something is “fair to all concerned” is easy to say, but not always easy to demonstrate convincingly.  If you practice defending your conclusions in front of your teammates, your presentation at the forum will be refined and tightened.  If the ethical choices presented by the Test are not always binary in the context of situational ethics, explain which circumstances must be weighted, and why the answer you have chosen is the best suited to the ethical goals of the 4-Way Test.

Instructions: Download the flyer, rules, registration and judge's evaluation (available on this website.) Registration and entrance fee must be received by March 15, 2018. 

Questions: Contact SAG Vocational Service Chair Margie Hernandez at margiehpadilla@hotmail.com or Ethics Forum chair Victor Ibarra at v13141ibarra@hotmail.com