What is the standard protocol regarding timing? Since we’re supposed to have two timers, should both timers be timing simultaneously?
It is up to the discretion of the contest chairman as to how the timing is handled during speech contests. However, please note that in the case of the International Speech Contest, at the World Championship of Public Speaking, two timers are used, with one timer managing the stopwatch and the other timer managing the timing device that displays the green, amber and red signals. This helps to avoid the confusion of two timers having different results.