Going for School Captain

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I'm 17 and top of my class in Maths, English, Design & Technology, Physical Health and Development Studies and crap at my other subject, Chemistry. My last year of High School is next year and the teachers want new school captains to replace the ones leaving this year... The position involves addressing school assemblies and some other functions. I have good relations with all the teachers, but I'm terrible at speaking in front of people my own age, let alone the whole school.
I plan to join the NZ Army as an officer once I finish school, so I'd like to have some leadership experience beforehand.

Does anyone have some tips or help to offer for improving my public speaking?
Do you think I should try for it at all?

I think there are 3 keys to public speaking.

Firstly, controlling your breathing using your diaphram
modulating your voice so it is not monotone
making appropriate eye contact with the audience

These are all things we aspies find difficult but when I was about your age I joined a youth theatre and practiced these skills by way of the actors exercises we did. With hindsight this has helped me greatly over the years. The key is to practice until it becomes automatic. If there is no theatre group in your area then singing will also help. If this sounds scary then think how it will help you when you join the army. Go for it. Good Luck

hello again

I've just gone away and thought about a few simple exercises you can do in the privacy of your bedroom. I don't claim to be a qualified speech therapist but it won't do any harm. I think it helped me anyway.

In order to control your breathing;
I think when we get anxious we to tend to over breathe which can give us that familiar dizzy out of it feeling.
Practice controlling your breathing by counting aloud with one breath. See how high you can count to on one breath. Think of it as letting the air out of a balloon as slowly as possible. I think you'll find you can count higher and higher as you gain more control.

Eye contact;
Try not to 'eyeball' a particular member of the audience, just look in their general direction. I still tend to stare strangely at people but if you look down at your notes and then up again and then down again and keep doing this it is much less of a strain than trying to maintain eye contact.

Making our voices more tuneful;
It's a bit difficult to explain voice exercises in writing so I think the best thing is to sing loudly along to your favourite music. Think of it as stretching your voice in to areas it doesn't normally go. Noones listening!

I hope this helps. I find that despite feeling really really anxious it helped me.

Thanks, I'll certainly give your tips a try
I've got nothing to lose, so that only means I have lots to gain

greeneyes,

you might try looking at a local community centre to see if they have any hobby courses on acting or public speaking. There are a lot of people who have difficulty with presenting before groups of people, so this might well be a popular topic.

For my part, I was Head Boy my last year in school, but I had the benefit of about 8 years of children's theatre training before that!

Yes, for people starting a new school or college course I think the theatre club is a great place to start to meet people because It's the most obvious example of a group of people sharing a common interest. If actual acting is not for you then theres the creative stuff like props and costumes and for the technically minded theres the sound and lighting. I'ts the perfect opportunity to practice working together with a group of people who have a common goal. And you'll be hopefully having fun at the same time.