Finding Speakers - Part 2

Last month I discussed finding speaker leads using exchange newsletters from other Societies. There are other good sources for speakers. Let's explorer some of those.

Once I had a speaker give a talk on the Genealogy of Our American Flags. He and his wife displayed about 25 different U.S. flags that he and his wife researched and had commercially sewn at a local Flag Shop. They were willing to speak for free but we offered them our standard honorarium.

Another time we had the manager of the Special Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library come and speak about their large genealogy holdings. He waived the honorarium in exchange for our then latest publication to place in their Library.

You can ask representatives from companies of genealogy software, DNA testing labs, photo archival supplies, and others to present their products in exchange for allowing them to sell their products to your Society.

Remember to contact local chapters of lineage societies such as D.A.R. and S.A.R. to come and speak on related genealogical topics in exchange for allowing them to promote membership in their organization.

Always ask your members to recommend good speakers they hear at various functions of other organizations. Your Society may not be the only one of which they are members. Be sure and get contact information if possible. And don't forget that you can expand speaker's topics beyond the standard genealogy topics to historical and social history topics that help genealogists to place their ancestors in daily life.

One of my speakers, Kathleen Trevena, has a variety of topics on social history that easily relates to genealogy and family history. I have had her speak each year for three years and still haven't exhausted her topics. I try not to duplicate a speaker more than once per year. Though sometimes I break that rule.

Do you read authors of historical novels? Do you read reviews of new genealogy books? If you can determine that the author is local to your society you might consider contacting that author to speak at your society about how he/she researches historical novels. There would be similar research methods genealogists can use. Maybe the author will come and speak if he/she can sell the books at your group.

One time many years ago Oprah had an author on her TV program who shared her black and white ancestry. She was able to get many of her two different families to appear on Oprah. I went to the local library and checked out her book. I found she lived local to our Los Angeles area but I never followed through asking her to speak. I was too busy getting speakers. Go figure! Oh well, my loss.

Another source for speakers is your local or regional Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon Church). They have regular classes on many good genealogy topics. Perhaps you can get some of your members to attend these free classes and scout out new speakers. You do not have to be Mormon to attend.

That's all for now. Next month we'll talk about creating variety in your speaker's topics and creating newsletter articles that sell your speaker's topic to your membership.