Peter's Waterways Blog Speakers and Meetings This was first published in IWA West Riding's Milepost in May 2015 about accepting an invitation to be a guest speaker.

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The Deaf Institute in Leeds

"Brilliant Audience" "Pity there were so few of them" "Yes - our carload of four, and seven of them". It's the conversation as the Guest Speaker drives the two hours home on a dark Friday evening, and particularly disappointing to have devoted a couple of days preparing the presentation, as well as keeping the appointment instead of taking their chance to see the canals from t'middle. It has been me saying variations of this at about six of my eight members' meeting which I felt obliged to attend since the New Year, and at five of them I was the Guest Speaker: it's a total of about 30hrs preparation, 24hrs driving and 16hrs at the meetings: I also choose to donate my expenses/fuel costs to the IWA. Of these meetings' participants, the committee members probably felt obliged to attend, so excluding them and the Guest Speaker, the attendances by members were: 25, 20, 7, 5, 4, 2, 2, 0

At West Riding, we usually have had audiences that are (just) above the 'disappointment' threshhold for all our external speakers. If we are to continue to do that, we need an enthusiastic volunteer to keep up our tradition of inviting relevant, entertaining and knowledgeable speakers, and having sufficient publicity and encouragement of members, guests and others to make the meetings sucessful. Against the challenge of our ageing membership, and less enthusiasm these days for public meetings (how many were there in your constituency at the General Election?), it's a job that needs a new perspective, and sufficient enthusiasm to do it justice.

Be confident. They are on their way

Mirfield

It can be good fun to be the volunteer who takes on the job of speaker-finding. The committee normally sketches out a programme for the next year, which may be shorter than earlier years, and make some initial enquiries with possible speakers for the programme. There is a good list of speakers on the IWA website from which a speaker and topic may be selected.

There is a need to contact the potential speaker, agree dates and arrangements, and repeat until the programme is complete. Starting a year in advance of the first meeting is ideal, and the whole programme can be printed in Milepost, added to the website, and notified in good time to the Waterways magazines. Then agree what the speaker needs (projector, screen, table etc) reconfirm everything in the week before the meeting, arrange to meet-and-greet on the night, write a couple of introductory sentences for the Chairman's introduction, and sit back to be entertained.

Waiting for the audience to arrive

Peter Scott @peterjohnscott