Start a Club

It's actually 35 pages of illustrated material, more detailed than this web page, to show you how to plan, promote, and launch your club, including:

• What is included with your charter
• What is available for purchase
• Why start a Speakers League club
• What happens at a Speakers League club meeting
• Your role as Chairperson
• Starting up your club
• Club start-up checklist
• Where to hold meetings
• Financial considerations & membership dues
• How many members and how often to meet
• Sample budget
• Promoting the club
• The first meeting and beyond
• Room set up and name cards
• Typical meeting timing and supplies
• Scheduling roles
• The Chairperson’s typical tasks
• Chairperson’s FAQs

Click here to request "Getting Started" today!

The Operations Manual is actually comprised of 8 parts.

• Part 1 - Getting Started
• Part 2 - First Meeting and Beyond
• Part 3 - Member Handbook Levels I-II
• Part 4 - Member Handbook Levels III-IV
• Part 5 - Forms, Etc.
• Part 6 - Incorporating Club Officers
• Part 7 - Workshop Manual
• Part 8 - Workshop Participant Handbook

Click here to see the complete Table of Contents.

No. A group of families can just come together to start a club or do a workshop. It is even up to you whether you charge dues at all, to cover your expenses.

On a side note, we do not assist with business start up. We merely license our materials for your use, subject to our terms and conditions.

For each Speakers League club you operate (and if you wish to conduct workshops), you must possess a valid Speakers League club charter. A charter is a $95 annually renewable license that gives you the right to use the Speakers League materials for one club, and/or to conduct any number of Speakers League workshops during the time you hold a charter.  You also agree to our terms and conditions.

A Speakers League Club is defined as a single group of students that meets on a regular ongoing basis and conducts Speakers League structured meetings. Workshops are defined as short-term trainings (usually 6-16 sessions) at which a new group of students typically enrolls for each workshop series.

A Speakers League club is generally an ongoing group that meets regularly for a school year, or more.

A Speakers League workshop is a short term group that meets for between six and sixteen sessions. The attendees generally participate in only one workshop.

Workshops are a great option for introducing public speaking and meeting management skills to groups. Our workshop materials are perfect for as few as 6 sessions, and as many as 16. (After that, you would convert the group to a full Speakers League club to have access to more speech types.)

Some charter holders use workshops to recruit for their ongoing clubs. Others just run workshops and never start an ongoing club. It’s up to you!

That's fine. There's a lot of flexibility in holding workshops around the times of year that work best for you. Some teachers opt to conduct workshops during summer break. Some people do weekend or after-school workshops.

An ongoing club is more of a commitment of time, but can also have flexibility. For example, many clubs take the summer off. Others convene somewhat sporadically when holidays come around. You can adjust your schedule for your and your members' particular needs.

You determine your club's schedule. Some clubs meet weekly, some twice a month, some once a month. A membership level of 12-20 can thrive on once or twice a month. A larger membership can do well with weekly meetings. It's a matter of being able to fill your schedule and give everyone enough opportunities to do the roles and give prepared speeches.

This is a common question, so we made an entire section of our Operating Manual devoted to the first few meetings. We provide two pathways to launching your club.

One pathway provides three step-by-step lesson plans that will give you and your members a gradual, fun, and stress free introduction to the roles at a club meeting, techniques for Impromptus, a plan for preparing their first speech, and a foundation in how to effectively (and constructively) evaluate another member’s speech.

The other pathway is to start with a full meeting. To do this, you will provide handbooks to members at least two weeks prior to the first meeting, have members review the meeting highlight video and protocol video, and pre-assign meeting roles, including speeches.

You will probably have the best results with kids aged 10-and-up, though serious-minded younger ones can have success, as well. We’ve seen them as young as six!

No. Membership-building is your responsibility, but our "Getting Started" section has lots of great promotional ideas to help you with this. You may also list your club on our Club Locator page.

To be clear, we do not assist with business start up. We merely license our materials for your use, subject to our terms and conditions.

It is entirely up to you. The Speakers League company does not receive any part of the dues you collect.

Some charter holders wish to offer a free club to members. Others see their charters as a business from which to earn an income.

Whether you have a profit motive, or not, it is important to attach value to your club through some form of club dues.

Most extracurricular activities cost parents $10 to $20 per hour per child. Depending on your location, clientele, and expenses, it is not unreasonable to charge between $10 and $25 per meeting per member. A modest dues structure might be $50 as a one-time-registration/materials fee and $30 per month for two meetings per month.

There is more information on this topic in "Getting Started," our free download, available here.

The costs of running a club amount to these:

• Speakers League Charter Fee (Annual $95 fee paid to Speakers League)
• Room rental (plus possible liability insurance)
• Timekeeper materials
• Ribbons (woven or printed)
• Printing and copying costs for member handbooks, forms, etc.
• Chairperson/supervisor (if paying yourself or someone else)

Typically, membership dues and materials fees offset these expenses.

More information can be found by downloading (free) Part 1 of the manual, "Getting Started."

As long as you have a charter for each club, you may run as many clubs as you wish. You may operate as many workshops as you wish with a single, valid charter.

Running Speakers League clubs can be profitable. Be sure to download Part 1 of the Manual, "Getting Started," to see a sample budget for a single club. Then multiply those results by multiple clubs. The key is strong membership building and providing unquestionable value to your customers.

On a side note, we do not assist with business start up. We merely license our materials for your use, subject to our terms and conditions.

Of course! Helping children learn the skills of public speaking is a goal worth sharing. Many people want to help children, and if fundraising can help you offer this learning experience to more children, then this is a great approach. Non-profits often have greater (and less-expensive) access to room rentals, as well.

On a side note, we do not assist with business start up. We merely license our materials for your use, subject to our terms and conditions.

Many locations you might wish to use for your meetings will require that you have liability insurance. If you or your organization already has such insurance, use that. If you do not have it, you may wish to contact your own insurance agent, or consider purchasing it from us. More details can be found on our liability insurance page.

Consider trying these possibilities:

Library
Museum
Corporate Meeting Room
Fire/Police Station
School Classroom
YMCA
Community Center
Church
Scout Center
Senior Center

Download "Getting Started" (Part 1 of the operating manual), at no charge, for more information on how to approach locations.

Most clubs include "Speakers League" in their name, such as "Norfolk Middle School Speakers League." However, that is not required. You might prefer "Norfolk Communications Club," or the like.

Likewise, if you are a tutoring company, you might name your club "Kumon of Wichita Speakers League," or "Kumon Kommunicators."

You may not remove the Speakers League logos and replace them with your club or organization's. For your club name and club logo, you may integrate the design with the Speakers League logo for your marketing and promotional materials.

For more information, read Sections 26-31 on our Terms and Conditions page.

If in doubt, contact us at info@speakersleague.com
or call 310-528-7369.

You may print out the materials as needed. Many charter holders choose to do this.

You will receive an email about 15 minutes after you purchase your charter. It will contain your link and sign-in credentials for our "Chairpersons Membership Site" (CMS), where you can immediately download all of the parts of the manual.

We do offer, for your convenience, the option to purchase printed items and other supplies. These can be found in the shop tab.

As it happens, yes. Within the English Language Arts standards for "Speaking and Listening," our program meets all of the standards in the categories of "Comprehension and Collaboration," as well as "Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas," across all grades.

Click here for more details on the Common Core standards met by Speakers League.

There are four Levels within the Speakers League program. To complete Level I, members must do each Club role at least once, and give the seven speeches outlined below.

1. Getting to Know You (4 – 6 minutes) The goal of the Getting to Know You speech is to share information about yourself so the audience gets to know you better. The primary skills emphasis for this speech is eye-contact.

2. Gestures (5 – 7 minutes) The goal of the Gestures speech is to use body language to help you communicate your message. The goal of the Vocal Variety speech is to use power, pitch, pace, and pauses to add meaning and interest to your message.

3. Vocal Variety (5 – 7 minutes) The member should use volume, pitch, rate, and quality as well as appropriate pauses to reflect and add meaning and interest to his/her message. The member’s voice should reflect the thoughts he/she is presenting.

4. Visual Aids (5 – 7 minutes) The goal of the Visual Aids speech is to use visual aids to help the audience members under-stand and remember what they hear. Popular visual aids include computer-based visuals, overhead transparencies, flip charts, whiteboards, and props used for demonstration.

5. Organizing (5 – 7 minutes) The goal of the Organizing speech is to organize the presentation into a logical order or format that is clear to the audience. (The speaker should provide his/her MLA formatted outline to the Chairperson and Evaluator before the speech.)

6. Speaker’s Choice (5 – 7 minutes) The goal of the Speaker’s Choice speech is to demonstrate overall speaking skills. The topic is chosen by the speaker.

7. Speaking with Knowledge (7 minutes +/- 30 seconds) The goal of the Knowledge speech is to research an issue or topic and present a speech about it. The speaker should clearly demonstrate a competence in the skills covered across all Level I speeches. (The speaker should provide his/her MLA formatted outline to the Chairperson and Evaluator before the speech.) To be eligible for Level advancement, the timing of this speech must fall within the specified time frame of 7-minutes plus-or-minus 30-seconds.

A signaling system is used to keep speakers aware of their time.