Society Speakers....

[daz]

If you are able to give talks to astronomical societies, why not put your details in this section, and make it easier for societies to find you!

Things to include:

Where you are based in the country

Distance willing to travel

Prepared to stay overnight

Fees other than travel expenses

Talks given (of course!)

Societies:

Please contact speakers via the PM system as we don't recommend publishing phone numbers directly on the forum

PLEASE - do not "chat" in the speakers posts, instead, use the designated chat thread - thanks

[Mark at Beaufort]

Thanks Daz for placing this info on the forum. Herefordshire AS is 12 months old and still feeling its way. Individuals giving talks have so far been contacted by personal knowledge of the society committee members but the list is getting smaller. Hope SGL members response to this thread.

Mark

[daz]

Mark

FAS holds a list of speakers, not sure if its available to non-member societies though...

[callump]

Yes, the FAS does have an extensive list of speakers around the country, but it is only provided as hardcopy in the FAS Handbook - which is provided to societies when they join, and is updated annually.

If anyone wants to be added to the FAS Handbook speakers list, please pm me.

I would also note that its pretty unusual for speakers to require a fee for a Society talk - in about past 10 years or so that I have been involved with the running of our Society, we have only paid a speaker fee once, and that was to John Dobson!

I doubt we would engage a speaker that charged a fee. We do pay travel expenses, though, and provide a meal in advance if required, and accommodation if an overnight stay is needed.

/Callump

(FAS ViceP / Cotswold AS Coordinator)

[michaelmorris]

I have given a talks to Worcester AS on a number of subjects as part of our series of monthly 'Practical Astronomer' talks. These talks are about -

- Eyepieces

- Filters

- Observing the Moon

- Observation planning and logging

- Amateur observatories

All of these talks are very much aimed at practical observers rather than armchair astronomers. Please be aware that I have no particular expertise in any of these subjects. Rather, I have come to these subjects from the angle of the keen amateur who has researched the subjects out of interest. Each talk lasts about 1.5 hours.

I would be prepared to travel up to 1 hour drive from Worcester (i.e. South Shropshire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire or much of the West Midlands.)

[AstroTiger]

i think if your paid or not it depends on the subject matter, and speciality of the speaker.

Rule of thumb, if i offer to speak to a society, it is likely to be a freeby.

If someone asks me to speak, then it is only right you should charge.

Then again it depends on who is giving the talk

Dr Allan Chapman used to give talks to the NAS, i think he was given his usual box of tea bags (he loves his tea) and a mug as a token payment.

Then he is taken home.

I was asked to give a talk which was quiet out of my way. They offered to pay me, i will go. X amount for the talk plus x for expenses.

I think thats fair, especially in this climate

[callump]

I think when you start charging for talks, it changes the relationship, and raises the expectation - just hope you are confident that you are worth your fee - your audience might think different.

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, and stuck in the 'public service' ethos of old...

/callump

[Guest]

I would agree with Callum. I do lots of talks to socities and only charge expenses. I woudl question that there are any amateurs who should be charging for their talks. We are out to inspire a wonder of the Universe. I would also suggest that any talk that lasts for 1.5 hours is 45 minutes too long. I would aim for maybe 50 minutes and then questions. Few audiences can hold their attention fo that long

Owen

[michaelmorris]

At Worcester Astronomical Society most of our speakers talk for between 1 hour and 1. 5 hours, usually with a coffee break in their somewhere. I agree that 1.5 hours without a break is often too long. IMHO 'how long is too long' very much depends upon the speaker, the subject and the audience. I agree that for talks to the general public on a complex astronomical subject 45 minutes is often plenty long enough.

However, I find that talks on a practical subject of keen interest to me can go on much longer without losing my attention. I recall that most of my lectures when I was at university were 2 hours long with no breaks and I don't recall falling asleep in any of them!

Personally I wouldn't charge for giving a talk. However, I wouldn't criticise people for wanting some sort of financial compensation for the long hours of hard work it takes to put together a good talk. I know it's not the norm, but if people are good at what they do I don't see why they shouldn't charge if they want to. If they aren't worth it, they won't get bookings or recommendations.

[S.A.M]

I try and pull in the speakers for Wiltshire AS (job I have been doing for just over a year) and so far, nobody has asked for expenses (which is good for us!). We do have one speaker later on in this season that will charge us (Dr Stuart Clarke), I have been told he is a very good speaker by other members of the society. As a rule, I hope speakers would not charge for their services, as we are all amateurs trying to enjoy our hobby. As for length of talk, no more than 80 minutes would be a good mark for me.

Peter

[garypoyner]

I do a number of talks mainly on Variable Stars (see web page for details). Maximum distance is around 150 miles, and I only charge travelling expenses. As Chairman of the Heart of England A.S, I wouldn't consider paying for someone to give us a talk, other than expenses.

My first post to stargazers lounge by the way

Gary

Gary Poyner's VS pages

[NickH]

I try and pull in the speakers for Wiltshire AS (job I have been doing for just over a year) and so far, nobody has asked for expenses (which is good for us!). We do have one speaker later on in this season that will charge us (Dr Stuart Clarke), I have been told he is a very good speaker by other members of the society. As a rule, I hope speakers would not charge for their services, as we are all amateurs trying to enjoy our hobby. As for length of talk, no more than 80 minutes would be a good mark for me.

Peter

They all ask for expenses, which WAS of course pay in full (in terms of petrol/etc...) just to clarify that..

[S.A.M]

Thanks Nick, My statement could have been better wrote. We do pay for speakers expenses, the quote about Stuart Clarke is he will be asking for a fee plus the usual expenses for the night. Hope that puts a better picture about WAS?

Peter

[daz]

Bedford also pays expenses, meal and accomodation if required - not sure we've ever had anyone ask for other fee's - including Stuart Clark when he was promoting The Sun Kings, but would have to check...

BTW - Welcome Gary must be well over the 250,000 mark by now?

[Dave]

I do a number of talks and I only charge expenses, apart from my local societies which I do my talks for free.

It is quite an eye opener as to how different societies receive their speakers though. Many I love visiting, and would go back time after time. Others I would never think of returning to for a second time as I have found I have not been treated very well at all.

I find anything more than an hours talk is probably going on for too long, both as the speaker and from the audiences point of view.

Better to finish a bit sooner with them wanting a bit more, rather than bore them senseless.

[StarDome]

I've been givign talks and lectures for over 12 years, many to Astro - socs throuought the country. I've also lectured for Cunard on 7 trips and lectured around the world on various astro/space topics in the USA and Australia.

Presenting lectures on Star Lives & Deaths, Hubble, space exploration including Apollo to the Moon, The space race and Triumph & tradgedy in Spaceflight, Impacts, and many others.

Can be contacted on here

[sam mayo]

i went to my first meeting last night and we had DR Ian Kenyon from Birmingham uni, his talk was about an hour which was very interesting, most of the talk was way over my head but i found it very stimulating, so that is what i call a good job,any longer would have been to much for me personally !

[gooseholla]

If a talk is longer than 30 minutes, you're either trying to cram too much in, or you can't explain things succinctly enough. Most talks I've heard in life, there is either too much waffle or pointless information. Anything above about 30 minutes, say 1 hour, 1.5 hours, you need to split it into different sessions with a break inbetween, or seriously think about how you're saying things, or if there is waffle, useless information or un-needed repetition. (Please don't try and talk for an hour or more on one single subject, and have only one single point!!!). To go from one thing to the next over an hour or 1.5, or (forbid!!!), longer is just pushing things to tedium (don't forget, most talks will be held after most people have already had a long day!). I once had a lecturer go on for 2 hours, with no breaks, about Cleopatra - and it contained too many irrelevancies. An hour long slideshow of images to do with Cleopatra has no bearing on anything and sends people to sleep. This started at 8pm, after people had worked all day, travelled, etc.

If people are fresh and it is part of a day study/lecture series, then longer can be done within reason (don't use it as an excuse to do the above though, ie fill time for the sake of filling time!). Else, 30 - 40 minutes is the maximum one should be looking at. People might say, oh but an hour or more is getting your money's worth - yeah, but said information retained is a lot less! You can give/save an extra 15 - 20 mins worth of stuff by just writing a couple of pages of short notes. People can read it a lot faster than you can speak it and elaborate!

I would never pay for a speaker, unless they were reasonably well known and had good reason to charge a reasonable fee for their time. However, most in this situation have talks a plenty up their sleeve which they can fire off from memory, so cannot usually justify "preparation time" of material. Would I pay to hear average Joe next door? No. However, expenses should be offered, if they are so inclined to want to take them.

Do I give talks? No... but for the right price...

[Kai]

If you are able to give talks to astronomical societies, why not put your details in this section, and make it easier for societies to find you!

Things to include:

Where you are based in the country

Distance willing to travel

Prepared to stay overnight

Fees other than travel expenses

Talks given (of course!)

Societies:

Please contact speakers via the PM system as we don't recommend publishing phone numbers directly on the forum

PLEASE - do not "chat" in the speakers posts, instead, use the designated chat thread - thanks

Please can we keep this thread to Speakers only , not reviews as mentioned in the above post from Daz.

[Dave Dubya]

Is it possible to have a setting tweaked so that our original posts can be edited and updated?