Speaking Dates

**"C.L. Fornari" c*@mail.com**

 Kate wrote: > I am becoming very wary of anything further than 6 month  out.  

If you do much speaking, you have to book well in advance.  I frequently will be asked to reserve a date two years in the future. But whether the date you book is two weeks or two years in advance, you need a written contract.  I tell the people who contact me that I need something in writing - email or postal service - by three weeks after our phone conversation or I do not consider that date booked and will no longer hold the date and time for them.  

I can think of several occasions when the program chair has called to request a date, I have held it for them, and no paperwork ever arrives...so at least every other month I go through my date book (where the details of the original call are recorded) and reconcile it with the contracts in my folder.  If I don't have a contract, I call that program chair and inquire if they are still planning on my being there and if so, they need to get a contract to me within the week.  The program people are always glad for the follow-up - usually they have let things slip through the cracks, and they are happy to be reminded.  Sometimes they have booked someone else and I then know that I'm free to schedule that time elsewhere. 

I always tell my contact person that the contract has to say where, when, what I'm speaking about and the agreed upon fee.  Once that piece of paper is in my folder, it's a done deal, but not before.

I do wish that the program people would double check as I do - because things DO fall through the cracks on my end as well!  Yes, I have misplaced contracts (caught when I reconciled the date book and the contract folder, fortunately) and once, like Duane, I ended up double-booked because one of the organizations assumed that all was well despite the lack of contract and my attempts to reach them.  (Like Duane, I scrambled around and found someone else to do the talk.  Sorry I'm not closer to Philly, Duane!) 

I have learned the following lessons the hard way:
1. Always get the name and phone number of the program chair who firsts contacts you.
2. In that first conversation, ask where, when, and be clear about your speaking fee - write this in your book or other record keeping.
3. Periodically, compare that record with the contracts you have on file. This will tell you well ahead of time if you have double-booked or saved a date that you can now give someone else.
4. Record the year of the speaking date in your notes from the first call - when you are scheduling in advance it can get confusing.
5. Contact the program chair a week in advance of the date to confirm the information in your contract. (I ended up sitting in an empty parking lot once because the chair had written the wrong date in the contract!  Yes, they paid my speaker's fee anyway, but it was a 150 mile drive and a wasted day in my busiest season.  Had I called the week before it would have prevented this situation,) 
6. If you end up double-booked and it's your fault, find someone who can fill in, and offer to speak for free the following year.  If it's their fault, help them find someone to fill in anyway.  To error is human.

March and April are the busiest months for garden speakers - have a great spring, everyone!
C.L.

C.L. Fornari
www.gardenlady.com

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