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About
bringing Barb Shelton
(and
an assistant)
to come
and speak at
her
own one-day
(and
evening-before)
seminar
I don't typically come back to the same area to speak. I only speak a
total of maybe 5 or 6 times a year and want to touch as many areas
around the country as I can. ;-) If folks want to hear me (and I
realize many don't even know me, but that's where people like YOU come
in(!)
;-)
) then *this* conference is the one they need to get to. The reason is
that it is a HUGE thing for me to do a conference. HUUUGE.
;-) Much as I love speaking once I'm there, there is SOOOO much that
goes into it for me personally. It is hugely draining to prepare for a
conference, and then to do all the speaking at it. My neck and voice
box ache about half-way into it. I don't like being away from home, or
not sleeping in my own bed. I am prone to migraines, which travel, not
being in my bed, the pressure of being "it" as the speaker all
contribute to. It is literally a MIRACLE if I don't get one, at least
afterwards. We pray each time, but probably 50% of the time I get one
anyway. (I am being more careful about certain things each time, but my
system is prone to them.) Flying is a HUGE DEAL; tiny sardine-packed
spot to sit in on the plane (we've never gone First Class; waaaay too
expensive!), uncomfortable, tension-and-headache causing, and with all
the security stuff, it's now a royal pain in the neck. It's
literally a pain in the neck (AND shoulders too) because of the TONS
of stuff we have to haul around. And HOURS go into just setting the
conference up ~ with the coordinator, and figuring out literally
HUNDREDS of details!!! :-)
NO "NEXT TIME AROUND" ~ People sort of get used to speakers "doing the circuit" and so they
figure they'll just catch them "next time around" if this time isn't all
that convenient for them. So this is why I need to make it known that
there will not be a "next time around" for me. When I speak in an area,
if anyone really wants to hear me, they need to make the effort to be
there this time, because there probably won't be a "next time." (The
last time I was in So. California was in '94, for the CHEA Convention!)
For me ~ maybe not for *other* speakers ~ doing a
conference is a "laying my life down for you" kind of thing. It is a
GIFT of the most sacrificial kind. I don't want to sound melo-dramatic,
but it truly is. It's something I do not easily or lightly do. In
fact, I'd actually rather just be home and never do another conference
again. ;-) Not because I don't enjoy doing the actual conference,
but because of ALL that goes into it before, during,
traveling, and once home. I do it ONLY because it's something I know
the Lord has called me to do... but only a few times a year. :-) So
I am not looking for speaking opportunities in the same location. :-)
{{So
you'll have to come again in a few years...it is wonderful here, warm,
beaches, shopping, great churches to visit and even site seeing!}}...............It
sounds wonderful, but I've done all the travelling I really want to do,
even in my whole lifetime! ;-) We've been to many beaches, warm
places, shops, and churches. :-) But what I love doing most is just
being HOME, with my family, friends, and church people. I know, I am
weird. Both of my daughters LOVE travelling!!!! But I assure you they
didn't get it from ME!!! ;-)
{{Maybe
I can set something up for you in the future in our area, which is just
40 minutes south of where you will be.}}...............I
SO appreciate your heart, Sue!!!!!!! But the efforts need to go into
making this one visit be the most it can be. :-)
Well, Sue, DEAR one!!!! ;-) I'm sure you got waaaaaaay more of an
"earful" than you expected, or needed! (OR WANTED!!!) ;-)
But these are things I have wanted to put down in words, and, now that I
have, I'm going to put them somewhere on my website, in the area about
me speaking. :-) Then I'll have this in one place I can just refer
people to ~ or copy and paste and not have to write out each time
someone says: "I'd love to come, but my son has a game that day!"
;-) Or: "I just went to another seminar last month; I'm ready for a
nice quiet weekend doing NOTHING! I'll catch you next time around!"
Believe me; I understand, :-) but if I don't explain
to them the "bigger picture" and that ~ and why ~ there won't be a "next
time around," they will miss their one opportunity. :-) This
is why I have pretty much my whole message in my 8 books and all my
tapes. (The only workshop that *isn't* on tape is "Real-Life Learning
Ideas, Tools 'n' Tips" as it is a "show 'n' tell" session that would do
NO good on tape. I show lots of stuff from our past 22 years of
homeschooling... so it's not anything that can be on tape and still be
understood! I'm sure you'd get *something* out of it because I talk a
lot about everything, but there's no way we could sell such a tape cuz
we'd only get complaints from people saying "I can't SEE the stuff
you're talking about, so can I get a refund?!?!" So we haven't even
tried to tape it.)
Since you have contact with quite a few women, I thought it might be
helpful for you to know all this, and maybe even pass this email (or
portions of it) along to your friends who are trying to decide if
they're coming or not. ;-)
THE EVENT: This
would be *just me* speaking the entire time.
So you would have to first decide if you can handle that!
(I smile, but I'm also
actually totally serious.)
Click on this link for the Seminar I did in Arizona
in March of 2002.
As
for the specifics of what I would teach, there are several "basic
staples" I do at every seminar, and then there are a few options
that you would get to choose. (I do more workshops than I have
vocal chord endurance and time to present.) Click here:
Barb Shelton's Workshops
for a list of ALL the workshops I present; see the page above for how we
put several (most) of those together for an all-day (and evening-before)
seminar.
COST: I handle this
differently from other speakers, so I hope this makes sense and you can follow
it okay.
(Let me know if there's a better way to explain it.)
I do not have
one set fee for a conference. Since the operating costs vary greatly according to
how close you live to me (we are in Washington State), we need to be
flexible. There are two
aspects to consider: "Operating Costs" and "Speaker
Remuneration." Let's take them one at a time:
~ OPERATING COSTS:
any costs are involved in putting on a seminar. Unless
you have been part of coordinating such an event, you will probably be
surprised at what all is involved; things you may not have ever thought of.
Transportation for the speaker and one assistant (either my husband or a
friend who's familiar with my message and has been trained to do this),
lodging and food for both of us,
handouts, table signs,
etc. ... These costs are not considered part of compensating the
speaker for her (my) time; this is just getting us there, housing and feeding
us, and
taking care of the business end of things.
Because these costs vary
greatly, according to how far we live from you, how much individuals in
the hosting group want to contribute to the cause, we can't just set a
certain blanket amount for all seminars; we have to figure each one
individually. So if you read through this whole page and all my
workshop titles and feel that this is a "right fit," then we
will work on figuring out the money/cost end of things
together!
SPEAKER REMUNERATION:
After
many years of speaking, my
husband and I have finally decided that it is needful and appropriate to charge a set fee for presenting an all-day seminar. I
actually would have preferred the idea of having a love offering at the seminar.
It would feel more "grace based" to handle the entire matter with just a love
offering and let that cover ALL the expenses and the gift to the speaker
for giving four days of her life to your group (there's much more to it
than merely the time spent speaking,
but we have found that this
does not always work.
If you want to know why, here's what's behind this... At one seminar we did which had about 100
people, we received a $900 love offering. That sounds like a lot
of money at first, and is, but take a look at the costs involved in putting on
one of these, (further down on this page) and you will quickly see that,
had we had to pay all the costs normally involved in putting it on, we would actually
have gone in the hole. Doing a little math, we see that the
average donation per person was $9! I think what was most
disturbing to me personally was what this means... For one thing,
there were several who gave much more than the average: we
received several checks for $25 and $35. So this
means that there had to be many who gave much less than the $9
average; maybe $1 or $2 ~ or
nothing! We realize that some people don't have money to spare, but could
they really not have prayed in something that would
have said "I value your time and your message and all that you have
given me and gone through to get here enough to have sacrificed
something that would have expressed my heart."?
I can't imagine feeling good about receiving so much from a person, and
not blessing them back. And this group of gals even knew that on Saturday I was operating with a horrible migraine headache, and was doing this in the midst of our family vacation. And it was still worth only that much (little) to them. If money is an issue, we have a God who
supplies all our needs. "The servant is worthy of her
hire."
At another informal, but several-hour gathering I did with about 20
homeschool moms, they took a love offering that totaled around $15!!!
So all that to say... Much as we would LIKE to, we simply cannot count on our
attendees' good will to fund this.
And we cannot *pay* to do it
either. So we have decided on $500 for my fee. (If
you have not looked into speaker prices lately, you may want to know that
this is extremely cheap ~ or "inexpensive.") I'm willing
to go down to $400 if I speak within two hours of our home, but if I travel
further than that, it
goes to $500 to compensate for the extra day that will be taken up by
travel. Specifics are below for the expenses involved.
Here's
what the
registration
fee
needs to cover:
1) TRANSPORTATION (there,
and while I'm there)
Depending on how far away from me you are,
"getting me there" would be either car mileage (at 29 cents per mile) or airfare for two: myself and
one other helper.
Another small detail to remember about getting us there is the idea of
getting us ALL the way there! We would
need transportation to and from the airport, which we greatly prefer to
be a PERSON who will help us carry all our STUFF.
If we come by jet, the
host makes all arrangements for the flight, gets the tickets, and then
sends them to me. Perhaps someone in your group has transferable "frequent flyer miles"
available?
As for the transportation whilst we're there... This could just be
anyone ~ with a good-size vehicle ~ who would like to be our
escort! (We have a LOT of stuff!) Another option is to get
us a rental car, but we don't really need one if someone is willing to
do this for us! (Good way to get to TALK one on
one!!!)
2) LODGING & FOOD:
It usually works best for us to stay at a hotel,
and if that's the option we choose, it doesn't need to be snazzy. We have found that staying at a home
often does not usually work
for a couple of reasons: Part of it is that I need to be completely free to prepare mentally, emotionally and
spiritually for my upcoming workshops. Also, after a
day of teaching, I need to just "crash" (as in "drop dead") in privacy and quiet.
Many times when staying at homes, I found myself feeling the need to be
a "good guest" and having to talk late into the evening ~
after already having talked all day ~ and, in essence, give my hostess
more than I have in me at the time to give. It
has often ended up being a full-fledged private consultation, and this at a time when I was running on "less
than empty"
~ totally wiped out.
Even just regular conversation is overwhelming at such a time. (If
you have ever given an all-day seminar, perhaps you can identify; if
not, you'll just have to take my word for it!
) This would be
fun in a different situation, but
it invariably results in me having a migraine for the next couple of days... even
*more* time away from my family and business.
As for food, we enjoy home-made food and sack lunches if anyone has
those to offer, but, if not, we would need for the host group to pay for our
meals.
3) HANDOUTS:
We have two
ways of handling handouts:
One is that I can send you my originals; you copy, collate, and staple the handouts for the number of
attendees you have coming. (Most machines do this for you now!)
OR I can do the copying and we can add that to the price of the seminar.
(coming right up!)
4) BOOK TABLE:
Actually, this
shouldn't cost you anything; just any ol' sturdy tables will do! We need two 8-foot tables ~ or three 6-foot tables ~ for displaying our
books. My assistant (husband or a helper) who comes with me will
handle this, so I won't need a volunteer to "man"
("woman") the table while I am speaking. The only time I'd need a volunteer at our booth would be for
if my helper and I are speaking at the same time, or if one of us needs to take
a quick break. (And we are quite happy to compensate the helper for their
time!)
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How
to figure out
the
cost per person for the
registration
fee...
This
is going to depend on what the actual costs are, how many people
attend, how far away from us you live (airfare varies greatly
whether you're in California or Florida). So we will work
together on this to come up with a fee that is appropriate for
your event.
BALL
PARK FIGURE?
Let's just say that airfare for two is
$600, hotel is $75/night for two nights ($150), handouts are
$50, advertising (flyers mostly) is $100, and refreshment
supplies are $100. (I'm
sure there's more that I'm not thinking of right now, but this
is a good place to start.) That's a total
of $1,000. That seems like a lot of money, and IS, but let's break
it down... Let's say that 50 people come (which is the
minimum, by the way); that's only $20 a person! This is
not just VERY reasonable for an all-day seminar (and a session the
evening before too!); it's dirt cheap! Or if 100 people
come, that's $10/person. Going the other way, if only 25 people come, it's
$40/person, and that's still extremely inexpensive.
LOVE
OFFERING:
The
love offering that a person (couple) would give would be totally
up to them; we don't even give suggestions. We encourage
each couple to pray about it and give that amount at the end of
the seminar, in a box designated for that purpose. (We
don't even pass around for it. The box will have a sign on
it, so they can't miss it.) All we ask is that people
really give it some thought and prayer. If God is truly
saying "Give $1" then we are fine with that.
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Details,
Details, Details..
TIMING:
I would need to arrive there the day before
the seminar, set up the room and table that evening, and stay the night before to be ready to go in the morning.
... If driving, we'd possibly return home in the evening, after the
conference is over, depending on
how far away we are ~ so we're looking at one or two nights lodging.
SEMINAR CONTENT:
Click here
to see the specific workshop titles I offer. However, I have already
gathered everything into a good presentation order for a whole-day seminar
with an evening session the night before. Click here
to see the entire write-up on this. About a third of the way down
the page is the Agenda. For a variety of reasons, this is a very good way
to organize all the material I have to offer.
GROUP
SIZE: I ask for you to make an effort to
get as many there as possible. 50 should really be the
minimum. We need to have a good-size group
for a couple of reasons:
~
The main one is because I do so few in-person seminars, I want to connect with as many people as
possible. To do this there needs to first be a very "open
door," meaning hearts that are already open to my message and
receptive to it.
~
And the other reason (we need at least 50) is that there needs to be
enough admission fees contributed to cover all the expenses. It
costs pretty much the same to get me (us) there for 50 as it does for
500. (There'd just be more for handouts.)
PREPARED
HEARTS: It's really
not the best use of your time for me to
come and just "break ground." My books will do
that. So urge your attendees to read whatever they can of mine
(see Books by Barb Shelton) long
(months, if possible) before the seminar. It's actually a much more valuable, enjoyable and
profitable use of everyone's time ~ of our time together in person ~ for me to do some good "planting, pruning, fertilizing, and
harvesting." If my books have been read, then hearts will
be more prepared to go much deeper and get much more out of this
seminar!
FACILITY:
It's up to the host
(you) to provide a room that's big enough for the group
you'll be hosting, and make all arrangements that way. (If
you're having me for an all-day event, it's nice, and, I hate to say
it, but pretty much expected by the guests, to have coffee and tea for
breaks.) It's obviously best if it can be free-of-charge, but if
they do need to charge, we will need to add that into the admission
fee.
GETTING
WORD OUT! I
will personalize a webpage, similar to the Arizona
Seminar one above, just for your event! This
will be tremendously helpful to you in getting information out as you will
be able to give just a brief intro in an email and then give them the
link! There are, of course, some homeschoolers who do not have
computers ~ or at least Mom is too busy being a Mom to know how to use it!
~ therefore I have provided write-ups for your newsletter or newspaper,
right on that page!
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Okay,
so,
all
that said, where do we
go
from here?
Because
traveling and on-site speaking is such a tremendous drain
for me and my family, at this point I
do as much of
my "speaking" as possible by audio tape, doing just a few
"in person" speaking engagements
each year. And those I want to be "God ordained." In other
words, I'm not seeking to speak; I am delighted to answer the call
of God if it's a "divine appointment" ~ in which case I
believe you and I will both know that it's God's timing.
So
that's where I'm coming from, and where we need to start ~ praying
to see if this is a "match made in Heaven."
This will become clear as we see if there is an "open door"
for my message. meaning enough hearts that are already
open to my message and receptive to it, willing to share their
"treasure" with others and help usher them to the
full freedom God has for them.
It's
really not the best use of my
time and yours for me to come and just "break
ground." My books will do that. When I come, it's
the best use of everyone's time for me to do some good
"planting, pruning, fertilizing, and harvesting."
It's a much more valuable, enjoyable and profitable use of
everyone's time this way! If it is, God will open all the doors
that need to open. We will need to do some "knocking,"
but in the process we'll trust His leading and timing.
If,
after reading "all the above" and praying about and discussing
it with your spouse and a few other homeschoolers, you are interested in having me
come
and speak, please contact
me and we'll discuss it further!
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