Becoming a Women's Institute Speaker

In a recent post about my side hustles I mentioned that one of my main earning streams was doing talks for the Women's Institute.

I really enjoy my talks as an alternative side hustle, and I know that WIs need a good diversity of speakers. So I thought I would write a little guide on how I became a speaker, and a few things you need to keep in mind if you want to become one yourself.

What is the Women's Institute?

Women's Institutes are located across the UK. Founded in 1917, they were originally created solely for rural areas to help bring together women who were socially isolated. Once a month women in the local area would gather at a venue, normally a village hall or the school hall, where they would have an opportunity to listen to a talk, have a social or "fun" section with games or a small play put on by members, and a discussion of the next meeting and future plans for the WI.

The talk was one of the key features of the meetings. A lot of the women left school young, married and had children young, and struggled to find the time for reading or taking any kind of correspondance course (remember, this was before washing machines and fridge freezers). The talks could be on any subject. One month there might be a speaker discussing their travels through the Middle East, the next would be a woman from the next village demonstrating tablecloth embroidery. It helped give these women a broader outlook on the world and showcased traditional skills that were starting to die out.

In the past decade the WI has attempted to modernise. It has a reputation for "jam and Jerusalem" but nowadays it goes far beyond that. It has stated repeatedly that it accepts all women. Institutes are no longer solely for rural areas but can be found in towns and city regions too (for example, Ealing in west London has a WI). But the ethos of bringing women together to learn and develop skills has not changed.

And yes, the audiences can be on the older side (I'm touted as the youngest member of my WI and I'm 36) but they're always very welcoming and keen to learn!

Becoming a WI Speaker

When me and my husband moved to Essex I already knew I wanted to become a WI speaker. I had been blogging about women's history for a few years and knew I could make some interesting talks on the subject.

Once I no longer had a 3 hour round journey to work I joined my local WI so I could see a few speakers in action and then started the process of becoming a speaker.

Find your local Federation

The Women's Institutes are found in every county of the UK. The county organisations are known as "Federations", and every WI needs to be part of a Federation.

I'm in Essex so my local Federation is "FEWI", or "Federation of Essex Women's Institutes". Along with advising their regional WIs and organising their own events, the Federations are responsible for managing the approved list of speakers in their area. To become an approved speaker you will need to undertake an "audition". This sounds a bit scary but read on for more information.

The WI website has a list of Federations so you all you need to do is find your one and send them an email asking for more details about their auditions. You don't need to just stick to to your county, if you're close to the border you could actually try your neighbouring Federation instead. But you will need to do an audition for each one, you can't do one audition to be approved by multiple Federations (as far as I know).

Because of Covid there is a bit of a backlog with auditions at the moment, and they aren't always held every month. You may find you need to wait 6 months or more before an appropriate date rolls around.

My Women's Institute speakers audition

I finally got a call and had my audition in May 2019. For me this was held at the Federation headquarters in Hatfield Peverel. This turned out to be a set of offices and a large open room (also used for group classes and demonstrations). Thankfully it had a car park on site so I didn't need to park far away and walk.

You will find that different Federations have different facilities that you can use. My one had a projection screen but no projector or anything else that a laptop could be plugged in to to generate an image (like a TV with an HDMI connection). You may find that your Federation has something different so do ask what you can use for your talk.

I took my laptop as backup but I also hand wrote my notes and printed off some of the images that I would need. I decided to audition with my talk on medieval princesses as it was one I had worked on a lot and I felt that I could remember more without needing to resort to too many notes.

For your audition you present to a panel of 3 Federation staff, plus other committee members from WIs across the county. This could be presidents, secretarys, booking clerks, anyone that may have an interest in booking a new Speaker. I had 10 minutes to present my talk, and as it was such a hot day and they had already sat through a morning of auditions I definitely would not have wanted to present any longer than that!

After my 10 minutes, which seemed to go far quicker than I thought they would, I was taken to another room and answered a few questions from the panel. Mostly it was confirming my details such as my fee and my contact information but I was also asked for some more information on the other titles I had listed on my form. You aren't limited to how many talks you offer but if you're new then aim for two or three to start with and build on from there.

At the end they thanked me for coming and I went on my merry way. A few days later I had a very nice email confirming that the panel felt my audition had gone very well and I was now registered as a speaker for the Federation. A few months after that my information was published in the Federation magazine in a "New Speakers" section.

Speakers Book

Federations produce a "Speakers Book" which lists everyone who has been approved by the panel, along with their contact details, fees, and the list of their talks. My local Federation publishes a new one every two years, I assume that other Federations have a similar schedule.

You do need to pay a fee to be added each time, again my Federation's fee was £25 and I'm sure it will go up when they do the next book. But this book is sent to every Women's Institute within your Federation, and I also received a free copy.

Because the Speakers Book is sent to all the WIs you really don't need to do any paid advertising, or any advertising at all. The WI Committees will browse through the book, pick the speakers who have talks they like the sound of, and from there you will be contacted.

When the new book is being worked on you will be sent a form asking for you to complete and send it back with all your details. So if you've moved house or created some new talks, this is how you can update them. I also created a PDF listing my details and my talks (with a brief description of each one) which I email out to WIs that contact me for a booking. This gives me the flexibility to advertise new talks without waiting for a new Speakers Book to be published.

Other things to keep in mind

If you're thinking of becoming a WI Speaker then, aside from the audition, there's a few other things to consider:

• Some WIs are quite small - The smallest group I've spoken to was less than 20 members on the day. I keep my fee quite low as I like talking to small groups and I don't want to make it harder for an already small WI to get a speaker.
• Set your fee with what you feel comfortable with - Mine is £25, which I know is quite low. Looking through my Speakers book I can see that most vary from £35 to £60. The highest is over £150, I assume this person doesn't get booked often but is happy with fewer talks for more money. Charge whatever you're happy to accept.
• Selling items - Some Speakers bring items to sell (my local WI had a woman who made jewellery from sea glass, for example). If you do this then a portion of whatever you make on the night will need to go to the WI that hosted you.
• Mileage costs - Along with your speaker fee you can request mileage. At the time of writing the County Mileage Rate for my Federation is 45p per mile. It used to vary between engine sizes but the increased petrol costs have ended that for the time being.
• Speaking for charity - Some speakers donate their fee to their favourite charity, especially if they're talking about a personal story. However, WIs are charities themselves so they cannot donate to the charity for you. You will need to take your fee and then donate it on yourself.
• Understand venue limitations - Venues range from large village halls to a tiny space at the back of a church. Not everyone will have a screen. If you are taking your own projector then make sure you have a back up (paper notes and printed images). I can project on a blank wall as long as there's a big enough space and that can work well as an alternative. You will also find that most places don't have a microphone and speaker system so you will need to be able to speak loudly for an hour.
• You can be booked by other groups - Members of Women's Institutes are often members of other community groups and they tend to share their Speakers Book with their friends. I've also talked to lunch clubs, friendship clubs, and church community groups. The WI has no say in who you speak to and you are not committed to only talking to Institutes. If you have the time and want the money then go right ahead and say "yes" to other opportunities!
• It's a lot of fun - Yes I get very nervous. Yes on some cold winter nights I get in my car and have a moment of regret that I'm not staying indoors in the warm. Yes I worry about dropping my laptop on a hard wooden floor. But it is also a huge amount of fun. I get asked some really great questions, I get so many lovely compliments, and I get to talk about topics that I really enjoy. If you think you've got a great story to tell or a lot of knowledge to pass on, then give it a shot! The worst you can do is be rejected at audition.