[nfb-talk] Good Idea or Bad Idea: Motivational Speakers at Chapter Meetings

[T. Joseph Carter]

Tina,

It might be hard to do and potentially expensive, but provided those
issues are resolved, I cannot find fault with it.  There are all sorts of
relevant things that come to mind and would have a wider appeal than to
just the current Salem chapter (which is unfortunately not large) and
might serve as recruiting and fund raising opportunities.

I wouldn't suggest trying to make them into fund raisers (that thinking
leads to spending money in the hopes of making money, and this is the
absolute wrong economic climate to be taking risks like that), but still,
if we can make a few bucks toward taking our speaker to lunch as a token
of our appreciation, so much the better.

Topics of personal interest include goal setting, time management (in
particular the development and efficient use of Getting Things Done (GTD)
systems), most anything on blindness skills, and any motivational/positive
thinking person who focuses on how to actually solve problems rather than
just imagining yourself with the solution.  The latter tends not to be
necessary in my experience if you have the tools to do the former, and no
amount of the latter is going to help if don't have those tools.

Joseph

On Fri, Mar 07, 2008 at 06:39:19PM -0800, Tina Hansen wrote:
> I appreciate all of you sharing your thoughts on locations for chapter 
> meetings. I want to take this to the next level and ask for opinions on 
> another question that's been on my mind for some time: the use of 
> motivational speakers at chapter meetings. I know one state affiliate 
> brought one in to give a seminar at its state convention.
> 
> I also want to hear people's thoughts about using outside facilitators to 
> lead workshops on such topics as goal setting. I'm not talking about someone 
> telling the chapter what to do, but guiding the chapter and showing them how 
> to set goals, for instance.
> 
> Can anyone point out pros and cons to using outside speakers and/or 
> facilitators at chapter meetings? If your chapter has used these people, 
> what experience have you had, good or bad? If you've used outside speakers 
> and/or facilitators, where have you found them, and how effective was their 
> sessions? Did they help or hurt the growth of your chapter?
> 
> Any thoughts on this topic would be highly appreciated. Thanks. 
> 
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