A speakers' bureau is an organization which allows individuals with expertise to share their knowledge through speeches and presentations. A speaker's bureau can be contacted when looking for a speaker to discuss a particular topic at an event or to educate staff at an institution (i.e. a hospital).

This is an excellent way for Pakistani-Americans to share their heritage, needs and concerns publicly while boosting their speaking skills and confidence in expressing themselves.

It isn't very difficult to set up a speakers' bureau. But like all worthy projects, it requires time, commitment, dedication and discipline. Here are the steps involved in establishing this resource.

1. Talk about this idea with your family, friends and other Pakistanis. Join with like-minded individuals to begin work on this project. Each person involved in the speaker's bureau does not necessarily have to have experience as a speaker. However, he or she should ideally have some kind of expertise about a topic relating to Pakistan and Pakistani-Americans (i.e. health issues, social issues, history, poetry, education,etc.). Members should be diverse in age, education level, interest, profession, etc.

3. Enroll in a public speaking course. Check out your your local community center or the adult education division of your city's community college for more information These courses can take you from learning the very basics to eventually being able to become a very good speaker.

4. Since most public speaking courses will have a fee, if it's too expensive for all of the members of your speakers' bureau to attend classes, then only one or a few of you should attend and teach the others. Everyone can contribute some money to cover the costs of the courses for the benefit of the whole group.

Those who cannot attend the courses should not only be taught by the students of the public speaking classes, but they must also watch videos of and listen to great speeches. These can easily be borrowed for free from the local library.

5. Every week, members should meet and have a few members present a speech on a topic related to Pakistan for five to ten minutes. Each speaker must keep their notes so they can use this speech later on for actual presentations once the speakers' bureau starts offering its services.

During these weekly meetings, each speaker must be given constructive criticism and feedback of their performance, the content and structure of their speech, etc. This kind of peer evaluation will allow the person presenting to improve their performance in a comfortable setting.

6. After about four months of weekly meetings, start organizing speaker events at your local library or community center once or twice a month. Here, each member of the speakers' bureau will take their speeches which they had previously practiced in front of their peers and present them to a general audience.

Try to choose topics for these gatherings taking current events into consideration. For example, if it's near August 14, you can have a speech entitled, "What happened on August 14, 1947: A Pakistani-American perspective".

In these monthly or twice-monthly get togethers, speeches should be followed up by a question and answer and discussion period. If the place you're holding the event in allows it, try to have free refreshments (this tends to attract people to events, even if they're not interested in the topic).

The weekly meetings of the speakers' bureau should continue along with these get togethers.

7. After about six months of having these get togethers, you and your team of speakers are probably ready for the big leagues. You can now promote yourselves to the local community as speakers who specialize in discussing the issues and concerns of Pakistani-Americans.

One way of advertising your services is by putting together a free pamphlet to be distributed in the community. It should be attractively designed, well-written and include your official name (i.e. the Pakistani-American Speakers' Bureau of Greater Chicago), your address (a P.O. Box would probably be a good idea), e-mail address, a phone number, as well as the names of all of the speakers, a short biogrpahy along with a listing of their specialty (i.e. youth issues, education, history, etc.).

You should also include in the pamphlet an explanation of why the speaker's bureau was established and how it can help the local community (i.e. if you're trying to understand the needs of your Pakistani-American students, patients, etc.).

Distribute these pamphlets among family, friends, schools, libraries, hospitals, community centers, etc.

8. Along with the general distribution of these pamphlets, send them, along with an introductory cover letter, to specific individuals who would be looking for or interested in your services. For example, the community outreach coordinator for a community center, or the public relations manager of a medical facility. These people try to reach out to the local community and are often looking for ways to understand and provide for the needs of different ethnic and racial communities in their area.

9. After a while, you may be invited to speak at events where speakers receive an honorarium, a kind of monetary reward for speaking. In this case, the bureau should establish a policy whereby speakers who are given an honorarium must give a certain established percentage of it to a charity for Pakistan. They can keep the rest. They can choose to donate the whole amount if they like.

10. Encourage other Pakistani-American communities to establish a speaker's bureau as well. Travel to other communities to offer one-day seminars on how they can do this.

A suggested list of topics for speakers

1. What happened on August 14, 1947: A Pakistani-American perspective
2. Providing health care to the Pakistani-American community
3. Diabetes among Pakistani-Americans
4. Heart disease among Pakistani-Americans
5. Pakistan: a basic introduction
6. Proud to be a "Paki" in America: growing up as a Pakistani-American
7. Ramadan in Pakistan
8. Eid in Pakistan
9. The life and times of Muhammad Iqbal, the poet of the East
10. The history of Pakistani-Americans in Chicago (or your area)
11.Discrimination against Pakistani-Americans

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/17/2002 3:48:56 PM

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