Professional speakers

I help to run a gardening club.. We have a speaker every month and fees range from £70 to £200 and usually we pay mileage. It is quite difficult to find new speakers but we do have a list of good ones who usually have many talks in their repertoire and we rebook. We book usually a year in advance as good speakers get snapped up quickly but do have some who will come at short notice.

I look on the internet at other gardening clubs within 60 miles and look at their programmes to get ideas, also for gardening the RHS have a list but these are very expensive. Presumably there is some sort of organisation relating to your hobby whom you can ask.

I'm treasurer of our local u3a and responsible for paying speakers (who demand a fee - not all do). Pre-Covid £50 was probably around the top end but we are now nearer to £80. Talks are usually less than an hour. We aim not to pay travel costs but occasionally do if the committee thinks it's worth it.

We've rarely been disappointed.

We don't have speakers who are primarily selling something unless it's something like a local history book or similar.

u3a members (own branch and others) are not allowed to charge a fee at all so we donate to charity.

No.only for book launches. Absolutely frightening, and I didn’t get paid.
We have several groups at U3A. History talks are popular and discussions led by a visitor, on their particular expertise. Some get paid, usually a nominal sum. Some volunteer. I think it rather depends on your particular group and their cash flow.

Thank you for your comments.
I too have given many talks to social groups but never requested a fee.
However, I was asked this question by another and said I’d endeavor to find out.
Cheers, all.

I've done hundreds of talks to various organisations. Any fees are donated to a local charity I support.

You don’t get paid much at all for places like U3A or Probus, they are voluntary organisations. Our club just pays $50 to the speaker for expenses. Many of them ask for it to be donated to a charity. I arranged speakers for my particular club.

Silverbrooks, that was so good of you to seek this out for me.
Thank you.

I found this WI document from 2020:

www.thewi.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/453285/Website-Speakers-entries-2020-1.pdf

My advice would be to contact the speaker coordinator at your local WI or U3A.