Thank you for considering a Student Press Law Center speaker for your upcoming conference, workshop or event!
Speaking about the legal issues affecting the student media is an important part of our mission at the SPLC. But because of our small size, we do not have staff members available exclusively for speaking engagements. Thus we try to accommodate as many requests for speakers as our schedules and workloads allow. In an average year, SPLC staff members speak to student journalists, advisers and others working with the student media at approximately 30 events throughout the United States and abroad.
SPLC Executive Director Frank LoMonte and SPLC Legal Consultant Mike Hiestand do most of the speaking for the organization. Both can speak on a broad range of topics of interest to those who work with the student media. The SPLC staff can also make referrals to SPLC board members who are interested in speaking to groups of student journalists and educators.
General Guidelines for Making a Request
Because the number of requests we receive far outnumbers the invitations we can accept, here are some general suggestions for requesting an SPLC speaker.
1) Make your request as far in advance as possible. During certain periods of the year, our speaking calendars can be full as much as six months in advance. Invitations less than a month in advance can rarely be accepted.
2) Weekdays are better than weekends. Because our staff spends so much time traveling, family time is important. Thus we cannot accept many invitations that involve weekend travel. If your event occurs over a weekend, by all means make your request. But understand that if it can be arranged so that a minimal amount of weekend travel is involved, the chances that we will be able to accept are greater. Weekend speaking engagements can sometimes involve additional expenses as well.
3) Make your request in writing. An initial phone inquiry about a speaker is fine, but we ask that all those agreeing to host an SPLC speaker confirm their invitation by submitting our Speaker Request Form, which can be downloaded below or requested from the SPLC office.
4) Tell us who and how many are in your group. Because of our limited availability, it is difficult for us to accept invitation to speak at events of less than 100 people. Our first priority is to student journalists and journalism educators, but we also are interested in speaking to school administrators, working journalists, attorneys and anyone else interested in the legal issues that confront the student press.
SPLC Speaker Fees
The SPLC does not charge for speaking to student media groups and journalism educators. However, we do encourage any organization that hosts an SPLC speaker to make a donation to the Center. An honorarium to the individual speaker is at the discretion of the host, but is not expected by the SPLC or the speaker.
SPLC Travel Expense Reimbursement
Although the SPLC does not charge for speakers, we do require that our hosts pay for all reasonable travel expenses associated with the speaking event.
See the SPLC Travel Expense Reimbursement Policy for more details. (PDF Format - 100K)(Adobe Acrobat Reader Required)
For further information or to request a speaker, complete our Speaker Request Form. (PDF Format - 58K)(Adobe Acrobat Reader Required)
