In a message dated 6/1/2006 10:20:29 PM Mountain Standard Time, frank@soural.com writes: How do they find these speakers? The FGS sends me a "call for proposals" for their conferences. I don't know how I got on their list. The NGS probably does the same but I don't know how you go about contacting them to get your name on their mailing lis for thos notices. You may find something at their website. I find that the FGS tends to select only speakers who are certified Genealogists. I have sent them proposals several times and have never been selected. When I look at the people who they choose they are often the same people over and over again with a few exceptions. When I learned about the Ohio conference I contacted the coordinator and asked if they only choose speakers with certification and she replied "not necessarily". I have until July to submit proposals but don't yet know if I will do it. There is also the Genealogy Speakers Guild: http://dir.genealogytoday.com/genealogy_speakers.html It is $35 per year to join and I am considering doing that. I get the impression that many groups refer to that membership to find their speakers. There is also a list of conferences already set to go posted at their website and each one refers you to a conference -- just search the web with the name of the sponsoring society. Those will help you to find a contact to request notification for their next conference call for proposals / papers. You may / may not get a reply so a followup to find out if they have added you to their mailing list may be necessary. Another possibility is at: http://www.geniespeak.com/ but that site is a lot harder to figure out. The references to groups who do conferences at any of these sites is the most useful. If you want to get basic, just do a web search with: Genealogy Society and explore the hits. Richard Eastman's newsletter often publishes calls for proposals. That is where I learned about the Ohio conference I am still considering. The calls for proposals can come out as much as 18 months before a conference. You can subscribe to the free edition of his newsletter if you search with his name and just go to his website. Karen