MVTCGuidelines

The Mid-Valley Travel Club solicits proposals, particularly from new speakers, for its three presentation formats. Both independent travelers and participants in escorted tours are equally welcome. A new feature is that travel agents and other travel professionals may also contribute, by special arrangement with the Program Chairman.

A. Illustrated Talks on Specific Destinations

1. THE PRESENTATION

The Travel Club has a world-wide reach. Any specific destination or group of destinations is welcome, provided that it has not been featured already in the current or very recent season. This includes destinations in the USA.
We are a Travel Club, not a Photography Club, so feel free to supplement your images with those of friends or those taken from the Internet (e.g., Google Images). This is particularly releveant to locations where photography is not allowed, such as museums, or difficult, such as cathedral interiors.
iii. Please make liberal use of maps to orientate viewers, but use digital images of maps, which are plentiful on the Internet (e.g., Google Maps).
iv. Please rehearse your talk with a trusted observer.
v. The ideal length of a talk is 55 minutes with a range of 50-60 minutes.
vi. If you don't have sufficient images for a full-length talk, the Program Chairman may be able to team you up with another speaker with a similar or related destination.

2. TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Prospective speakers need either digital images, 35 mm. slides, or a combination of both. If you have only prints, you can convert those into digital images by using a scanner, or by photographing them with a digital camera (a tripod helps, but is not essential if you have a newer digital SLR camera with built-in anti-shake mechanism). See the excellent Travel Skills archive, "Preparing & Scanning....." by Tom Cattrall in November, 2009. (Tom is listed in the Salem Telephone Directory, if you need further advice.)
For digital presentations, the library provides a digital projector, but you need to bring your presentation on a laptop computer. If you bring a Macintosh computer, you also need to bring a video adapter cable, the short white cable with one end that fits the "video out" port of your Mac (the other end fits the library's digital projector). We recommend you also bring your presentation on a flash drive in case of a problem with the file on your hard drive.
If you don't own a laptop (either Windows or Mac), or if you own a Mac, but have lost the video adapter cable, contact the Club President (see contact form on the Home page) for technical advice.
For 35 mm. slides, the library can provide a single 35mm. slide projector, but we encourage you to bring your own as a backup, in case of a breakdown, or for dual 35 mm. projector presentations.

3. THE SUMMARY
Please provide a summary of 6-7 lines or longer, preferably in electronic format, no later than six weeks prior to your presentation. We use the summary for:

posting on the Club's website (http://www.midvalleytravelclub.org/). Examples of recent summaries are archived on the site; as you will see, any reasonable length is acceptable. As of March, 2011 there were 62 Travel Destination summaries in the archive.
incorporation into the e-mail notification to members about the forthcoming Club meeting.
publication in the monthly Friends of the Library newsletter. Because of the newsletter's space limitations, the Program Chairman and the Library Staff will edit each summary down to 6-7 lines.

B. Introduction of a "Travel Skills" Topic

These short talks consist of a 10-12 minute introduction of some aspect of a particular travel skill, rather than a destination, to open a 10-12 minute discussion by the audience. A few text slides or images may be helpful. You do not have to be the world expert on the topic; you simply need a willingness to share your experiences and the ability to stimulate discussion. We are not going into competition with Rick Steves, but we do want to share our mistakes and our local experience. It is particularly helpful when we can learn from each other’s mistakes, so please be prepared to confess!
It saves valuable time if you bring your slides on a flash-drive, for speedy connection to the Destination Speaker's laptop, which is already synchronized to the Library's digital projector. Please advise the Club President or Program Chairman if you will use Powerpoint, iPhoto, or some other program, so that we can check if that program is loaded on the Destination Speaker's laptop. If we are forewarned of any incompatibility, we can suggest various remedies. However, please also bring your own laptop, to be held in reserve, if all else fails!
Please provide a summary of any reasonable length in electronic format, which will be posted, together with any significant contributions from the audience, on the Club's website AFTER the meeting. Previous summaries are archived on the website for your guidance. As the number grows (as of March, 2011 there were 56 Travel Skills summaries in the Archives), we hope that these summaries can become a useful reference for future travel planning.