The following tips focus on speaking after return from accompanying in Guatemala, but will be generally helpful in preparing public presentations.

Advance Preparation

1) Think about what you want to say. Reflect on your experiences in Guatemala. Some people find it helpful to ask themselves questions such as the following, writing responses in a journal. Useful points for creating your talk may come up.

• Who are people whose voices wouldn’t be heard if you didn’t speak for them?
  
• What are three salient experiences from your time accompanying in Guatemala?
  
• What are signs of hope in Guatemala?
  
• What are ways you feel moved to continue to respond to injustice in the world?

2) Consider the audience. Are they familiar with Guatemala? How much background do you need to provide? How can you present information in a way that they can understand?

3) Make an outline of your verbal presentation. Decide on the points you want to talk about, then add appropriate information to place your experiences in context as well as visual materials to make your points come alive. You will not be able to address all issues in one talk -- choose a focus.

4) Aim to create an illustrated talk that includes personal experience mixed with facts rather than a point-by-point chronology of what you did while in Guatemala.

5) Check your talk to be sure you are not breaking confidentiality guidelines.

Preparing for your Presentation

1) Practice your presentation so that you feel comfortable delivering it naturally while looking at the audience rather than at notecards. Notes are helpful to remind yourself of key points, but don’t read your presentation.

2) Time your talk, keeping it to 30 - 45 minutes. Practice giving it before a friend if possible. Plan to leave time for questions and discussion.

3) If you have a slideshow or plan to show an excerpt from a movie, be prepared for a situation where you cannot.

4) Check all equipment, including a spare bulb for projector, an adapter plug, and an extension cord. Make sure slides all are inserted correctly in the carousel and the video is set to the clip you want to show.

5) Have a large map of the region for reference.

6) Have materials for a literature table available, including brochures, fact sheets, and info about how to get involved that the audience to take home. Write to NISGUA at organizer[AT]nisgua.org for free materials. Make sure to have a sign up sheet at your event that asks for names, emails, mailing addresses, and a phone numbers!

7) Be prepared to ask audience to DO SOMETHING such as join a Sponsoring Community, donate money, write a letter to the editor, subscribe to NISGUA’s Report on Guatemala. Be specific and provide all the information people will need to act. NISGUA can also provide ideas for actions related to specific themes and campaigns.

Setting the Framework for Your Presentation

1) Circulate among the audience as they arrive, introducing yourself and welcoming people. Get help setting up the equipment, literature table, etc. Consider playing music in the background to set the atmosphere and tone for the event.

2) Make sure everyone can hear you!

3) Introduce yourself. Tell your name and a little about how your experiences in Guatemala affected you or changed your perspective. Explain who sponsored you.

4) Explain the agenda for your presentation: how long you will talk and that there will be a question/discussion period afterward.

5) Set expectations for the question period before you begin: If you give your talk first and have a question and answer period at the end, everyone has the same body of information with which to have a discussion. If someone can’t hear or missed a name they should feel free to ask right away, otherwise, ask people to hold questions until the end. This way you’ve set clear expectations for all and will reduce interruptions.

Giving Your Presentation:

1) Begin with brief background information. Include a synopsis of the region’s history and U.S. involvement. (Use visual materials other than your own if you need to. Get copies of images from other individuals or organizations, or make slides of newspaper headlines, clippings, maps, etc.)

2) Build your talk around your own experience (your greatest strength), but don’t feel obligated to follow the chronology of what you did and where you went. No one cares what day you met someone, but they will remember what the person said if you thoughtfully include their points at an appropriate place in your talk.

3) Lighten things up occasionally to give the audience room to relax. Don't be dry and serious all the time!

4) Keep statistics and foreign names to a minimum and be sure you can pronounce those you use. Use anecdotes and local comparisons to make statistics come alive (e.g. Guatemala is the size of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine minus potato country.)

5) Conclude with positive energy/forward looking/genuine anger/challenging inspiration to help move people to respond to what they have heard.

6) Before moving to questions, announce upcoming events and suggest something each audience member can do (see above). Some people will leave as soon as you finish the body of your talk, and you want to make sure they get this additional information.

Handling Difficult Questions

1) Questions loaded with facts: Don’t debate. You might respond, "I respect your knowing so much about. . . My personal experience has shown me. . ."

2) Don’t be swayed by hostile questions. Don’t take them personally. Address the issue. Don’t apologize. Acknowledge their point, respect the emotional tone of the question and try to move the energy to thinking about the issue without being apologetic or defensive.

3) Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know. You can’t answer every question. Offer to find out, see if anyone else in the audience knows the answer, or recommend books or periodicals that might be helpful.

4) Long comments from people who persist in their own story or opinion: Thank them for their input and ask if others who haven’t had a chance to speak want to.

5) Questions challenging patriotism, including red-baiting: Remind the audience that many respected citizens, including congresspeople, have differing opinions. Working to make U.S. policies just is to be valued in a country that calls itself a democracy.

6) Questions challenging the worth of accompanying in other countries when there’s so much to do here at home: Good question! There are lifetimes of work for all of us to do. G.A.P. provides a mechanism for U.S. communities to work together to respond to specific requests for human rights accompaniment from Guatemalans who have been affected by U.S. governmental and military policies.