• Chapter Essentials
• Pre-Charter Agreement
• Antitrust Policy Statement
• Sample Bylaws
• Sample Board Roles
• Sample Financial and Policy Procedures
• Tax Guidelines
• Chapter Formation Committee and Template for Meetings
• Chapter Name Change Guidelines

NSA Chapters

NSA was incorporated in July 1973 by a small group of entrepreneurial speakers who wanted to create a forum for sharing ideas on how to succeed in the speaking business. As membership grew from 80 members in 1973 to 1,620 members in 1980, the NSA Board of Directors adopted new bylaws enabling the Association to charter local and/or regional chapters of NSA.

NSA's first 10 chapters were officially chartered at the 1981 Convention: The Arizona Speakers Association; the Florida Speakers Association; the Georgia Speakers Association; the Greater Los Angeles Chapter; the National Capital Speakers Association; the North Texas Speakers Association; NSA of Indiana; NSA of Northern California; Ohio Speakers Forum; and Wisconsin Professional Speakers Association.

Today, NSA boasts 40 chapters. "The formation and growth of the NSA chapters have had substantial impact on NSA," says NSA Executive Vice President Stacy Tetschner, CAE.

Here is the brief summary version of the functional requirements of NSA chapters:

Definition of a Chapter: A geographically-based community of NSA members meeting locally to support advanced professional development, camaraderie and networking.

The focus of an NSA chapter is on NSA members and serving their needs and being responsible with the finances of the chapter. With this in mind, the NSA Board approved a revised chapter structure in 2005 for a chapter to maintain its charter. The basic requirements are: