A Reference Club an honor award granted to any Public Club that performs exceptionally well in all areas of the Agora Educational Model and closely adheres to all educational and operational guidelines. It's a club that others can use as a reference or model to follow, an example of a well-run club.

Agora Speakers International will explicitly promote Reference Clubs to interested people, organizations, and media contacts.

Requirements

To be awarded the Reference Club award, a Public club needs to meet the following requirements:

Membership and Organizational Requirements

• Must have existed continuously for at least 6 months
• Has a relatively stable membership base, without large oscillations
• Has the full set of Club officers
• Has no additionally defined custom officers.
• Has no speech content limitations (other than the general, Agora-wide ones)

Educational Adherence

• The club has a year-long general Strategy Plan and set of goals created by the President.
• The club has a year-long Educational Plan created by the VPE.
• The club follows the recommendations in the Operational Guidelines in terms of the number of activities per educational Year.
• All meeting roles are performed and evaluated as per the role guidelines.

Meeting Requirements

• Meets physically at least bi-weekly (twice a month, every month except the country's usual holiday months)
• Have an attendance of at least 12 members per meeting, averaged for the last 6 months. The attending members may not necessarily always be the same. Note, however, that guests and visitors do not count towards that number.
• If a meeting has only one speech, it must be a project from the Agora Educational Paths. If a meeting has more than one speech, at most, one may be from non-Agora programs.
• Guests are properly taken care of and receive a welcome pack.

Communications

• The club has a year-long marketing and outreach plan designed by the VP of Marketing.
• Has an active presence on social networks as per the Community Manager guidelines.
• Follows all the Brand Guidelines in all communications.
• Actively promotes itself and Agora Speakers International.

Obtaining a Reference Status

The Reference Club status is granted as follows:

• The President or VP of Education of the club sends a note either through the online club management system or by sending a message to [email protected].
• The request is examined, and the eligibility of the club is checked based on its track record.
• We may attend one or two meetings to verify how the club matters are handled.
• If everything is correct, the Reference Status will be officially granted. If there are any issues, we will provide guidance in addressing them, and the club can reapply once they are resolved.