 25 YEARS OF CLASS By: Marita Littauer I would have never predicted the 25th anniversary of the CLASSeminar. When my mother, Florence Littauer, and I organized our first speakers' training seminar we had no idea what doors God would open or where walking through them would take us. We simply followed the path as He directed our steps. We started back in 1981 with forty hand-picked women in attendance at a small workshop. As we traveled throughout the country speaking together, the event planners frequently asked, "Do you know any good speakers?" We had met many women who had a marvelous message, but needed help communicating it effectively. Others had great stage presence, but were scared to be up front or had no confidence that they had anything to say. The combination of these two needs--event planners looking for good speakers and speakers needing focus and refinement--precipitated that first gathering twenty-five years ago to train women speakers. My mother did all the teaching and I figured out where we'd go to lunch and created handouts as my mother developed the material she'd teach next. From her background as an English teacher, her giftings as a speaker, and her time on the platform, Florence taught that first group the practical methods and proven plans they needed to communicate with confidence. Feeling we had done what God had asked of us, we never planned to offer a speaker training again. But God had other plans. We received invitations to take this training to several other states. As we were clearly meeting a need, we needed to give this training a name. I remember sketching out names and very-rough drafts of a logo during a flight. I came up with the name CLASS--to stand for Christian Leaders And Speakers Seminar. And it stuck. We began to receive invitations to offer CLASS throughout the country and built a team who could lead the small groups and share in the teaching. We engaged in some expansion as additional needs were expressed. Again, we just walked through the doors as God opened them. Frequently someone would call our office looking for Florence and she was already booked or she was outside of their budget range. Whoever took the call would hear a desperate voice on the other end of the phone plead, "Do you know anyone else I could find to speak for us?" Yes, we did. We had a teaching staff of excellent speakers and a cadre of trained speakers. We began to suggest some of our staff. Once we offered these needy meeting planners options, they started asking for specific topics. We'd search our collective memory for people who had attended CLASS looking for a match. This process of matching the groups in need of a speaker with the CLASS Graduates who were ready and available to speak is what we now call Speaker Services, which represents more than 200 men and women nationwide. Around that same time, I remember my father calling me into his office. He declared, "Your mother's publishers are obviously not doing anything to help her get 'out there.'" To which I whole-heartedly agreed. He added, "We are going to have to do that ourselves." I nodded in agreement. "That is your new job," he stated. In a back office we had a couple of old directories from the National Religious Broadcasters Association. I grabbed my mother's speaking schedule and looked up radio stations in the cities she'd be visiting. I called them and offered an interview with her when she was in the area. As I got acquainted with the talk-show hosts, they began to ask if I knew anyone else who would like to be on their show. I did. Many of my friends were authors and I suggested them. Several of my author friends were published by the same publisher and that publisher noticed an increase in sales based on the radio interviews I had set up for them. One day they called and asked me to do this for all their authors. Before long, CLASS was retained by many of the major publishers in the industry--as well as individual authors--and the CLASS Promotional Service was born. To date, thousands of interviews with authors have been booked on both radio and television as result of the efforts of CLASS Promotional Services. Another change that took place happened in 1993. We'd begun to see changes in the industry. Coupled with an audience's interest in a topic--asking, "Do you have a book on that?"--the publishing world began to notice the difference in book sales when the author was also a speaker. They started wanting their authors to also be speakers. We adjusted the seminar's content to include an introduction on "turning your message into a book" and changed our name to reflect this addition. Starting in 1993, CLASS stood for the Christian Leaders, Authors & Speakers Seminar. Following up on this new emphasis on writing, it became clear that since we were now producing speakers who were active and these speakers had audience members asking for their books, we needed to use our connections in Christian publishing to help them get published. (By 1992, I'd written five books and my mother had more than you could count on your fingers.) To facilitate this connection, in 1995 we added what we called The CLASS Reunion--an event held in conjunction with the annual Christian Booksellers Association's international trade show--was designed to connect our CLASS Graduates with the publishers who were looking for speakers to publish. For two days, in face-to-face brief meetings, attendees could share their ideas with the publishers' representatives and the editors could express whether or not the idea was something that fit their needs. Plus, the CLASS Reunion gave attendees the opportunity to walk the floor of the closed-to-the-public tradeshow. Attendees soon learned they really needed to attend twice, once to learn how the industry works and the second time to come ready with a proposal or manuscript in hand. Since the CLASS Reunion was strictly about connections and did not offer any specific training, in 2001 it became clear that something that helped speakers make the move from simply being a speaker to getting published was needed. In January 2002, we launched what is now called Advanced CLASS--which combined a mini-CLASS Reunion style event with training in both speaking refinement and getting published. Once aspiring authors complete the CLASSeminar and Advanced CLASS and have an active speaking ministry, they are virtually assured publishing success at the CLASS Reunion. In October of 2001, the director of the Glorieta Christian Writers Conference resigned her post and the thought of taking over the leadership of this great conference kept niggling away in the back of my mind. In January of 2002, I could no longer ignore its pull. I contacted LifeWay and found that a new director had not yet been chosen. Within two weeks CLASS and LifeWay had a signed agreement for what has been a friendly and favorable partnership in the Glorieta Christian Writers Conference. Throughout these last four years, the Glorieta Christian Writers Conference has virtually doubled in size with more than 350 attendees, 100 faculty members and 20 guests, a total of nearly 500. It gives me great joy to look back over the last twenty-five years and see the Lord's guidance and direction for my life. While my fourteenth book was released at the 2005 GCWC--and I still dance with glee as I hold the first copy in my hand, much like I did when I was handed my first copy of my first book twenty-three years ago--I am even more rewarded for my efforts when I see my CLASSeminar Graduates, my Glorieta Christian Writers Conference attendees, reach their goals and see their dreams fulfilled. I hope that in 2006 I can jump for joy with you as CLASServices helps you reach your goals and fulfill your dreams! |
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