Create a new Women in Voice Chapter
We are excited you’d like to create a new WiV chapter!
Our local chapters are a vital part of Women in Voice. They are the ones who build community through in-person meetings, close connections, and information specific to a country or region.
Read this page to learn more about what local chapters mean from the organizing side, and apply to start a local chapter.
Have questions? reach out to our global team at chapters@womeninvoice.org.
What does it mean to run a chapter?
Starting a local Women in Voice chapter is exciting! You will be at the center of an evolving community and able to use all your creativity and talent to grow the chapter, connect people and make an impact on the visibility of women, nonbinary folks, and minorities in your city, affinity group (Latinx etc.), and/or country-specific voice industry.
Events aren’t that hard to set up and run, right? Well, yes and no. Logistics take work. But for community and the people you’ll meet, we’re confident it’s worth it. Ask the 100+ Ambassadors around the world.
A local chapter is typically led by a group of 3-5 Ambassadors. At least one of them (hopefully more) should be a known professional and at the senior/manager level of companies/startups. If possible, you might also want to find 2-4 additional people to support the initiative.
Together you form a strong organizational team to run events and maintain your communication channels.
The goal here is that responsibilities are shared and do not fall solely on one person’s shoulders. We’ve all been the one on the group project that actually does all the work, right? Yeah, let’s not do that.
Sustainability of chapters relies on multiple people.
Connect
Create meaningful opportunities for your local voice peers to meet and connect with each other. These can be offline or online meetups, workshops, dinner gatherings, etc. Prepare to host at least 4 local events per year, ideally on a regular basis.
Share
Invite your local peer group to interact with each other, share knowledge and information, and be an inspirational source yourself. Post regularly on social media and maintain a presence on the platform(s) of choice: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
Grow
Actively engage in growing your community. Visit events to introduce the voice technology field and promote Women in Voice, and find more people interested in the initiative. Partner with companies and local venues to support mutually-beneficial events.
How to create a chapter?
Check for existing chapters
The chapter you are planning to create should be in a new area where there are women not currently supported by a chapter. One country, region, or city can support multiple chapters if there is significant traffic and/or reasons for multiple chapters. In this case, nearby chapters should be connected to work together. Check our overview page to see all existing chapters.
Recruit your team
To create a new local chapter, start with recruiting your team: you will need 3-5 lead ambassadors to run the chapter, with one or two of them being assigned the chapter leads. Furthermore you could find 2-4 additional people to help nurture the community and organize events.
Requirements to become an ambassador:
- Over 18 years old
- Work in or are pivoting to the voice technology field
- Identify as cis-women, trans, intersex or nonbinary, or minority gender
- Represent the core values of Women in Voice, such as inclusion, diversity, and representation
- Prepared to invest time and energy in growing a sustainable chapter
- Chapters maintain the WiV Code of Conduct
- To be an Ambassador, you must be an official Women in Voice Member. However, the free membership tier is sufficient!
- Approved Ambassadors are rewarded with Platinum Membership.
- If you are already a Platinum Member when you become an Ambassador, you will be rewarded Platinum Membership upon your next renewal date.
At least one (hopefully 1-3) of the ambassadors should be known professionals and at the senior/manager level of agencies/companies/startups. Also, we want to make sure our chapters are sustainable, independent and represent the voice industry from different angles. Therefore, having a diverse group of ambassadors, from a range of companies and professional backgrounds is ideal. Please make sure not all of your ambassadors are from the same work place.
Not Enough Ambassadors: I am interested in starting a chapter but do not have enough women to get started. What should I do?
Starting a new chapter takes a lot of work and having local support will help you succeed in sustainable growth and community.
Become a member, join our slack channel and ask!
On social media, publish posts and ask to be connected to other women in the area you might not yet know. Ask your 2nd-degree connections in your network to find out if they have women on their team. There may be someone nearby looking to find you also!
Apply to become a chapter
Once you have got your team ready to get going, please fill out the online form below to let us know about your plans. For registration you will need to enter your team members’ names, email addresses and LinkedIn profiles.
If you have questions during this time, please reach out to our global team at chapters@womeninvoice.org.
Onboarding & Kickoff
You might be wondering what to do to actually get the chapter going. But don’t worry, our global team will be there to help!
As soon as your application has been approved, we will provide you with some handy information, and will jump on a call with you to answer your questions.
