FAQ

WoVO is a 501(c)(6) non-profit international industry trade organization. Our mission is to inform and educate members of the voiceover community and other business professionals about best practices, standards for ethical conduct and professional expertise as it relates to the voiceover industry. We communicate the importance of voice acting to the public and business leaders, affirm the power of professional quality voicing and recording, and inspire through articles and recognition of achievement and excellence. We represent and advocate for the profession and stimulate discussion of the industry through events, social media and websites.

WoVO is run BY voiceover talent FOR voiceover talent. This organization seeks to bring together a membership of peers to help set forth industry standards in best practices and technical studio approval. We advocate for best practices and seek to educate voice seekers about acceptable industry rates. WoVO is a place where peer education and knowledge sharing can take place, and industry trends can be streamlined to benefit both voice talent and clients.

Members benefit by having access to free educational materials, a mentoring program, a WoVO player, access to a global network of professional voice talent, and studio approval (for a fee). When you become a member, you’re welcomed to the organization by being mentioned in our newsletter, you receive a logo badge to place on your website and email signature, and you can have access to a group of peers who could be part of a meetup group, narrator community, or other groups that can be initiated under the WoVO umbrella.

Professional-level members have free access to our directory listing site called VoiceOver.biz. This is a site where you can post your profile and voice seekers can find you. The feature that distinguishes this site from other sites is that all the members have been vetted as professionals through the membership application process. There are no annual fees, no escrow fees, no cattle calls, and the negotiation takes place directly between the client and the voice talent, WoVO does NOT take a commission or any agent fee.

We welcome any voice talent who wishes to become a member. The membership fee is USD $99 per year. This fee remains the same for any membership category.

Three membership categories exist: Associate, Professional and Industry Partner. When you apply to become a WoVO member, the vetting committee reviews your application to see how many paid professional jobs you have completed. A minimum of five paid jobs (at a rate of pay that is at or near the union rates of your country of residence) is required to achieve Professional status. If you do not have those yet, but are working on it, that’s OK, we love that you are striving to achieve your voiceover goals through training and coaching. In that case, you will be welcomed as an Associate member, and once you have reached those five paid jobs, you should contact us and ask that we change your membership to Professional. If your involvement in the voiceover industry is on “the other side of the glass” such as a studio owner, coach, publisher, or you provide services or products aimed at voiceover, you will be classified as an Industry Partner. At the Board’s discretion, a member may be voted in as an Honorary Member in recognition of his or her outstanding services to the voiceover industry.

The annual membership fee that we collect from you is used to pay for website development and maintenance, costs associated with the annual membership conference, liability insurance, administrative costs, printing and advertising, content and webinar development, translation of materials, and presence at trade conferences. The Executive Board members do not receive a salary. They are all volunteers within this non-profit organization, and they also pay for their membership.

WoVO has put in place committees to serve its membership. The Executive Board is composed of a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, VP of Technical Standards, VP of Membership, and Board members at large. We also put in place committees that serve particular purposes, such as narrator communities, mentorship, relationship, public relations, technical studio approval, membership, international chapters, etc.

To further our mission, serve our members and make others aware of our mission, WoVO has:

• Developed and launched up a free-to-use website featuring a talent directory of our professional members at VoiceOver.biz.
• Offered mentoring services for newcomers seeking guidance on how to begin a career in VO, as well as peer-to-peer training between pros with different areas of expertise. This member benefit is not meant to replace legitimate coaching, but rather to supplement that training.
• Held its first annual membership conference (called WoVOCon) in April 2014, and subsequent annual membership conferences with a focus on member education and networking. We have also held regional mini-conferences in Nashville, Toronto and San Francisco to serve the membership at a local level. Future membership conferences are being planned at local and international levels.
• Sponsored other voice over conferences, such as V.O.I.C.E., FaffCon, FaffCamp, and VOAtlanta.
• Supported several virtual meetup groups including members from all over the USA, as well as members from Israel, Turkey, Australia, and Canada. These groups meet monthly via Skype or Zoom.
• Developed resource materials for our members.
• Maintained a library of documents such as Industry Best Practices and technical standards for recording.
• Created a letter template that members can use for public relations. The letter mentions their personal value to the client, and explains the value of WoVO to the industry.
• Consistently represented the values and positions of voice actors in a wide array of social media platforms.
• Members of the Executive Board are consistently present at the principal VO gatherings on the calendar to explain the purpose and mission of WoVO and to speak on behalf of the industry.

As many of our members have expertise in the various disciplines it takes to be successful in voice over, we offer mentorship and educational resources to our members.

Educational resources consist of a library of documents (including both audio and video files) designed to assist the membership in finding answers to specific questions. All areas relating to a member’s voiceover business will be covered, with subject matter pertaining to technical issues, technique advice, and best business practices. Much of this information is available by searching the web, but with one central repository, we can offer the membership a quick way to answer their questions from a reliable source. We will be inviting the membership to submit their own original material.

Mentorship programs will provide brief one-to-one sessions for members. We rely on mentors from within the membership to make a small time commitment to make this work. This is expected to be thirty minutes per month. A pool of mentors with a range of expertise offer individual sessions to those that request help, for example, in a specialist area (should I incorporate?), or a more general one (I need a fresh set of ears on my demo). A scheduling/booking system is in place to manage this.

Apart from supplying advice to other professional members (peer coaching), one of the main aims of the mentor program will be to actively assist our associates to qualify for full professional membership.

We release a newsletter to our membership once a month. As a member, you are welcome to submit articles and content to help educate others about timely issues in the voiceover industry.

You can find more information on our best practices by clicking here.

Our Technical Standards Committee, composed of recording engineers, producers and experienced voice over talent, has established a set of technical standards for personal voice over studio audio quality. Our Technical Studio Approval program will ensure those who hire these technically-certified WoVO members will be getting the highest possible quality audio. We also work to educate our membership, both by offering continuing advice and peer review to our professional members, to ensure that the latest practices and techniques are available to their clients, and to educate our Associate members in providing professional level voiceover work. Our aim is to raise the bar of sound quality and clarity for any member who asks for assistance.

WoVO does not offer any advice on rates directly. We do have member resources with pricing guidelines from others around the world, but we do not set rates. We only encourage our members to use professional pricing guidelines and to avoid devaluing our industry by pricing their services too low.

Once you become a member, please e-mail the Executive Board at: info@world-voices.org and we will gladly find a place where you can contribute your time and talents.