Touro Communication Club Notes #52

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THIS WEEK: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 – Enjoy Your Turkey!

Next week - TBA

On the national scene, the primary interest is on President-Elect Obama’s selection of his Cabinet. The biggest fascination is on Senator Hillary Clinton’s possible appointment as Secretary of State, with the official announcement waiting until after Thanksgiving. The immediate question is what to do with former President Bill Clinton – his role with the Obama government with many of his foundation donors who are in foreign governments. An interesting speculation is who will replace Hillary as New York Senator? A couple of jokesters suggested Bill Clinton. We’ll see.

Nationally, the financial crisis grows worse. In a s pectacular feat of corporate insensitivity, the Detroit trio of automakers flew to Washington to ask for a $25 million bailout in their 3 corporate jets. Congress is growing reluctant to give them the money even with a plan of how it will be used. Stay tuned.

Internationally, an interesting ripple arose last week when Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy of France proposed another Group of 20 meeting in France to discuss reducing the harmful effects of American capitalism – without President Bush.

The Somali pirates are becoming more adventurous, capturing off the Somali coast an oil tanker bigger than 3 football fields with 2 billion gallons of oil worth $100 million. In Zimbabwe, the political succession remains in limbo

In Iraq on Monday, the Parliament is to sign an agreement on the date for the pullout of American troops by 2010. But the process has been anything but sedate with the politicians physically attacking each other and chasing others out of the legislative hall. The outcome of the agreement becomes in doubt.

For Communicators, patterns of behavior emerge for reflection and analysis.

• RE: Clintons – how do you (Obama) communicate your message despite competing voices?
• RE: Sarkozy. What do you (Bush) do what someone says one thing to your face and then goes out and does something else?
• RE: Pirates What are your options when some people choose to operate violently outside of the law?
• RE: Iraq Parliament. How can you get people to agree on ANYTHING when they have so many strongly held points of view?

Working together is always a difficult task. Finding agreement among people with strongly held beliefs raises the level of difficulty. The negotiation skills become very important in our daily lives.. We should explore these in the near future.

A footnote: Hal Wicke taught a workshop on Public Speaking for teachers this week through the Academic Computing Workshop schedule. The goal was to give instructors another tool to use in their classes to involve students in the courses. The three teachers who showed were enthusiastic. We will be exploring other ways to introduce other Communication skills to Touro instructors.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - Let’s take the day off so we can get ready for Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008 –To be announced.

What happened during the 6^th Speech Contest on November 19^th?

There was a good crowd to witness some very good speakers. Here is the speaker list

6^th Speech Contest – Fall 2008

November 19, 2008

Name	Title of Speech	Instructor	Course/Site	Rank
Meggy Lindsay	“Silent Enemy With20the Chambers”	Mr. Wicke	GCA 100 Midtown	1st Pr ize
Deborah Wade	“Substance Abuse and You”	Mr. Green	GCA 100/ Taino	2nd Prize
Geovanny Leon	“From 90 lbs to 8 oz.”	Mr. Wicke	GCA 215/ Midtown	3rd Prize
Alex Solomon Matatov	“Archimedes of SyracuseD	Mr. Green	GCA 100/	Honorable Mention
Theresa Archer	“Kwanzaa”	Mr. Green	GCA 100/ Midtown	Finalist
Cedric Flemming	“Audio Engineering”	Ms. Thompson	GCA 100/ Midtown	Finalist
Keonna Greenidge	“Teens and Alcohol”	Ms. Albert	GCA 100/ Taino	Finalist
Bryan Kolb	“History of Pizza”	Mr. Green	GCA 100/ Midtown	Finalist
Raymond Sheppard, Sr.	“The Springarn Medal”	Mr. Green	GCA 100/	Finalist
Ehpraim Smith	“Multiple Sclerosis”	Ms. Albert	GCA 100/ Taino	Finalist

The judges were Robert Babsky of the Office of Institutional Advancement, Lanyell Tolbert of the SGS Learning Center and George20Backinoff of the Speech and Communication Department.

As Communication students become more aware of how to use their communication skills in every aspect of their daily and professional lives, we will be listening to our peers to learn how they are doing and what we can learn from them.

These sessions are always open for everyone to attend. Bring a friend and join in the excitement. See you next time.

Hal Wicke