August Advocacy Training in Albany

On August 9-11, William R Thomas taught an Effective Communication Workshop, an intensive weekend of training in public speaking and in organizing a philosophical argument. The program was held at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y. These workshops are part of TOC's ongoing effort to expand the number of powerful advocates of Objectivism who are working to change the culture.

Four participants took part in the August program: Joe Collins, a teacher and political-science graduate student; Daniel Fried, a student and Objectivist club leader at Binghamton University; Carl Harvey, a marketing professional who is developing a new business that offers self-esteem and critical-thinking workshops for businesses; and Kate Herrick, an Objectivist club leader in Michigan and a Montessori teacher. All four developed short talks presenting a key Objectivist idea, among them: the Objectivist view of technology and the concept of objective self-esteem. And all four participants worked hard over the course of a very full weekend critiquing each other's work and putting the new principles they were learning into practice in their own works.

In comments that echoed positive assessments from the other participants, Dan Fried wrote to TOC that the ECW is "better than any other public speaking course I have taken because the constancy and practicality of Objectivist logic is behind every aspect of [the] teaching." In addition to imparting knowledge and skill, the workshop also challenged the participants and fired them up emotionally. "I came into the workshop undisciplined, out of focus, and without knowledge of the audience's needs," remarked Joe Collins. "I left it confident, structured, and energized to spread the ideas that I can now communicate." The center looks forward to hearing more from this exciting group in the future.