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Training Events/TLIs

Harlingen: August 28
San Antonio: August 30

Visit the Training Page for details.

Sample Table Topics Session

from Michael McGinnis, 2003 Division H Table Topics Champion

Thank you, Mr. Toastmaster. Before we start, I want to remind you that the green card means you've spoken for the minimum one minute, yellow means a minute and a half, red means two minutes and when you see that, you have thirty seconds to finish. In the next few minutes, we're going to have a lot of speakers, a lot of situations -- and hopefully we'll have a lot of fun. So hang on.

• Welcome to the annual meeting of the Society for 20th Century Archaeology. Whether you're here in person or attending telepathically, we greet you. Today, archaeologist Bob Calzone will discuss a 500 year old object he's recently unearthed [a necktie], and what he believes it was used for back in the 20th century. Mr. Calzone.
• It's time once again for Book Look, and today we're delighted to have as our guest on the show, author Sheryl Deeton. Miss Deeton comes to us today as part of a worldwide, whirlwind tour to promote sales for her latest book, How I Got Where I Am Today. Miss Deeton, tell us about your new book and why our listeners should buy a copy, or several copies, of, How I Got Where I Am Today.
• We hope you're enjoying tonight's annual awards ceremony, which due to budgetary constraints this year is being held at Little Hipp's Bubble Room in downtown San Antonio. Our next award will be presented by Maria Voigt, who will open the envelope, then introduce and announce our winner, followed by a brief acceptance speech by our winner. Miss Voigt.
• Now let's play North America's formerly favorite game show...Jeopardy. Audience please welcome our first contestant Jay Blackwell (and Patricia Stevens). Come on down. Jay, do you want to speak on Childhood, Celebrities or Seniors? Okay Jay, for 250 points...
  Childhood:
  1) Tell us about one of your favorite memories growing up.
  2) If you could go back to talk to yourself when you were age 10, what advice would you give yourself?
  Celebrities:
  1) Tell us about a time you saw or met a famous person.
  2) If you suddenly became extremely famous, how would you deal with it?
  Seniors:
  1) What would you like to be doing when you're 70?
  2) Tell us about something important that you learned from an elderly relative or acquaintance.
• Today the National Institutes of Health released a study proving conclusively that email is harmful to human health. As a result, President Bush has issued an executive order, effective next year, banning the production or distribution of email within the United States. We've asked corporate executive Diane Resendez to comment on today's announcement. Diane, our customers and employees depend pretty heavily on email, but I understand you have a different perspective. Tell us why you believe the elimination of email is good news for our company.
• One thing our company newsletter is still missing is an advice columnist, so I thought we'd try one out today. Who do you think would make a good advice columnist? (Alan Crawley, Dan Cameron, John Moulin) Come on up here. Here's the letter we'd like you to answer:
  Dear Abby,
  Recently my department announced a policy requiring all men to tuck in their shirtails. Well, last Friday, to celebrate Fiesta, I wore my favorite guayabera. And my supervisor told me to tuck it in. Can you believe it? A guayabera should never be tucked in. It's an affront to Hispanic culture and to the heritage we San Antonians hold so dear. What do you think? Signed, Juan.

Warning: these examples are longer than usual. Most topics should be one sentence or less. After all, the speaker is supposed to give the speech, not the topicmaster!