Speech Stuff Concerning the Y.M.C.A. for Use in the United War Work Campaign
A proof copy, issued 29 August 1918 and marked "for speakers only", that arms volunteer speakers to raise money for the YMCA in the United War Work Campaign: seven agencies asking for $170,500,000 in the week of 11 November, with $100,000,000 of it for the YMCA.
What it is
A proof copy, issued 29 August 1918 and marked "for speakers only", that arms volunteer speakers to raise money for the YMCA in the United War Work Campaign: seven agencies asking for $170,500,000 in the week of 11 November, with $100,000,000 of it for the YMCA. It opens with President Wilson's letter merging the appeals and endorsements from Pershing, Petain and Diaz. Most of the book is raw material: "The Big Story" of 1,200 huts and over 4,000 secretaries in France, chapters on the Navy, war industries, women's work and Russia, and the boys' "earn and give" drive for a million pledges of $5. Then come human interest stories, "Comebacks" answering seven common criticisms (canteen prices, salaries, tobacco, card-playing), skeleton speeches for special audiences and two cablegrams from the front. Two pages of rules set the method: one aim, short words, a sharp finish.
Why read it now
This is a field kit for a volunteer sales force, and its structure fits any campaign carried by many voices: brand ambassadors, resellers, a sales team at an exhibition, volunteers in a Ramadan donation drive. It keeps facts, stories and objections apart from the speech and tells each speaker to lead with his own experience. Modern persuasion research agrees with the core moves: one clear ask, a story about one person over a pile of statistics, each listener treated as a separate prospect. The objection chapter is the most useful part. It admits the canteen pricing mistake, explains it, states the fix from 1 August and quotes an outside authority. That order (admit, explain, correct, verify) still works for a brand facing a rumour on social media. What has dated: the moral alarm about drink and cards, the stacked superlatives, and the advice to ignore criticism unless it is specific, which fails once a complaint spreads online. Use: before a launch or a drive, give your team one page of rules, a bank of true stories and written answers to the five objections they will hear most.
Passages worth keeping
Never forget the definite object of your speech, which is to make your hearers want to give to the Y. M. C. A. War Fund. Your success will be measured by their gifts.
للخطبة هدف واحد هو أن يرغب السامعون في التبرع، ونجاح الخطيب يقاس بما يدفعونه لا بإعجابهم بكلامه.
Do not look upon your audience as a mass meeting, but as a group of individual prospects to each of whom you are trying to sell.
الجمهور ليس كتلة واحدة، بل أفراد، وكل واحد منهم مشترٍ محتمل يحتاج إلى إقناع خاص به.
Talk to the back row of your audience; you will hit everything closer in. Talk to the simplest intelligence in your audience. You will hit everything higher up.
خاطب أبعد الحاضرين وأبسطهم فهمًا، فإذا وصل الكلام إليه وصل إلى الجميع.
Remember that the best answer to criticisms is to set forth the enormous work the Association is carrying on.
أفضل رد على النقد أن تعرض حجم العمل الفعلي، بدل الدخول في جدال مع كل تهمة.
Probably you have much better ones of your own. If so, by all means pass these up, for a story told at second-hand loses much of its force.
القصص التي عشتها بنفسك أقوى من القصص الجاهزة في الكتيب، فاستعملها أولًا، لأن القصة المنقولة تفقد أثرها.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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