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"The Complete Business Speaker: How to Prepare and Deliver Effective Business Presentations" by Mitchell J. Tropin provides a concise overview of best practices in business communication. The book covers various scenarios in which formal presentations may be necessary, including presentations to different groups and organizations. It offers guidance on speech preparation, delivery, and overcoming obstacles such as speech anxiety. The book also discusses the use of PowerPoint slides and provides tips for creating visually appealing presentations. While it lacks in-depth coverage of physiological aspects of the voice, it serves as a reliable resource for voice and speech coaches and their clients. [Extracted from the article]

As Catherine Fitzmaurice describes it, "The 'focus line' (as a mental image only) [...] extends from the dynamic action at the abdomen down and around the pelvis and up the spine into the head and out of the 'third eye,' so the attention is not on oneself, nor on the vocal tract, but on the point(s) of communication." This article expands upon Fitzmaurice's definition by providing practical approaches to the focus line in a creative context using three approaches: intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. The authors aim to demonstrate how the use of the focus line allows for truthful communication, compassionate connection, and cultural understanding in dynamic performance. In the intellectual approach, participants integrated well-established communication theory into an embodied experience that mirrored key aspects of the focus line. In the emotional approach, participants explored how text is affected by the flow of someone else's focus line. In the spiritual approach, workshop participants explored—through storytelling and devising techniques—how the focus line gets us in touch with our ancestral and cultural roots and histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare organizations abuse the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status--reaping tax benefits but failing to give back to their local communities in return. Congress created the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status to benefit the poor and impoverished. Yet, not-for-profit hospitals and managed care organizations are neither required to offer services to the poor nor required to offer emergency care services to their local communities. Instead, they charge higher prices in their increasingly concentrated markets. Therefore, consumers subsidize the same not-for-profit healthcare systems that charge them higher prices. This Article analyzes government-placed incentives under the 501(c)(3) taxexempt status, demonstrating how not-for-profit hospitals unfairly compete with for-profit hospitals. Studies show that not-for-profit hospitals have larger profit spreads than their for-profit counterparts. This Article will also demonstrate how the government encourages not-for-profit healthcare entities to increase their market power and extract rents from consumers. Today, the out-patient care business model fractionalizes the healthcare industry. Subsequently, not-for-profit healthcare entities can now acquire assets or firms in a piecemeal fashion, resulting in highly concentrated markets. The third-party payor system and the Affordable Care Act exacerbate the issue, destroying traditional market forces. The third-party payor system creates a disconnect between the true provider and true consumer of healthcare treatment. The Affordable Care Act imposed additional requirements on not-for-profit hospitals--intending to incentivize charitable giving. Instead, the Affordable Care Act's additional requirements incentivize profit-maximizing behavior at the expense of charitable giving. Because the healthcare industry suffers from a misalignment of pecuniary incentives and public health needs, creating clout on who the actual winners and losers are, the tax-exempt status should be revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]