Best Practices in Public Service: Pandemic Positives – The Town Hall Meeting

The Town Hall Meeting  -

The staple of public service – the Town Hall Meeting – got a much-needed makeover and resurgence when elected officials simply couldn’t meet with constituents in-person.

Candidates and incumbents planned video events for educational, fundraising, and GOTV purposes, appealing to constituents’ desire to interact with literally anyone outside their home!

• The most impactful examples saw legislators featuring their state or county health officers, school superintendents, infectious disease experts, or pediatricians, providing the latest information and answer questions for the public.
• Takeaway: Be a resource for your constituents to access resources they might not otherwise get – or seek – without your action.

Post-pandemic, this makeover can be improved and double its impact:

1. If you haven’t already started, begin in-person monthly Town Hall Meetings with other local elected officials.
   
   1. Provide updates on action within your elected body and how that action will impact constituents’ daily lives.
   2. Operational Details:
      
      1. Saturday mornings or Sunday afternoons are a favorable time slot for attendance. Select a regularly occurring day/time/place.
         
         1. Example: 2nd Sundays at 2 pm (alliteration and 2s)
      2. Select a public location like a library meeting room, or a grocery store café – but ensure you get permission from the owner and commit to not impeding his/her business.
         
         1. The benefit of a retail spot is to catch passers-by.
      3. Publicize via your email list, text messaging, and social media.
      4. Pass a sign-in sheet with name and email address to collect attendance, add to VoteSharp with the Communications Type as “Town Hall”
      5. Post your yard signs in front of the area where you meet, and in the street right-of-way of the meeting place. REMOVE THE SIGNS AFTER THE EVENT!
      6. Designate a friend to capture action shots of you interacting with the crowd, photos from behind you of the entire audience, etc.
2. Add in a monthly Zoom Town Hall on a hot (or should be) topic, featuring a subject matter expert from the community and/or from elsewhere in the country.
   
   1. It’s easy for someone from another state to tune in when they don’t have to fly or drive to provide their expertise.
   2. Take advantage of this increased adoption of teleconferencing to give your voters rare access to expertise.
   3. Operational Details:
      
      1. Limit to one hour: 40 minutes of presentation, 20 minutes Q&A.
      2. Be sure to make a custom background with your yard sign logo prominently displayed.
      3. Ask attendees to provide their names and email addresses in the Chat, then add to VoteSharp with the Communications Type as “Town Hall”.
      4. Take a screen shot once everyone is logged in, share to social media.