The Town Hall Isn’t Dead

Back in 1996, I accompanied my family on a trip to Italy, during which we visited the town (Gravina) in which my grandfather was born and raised. Our host for this visit was our distant cousin Franco who, after dinner at his home one night, brought us to the downtown area where most of the townfolk were gathered in the town square for a post-dinner session of cigarette smoking, coffee sipping, banter and gossip.

Having grown up in suburbia, the scene was fascinating to me.

In later years, as I began to work in public affairs, politics and community affairs, I began to appreciate that experience all the more as I realized how difficult it is to bring citizens and the community together for forums, town hall meetings, etc. on important issues — much less for a simple post-dinner gathering.

And, over that time, I began to hear that suburban sprawl, increased TV viewership, use of the telephone, two-worker households and, yes, the dawn of the Internet Age had turned us into an introvert culture that spent more time on the phone and buried in our email inboxes — and less of a culture built around our local communities.

Well, if that “introvert culture” theory may have been true a few years ago.

But I submit that the American Town Hall never died — it just changed formats. And today, it’s back stronger than before.

• When known tech guru Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago, he and some friends started a new Web site (which revolves around Twitter) called BlameDrewsCancer.com.  The site invites participants to “blow off steam” and “beat up on Cancer” by blaming everything on Drew’s cancer.  Lose your keys?  Blame it on Drew’s cancer.  Misplaced your wallet?  Blame it on Drew’s cancer.  What has resulted is a national “Town Hall Meeting” around Drew’s cancer — raising awareness and money.  Tweeters from around the country are using the hashtag #blamedrewscancer — and the site’s sponsors are donating a dollar for every tweet to the American Cancer Society and Make a Wish Foundation.

• In January 2008, I traveled to Orlando, FL to serve as regional coordinator for the McCain for President Primary campaign.  We promptly demonstrated that, to turn people out to rallies and events — all we needed to do was Facebook it.  Forget postcards, invites and “phone trees.”  Barack Obama obviously did the same thing — driving people to local events through his Web site, Facebook, Twitter and even his Google Keyword ad campaign.  Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) is holding virtual town hall meetings from the desktop PC in his office, drawing in hundreds of constituents for an interactive, real-time discussion of issues (he also was one of the early-adopting Tweeting members of Congress.)  Not only are these — and other politicians — building communities (Town Halls) online … they’re using these tools to drive people to physical Town Halls in their local communities.

• Thanks to new tools, it’s also easier than ever to participate in the Global Town Hall.  When American-based photojournalist James Buck was arrested in Egypt for photographing an anti-government demonstration and Tweeting about it on his iPhone, he sent a simple, one word Tweet to his 92 followers on Twitter:  “Arrested.” A global ripple effect ensued, as his 92 followers “re-tweeted” his message … which then got in the hands of news media … then the U.S. State Department … when, 48 hours later, James was able to send a follow up tweet:  ”Freed.”

• When Illinois politicians were considering an economically-harmful tax on custom and leased software in Illinois, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce hired our firm to help generate grassroots opposition to the proposal.  The challenge:  we only had two weeks to do it.  Using a variety of online tools — especially email and Facebook — we were able draw in a community of citizens from across the state joined in opposition to the tax.  In the end, during that two week period, we were able to generate almost 2,500 emails to state legislators and the proposal was dropped from the budget.

So, while the memory of those hundreds of townfolk gathering in the town square in Gravina, Italy will forever remain etched in my memory — I’m excited about how online tools are bringing us all together in new local communities, allowing us to connect, discuss issues and bring back the good, old-fashioned American Town Hall meeting.