Town Hall or Community?
How do we create innovation through words? How often do we overuse words? How original are we with words, and when do words lose passion?
I watched a panel discuss President Obama’s use of “town hall” meetings recently on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and the pundits all praised the President for inventing the concept, and streaming the town hall meetings online. That bothered me. I thought, “how naive, how inaccurate.”
For starters, the idea of town hall meetings is decades old and begin in New England. Town hall meetings have been streamed online by other politicians and organizations for years. It’s really not a new idea, at all.
But town hall meetings as the President and politicians use the tactic today have nothing to do with a “town hall.” Nothing. How about creating something new, something original and accurate. The President’s meetings, like those of his predecessor, have been staged to present political agendas. What about simply calling them, community meetings?
Especially in the Internet era, the word, community, has a more embracing feel about it. Town hall sounds a bit old and dusty, and is.
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David – I really enjoyed reading this post on town hall meetings and how the original intent of these community forums has greatly changed over the years. I, too, believe that calling it a town hall meeting is a bit old-fashioned and doesn’t really accurately connotate what is actually taking place in these settings.
However, I disagree with calling these meetings “community meetings,” particularly the way they are currently set up and given your idea for these meetings to have a more embracing feel in today’s Internet era. As it is now, most of these meetings, particularly the national ones we see on TV during political debates, are little more than open lecture sessions in which politicians tell their agenda and their ideas, and then field softball questions from an audience that rarely truly represents the town or the nation. If these meetings are going to stay in their current form, then I don’t think an embracing term such as “community meetings” is accurate.
However, if we get to the point where these meetings truly become forums for real, frank questioning and discussions, then I think your term of “community meetings” is very fitting with the embracing nature that technology could bring to enhance these meetings.
As always, you have some great ideas here, and have definitely got me thinking about this some more. Thanks.
You are getting to be my number one David (watch out!! cuz Obama will be second to you)!! Yes, town hall meetings are antiquated but in today’s twittering, facebooking and who knows what is true in the media, a face-to-face town hall meeting is refreshing, down home and absolutely gut reaction. I am all for it and no doubt if I met him I would faint (like the youtube video … mind you I could do the same if I met you xxx)