Cross-posted from the Congressional Management Foundation blog
One of the fastest growing and potentially empowering technologies for engaging citizens, interacting with elected officials, and building better communications is virtual town hall meetings. These meetings can take two forms: a telephone town hall or an online town hall that employs other technology beyond the “conference call” experience of a tele-town hall.
This post will reference two content pieces that can improve telephone and online town hall meetings. The first, Feeding America, a national nonprofit that organizes food banks in the U.S., delivered an outstanding presentation at this year’s National Grassroots Conference hosted by the Public Affairs Council. They offered “10 Rules” for conducting virtual town hall meetings, presented below. The second is a substantive research report conducted by CMF entitled “Online Town Hall Meetings: Exploring Democracy in the 21st Century,” which included extraordinary results on how virtual town hall meetings could increase trust in Members of Congress, improve voter participation rates, and actually change people’s opinions on divisive issues of the day.
Here are Feeding America’s 10 rules for virtual town hall meetings, slightly adapted for this post with a little explanation.* (more…)
Cross-posted from the Congressional Management Foundation blog
Much ballyhoo has been made about the loosely coordinated mid-January effort to encourage citizens to contact Congress and voice opposition to two pieces of Internet-related legislation. The much-publicized darkening of major websites has been hailed as a wake-up call for Internet advocates. However, the strategies and tactics of those opposed to the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) actually just relied on some tried and true elements of advocacy which have existed for the last 50 years. (more…)
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
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