Subject: Successful Tactics for Health Care Town Hall Meetings
To: "Drinking Liberally - Pasadena"
Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 10:21 PM
To Fellow Health Care Reform Supporters,
While attending Congressman Adam Schiff’s successful town
hall meeting last week in Alhambra, CA, I made observations of several
important tactics that were used to keep the meeting under control
and out of the hands of right-wing fringe groups and those fanatically
opposing any health care reform.
If you know of any Congressmen or Congresswomen holding
such town hall meetings you may want to pass these suggestions along to
them.
1) Hold the meeting outside in a large area. There can be no complaints about not getting into the meeting and having the right of free speech abused. Also, an outside venue dilutes screaming and yelling, including bullhorns. Even with a large crowd there were 3,000 at this meeting, so far the largest regarding health care reform the noise gets diluted.
2) Pre-printed signs, those printed off the Internet or professionally, are much easier to read. They don’t need to be large, but neat & easy to read, front and back. Keep the message simple. Avoid clutter. Oversized signs are difficult to hold, so keep them of moderate size. If they are too heavy, people get tired of holding them. Also, with continuity in the signs it is easy to see where like- minded people are gathering.
3) Plenty of security. There were 80 policemen scattered around, as well as on the rooftops. They moved about in pairs and were easy to find.
4) The stage was quite high. This took away the intimidation factor of
getting in the face of the speaker. The panel sat behind draped tables, back from the crowd, which allowed them to look out and down over the crowd. There was also a dais the moderator stood behind putting him even higher above the crowd. Policemen surrounded the stage so no one could rush the stage or jump up on it and try to take over the meeting or create havoc.
5) There were enormous sets of loud speakers on either side of the
stage as well as huge stage lights. The loud speakers allowed the Congressman and panel members to continue to talk even when there was
jeering and yelling. The loud speakers were much bigger than any voices on the ground.
6) This factor was huge. No one in the crowd was ever allowed to have
a microphone. Detractors are told to get to a microphone as quickly as possible, using it to disrupt and/or take over the meeting. The panel took questions for almost an hour, and anyone wanting to ask a question had to line up in front of the stage. They had to tell the moderator their question, who in turn repeated it into the microphone and directed it to the proper person on the panel. Taking this power element out of the hands of potential disrupters was especially effective and frustrating for them.
The pre-printed signs are available at http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/health-care-action-center/, a
project of the Democratic National Committee, or Health Care for
To read about successful tactics used by health care reform supporters
at the meeting read my column at this link: http://personalpolitics.gather.com/
This is the most important issue for our generation! Please make every
effort to show your support. Write, e-mail, call and meet with your Representatives and Senators
