Organize Your Town Hall

Congressional Recess :: March 15 - 23

Our Electeds are coming home for the March recess. This recess is supposed to be time for our officials to meet with US, their constituents, to update us on the state of affairs, and important issues that impact every aspect of our lives. And as we all know, the times we are living in could not be more dire!

Like so many of you, I am calling or emailing Senators Shaheen and Hassan, and my Representative, Chris Pappas (your rep. may be Maggie Goodlander), expressing my concerns, neigh, my horror!, as I witness the daily teardown of our Nation and all it stands for. The response to my desperate calls and emails, always comes in a generic email, which sometimes is not even relevant to the concern I’d expressed. (In response to my email about the SAVE Act, Pappas’s office responded with a form email about saving National Parks).

So, when our guys come home, let’s make sure we are ready to invite them to our Town Halls!

[If you want to learn more about putting together a Town Hall for your area, join our March 11 Zoom meeting:  https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/761897/ ]

Plan Your Town Halls NOW! Here’s how:

Select Your Date:  Let’s coordinate dates. This will make sure we are not creating schedule conflicts for our Electeds.

Secure a Meeting Space in your County:  Belknap – Carroll – Cheshire – Coos – Grafton – Hillsborough – Merrimack – Rockingham – Strafford – Sullivan

Invite ALL 3 Of Your Officials: This would be both Senators Shaheen & Hassan, and your Representative, either Pappas or Goodlander.

Let them know that your county is holding a Town Hall and that we strongly encourage them to come. And also, politely, let them know that the Town Hall will take place with our without them!

Invite Your NH Representative and Senators to Join: Make sure your state electeds are invited too. We need them to be standing up for us and running “block” for us at the State level for this firehose of atrocities coming at us from DC.

At Your Town Hall

KEEP IT CORDIAL!! We need to build power and our Electeds are our front line, both in DC and here at home. We are not there to beat them up. We are there to learn what they are doing to protect us, and to encourage them to work as hard as WE are!

Determine What Questions to Ask:  I think this would be great for us to coalesce on. We don’t all have to ask the same questions, but let’s define perhaps, the top 10. We can provide these to our Electeds in advance of the sessions so they can give us fully informed responses.

Select Members of Your Group to Ask Each Question: Designate individuals who will stand up and ask each question, preferably reading it from cards your group has made and handed out in advance.

If You End Up With an Empty Chair:  Be prepared. I suggest making cardboard face masks beforehand, and if your Electeds don’t show up, have someone in your group ready to provide answers to the questions, or discuss how the MIA elected is letting us down.