Associations: Follow the President and Librarians to the Virtual Town Hall

Last Wednesday President Obama held a Twitter town hall that was broadcast via a live webcast. He took questions that were either tweeted with the #AskObama hashtag or submitted to a special website. More than 70,000 tweets were sent during the town hall. One can only speculate about the hundreds of thousands who quietly watched.

But President Obama wasn’t the first one to do this. The librarians were way ahead of him. The American Library Association held their first Virtual Town Hall in June. “With member travel budgets tightening up, we’re seeking new ways to help our members stay engaged and contribute to the profession,” said John Chrastka, Director for Membership Development.

Virtual town halls give members the opportunity to feel and act like members. They can participate in discussions about their association and industry with leaders who hold the power and the purse. Even if members don’t participate, they appreciate knowing their association is accessible, transparent and caring enough to provide the opportunity. One new (and very impressed) ALA member wrote about her virtual town hall experience – well worth reading to understand how it works.

I discovered ALA’s “early adopter” side when I featured them in Socialfish’s Open Community case study series. Long ago ALA changed their bylaws to allow committee members to work together virtually. Online voting is their next goal. John said, “ALA members have been working for several years on ways to encourage more virtual participation in both the programming and the governance of the association. We wanted to welcome hundreds of members and enable them to participate in a live, interactive event.”

They exceeded their goal of “hundreds.” The town hall filled to capacity with more than 1,200 pre-registrations. John said this shows “a real and legitimate desire on the part of our members to participate and contribute. We’re reminded that people like to get together to talk, share and think about issues that matter to their profession in many different contexts, including online.”

The agenda included reports from leaders on advocacy initiatives, the “State of the Association” and the strategic plan. Two member groups gave presentations on “cutting edge topics.” The most interesting part of the meeting, according to John, followed: several topics suggested and discussed by members in the ALA online community during the three weeks preceding the event. A moderator summarized the online discussion so leadership could respond. Attendees also contributed to the discussion.

To host a virtual town hall, you’ll need a web conferencing platform. ALA used iLINC. You can wade through the options in Socialbrite’s comparison of 15 web conferencing services. John said, “We’re lucky to have staff who run educational webinars; their experience helped make the technical issues around queuing comments and moving between presenters go smoothly.” The town hall was a cross-departmental effort:

• IT and education staff helped with the technical side.
• Governance staff worked with the speakers and developed the prompt book.
• Membership staff managed communications and encouraged member engagement around the topics, reports and presentations on ALA’s online community platform before and after the event.

In the six week lead-up, they marketed the town hall via blast emails, weekly newsletters, Facebook and Twitter. John said he’d be happy to talk to other associations about what it takes to host a town hall. In the meantime, he shared these three tips:

• “Make sure the technology works for your mode of interaction.
• Use a prompt book that ties together presentations and transitions.
• Try it. Most attendees will watch and listen. But you’ll be surprised at how many contribute – including new people.”

Cindy Butts, CEO of the Maine Association of Realtors, attended a virtual town hall put on last year by the National Association of Realtors. On her blog she shared tips from an attendee’s perspective. Cindy speaks for many of us members out here in the hinterlands: “Thank you to every organization that provides a virtual attendance option. I absolutely loved having (that) because it’s a meeting I would have needed to attend in person otherwise.”

Has your association hosted a virtual town hall? What tips can you share?


Deirdre Reid, CAE is a freelance writer, currently obsessed with the Tour de France, who would love to see an ASAE virtual town hall (hint hint).