Congress Calls Me to a Meeting in My Own Home

I was surprised to answer my home phone the other night and have my local Congresswoman’s pre-recorded voice invite me to stay on the line to participate in a Phone Town Hall Meeting.

I’m an advocacy guy and my family was shopping so I decided to listen in. I was quickly connected to her live voice speaking about health care and the economy. She also said anyone listening could ask her a question directly by pressing zero. I decided to do that too.

When people started asking questions and revealing very personal aspects of their lives I knew Congresswoman Davis was on to something with this conference call format. One woman described caring for her two autistic children and shared her growing distress because the minimum percent due on her credit cards had suddenly jumped substantially. Other stories were equally intimate. The Congresswoman answered each one and often asked the individual to phone her staff in the morning to get help with the specifics of their situation. I was able to ask my question too, which wasn’t about the arts but about strengthening banking regulation so we don’t have a rerun of last Fall’s meltdown.

There I was, sitting at home speaking to my Congresswoman on the topic of my choice after she initiated contact with me and many others! This is an amazing example of  being proactive to make yourself relevant to the community and expanding the envelope of interaction. My Congresswoman and her colleagues aren’t changing the way they fulfill their primary responsibility of passing legislation, but they are clearly rethinking how to strengthen their ties to the community. In fact, I’m guessing she was on the phone in her Washington, D.C. office, not even in San Diego.

I want to see arts organizations be this proactive at building relationships and connectivity in their communities. When I worked at Goldman Sachs ten years ago, conference calls were standard practice for investor relations communication by every major public company. Has any performing arts organization used a conference call to interactively announce its season to subscribers, convene pre-performance lectures, or a post-performance dialogue? I believe the conference call format would appeal to performing arts attendees because it mixes the live with the convenient.

The League of American Orchestras has identified the adoption of new technology as a major weakness in the orchestra field so this is now one of its strategic focuses. After my call from Congresswoman Davis, I was reminded that technology need not be the latest web or desktop tool to be under utilized by the arts. It can be so old that Congress has even started using it.