California Speaks

America Speaks is a non-profit, not partisan organization which has taken as their mission bringing back the old fashioned town meeting with technological enhancements to scale up the discussion for our current society. Rather than having everyone speak either at once (which would be chaos) or serially (which would take forever), these new-fangled meetings have facilitated discussions at individual tables. The essential inputs are recorded on a networked laptop by one of the participants (not the facilitator). Periodically, votes are taken to measure the popularity of suggestions. This is done through the use of hand held wireless voting devices which look like 70's style calculators. A typical table, then, looks like this:

California Speaks, on the other hand, is a project of America Speaks. Specifically, this project electronically united people in 8 California cities to discuss what needs to be done to "fix" the healthcare system in California. There were speeches by several major players including Governor Schwartzenegger. Presenters spoke to all groups at once, questions were put to participants in all cities at the same time, and votes were taken simultaneously. By nature of the small tables, however, the discussions were lively and interesting. Facilitators made sure that no one or two people hogged the discussion either. The plan is that at the end of the day, there will be something concrete and meaningful to present to the legislature, governor, and other decision makers regarding how to craft the best healthcare system for California.

A couple of features of the meeting I found interesting were the band greeting the arriving participants:

and an artist commissioned to record his impression of the event. (I don't know if every venue had an artist but I talked with the one in Sacramento and saw the one in Los Angeles on the broadcast.)

My part in this whole affair was as a volunteer. I get regular notices about volunteer opportunities and when this one came up, it sounded like something I could do with few strings attached. It did mean getting up at 5:00 a.m. so I could be there when they requested. They could easily have had us report an hour later, when they actually needed us.


As you can see, I worked the registration desk. We were swamped from about 8:45 to 9:00 and were busy 15 minutes before that and 5 minutes after. Entrance criteria consisted of showing an invitation to participate, being on a list of participants (not generally self-invited), or be affiliated with a target group. In other words, it wasn't open admission but it was pretty loose.

The other significant project we were involved in was serving lunch. To minimize the down time, we sorted the meals for each table and delivered them in large IKEA merchandise bags. I think the hope was that everyone would work through lunch and get more done that way. Trouble is, people need that time for potty breaks, phone breaks, and just plain breaks.

IDEA "meal" bags:

As a volunteer opportunity, it was pretty good. While taking care of my assignments, I was also able to walk around and see the discussion process. I could probably have been a facilitator but that would have tied me to my table and entailed considerably more work and time. Apparently, not enough people signed on as volunteers so the event managers went to a local temp agency to get enough bodies. Of course, those people wanted to work more hours than the volunteers were asked for.