New subject: [Dialogue] Town Hall Meetings – resources for America’s Semiquincentennial

14 Jun 2026

      Rory, Karen & team,

I went to a family reunion in South Louisiana last month. The final stretch
of the road was 12 miles on a county road lined with trees and an
occasional house.  Little things set out on the curb for sale and a few
boats and some vegetable booths.
It reminded me so much of the county coverage in the town meeting
bi-centennial program. No matter what state I was in Iowa, Michigan,
Missouri, Louisiana those county roads were all the same.

I was somewhat surprised to see 50 years later those country roads remain a
steadfast symbol of how across our country there is so much in common.

Thank you so much for the recreation of the town meeting process in such a
beautiful manner. Let’s hope as we celebrate the 250 it can be help lead us
to the other side of division and chaos an we can now begin to heal and
become a bridge across the turbulence.

Thank you, thank you thank you once again for the creativity and the heart
that went into this rendition.

Connection remains the key to the human experiment across our whole planet.

Paula

Personal Mission Statement: *I nurture love, peace & harmony in every
situation for my caring family, disempowered communities, and our precious
planet.*

On Thu, Jun 11, 2026 at 2:29 PM Rory Gilchrist via Dialogue <
dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
...
This year in the United States, we are celebrating 250 years since the
signing of the Declaration of Independence. It is an opportunity to
celebrate and reflect on who we are, as a people, in our local communities.
For the ICA it brings back memories from 1976 when Town Meetings were held
in every county in every state of the union to celebrate America's 200th
birthday. Two Archives Town Meeting pages are available here: ICA Global
Archive – Town Meetings
<https://icaglobalarchives.org/collections/awakening-local-communities/town-meeting/us-5000-town-meetings/>.
We have been pondering what today’s efforts at grassroots reflection could
look like in 2026.
One step the ICA staff and Global Archives volunteers have taken is to
design a “do-it-yourself” Facilitation Guide to allow people interested
in having a significant Vision and Action Planning event happen in their
community in two-hours. The Facilitation Guide is very flexible to allow
individuals to modify for their needs. Here is the Guide:
-
Guide for reading on screens: Word Doc
   <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jSVr41SV85vmUfdcYoPlvMREadJqTdTT/edit>
   | Adobe PDF
   <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XtNrLrcwbbAq1eC8dE1eY8lnV5jYNLvD/view>
   (continuous pagination)
   -
Guide for printing: Adobe PDF
   <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZIF1Yz8Bwi4rsaxqhipjH7bBj89x2vdJ/view?usp=drive_link>
   (booklet pagination; use “short edge” double-sided printing)
Since every state has an America 250 Commission, ICA took another step—to
contact the Illinois 250 America Commission, and to offer this Facilitation
Guide, as well as Facilitator Training for community leaders to use the
Guide. A colleague of the ICA, who is a commissioner on the Illinois 250
Commission, has been working with the Chicago 43rd Ward Alderperson to
create a resolution to celebrate the 250th Anniversary by hosting “a
collaborative town hall where the community and their elected
representatives are able to come together and discuss a collective vision
for the future of their communities and the City of Chicago as a whole.” At
the last Chicago City Council meeting, they passed the resolution! Here is
a copy of the Resolution: Chicago City Council 250 Resolution
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aWQ2qG9AhB_4CZfOn_sGJLHQ9OuSGv-E/view?usp=drive_link>
Here are additional materials developed with the assistance of AI
NotebookLM that give visual and audio information to assist anyone willing
to take the challenge of leading their community in this process:
-
Cinematic Video: IL America 250 Explanatory Video
   <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s_J2X_okawWwbbTqqUkpoIorklAAIwgH/view?usp=drive_link>
   -
Infograph:  IL America 250 Infographic
   <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pk9IJXZBKOVz7KK_ymh1bzZPAbcIKg4H/view?usp=drive_link>
   -
Facilitator's Blueprint:   IL America 250 podcast ep "The two hour
   blueprint for community consensus"
   <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z7sIIOsscr8feA8E6D-SMQAb9FfeFHTr/view?usp=drive_link>
Would you like to have something like this happen in your area? Would you
be willing to contact your state’s America 250 Commission? Who are others
you know who might be interested in making this happen in your area? What
other thoughts, suggestions do you have to create momentum for community
meetings to happen locally and nationally during 2026? We are looking
forward to hearing your ideas and reflections.
Rory Gilchrist
Program Manager
rgilchrist@ica-usa.org
Karen Snyder Troxel
Archives Coordinator
ksnyder@ica-usa.org
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Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Town Hall Meetings – resources for America’s Semiquincentennial

Paula Philbrook

catherine＠welchbox.com

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