After talking with Tim Carter of the Lakes Region TEA Party and listening to the Intro remarks by John Krebs and Molly Donovan, it was time to start observing “how” the “what” was going to happen.  As I said in the Intro post, I was not there to participate but to merely observe.  To recap some of what I had observed thus far:

• A strictly controlled meeting agenda of questions and issues
• A division of the prospective audience / attendees into “circles” consisting of about 10 people (remember that number)
• Paid “Facilitators” and “Scribes that are to guide the “conversations” and to “take notes” – in this case, paper easels

The meeting lasted just about two hours so there is a lot of video.  Again, I apologize for the relatively low sound quality (even though I was using a shotgun mic that is supposed to mitigate that – sometimes room acoustics trump technology.  I’ll have a few more observations from observing NOT just the circle that I chose to record (circle “BBBB”), but another one as well (to be explained later).  Now to be sure, NONE of the segment / clips are NOT what I would call riveting and jaw dropping excitement video – in fact, they are rather boring if you are expecting “gotcha” moments.  However, I did see some rather interesting dynamics being played out – not only in how each small group was run (and make no mistake – by the end of the evening, it became VERY clear that these were not just simple listening session) but the dynamics between the two poles of the culture / political worlds too.  First Segment here with two more after the jump – and yes, there will be more posts with more later as well as a single post on the other circle I “observed after the fact”.  Each of these 3 three videos runs about 9 to 10 minutes; here is Part 1:

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Continuing on from Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the NHListens “visioning” meeting at the Meredith Plymouth Senior Center (NH).  Thus far, the important takeaways that I have observed thus far:

• A strictly controlled meeting agenda of questions and issues
• A division of the prospective audience / attendees into “circles” consisting of about 10 people (remember that number)
• Paid “Facilitators” and “Scribes that are to guide the “conversations” and to “take notes” – in this case, paper easels
• The “Enforcer” – tasked with being the person who would argue with anyone that was challenging the narrative.

and a new one to add:

• The Enabler(s) – those folks that dribble in “talking points” during the discussion usually at the most opportune times to be “slick and smooth”

This seemed to emerge in Part 3 (2 minute mark) when Susan started in on talking about Smart Growth principles, caught herself, and started to label them as if they were traditional New Hamspshire ones (instead of being cooked up by “Planners” that know better then we how and where we should live – certainly NOT a Live Free or Die Sentiment, or a Liberty & Freedom one either).  So, let’s return to my phrase: “and remember that number 10!“.  Next up is Part 4 which starts to show another dynamic right off the bat – those that are perfectly fine with a forced collectivism concerning land use, community priorities, taxes, and services, and those that believe that the voters have things right:

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