The first-ever, global and association-wide Town Hall was convened at 7am/Pacific by co-hosts Lacy Katherine Campbell and Kile Ozier with an inaugural crowd of over 200 members entering the virtual space.
TEA International Board President Chuck Fawcett took a moment at the top of the session to articulate the vision for this forum; that it represents a sweeping, forward step in the opening up of Communications Pathways and Philosophies for the Themed Entertainment Association. Establishing multilateral channels and forms of open communication between and amongst members and leadership; these envisioned-as-quarterly TEA Town Hall forums can be the tentpoles of transparency necessary to collaborative, communicative, compassionate growth and leadership, worldwide.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE TEA TOWN HALL ON TEA TV
[Note that the full list of pre-submitted questions is posted at the end of this article.]
In refreshing contrast to scripted and pre-produced segments, this Town Hall format is 100% live. The “Agenda,” such as it was, was organized through the gathering of the questions received in advance; thus offering for this first iteration of the format a virtual Smôrgasbôrd, a veritable panoply of topics, questions and concerns that came directly from membership.
The TEA Town Hall is about representation and participation rather than presentation.
All members of TEA were invited to attend and participate (though we still are encountering some difficulty breaching the Virtual Wall of China); with that invitation including the opportunity to submit any question on any topic. Questions could be submitted in advance - either authored or anonymous - and all questions were guaranteed to be acknowledged and addressed in the TEA Town Hall.
Questions and comments were also taken ad hoc, during the meeting. The concept being to create a virtual forum experience as close to gathering, live, as virtually possible. Thus questions came from all quarters; Board Members, former Board Members (a rather vast demographic in the case of TEA), New Members, NextGen and…um…Legacy members.
Questions that called for comprehensive response or deeper research were shared, if not fully answered due to time constraints, were embraced by the appropriate EC member with the caveat of assurance of a timely response and follow-up by the proximate Town Hall date.
All members of the International Board Executive Committee were present; there to respond to questions asked of topics under their individual purviews.
We learned a lot; some things worked great, some might benefit from improvement. We are still and will continue to take feedback, session by session; massaging and enhancing this collaborative, informative and frankly pretty fun format.
Ya shoulda been there! Though we are happy with the over-200 who could be there on the 22nd; were plenty of seats with excellent views remaining to be filled.
The next TEA President’s Town Hall will be held on Friday, April 9th, 2021.
[Full list of pre-submitted questions is posted below.]
As reported by event moderators:
Lacy Campbell and Kile Ozier
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Posted by Erica Schwehr
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TEA Members please log in to commentThank you to everyone who attended last Friday. Our TEA Town Hall gatherings are intended to give everyone in the association a voice as we work to grow a truly global community. Your participation helps TEA become stronger, smarter, more culturally aware, and more universally inclusive. Every member is an integral part of the TEA - and the Town Hall gives each of us the chance to talk about how things are going, to share our progress, to recognize our growing pains and acknowledge the missteps we will make along the way.
WHAT: TEA MASTERS OF THEIR CRAFT epitomize the highest standards relative to their respective professional disciplines while also setting the standard for professional conduct within the Themed Entertainment industry. They begin with pure talent and grow it with experience over decades, constantly evolving and maturing their craft to become industry leaders. TEA Masters have built a demonstrable body of work that shows consistency in the quality of work over many projects throughout their career. They lead by example and are mentors to many, inspiring and empowering others while executing their own craft with a spirit of collaboration with the project teams, interns, and students.