How to Use Your Ninety Seconds
Public meetings give you about ninety seconds at a microphone. Most people spend it saying something true that changes nothing.
Here’s how to spend it better. None of this is complicated and all of it works.
Ask one question
The most common mistake is asking three. A stacked question gets the easiest part answered and the rest quietly dropped, and you don’t get another turn to notice.
One question. The one you most want answered.
Ask for a number, a document, or a date
Those are the three answers worth having.
“How many gallons per day?” is answerable. “Will you publish the study?” is answerable. “By what date?” is answerable.
“Why are you doing this to us?” is not. It’s a fair thing to feel and a wasted ninety seconds, because the answer will be sympathy and sympathy isn’t information.
Say it, then stop talking
This is the hardest one.
Silence feels like you’ve failed, so the instinct is to keep going — add context, explain why you’re asking, soften it. Every extra sentence gives them something easier to respond to than the question.
Ask it. Then let the silence sit there. It’s their turn.
Have the follow-up ready
You’ll often get a reassurance instead of a figure. Something like “we’re committed to being a good neighbor” or “that will be determined during design.”
The reply that works:
That’s not a number. By what date will you publish it?
A date is a commitment. You can come back to it at the next meeting, and everyone in the room heard it.
Don’t make a speech
Speeches feel good and accomplish nothing. The panel waits politely, thanks you for your comment, and moves on. You’ve spent your turn and gained no information.
If you want to say how you feel about it, say one sentence, then ask the question. One sentence is plenty.
Write down what they say
Who answered, what they said, roughly when. If there’s a recording, note the time.
Commitments made at public meetings get forgotten unless somebody wrote them down. And a record of questions that weren’t answered is worth as much as the answers — it accumulates, and it’s hard to argue with.
Split the list
If several of you are going, decide beforehand who asks what.
Ten people asking one question each gets you ten answers. One person trying to ask ten gets you one. And if someone ahead of you asks your question, don’t repeat it — ask the follow-up instead.
Stay civil, even if the room doesn’t
Not because anger isn’t warranted. Because the moment a meeting becomes a shouting match, the story stops being about the questions nobody answered and becomes a story about a difficult crowd.
The person who stays calm and asks a specific question they can’t answer is the one the reporters write about.
The short version
- One question.
- A number, a document, or a date.
- Say it and stop.
- “That’s not a number. By what date?”
- Write down the answer.
That’s it. It works in a township hall and it works in Lansing.
Written for our own neighbors, but take it if it’s useful to you. If you’re facing something similar in your community, you’re welcome to everything on this site — see responsible opposition for how we try to work.