Al Franken is running for the United States Senate. Did you know that? Yes, the funny man from Saturday Night Live and Air America radio is running for political office.
Last week, he hosted a roundtable to discuss veteran issues. The roundtable took place in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Too bad word must not have gotten out about the roundtable—only one person showed up for the event. One.
So, what’s a politician to do? Franken gave the former Navy man his entire attention for the hour. According to the St. Cloud Times, Franken spent the hour with Josh John, a veteran who served from 2000–2004. Mr. Franken belittled his opponent. He gave Mr. John his entire speech about his proposals for veteran affairs.
One person shows up for a roundtable—while counting heads and noses isn’t always the best method for measuring success, I’d have to admit that to only have one potential voter show up may not signal a landslide victory, well, other than for your opponent!
Have you ever planned an event, spending hours and hours getting ready for it, only to have a small handful of people to attend? What do you do?
In my current job, I regularly lead conferences. Most of the time, I never know how many I will have. I could have 1 or 100, or more, at times. So, what do I do? I prepare for whoever shows up! I’ll probably print more handouts than I will need—but, it is better to be over-prepared anyway. I’ll be on time for my conference and have my displays set up early. I’ll honor my time and only go for the allotted time.
I’ll do that for one or hundred, the number doesn’t matter.
But, I have found that I will change up my approach when I determine the crowd. It’s hard to break into small groups to discuss when only 1 person is there! In those cases, I’ll spend more time just talking one-on-one, hearing the person’s needs and what I can bring to the table to help them.
There’s an old joke about a preacher preaching on a snowy Sunday morning. Only one old farmer showed up for church, the rest were turned away by the bad weather. The preacher thought for a few minutes about what to do, then he went ahead and preached his entire 90 minute sermon! He screamed. He hit the pulpit for emphasis. He probably even spit a few times in his excitement.
After the service, as the preacher was standing at the door awaiting his “crowd” to leave. The old farmer came up to the preacher and thanked him for the sermon. The preacher said, “How’d I do today?” The old farmer said, “Well preacher, when I go out to feed my cows and only one or two cows show up that day, I don’t give them all the hay I have on the tractor. Might be good for you to remember the next time it snows everybody but me in!”
Al Franken could have used that advice.
