Advice for speaking at council
Making statements or asking questions at Council meetings is not the easiest thing to do well. Here is some advice that might help a little
Practice your words
A minute goes by so very fast. It is incredibly hard to say a useful question that includes all the points you want to touch on in just sixty seconds.
I strongly recommend practicing saying your words out loud while a sixty second timer runs on your phone. You will be astounded at how little it's actually possible to say.
It's important to actually say the words out loud while practicing, as it gives you some muscle memory, which will help you speak clearly when you're in front of the council and will naturally be nervous.
Save time by skipping to the sentence with the question mark
The mayor (or whoever is answering) will almost always have a prepared written answer that they will just read out when you get to the end of your time.
If you feel that reading out the full context of your question will make you feel better or can be used as a promotional tool for your cause, then go for it! But be aware reading the full thing out won't affect the answer given.
Save time by thinking carefully about a follow-up question
The mayor and other cabinet members are skilled politicians. They will just ignore questions they don't like and instead say a lot of words that kind of sound like an answer. Unfortunately, life isn't like an episode of Columbo, where the villains will make a confession when confronted.
There is only 15 minutes for questions, so each follow-up question prevents someone else from asking their question.
A mistake a lot of people make is to just ask the same question again...the mayor will almost certainly just steer around answering it again.
Some don'ts
You don't need to:
- introduce yourself. Everyone is following the agenda which has your name and details.
- be polite e.g. by thanking people for listening.
- touch anything on the microphone. It will be passed to you 'on'.
Did that help?
Please let me know of any advice you think is missing from this page. Or if you disagree strongly with any of the advice, I am open to feedback.
Anyway, good luck with your questions or statements.
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