The Health Care Community Discussion Project was organized by Senator Tom Daschle, Secretary-designate for Health and Human Services, to reach out to the American people for ideas and stories on how the existing health care system could be revamped.

I signed up to host a discussion where I live in Congress, Ariz. on December 28, 2008. The Host and Moderation guide said to invite friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors and aim to invite at least 15-20 people, although smaller gatherings were fine as well.

My house is quite small and what with all the books, computers and photo gear there isn't room for more than eight people. So I decided to e-mail people on a combined mailing list: physical neighbors in Congress; people who subscribed to the mailing list for the website I manage (see Congress Arizona) ; people I talked with at various political/cultural events (see Oh My News International); people I talked with during my 20-day journey up US 89 from Mexico to Canada (see Open Salon and/or Actual Life).

The e-mail I sent invited people to come to the Discussion or fill out the Survey included in the Participant Guide and perhaps write up Compelling Stories that would be good features to highlight the need for health care reform.

Out of the 157 e-mails sent out, 21 people clicked to send a Receipt, 55 people actually opened the e-mail (a total of 219 times), 21 people sent in the survey, 11 people sent in stories, seven people took part in the face-to-face discussion, including me.

AFTER WE HAD BRIEFLY INTRODUCED OURSELVES, we watched Senator Tom Daschle's video introduction to the Health Care Community Discussions (see Signup Page) and read the Participant Guide, we used the questions in the Participant Guide (see Health Care Discussion FAQ) as the basis for discussion.