Presidential Youth Ball FAIL

On Tuesday night, I had the misfortune of attending the Presidential Inaugural Committee's (PIC) official Youth Ball. I say misfortune because on multiple levels the ball was a failure (if not a fiasco) of execution, and a failure for the youth community as a whole.

Broadcast live over MTV's many networks, and covered by major news outlets, I'm sure that to viewers at home the event looked like a thrilling and historic party celebrating a new era in Washington and a new age of political participation by Millennials (Indeed, most coverage I've seen makes no mention of the incidents I am about to describe). Unfortunately, for close to 1000 participants - who paid hundreds of dollars to attend (travel, dress, tickets) - the event was nothing of the sort. Many of the attendees (myself included) found themselves locked down in different sections of the Washington Hilton by the Capitol police, unable to dance to Kanye's beats or listen in person as President Obamas thanked America's youth for their hard work.

The Story

The problem first became noticeable during Kanye West's set. As attendees crowded into the ballroom for his performance, security closed entry, stating that the ballroom was filled to capacity. In an email I received that night, one blogger attending the event said that many young people denied entrance to the main ballroom began chanting "Purple Line," referencing the thousands who were locked out of the ticketed areas on the Mall that morning. One thing lead to another (full chronology is unclear), and like guards trying to quell a prison riot, the police locked down those not fortunate enough to squeeze into the ballroom into two other areas of the hotel - a smaller event space on a different floor, and a lounge area decorated like a bad high school prom, separated from the main ballroom by a lobby.

Hundreds were locked down in these areas for well over an hour, as the police denied anyone entrance or exit. Those denied ballroom access were not even allowed to travel between the two other event areas. For instance, there was plenty of room in the Prom Lounge (where I was located), and no reason that those locked upstairs out of the event could not roam freely between the two areas.

Sarah wrote earlier about how many "pillars" of the youth organizing community were not granted access to the main ballroom. To add insult to injury, many of us who have worked to engage youth for 4 years or more were scrounging to receive ANY tickets to this event, while many young Obama interns and staffers apparently received as many as ten tickets apiece. That was a huge slap in the face for dozens of people whose work laid the ground for Obama's youth surge.

By the end of the night, when the Fire Marshall closed entry to the Hilton for those straggling in late, hundreds of young people who worked countless hours to engage their peers and support President Obama's candidacy were left heartbroken, unable to properly celebrate and share in the moment for which they worked so hard.

Logistics FAIL

There were two major logistical problems with the event, each of which compounded the other to create the situation in which some attendees were literally in tears on their cellphones. First, the PIC oversold the event by at least 30%. I'm told that the ballroom's capacity was around 2000, but judging by the size of the crowd locked out of the ballroom, at least 3,000 people showed up. It's worth noting that most of the other official inaugural balls were much more limited in scope, capping off tickets at approximately 1,500. Second, at some point in time a decision was made to stage the event at a split venue. I'm told that this venue arrangement was also unique among the 10 official balls attended by the Obamas and organized by the PIC. Every other ball was staged in a single space in which all participants could roam freely, and the stage was visible at all times to all attendees.

These two main problems were again compounded by poor distribution of information and a total lack of organizational staff at the event. At no time was it made clear to the participants that the venue was split or oversold and that they might be excluded from witnessing major portions of the evening's programming. Once the police began locking guests into specific rooms, no event organizer came forward to address the crowd and explain the situation. There was a complete blackout of pertinent information both before the event, and as it devolved into confrontation with the police.

The fault here seems to rest entirely on the shoulders of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. To understand why, it's worth it to review a brief history of how and why this event was organized.

Back in late November/early December, multiple youth organizations wanted to host their own inaugural ball (attended by the first couple, of course). Due to the enormous costs of putting on such an event, and the fact that competing attempts to create an "official" youth ball would both dilute the message of strong, united youth movement and leave most organizations out in the cold, an effort was made to unite all the groups behind a single event, and pitch the PIC that it be granted status as the official youth ball. It was widely accepted that MTV would spearhead this event due to its production skills, larger monetary resources, and the obviously irreplaceable free media that comes with MTV participation.

Somewhere between 50 and 100 youth organizations (including Future Majority) sent a joint letter to the Presidential Inaugural Committee outlining the need for an official youth inaugural ball to recognize the incredible contributions youth made to his campaign, and MTV and Service Nation were pitched as the main sponsor/producers. Unfortunately, after internal talks, that proposal was rejected by the PIC, which determined that while there would be an official youth ball, it would be organized internally by the PIC.

I'm told by those who were involved in event planning discussions that multiple people were either kept in the dark, or strenuously objected to major planning decisions, but were consciously ignored by the PIC. My sources tell me that MTV, which broadcast the event, objected to the split venue but were ignored (I'm waiting for a direct comment from MTV executives about the execution of the event and their role in the planning). I've heard that some of the younger organizers working with the PIC on this ball objected to the over sale of tickets, but were told by their superiors that "those who didn't get into the ballroom could watch it on TV." And the DNC Youth Council, the organization which was liaising with the PIC on behalf of the youth community (and of which I am a member), were kept completely in the dark about both of these decisions.

Message FAIL

While these logistical failures were personally painful for many of us who attended the youth ball, they were small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. Far more detrimental, in my view, was the failure of the messaging coming out of this event.

The event disproportionately highlighted service projects - Teach for America, Americorps, PeaceCorps - as the only course of action for young people to stay politically engaged. Call me crazy, but I can't ever remember seeing a poll in which "ways to serve" was the number one concern of young people. In fact, most polls of young voters before the election showed them concerned about the economy, renewable energy, and health care, items that received barely a passing mention at the event. Indeed, Rock the Vote recently polled it's members and found that 58% of their memers wanted to participate in issue advocacy vs. 41% who wanted to find more service opportunities.

Every president that I can remember - Clinton and Bush - has come into office promising to increase service opportunities. I don't have anything against that. The rate at which young people today volunteer in their communities is inspirational. And when tied to education funding, service can be a great way to build our communities and help young people get an affordable, quality education. But typically this becomes the only issue on which an administration caters to the 18 - 29 set.

During the transition period, many youth organizers made it a point to tell the transition team that young people want to become more involved at the policy level and that they should avoid buttonholing us with "service" programs. Despite these meetings and conversations with the transition team, the only affirmative, youth-based program to come out of the transition was USAservice.org, an effort to expand volunteerism across the country. The themes of the Presidential Youth Ball did much to reinforce the themes of service, yet very little to recognize the vast policy concerns of young people and the many ways in which they are organizing around those issues (like the Energy Action Coalition or Join the Impact).

It's also worth noting that not a single high-ranking political official attended this event aside from the Obamas ten minute appearance. Politicians and pundits may talk about the renewed importance of the youth vote, but apparently we are not important enough for them to show their support by putting in an appearance and shaking a few hands at the Youth Ball, and it is unclear if the PIC made any effort to secure more big-name political guests.

Despite the record participation of youth this year, and the importance of our generation in enacting so many of the changes that Obama, the Democrats, and the country demand, we were relegated once more to the "kiddie table," accepting whatever scraps the adults (aka PIC) threw to us. At the end of t day, the Presidential Inaugural Youth Ball was a poorly executed prom largely ignored by the rest of the political class, broadcasting a narrowly focused, myopic message about youth engagement. That's not change I can believe in.

I went to the Presidential Inaugural Youth Ball and all I got was this lousy picture.