Can you do a great town hall for $2,000?

Megan Maisel, now an associate director for internal communications at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, e-mailed me in Spring 2007, and she was excited—as excited as any good communicator would be if she was in the middle of doing something that was actually working. “Check out the e-mail I got from an employee after I sent out a message about an upcoming town hall meeting,” she wrote.

“I was having a really rotten day until I received it.’ The e-mail she had forwarded us was stunning. Here it is in its entirety:

“Megan I am off on Mondays. I just wanted to say that these meetings are getting so entertaining that I am actually considering coming in for it!! You guys are doing a great job.”

Wow. “How often do communicators get messages from employees who are willing to come in on their day off to attend a corporate meeting?” Maisel asked us. That’s easy: never. Not as far as I know. I know of it working the opposite way: Lots of employees probably call in sick to avoid a corporate meeting. But giving up time off to attend one? That is man bites dog, all the way.