Holding A Candidate Forum

Candidate forums and town hall meetings present an excellent opportunity to raise awareness among candidates and the community about the need for and importance of afterschool programs. If there isn’t already a candidate event happening in your community, you can organize one!

Give yourself ample time to plan, make sure that you have adequate staffing and/or partnerships to pull together all of the pieces and give the candidates plenty of notice as to the date and location of the forum.  It is very important to Invite all major candidates in the district where the forum or meeting is held and do everything that you can to generate a large audience. If this means that afterschool will be one of a few issues discussed, that’s ok. Collaborate with other organizations as much as possible

Tips and considerations when planning a successful candidate forum follow: There are many ways that you could organize a forum or town hall meeting. Here are a few ideas:

Formats:

Questions for candidates can be asked by a moderator, a panel of stakeholders (afterschool providers, school officials, parents or youth) or from the audience. You can also combine these elements. For example, have a moderator or panel lead off the questioning and then open it up to the audience. You need not ask each candidate the same set of questions, but be sure to give them equal amounts of time to respond.

For a more debate style format, send the candidates questions prior to the event that elicit specific responses. Candidates can answer these questions and then move on to those that arise from the audience and moderator during the debate.

Organize your event as a town hall meeting if only one candidate has agreed to attend. Members of the audience ask questions and educate the candidate about afterschool and other important issues in the community while also giving the candidate a chance to state their opinions and policy proposals on the issues.

Forum Participants:

Candidates - Send out personal letter inviting candidate three months prior to holding the forum. Emphasize that this is nonpartisan event put on by the afterschool community in the candidate’s district/city/town. Include information about the impact of afterschool programs in the district. Follow up with candidates each month after sending the invitation using different methods of contact (phone, face-to-face, email). 

Moderator - Select a moderator, preferably a person who lives outside of the voting district and can serve in a nonpartisan role. Ideally, this would be someone who is well respected within your community, such as a local journalist. Get a commitment from this person early on and prepare them in advance (questions, review with them, do practice runs). Have a back-up in mind.

Timekeeper - This should be a staff person with the main objective to keep the forum on schedule. This person should be able to interrupt people in order to keep time.

Timeline To-Do List:

6 weeks until forum - Collaborate with other afterschool providers to choose a date, time and place for forum. Decide format and develop budget. Initiate contact with candidates and with media.

5 weeks until forum - Recruit volunteers for the night-of and follow up with invited candidates.

4 weeks until forum - Assign tasks to volunteers, confirm candidates, hold mock forum with staff, reconfirm staff arrangements, distribute promotional materials, contact media to confirm coverage.

3 three weeks until forum - Select moderator, finish recruiting volunteers, recruit attendees, contact volunteers and confirm forum duties, confirm with media, write op-ed piece, select timekeeper

Day of forum - Set-up, greet audience and candidates, provide head table for candidates/moderator, welcome, review rules of forum, hold Q & A after forum.

Anything Else?

Be sure to send thank you notes to the moderator and participating candidates.

If candidates are unable to attend, create a candidate survey or questionnaire on afterschool and youth development. Ask them to fill it out and send it back to you. This will give you a sense of where they stand on your issues.

For information on the rules of non-profit engagement in electoral activities, take a look at our lobbying and electioneering guide.

Interested in combining a forum with your Lights On Afterschool event? Go to Lights On Afterschool  for more information on event planning.

Adapted from Wellstone Action’s series on holding elected officials accountable. For more information go to http://archive.wellstone.org/