A Candidates’ Forum can be an excellent means of bringing legislators and potential legislators together with the local faculty and other citizens from the community. The involvement of as many faculty members as possible in such an event helps to heighten the legislators’ awareness of the faculty as a political group to be considered. Additionally, hosting such a forum allows your faculty organization to perform an extremely valuable public service to the community.

A successful Candidates’ Forum requires careful planning well ahead of time. Special care must be taken to ensure that all candidates for offices under consideration receive the invitations. Ideally, invitations should be mailed to candidates’ campaign organizations at least six weeks prior to the date of the forum to improve the chances of each candidate’s acceptance.

The actual timing of the forum itself can be a ticklish matter. It must be near enough to the election to take advantage of heightened public awareness and interest, yet not so near that many candidates will be unable to attend because of last-minute campaign commitments. Ideal times for such forums would be mid-February for primary elections and mid-October for general elections.

Local leaders should choose those activities which are appropriate to the unique circumstances in which they function.