Candidate Forum Planning
Target audience
The purpose of the candidate forums is to create a venue where politicians can meet the Christians of their electorate, hear our concerns, and give a response.
The event is most effective when it is focused on the Christian community, rather than trying to be a general community “town hall”. In a wider community event, a whole range of issues can be brought up. It is hard to keep a focus on key issues, and they can be drowned out.
Collaborate with other churches
These events are most effective when they are clearly from a range of churches, not just one. Churches are more likely to promote and be supportive if they have been involved in the conversation early.
Early in the process, we suggest you connect with like-minded churches in the electorate and invite them to be part of the planning.
While there are a few jobs that need to be filled for the forums to run well, there are multiple opportunities that can be taken up by representatives of your partner churches to demonstrate the breadth of engagement of all the churches.
Set a Venue
You may wish to host at your church, or there might be a more appropriate venue who you want to collaborate with. Some factors to consider:
- Accessibility and parking. God willing, there should be quite a few people from a range of churches coming to the event.
- Livestreaming facilities are very important – they include people who cannot attend due to time or distance, and they provide a permanent record of the candidates’ comments and commitments. If livestreaming is unavailable, then a recording is a second-best option.
- We do not suggest providing supper or coffee, just hold a simple meeting.
Christian schools can be a great venue for a forum. However, it is important that the churches are still “hosting” the event. Freedom for Faith can help in contacting school networks for approval.
Notify FFF of the venue, so we can start creating promotional materials.
Set a Date and Time
Date
There is no perfect time for the forums. Make sure it is before pre-polling starts, and try avoid things like public holidays where many families will be away.
Time
Your knowledge of your community will determine the day and time. Usually, we suggest an evening on Monday-Thursday, starting at 7 or 7:30. In some electorates, including regional areas, a weekend afternoon or evening might be more appropriate.
Notify FFF of the date and time, so we can start creating promotional materials.
Start Promotion
Once a venue and date are set, FFF will create promotional materials that you can use in your church, and send to all the churches in the electorate. The materials provided will include a PowerPoint slide and newsletter text.
At the same time, FFF will coordinate with denominations to send emails to all the churches in the electorate telling them that these events are being planned and encouraging them to participate
You do not need to use the provided materials, feel free to create your own. If designing your own slide, just be mindful of colours. Use your church’s colour palette, but try to avoid looking like you are using the colours of any one political party exclusively (ie, avoid all blue, or all red)
Inviting your Candidates
Once a venue and date are set, it is time to invite candidates.
FFF is maintaining a database of candidates and their contact details, and will discuss with churches and denominations the best candidates to invite for each electorate. We will provide churches with their contact details and suggested invitation text. All you need to do is cut and paste the email and send it to the provided address (it is better coming from the church than straight from FFF or QCT). A sample email is included below.
When you hear a response, let us know and we will keep track of responses in our data system.
Any candidates who have not responded in a few days will be followed up by email (again, FFF provides the details and text) and a phone call. FFF can call on the church’s behalf and do that chasing.
Roles to fill
There are only a few essential roles to run the night. One person can fill all the up-front roles, or they can be spread across representatives of multiple churches.
- Open the evening and pray, possibly with a 5 min devotion
- MC who will introduce the candidates and manage the question process (could be multiple people)
- Someone to manage the question process – if using Slido, monitor questions for appropriateness and flag the next question to ask for the MC (see Slido guide below).
- Logistics – opening building, running sound and livestream.
A valuable, but not essential, role is greeting and looking after each candidate. If a minister from each church is allocated a candidate, they can greet them at the door, ensure they find their seat, and build a relationship with them.
Example email for inviting candidate
The email below is what you will receive from FFF to help you invite a specific candidate. You would receive one of these emails per candidate, with the candidates correct details filled in.
If the candidate does not respond, then we will provide you with a follow-up email text in the same format. After that, either the church or FFF can call the candidate to chase up.
Hi (church contact),
Now that we have confirmed your first candidate, it is time to invite the others. I’ve copied a suggested invitation text below, as well as the contact details.
Please let me know when you send it and when you get a reply. If you CC me at [email protected], they might copy me in the reply to save you the effort. If we don’t get a reply in a week, our office will call on your behalf to follow up.
Candidate Name: Ms Sample MP
Contact Email: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Email Subject: Candidates Forum Invitation
———————————–
Dear (Candidate),
On behalf of the churches of the (Electorate) electorate, (Church), is holding a Candidates Forum for the (state) election.
The date is: 2 March 2023 7:00pm
The evening will include an opportunity to speak directly on your policies, as well as some set questions on issues of common interest to Christians, and questions from the floor.
We are inviting churches from around the electorate, and will be live-streaming to ensure that those who cannot make it on the night have the opportunity to hear from you. We are hopeful for a very good turn out, and expect that this would be a great opportunity for you to address a large number of constituents.
We have confirmed that (Other significant MP) will be attending.
So that we can promote this widely, we are hoping to confirm candidates’ attendance as soon as possible.
Please let me know if you are able to attend, we are greatly looking forward to hearing from you.
Yours,