This past school year has had an abundance of real world and applicable learning experiences. I truly believe that the experience that I have gained over the course of this class and specifically with the planning of Hancock County Meets the Candidates will help me both in college and in m future career. I now have first hand experience in planning, organizing, hosting, and promoting a large scale political event, experience that I don't think I could have gotten anywhere else.
Additionally, I have one final update. Last night, Alex and I presented to the school board. We talked about what motivated us, how we organized the event and the community feedback. The board appears to see a future in the forum which makes me hopeful for the future of this event. I hope to be able to come home a little less than two years from now in order to gain crucial information shortly before I head in to early vote for what will then be the third time.
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After months of work, countless hours (we did try to count), and 35 megabytes of emails, Hancock County finally met the candidates. We had a decent turnout and were able to help undecided voters decide who they wanted to cast their vote for. At the end of the day however, turnout was not my main concern. The odds were stacked against us but we wanted to do everything we could to get people to come. This is the first time such an event has been held here, advertising was done nearly entirely by Alex and myself, oh and there was a Pacers game too. Over the course of the last month we have walked neighborhoods, ran ads and made an event on facebook, ran an ad in a local newspaper, placed yard signs, placed posters, and handed out fliers. In my opinion, we have done everything that we as two high school seniors that both have extremely busy (oftentimes conflicting) schedules could do in the pursuit of promoting this event. Because of this, I am happy with the outcome. I am even happier with the amount of experience that I have gained for both my organizing a networking skills. Perhaps most surprisingly, we had multiple candidates come to us and say that this was by far the best organized event that they have gone to all year. This gives me hope that the name Hancock County Meets the Candidates can come to mean something over the coming years. That it is an event, organized by students for their community, in a highly organized, professional, and courteous manner. An event that candidates and constituents alike look forward to. I don't believe that such a goal is too far fetched to ask for. Although I am skeptical of the likelihood that another pair or group of students will come along that are just as interested in community engagement, just as willing to put countless hours into a single day, and just as organized so as to invite in excess of thirty people to come speak. That being said, I do believe that it is possible, and think that I will find myself pleasantly surprised at what the future organizers of Hancock County Meets the Candidates will have to offer. Additionally, the following is a link to a local article written about the event. http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/2018/05/01/candidates_gather_for_studentled_forum_head_of_election_day/ Me tying Alex's tie for him Taking turns speaking during our thank you/goals speech Explaining the organization of the day/speaking schedule to candidates (twenty+ not pictured) Checking the schedule to see how behind schedule we were (we were ahead by ten minutes)
Over the past month we are nearing the completion of the organizing stage of this project. We currently have twenty-five candidate that have formalized their RSVPs and only several that either cannot attend or that we have not received an answer from at this time. We have attempted to reach incumbent candidates through the House Republican Campaign Committee but we have been unable to reach those candidates for state representative at this time.
Alex and I met with Dr. Lantrip, superintendent, and Mr. Anderson, Director of Communications of Southern Hancock Schools. During this meeting we updated them on how planning was going and discussed security payments and advertisement. So far the school corporation has done a good job at helping us advertise (see "Wednesdays With Wes on the CSCSHC Facebook page) and is working on a press release to be sent out over the next two weeks. We are very thankful for the support of the corporation and believe that with the additional advertisement from them that we will be able to have the kind of community attendance that we would like. Next week, we will be finalizing a schedule for the day to be sent out to the candidates. Additionally, this schedule will be made for the public. Attached is a list of all the candidates that have made a formal RSVP. The past week has been very big for this project. On Monday, Alex and I were invited to come speak at the monthly Democratic Party of Hancock County board meeting. We gave them information on our event and were able to introduce ourselves to Jim Pruett and Jeannine Lee Lake. Both of of which are running in the democratic primary for the 6th congressional district. Later that night, the daily reporter published an article on our event from information given during an over the phone interview.
As of writing this, eighteen candidates have accepted their invitations and agreed to come speak. We are planning meeting with the Republican Party of Hancock County, Young Republicans, and the Hancock County League of Women Voters in order to promote our event effectively. Things appear to be going smoothly and all involved are excited to see it work. The final draft of the letters of invitation have been printed off and are currently being mailed to their recipients. Once the full list of attendees is known, we will be able to schedule each candidates time to speak. This is a moment of waiting once again.
Our next concern is making sure that the word gets out about our event. We've contacted the chairman for Hancock County's GOP chapter, she has expressed a great willingness to help us out and endorse our event in their newsletter as well as website. The Greenfield Reporter is our next goal, after that (and possibly a Tv spot) we are going to ask local businesses if they will let us advertise on their property via posters. Next Monday, Alex and I are meeting with Ms. Moore to discuss campaign strategy and volunteer opportunities. Our hope is that we can learn as much as we can about campaigning as well as give back to someone that has helped us from the beginning of this project. We have received the complete list of candidates and have spent the past two weeks deciding which position to invite. We are inviting national senator, circuit court judge, prosecutor, clerk of circuit court, county auditor, county recorder, county sheriff, county surveyor, and county assessor candidates. A letter of invitation has been drafted and is currently under revision, with the hope that we will be able to send out the letters by next Friday.
A PowerPoint is being sent out to the junior and senior classes of the school outlining how to register and vote. Although most students neglect to open their email, the ones that do are likely to be the ones that would want to be registered. In addition to the work that we have done with Ms. Moore on this project we have also agreed to aid her in her campaign for county recorder. This is primarily a token of thanks for her help on this project, in addition to being an excellent way to gain experience on campaigning. The event has been officially scheduled for April 29th and will tentatively begin at 2pm. Plans are being made to discuss lighting, microphones and other logistical issues with various directors at the high school. The transition from theoretical issues to real ones is appreciated since now it is no longer a question of what will be done, but how. On January 31st, Alex and I met with Ms. Moore once again. This time she let us know that the finalized list of candidate will be made available on February 12th and that she will send us a copy of it. We let her know of our progress and she offered suggestions on how we go about scheduling the meet the candidate. She suggested that we rank each office and assign an amount of time for those candidates to speak, since otherwise the event could go on for many hours.
Recently we have run into a few scheduling conflicts. The NPHS play is scheduled to be performed on the Sunday that we wanted to reserve. Because of this we are trying to get the Sunday after reserved as soon as possible. Once the event is scheduled we will begin sending out letters of invitation to candidates. Alex and I met with the Mr. Barton, vice principal, in order to finalize a few points of our project. The registration drive will be held during Lab A on Wednesday February 21st. We are making a powerpoint that will be sent out to teachers and be made available to students via canvas. It will include a link to the Indiana online voter registration site and information on how to vote. Although we would have preferred a more direct means of communication, the schedule simply wouldn't allow it.
For the meet the candidate we decided that Alex and I will draft letters to be sent to candidates we'd like to invite, then have school administration formalize it and turn them into an official document sponsored by the school. That way the project looks more professional and candidates are more likely to accept our invitations. The tentative date is April 21st in the afternoon. We're waiting for our request to reserve the auditorium to be answered. On January 31st, we are meeting with the Hancock County Clerk of Courts once again in order to get a full list of candidates so that we can send them their invitations. Once we see how many candidates accept our invitation, we will be able to better plan out the meet the candidate as well as assign exact times for candidates to speak. As she requested, I have sent Dr. Lantrip a copy of our plan so that the school district attorney can make sure that there is nothing incriminating against the district. Once the attorney gives their approval we will be able to reserve the auditorium and decide when the registration drive will happen. We will also be able to send out invitations for our guest speaker to speak on the importance of voting during the "meet the candidate".
In addition to this, we will be able to send out invitations to candidates as they register. After winter break, we are planning to contact Marcia Moore once again in order to get a list of current registered candidates. Unfortunately, the final cutoff for candidate registration is February 6th. This means that candidates that register closer to this deadline will have less time to respond to our invitation. It is our hope that this will be of minimal concern. However, if it does seem like it will be an issue then we will contact the heads of the Hancock County Democrat and Republican parties to get their information on who will be running. After winter break, we are planning to meet with Marcia Moore once again in order to get a list of current registered candidates. Alex and I met with Dr. Lantrip, the superintendent, this morning to get her okay to continue work on the project. We were successful and with her okay we are now able to plan the specifics for the project. Starting by creating a detailed list of everything we would like to do on school grounds to have it looked over by the school board attorney to ensure that no legal barriers are crossed. In addition to that, exact dates will soon be decided for the registration and the town hall. Once the town hall is successfully organized and candidates become official, letters of invitation will be sent out to eligible candidates. In addition to this, we will attempt to find a guest speaker to give a talk on the importance of voting. Our hope is to climb the the ladder as high as we can for the speaker. With the meeting complete, we are now able work on this without fear of all progress being lost due to a no. Now the rate of progress should increase.
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Ethan
When I'm not hitting percussion equipment with other percussion equipment or sending a college application or doing homework or taking a moment to catch my breath or this or that... Archives
May 2018
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