After the panelists speak, give the candidates time to respond to what they have heard. Of course, all candidates must get equal time and should be treated identically and fairly, by the moderator, and by the audience. Remember, your purpose is to educate, not to promote the interests of any candidate or party.

The moderator should be instructed to introduce and close the forum with a statement explaining that the forum has been a nonpartisan community education project and is not designed to favor any candidate or party.

We understand that we are recommending a type of forum in which the community at large is not going to have a chance to ask questions or respond from the floor to the candidates. This requires a prepared and tough moderator. It also means that the experts on your panel should be knowledgeable enough so that people in the audience who care about homelessness/housing issues will feel represented by them. We suggest that you plan a reception to follow the event and that you encourage community members to talk one-onone with the candidates there.

Ensuring a Successful Forum

To host a successful forum, pay special attention to:

• Assembling a representative panel that can talk about local housing and homelessness facts and concerns
• Taking the time to prepare panelist(s) and the moderator
• Getting candidates of all appropriate political parties to attend and participate
• Interesting the media about the event
• Getting the word out to the community
• Getting commitments from fellow organizers to conduct a follow-up event after the forum

To get these tasks done, we suggest that you set up a coordinating committee to be responsible for the important decisions and a number of subcommittees to handle the details.

The Coordinating Committee

The coordinating committee should be comprised of representatives from a wide range of local constituencies including: low income and people currently and formerly experiencing homelessness, local/statewide housing and homeless coalitions, social worker/provider networks, religious groups, labor unions, low income and consumer groups, senior citizens groups, etc. Throw as wide a net as possible to ensure broad community support.

REMEMBER: Make it clear to all the groups invited that the Community/Candidates' Forum is for the discussion of housing and homelessness issues, not for all of the problems facing the community. This is necessary because no single forum can do justice to more than one issue at a time. It will also help focus the comments of panelists and candidates, which in turn will help hold the audience's attention. The committees’ responsibilities can include:

• Establishing the procedures that will guide the ad-hoc coalition sponsoring the forum
• Establishing a time frame in which to accomplish the event (sample enclosed)
• Confirm the availability of candidates
• Selecting the site, date, and time
• Drawing up a budget (suggestion sheet enclosed)
• Authorizing the work of subcommittees
• Choosing community panelists, such as:
  • People who are currently or formerly experiencing homelessness
  • Community leaders working to end the crisis
  • Social service organizations stretched too thin
  • Union members who can’t find affordable housing
  • Tenants fighting to preserve their homes
  • Interfaith groups building homes
• Choosing a moderator, responsible for:
  • Explaining the ground rules to panelists
  • Inviting guests and the audience
  • Being the timekeeper and maintaining order to ensure that the forum runs smoothly
• Choosing which candidates to invite. The forum can be limited to candidates representing major parties and significant third party candidates of one party who are running in the primary
• Developing evaluation and follow-up plans.

Subcommittees

The subcommittees you create might include a) public relations/media, b) community outreach, c) liaison with candidates, d) finance, and e) site. Subcommittees allow you to both delegate responsibility and involve a wide range of groups in the planning process.

Public Relations/Media Subcommittee:

Responsible for coordinating media coverage for the event and developing media packets. In addition, the subcommittee may want to designate a member to act as a resource for the media and general public (see enclosed Media Tips Sheet). Community Outreach Subcommittee:

• Responsible for turning out the community for the event. Remember, the more people who actively participate in planning the event, the easier it will be to turn out a lot of people. Some of the ways this can be accomplished are:
• Request promotion from the broadcast community;
• Contacting appropriate individuals and organizations by mail, phone, or in person;
• Developing and distributing flyers and leaflets (sample flyer enclosed);
• Developing small display ads and submitting them to community newspapers in the hope of getting free advertising (modify the enclosed sample flyer to create your own ad).

The subcommittee may want to establish a phone tree/e-mail list or tap into the coordinating committees’ phone trees/e-mail lists. In addition, this subcommittee might want to take responsibility for setting up transportation networks to help people get to and from the event.

Candidate Liaison Subcommittee:

Responsible for all communication with all candidates, including making the initial phone calls to all of the candidates chosen by the Coordinating Committee, keeping a candidates phone log, writing confirmation letters, and being the main contact for the candidates prior to and at the event (sample letter and script enclosed).

Finance Subcommittee:

Responsible for working with the Coordinating Committee to develop a budget and raise funds for the event. Even though you will want to maximize in-kind contributions to cover educational and publicity materials, reception costs, postage and other costs, you may find that the act of making some people solely responsible for finances will help generate in-kind contributions.

Site Subcommittee:

Responsible for securing the room, setting up the room prior to the event (arranging furniture, checking microphones and lighting, hanging banners) and returning the room to its original state after the event. Remember: the site should be centrally located and/or near well-traveled streets/highways and/or public transportation. Also, don't commit to a space you can't fill. It’s better to have people standing along the walls than have dozens of empty seats.

Planning a Budget One of the main topics of conversation at your first organizing meeting should be finances: who's willing to pay for what, who can make in-kind donations, etc. Remember to look to social service networks, unions, low income housing and tenant groups, the community-atlarge (banks, large and small businesses, civic groups interfaith networks, etc.) to seek funding (in-kind or cash) for the event. A bonus to this is that as committee members place calls to the community to solicit support they will also be spreading the word about the event.

Here's a checklist of some of the items necessary for the forum that may end up costing you money:

Site. One of the coordinating committee members may have access to an appropriate site that you can get for free or for a nominal charge. Meeting rooms in churches, shelters or soup kitchens, or local government buildings are a good bet. Perhaps a local school or college will donate you space. But if none of these is available, you may have to rent private space, such as a movie theater or banquet hall, in which case you might have to pay up to $500.

Publicity. You should expect to print at least 1,000 flyers/handbills to publicize the forum. If you can't get a union printer to donate this service, you should expect to spend about five cents a copy. If you don't want to lay out cash for this service, consider making up a master on a computer, distributing master originals to participating groups, and asking them to photocopy them on their in-house machines. If your publicity committee makes up small newspaper ads and radio announcements, send copies of them around to community newspapers and local radio stations. You may be surprised at how much free advertising you can get.

Reception. Don't skimp on the reception; people will remain to discuss the issues if you present them with a nice spread of food and drink. It is probably not a good idea to serve alcohol (and restrictions on the room you’re renting may prevent it). Consider asking every member of both the full committee and the subcommittees to bring some item of food or drink. Ask local businesses to donate items. You’ll probably have to put out some money for things like plates, cups, utensils, and napkins. Consider drawing up a modest budget of these essentials and then splitting the cost among the participating groups.

Educational materials. Remember, the forum provides you with an excellent opportunity to distribute educational materials to the participants and the audience. You may want to allow each group to handle its own development and production costs or you might consider producing a joint packet of material, with the production costs born equally.

Postage and mailing costs. Don't spend a lot of money doing large mailings to publicize the forum. We suggest you rely as heavily as possible on free advertising. But don't discourage the desire of individual groups to publicize the forum to their members. If they choose to do this, however, they should be prepared to pick up the tab.

Remember, weigh financial questions early and avoid unpleasant surprises. Putting on a community forum will take more time and effort than cash, but the participating groups should be prepared to spend as much as $1,000 each to pull it off.

Week 1

Full Committee holds initial meeting

• Establish tentative date and time for event
• Choose type of person(s) for the panelists/moderator
• Agree on ground rules
• Form Subcommittees
• Develop Budget

Week 2

Subcommittees hold first meetings

• Site Committee: solicits ideas for place
• Finance Committee: develops draft budget and solicits ideas on how to fund event
• Outreach Committee: prepares list of all endorsing groups to date and develops list of other groups to ask for endorsement; develops draft flyer/leaflets;
• PR/Media Committee: drafts news release/PSA Notices
• Candidate Liaison Committee: Makes first round of calls

Week 3

Subcommittees continue work

• Site Committee: visits possible sites; finalize time, date, site
• Finance Committee: begins calls to groups identified
• Outreach Committee: begins calls to panelists
• PR/Media Committee: finalizes news releases/PSA Notices and begins media strategy
• Candidate Liaison Committee: continues to reach candidates

Week 4

Full Committee meets

• Subcommittees report on progress

Subcommittees continue work

• Site committee: finalizes site for event, holds meeting for volunteer recruitment
• Finance Committee: continues outreach for funding
• Outreach Committee: continues phone calls for advance outreach, confirms panelists/moderator; continues to mail out notices to community
• PR/Media Committee: sends out public service announcements
• Candidate Liaison Committee: meets with staff members

Week 5

Full Committee meets

• Subcommittee report on progress to date
• Develop evaluation tool and plan for follow up actions

Subcommittees continue work

• Site Committee: finalizes all logistical plans
• Outreach Committee: develops and prints event program

Week 6

Full Committee meets to review final details

Week 7

Hold Event

Full Committee meets to evaluate event and implement follow-up actions

Media Tips The Media Team: A good, solid media team includes three important people: a media coordinator, a writer and a spokesperson. One person handling media calls can cultivate important relationships with assignment desk personnel, news producers, and camera people. (Get to know these important people). One way to increase the possibility of coverage of your event is an interesting person. If you don't have a person within your organization who can attract media attention, then try to find someone who can. The other type of person who is a magnet for the media is one who can provide the human interest story -- the victim of the policy you are addressing.

The Media Event: Find a way to make visible what it is you are trying to communicate. When planning a news event always keep in mind the photo opportunity. The best visual is the one that requires the fewest words to explain. The more words that are required, the more obtuse the message. If you are planning a large event, find ways to promote it in advance by creating other focal points. It is free advertising, and will build interest in what you really want covered.

The Media List: Maintain two media lists: a mailing list, and a phone call list. The news mailing list should contain the name of the publication, station, or network, its address (including e-mail), and the names of people that you know at each location. The phone call list will be considerably smaller but is essential. Always keep it handy. A call list should include the agency name, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, assignment desk names, reporters’ names, special news areas they cover, and individual direct dial and home numbers when available. Remember: always keep media mailing lists and phone call lists upto- date. Add new names as you meet new people. (Your media coordinator should take names of producers and reporters at media events and make sure those names get added to your lists.)

The News Release: If your event is planned well in advance, it is good to mail it out at least a week ahead to ensure its inclusion on calendars. Before you write your release, sit down and list the points you wish to make. Don't ramble. While you need to include enough background information to educate, you don't need to say everything in the news release. That is the purpose of the news event. The first paragraph should include the five W's - who, what, where, when, and why. All news releases should be followed up with a phone call. If you don't do a follow-up phone call, you can count on your news release being thrown in the garbage can.

The Media Call: Be thorough with your calls. Don't assume any member of the media is a "lost cause." In many ways, the media calls you make are more important than the news release. Although you must have a written news statement that can be delivered, e-mailed or faxed upon request, you have the special opportunity during a media call to really sell your story and yourself. Start with the wire services (i.e., your local Associated Press and United Press International offices) since they can rapidly get the news out to everybody else. Follow up those calls with television stations, since they have more staff to try to get to the location of your news event. Those phone calls should be followed with newspapers next, then radio stations.