It has been nearly three years since I ran for school board. As I reflect back on the experience I thought it would be good share what I learned and what I would do differently the next time…if there is a next time.
In 2010, I ran for one of three open spots on our local school board. As the title implies I was a candidate and did not win. However, as with anything in life where you “put yourself out there”, the experience and lessons learned were worth the time and effort. I thought I would share the top three lessons I learned during my “campaign”.
I'll be honest with you, my campaign was not planned. I was an 11th-hour candidate spurred into action by a headline in the local newspaper the day before the election deadlines. While I can't remember exactly what the headline stated now, there were three positions open and only one person running. It wasn't the possibility of being elected that made me act. Rather, it was the fact that we live in an area of 28,000 people where the school system is the epicenter of identity and activity and I couldn't accept that out of all those people, only one person was running. So my hat was thrown into the ring.
Apparently I was not the only one who was motivated by this headline because, by the time I arrived at the courthouse with my required signatures to be placed on the ballot, I was the third person in line. By noon on deadline day, eleven other concerned citizens had felt the “calling” as well.
This experience provided me with the opportunity to do more public speaking which I had not done in awhile. I highly recommend to everyone if you get a chance to speak in front of a group, do it. You need to develop this skill and the only way to do it is by practicing. Unfortunately due to the number of candidates, 13, both of the public forums turned into public speeches only.
There were no debates. We were provided questions in advance that we would need to answer in a given time frame. Each of the candidates was provided one minute for opening comments, five minutes to answer the 3-5 pre-written questions and one minute for closing statements. You can find my closing quip on YouTube.
Top three lessons learned as a school board candidate
1. Know your message –
Have your message narrowed down to no more than three takeaways you want your audience to remember? You should be able to state your message concisely and in a limited time frame. Given the fact that there were 13 of us running and we had time limits I had to think of it as a slightly longer than normal elevator speech. If you do the practice you will lose people during your speech. You will also come across as unprepared or even worse, your message will be incoherent. It was very easy to tell the candidates who were winging' it.
2. Know your audience –
The biggest lesson for me was putting together a message in a manner that resonated with the largest number of people. Unfortunately, I made my main focus, all three takeaways, on fiscal responsibility. This proved to be enough for 1,900 voters which was not enough to win. I think my biggest mistake was that I did not connect enough with the emotional side of school. My message should have been 50/50.
3. Rehearse your speech –
I can't stress this enough. I even wrote a blog post about it. HERE
I gained a lot of knowledge and experience during my candidacy that I will carry with me into future endeavors. As I look back, I am still grateful for the 1,900 votes I received. I still get comments and questions from friends and “strangers” who voted for me. The most common question I am asked, will I run again? Maybe. I do still have all of my signs.
QUESTION: Have you ever run for an elected office? What lessons did you learn?
