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PW C100 Guidelines for Candidate's Forum
Last Revised October 17, 2024
Forum Rules
A forum can be held only if there are two or more candidates participating.
All candidates participating in the Forum will be treated equally.
There will be no surrogates. If a candidate refuses the invitation, statements submitted in lieu of the candidate’s appearance will not be read.
The Sponsors will choose and announce the Moderator as soon as possible.
The Sponsors’ Question Committee will prepare questions for the moderator to ask. The questions will not be provided the candidates before they are asked at the forum.
All questions asked must be suitable for response by all candidates.
Candidates may bring notes to the table and take notes during the forum. Props, including but not limited to charts, diagrams or other displays are not permitted.
Candidates will be introduced by the moderator while they are seated at the table.
The audience will be instructed not to engage in distracting or disruptive demonstrations of support or opposition of a candidate during the forum.
The format will include two-minute opening statements and two-minute closing statements, unless otherwise provided in the letter of invitation. .
In a two-person forum, a coin toss will determine the candidate who makes the first opening statement. The candidate losing the coin toss will be given the choice of position in making a closing statement. When more than two candidates are involved, the moderator, in conjunction with the President, shall decide the process for determining speaking order and engage the candidates in its implementation.
The forum will next proceed to questions with each candidate having one minute to answer each question, unless otherwise provided in the letter of invitation. All candidates in the forum will be asked to answer the same question posed before a second question is asked.
The first candidate to respond to the first question will be determined by coin tosses. If there are more than two candidates, coin toss will be repeated until all candidates have been engaged. The next candidate will be first responder to the next question in the order determined. The first response to subsequent questions will alternate among the candidates, giving each candidate the chance to respond first to the question.
Rebuttal time of 30 seconds will be allowed each candidate after all have answered the question.
The moderator may ask one question of the candidates during the forum. (The same question for all.)
The Moderator may ask a follow-up question to a candidate to clarify their response to the initial question, if moderator deems necessary.
There will be no questions by a candidate to another candidate.
Timers will use a 30-second warning sign, a 15-second sign, and a Stop sign.
The Forum may be recorded (video and audio) by the Sponsors and by those who give advance notice to the Committee of 100, in accordance with the Committee of 100 Policy on Audio and Video Recording guidelines (see Governing Documents on website).
Outside media will be invited into the site and the candidates, at their discretion, may choose to participate in any media opportunities presented.
Campaign materials inside the venue may be placed on the designated table for each candidate. No balloons, signs or other large distracting campaign materials will be allowed inside the room where the forum is taking place.
Rules of the venue regarding signs outside the building or room shall be observed.
Approved __10/17/24 C100 Board meeting_____________________
The following are general instructions for submitting questions to candidate or panelists in events sponsored or co-sponsored by PWC100. The guidelines were created for candidate events, but the same process applies for any formal questionnaire solicited by PW Committee of 100.
If you wish to submit a question and there is no "form,"email the C100 Secretary with your question. Questions received after the posted deadline will not be considered.
We welcome and encourage the public to submit questions to be asked of the candidates. The process below follows the C100 "Guidelines for Questions Committees" and which are convened for all C100 sponsored or co-sponsored candidate fora.
Questions for the candidates at a specific forum are submitted to the Questions Committee via the C100 website, using a Candidates’ Questions Form specific to forum name and date or by submitting question by email to the C100 Webmaster.
The appropriate Questions Committee will review all questions before being forwarded to the Moderator to be asked of the candidates. Anyone can submit a question, but C100 members’ questions will be given priority.
Same question will be asked of all candidates in stated forum and questions will not be revealed until moderator presents them to the candidates at the event.
Submit a separate questionnaire for each forum date.
The webmaster forwards ALL questions to the Questions Committee Chair for consideration by the entire committee. Questions Committees have final determination of which questions will be asked at the event and their priority.
If a Forum date has a deadline for submitting questions, deadline will be printed on the form.
Questions submitted at the event, if allowed, will be reviewed by the Questions Committee following the above procedures.
View and download Candidate Forum Guidelines HERE