The Back Story of a Forum

“Never a problem; only a solution” The solution to the age old problem of how to get people interested in a Board of Education election, Out of all the elections we are called to pay attention to, the Board election has got to be the most boring for 99% of the population. This was the problem, and this was our solution:

Newport Mesa Community 4 Students decided that what we needed to generate interest was a different kind of forum; one that combined food, entertainment, and an insight into who these candidates really are.

So, “Toes to the Stove” (an unashamed take off on Venezia`s Feet to the Fire) was born.
We talked about it to death. We placed flyers on cars (there’s a strange flyer back story which will be told later). It was on Face Book and Instagram every other day, with sometimes with silly and inscrutable cartoon figures.

We got Hotties to give us pizza and soft drinks. The fabulously generous Fairview Community Church agreed to host us, and Darnell Wyrick amazingly agreed to do double time as an entertainer for the evening and moderator for the event....a truly talented man. Also, we had very cool panelists: Patrice Apodaca, Colleen Barney, Miriam Munoz, Eleanor Rebard, and Cara Boyd.

And, of course Costa Mesa Brief to record it for posterity.

We invited ALL the candidates, and predictably the incumbents (after being invited multiple times) declined to come.

Apparently incumbents cherry picking the opportunity to speak to their constituents is a thing these days (there is an interesting back-story to this phenomenon as well). Odd...

So the solution paid off. On October 1, and “Toes to the Stove” happened.

Here is NMC4S "Toes to the Stove”.