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Executive Summary
As Michigan enters its second year of term limits for state legislators, the Battle Creek Area Chamber of Commerce has taken a leadership role in generating future public servants. Recognizing that local involvement (especially business people) in public service will hopefully lead to higher political aspirations, the Battle Creek Area Chamber of Commerce created a program called the Public Service Candidate School. The five session series is designed to offer participants the opportunity to be introduced to, and gain a working knowledge of, the local political process as it relates to school board, city commission/council, township and county positions. The series includes:
- Session 1: General information and things to consider like why do you want to run, time commitment, family members' support, etc.
- Session 2: Working with the media, forming a campaign committee, campaign finance information and fundraising.
- Session 3: Features principles in public policy formation and public meeting format such as Roberts Rules of Order, Open Meetings and Freedom of Information Acts.
- Session 4: Focuses on local issues facing school boards. In Michigan, school board positions are four-year terms but staggered so elections are held yearly.
- Session 5: A focus on county and township issues or city commission/council; depending upon the election year, since the majority of these offices are two-year terms.
Volunteer community leaders, experts/instructors, and current & former public officials contribute to the success of the program by explaining our local political atmosphere and issues.
Chamber member firms sponsored the Public Service Candidate School so it could be offered free of charge. Registration was also made available on-line at its web site. The Chamber formed a partnership with Michigan State University - County Extension office in Kalamazoo and Western Michigan University to establish the program.
The Battle Creek Area Chamber of Commerce is completing its second successful year of the program. As a result of our program, other Chambers in the state have established similar programs for their respective areas based on information that we shared with them.
With such statewide interest and success of the program, the Chamber has formed a partnership with Michigan State University to help "package" the school for other chambers of commerce to duplicate. Chambers of Commerce will be able to download the program information directly off the Internet.
New to the program this year, Western Michigan University offered 1 CEU (Continued Education Credit) or 1 college credit to participants who completed either the School Board or County/Township tracks of the 2000 Public Service Candidate School. Western Michigan University regular tuition costs apply for college credit. CEU credit was available at a lower tuition rate.