The Art of Running for an Office

One of the funnest parts of my high school experience was running for the office of president of the National Honor Society. Depending on the atmosphere of the campaign you might have to decide what lengths you need to go to to secure that position. Don't run for a position just to see how popular you are, because you might be stealing this opportunity from one of your fellow classmates who truly wants the position in order to better the school or the club that you are in. In my case, a simple "spread the word" was sufficient for the most part. In other cases you may have to organize a fullblown campaign with banners, poster, pins, and you may have to make a campaign speech.

The key to running for an office is to exute confidence and make sure you put effort into your campaign. The following steps should help:

1. Find out who the advisor of your class is (or the club or association) and submit your name to them with the position you wish to fulfill.


2. Make a "battle" plan either alone or with friends (these are basically your campaigners) that are IN the same class, club or association. You want to either obtain or make a rough list of all of the voters. You need to have an overall view of how hard it will be to obtain this position. Generally, if you and your campaigners think that certain people will vote for you then you can decide which people have other allegiances.


3. Once you plan out which people will be critical to winning the election, you should (now keep in mind that you can do this whole thing yourself or as a group) divide these "critical people" amongst yourselves.


4. When approaching voters, whether you know them or not, be polite and cordial. There is no need for mudslinging and no need to bash anyone. Just express how much you want the position and why you think you can serve your constituents the best.


5. Take a look at how much time you have until the election and make daily checks on where "critical people" stand in terms of who they are voting for. You should aim for anything more than 50%. In other words, you want to make sure that more than half of the voters are voting for you. This is your goal.


6. Make sure that you and your campaigners "check up" on voters to double check that they are voting for you.
7. About half way through your campaign, you should now divide all of the people you think are going to vote for you. Make sure that they are actually going to vote for you and if not try to convince them that you want the position.
8. Near the end of your campaign count up the amount of people that are voting for you. If more than 70% of the people say that they are voting for you then you will most definitely win!

If you want to "up" your chances of winning, you can put posters up around the school or you can even make pins if you want. Any means to winning is a NECESSARY MEAN. Just no bashing! If you have to make a speech then you should jot down why you want the position and why you're the best candidate, but DON'T write your whole speech out because you will come off as fake. Let your fellow classmates know that you TRULY WANT the position. Your speech and your campaign will show your classmates whether or not you truly want the position. If you run a vigorous campaign, they will notice it.

Good Luck!