A grassroots organization trying to get more women involved in politics in Brandon will host an event featuring current and former female city councilors and other speakers to help prepare any women who might be interested in running for office this year.
Her Seat at the Table is hosting what they call the “Pull up a Seat” campaign school on May 25 at the Backyard on Aberdeen. Tickets are $25 and they ask that people register in advance.
“That evening, we will have some people in attendance that have some experience and history in running a campaign to help the attendees with setting up a plan, building goals,” said Tracy Baker, co-founder of Her Seat at the Table, ” and what we call creating their ‘why’ and guinding them through the nomination process. That’s our goal for the evening.”
Among the highlights of the evening will be presentations from Brandon City Councilor Heather Kakarouze and former Councilor Beth Smale, the idea being to give women who might be interested in running a behind-the-scenes look at a successful campaign.
“From both of those perspectives, specifically from a female’s perspective, it will help make the attendees feel more comfortable knowing what they need to do to run a campaign,” Baker said, “and also knowing a little bit more of how it felt to go through that process and make the decision. We feel that having a past councilor and a current councilor are important for different perspectives over different time spans.”
Baker added they also have some people who’ve worked on campaigns for other people and have seen how to run a campaign from that side. But attendance is not limited strictly to those who plan on campaigning in the coming municipal election.
“It’s open to anyone who’s interested in learning more about it,” she said. “We of course would like interested parties, but we’re not restricting it. We’re asking for pre-registration, and there is a nominal fee of $25 when you register as we will be creating a package of information for the attendees to take with them.”
Registrations for mayoral candidates for this fall’s election opened on May 1.
