The President’s Guide to Class Officership (Part Two)
A meme I used in my last campaign, showcasing the giant poster I made out of pieces of letter paper.
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Continuing from the first entry in this series, in this part I’ll talk about Class Officer (CO) campaigning. Campaigning, I think, is the most fun part of the election season, as you get to explore your creative side to come up with posters and other campaign ideas. Anyway, campaigning, there are three elements to it: posters, social media, and the day of the election.
Posters are the easiest part of the process. There are different ways of making them, but I’ve always used Canva.com to design my posters. As you can only use a standard sheet of letter paper (8.5 x 11) for posters, use that template. For your posters, you may want to make an informal (shown below) one that just has your name, the office you’re running for, the election date, and why they should vote for you. For the other ones, you’ll want to come up with slogans for your campaign accompanied by a photo that goes with it. When picking a slogan, create one that has to do something you that like, are interested in, or something you are known for (examples will be below). For instance, when I ran for Senior Class President, I was playing a lot of Pokémon Go, so I made one saying “Catch Yourself A Good President” as I was interested in it at the time.
The week of CO Elections you can post your posters on the walls of North for all your peers to see. When hanging up your posters make sure to only use painter’s tape, as you don’t want to damage the walls or potentially get disqualified for not paying attention to the rules. For placement of your posters make sure to put them where you know people in your grade can see them. If you’re a freshman, focus your attention on the FRAC, and for upperclassmen, you’ll want to place them all over the school. You can also put them in teachers’ classrooms, but only with permission of course.
Social media is everywhere nowadays and you’ll want to use it to campaign. On the Monday of the election week, you’ll want to make a post announcing your candidacy (example from my election last year below), with reasons that voters should vote for you. Using Instagram as an example you’ll want to post digital versions of your posters to your story so that others can screenshot and reshare them. Post all of them on the first day and then maybe a few each day leading towards the election. On election day, you’ll want to post all of them again one last time at around 8 AM, as people check social media before school, you’ll be fresh on their minds during advisory when they vote.
Another strategy for using social media for campaigning is creating memes. I personally resorted to them after run-ins with my oppositions supporters. Just remember to not slander your opponent, as that will result in being disqualified. For this, I downloaded Mematic and just messed around and made things that I thought were funny and got the point across. Memes can also help you mention your qualifications over your opposition, especially if you are the incumbent (example shown below).
The day of the election is your last time to campaign, so make sure you put in 110%. You’ll want to get to school early and stand near entrances and get the word out about the election. Make sure you dress nicely for it to make an impression. That’s all you can do the day of.
Good luck and make sure to have fun with your campaign!
