My Thanks for the Candidate Forum

What a great honor it was to co-moderate our >Rockville Central Candidates Forum last Saturday. Thank you to the candidates who were able to attend: Piotr Gajewski, Carl Henn, Susan Hoffmann, Phyllis Marcuccio, Tom Moore, Bridget Newton, Virginia Onley, Waleed Ovase, Mark Pierzchala, and Max van Balgooy. Their willingness to share details about themselves as well as their viewpoints provided insight into how they will handle the next two years in office. Many people have told me the forum either helped them decide or confirmed their vote.

We didn’t know if spending a Saturday morning learning about the candidates would be of interest to our readers, but with over 70 in attendance, it seems that it was. I’m grateful to everyone who gave us a chance by showing up.

All of our questions were developed from the comment streams on Rockville Central, so our readers played a big role in creating this forum. You may hear mention of “chickens”. If you weren’t at the forum, you’ll have to watch the video when we post it. A question about allowing chickens for eggs and companionship was submitted. I had the idea of using it for a “workshop” to find out how candidates approach issues, so we wrote up a scenario and asked the candidates to explain what they would do. People can’t resist a chicken joke!

Mid-way through the two hour event, I realized our timekeeper, Jonathan Smith, had a much more difficult job than me. He had to intently watch his stopwatch almost every minute without missing a second and he managed to do it perfectly.

Tim Hampton of VisArts volunteered to video the event for us and we kept him busy going back-and-forth with that camera, while Tom Miner of the Digits handled the sound system loaned by The West End.

Theresa Defino has been such a strong supporter of Rockville Central and was quick to jump in and help which meant we sent her for coffee and donuts bright and early. Thanks to her for all her efforts with Rockville Central, and also to Jacquie Kubin who joined her for the pickup and Andrea Jarrell who greeted everyone.

I know I missed John Britton who was at his daughter’s college parents’ weekend and Trapper Martin who had to attend his aunt’s funeral in North Carolina but I was able to read a statement from both of them.

As I stated in our closing, online communities can feel anonymous. Sometimes people are inconsiderate when stating their opinions or leaving comments because they are not thinking about the people behind the words. When we all gathered at the Thomas Farm Community Center, we made our online community a bit more real. Now we can picture a roomful of faces when we’re reading.

The past two and a half years working with Brad Rourke on all things Rockville Central has been such an adventure. From the very beginning, I wanted to get people interested in our local civic life. The low voter turnout has always bothered to me. I hoped Rockville Central would inspire people to get involved, volunteer and vote. Some people who have never attended a forum came and I’m glad.

Thank you to everyone who made the forum something special.

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