Not everyone is able to participate in and ask questions of the candidates at the presidential candidates’ forum held annually during the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Anyone who can’t be there can still participate by submitting YouTube videos to ask the candidates their questions.
The purposes of the YouTube Candidates Forum are:
- To give those who cannot attend the face-to-face forum at Midwinter an opportunity to ask the candidates questions
- To complement the face-to-face forum
- To increase members’ interest in the election and, we hope, stimulate greater voter participation
The face-to-face forum and the YouTube forum will not intermingle–i.e., the face-to-face forum will proceed in its traditional format, presided over by ALA’s immediate past president. The YouTube forum complements the Midwinter forum.
Submission guidelines:
- Questions should be submitted as videos and posted to YouTube
- Maximum running time for a video is 90 seconds
- Every submission must be tagged: ALAelection09
- The individual or group submitting a video must use their true name(s)
- Anyone interested in the election and the candidates may submit questions
Deadline for submissions: January 16, 2009
Selection of questions:
Anyone who has acces to the Internert and YouTube will have access to all questions that are submitted with the correct required tagging. To assure that the video forum addresses members’ highest priorities and to keep the candidates’ response responsibility manageable, a jury consisting of recent ALA presidents will select six questions for the candidates to respond to. The jurors will submit their recommendations to the current president no later than January 18, 2009. The six questions that receive the strongest recommendations will be showcased in the video forum.