Form a coordinating group

These meetings work well as an ecumenical endeavour, so it is well worth making use of the existing connections your congregation has with other church groups. You might have a local Cytûn or Churches Together group. If not, aim to contact as many churches as possible in your constituency to see if you can work together, and call a meeting as soon as possible. You might also want to invite members of other faith groups or civic organisations to take part in the process. In your research, you might find that another group is already organising a hustings, to which you can offer your assistance rather than duplicating what others are already doing.

Forming a small coordinating group of people will help ensure a smooth delivery of all the tasks that need to happen, once relevant skills and experience have been considered and tasks have been shared out. In 2021, most hustings will be online, so you should make sure that your coordinating group includes people who have some experience of organising and hosting online events.

Having the hustings online may well increase the engagement of those in the local neighbourhoods, through live streaming to people’s homes and also allowing the material to be accessed later for those who miss the live event.