Community groups and organizers throughout our county have organized events for voters and candidates to interact; these events have been organized by chambers of commerce, school groups, private citizens and all groups in between.

The Greater Shelby Chamber of Commerce hosted such an event yesterday for candidates for Shelby County School Superintendent.

This breakfast meeting held at the Pelham Civic complex was time well spent. Personally, the event helped me gain a better understanding of each candidate for superintendent, what their backgrounds are, what their vision for our school system is and how they each hopes to make a difference in the lives of our children and in doing so impact the future of our county.

I expect those in attendance left the meeting with a better understanding of how to cast their vote in the June 6th primary.

An electoral forum is being sponsored by the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce and the Shelby County Reporter and will be hosted at The American Village barn this Thursday from 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.; gates to The Village will open at 6:15 p.m.

The purpose of this electoral forum is to provide an opportunity for citizens of Shelby County to learn more about those seeking elected office and to create an unbiased forum for candidates to share their ideas as they relate to the future of this county.

All candidates seeking county-wide office or state legislative offices and who face opposition in the June primary have been invited to participate in this forum. Twenty-seven candidates have been invited to participate and most are expected to attend.

Each candidate will have time to address forum attendees directly and will then have an opportunity to answer questions posed by the forum moderator.

Elections are critical times for citizens. What we do to educate ourselves on the issues, on the candidates and on the paramount needs of our county will impact how well our elected leaders perform.

We owe it to ourselves, to our children and to our county to invest time getting to know the candidates, some of who will soon be in office serving all of us in the near future