Write down specific goals and advertise them

I'll be honest, this stumped me. I think I sat in a void for months trying to figure out what my State School Board "goals" would be. What was my vision? What did I want to accomplish on the State School Board? I struggled with this because the State School Board feels reactionary to me. The State School Board acts, creates, works, etc. after legislators have created bills and passed laws about education during the 7 week legislative season. I wasn't sure I would be the deciding factor on a cause or issue and there are only a few "teams" that meet together (finances, curriculum, etc.). So if I have a specific goal to decrease our carbon footprint by getting electric buses, am I more likely to make that happen because I'm on the State School Board? I don't think so. 

And yet, I saw other candidates with SMART goals: specific, measurable goals written on their literature and advertised on their website. 

With the help of my campaign team, we talked about what I am passionate about and created three campaign "themes." 1) Safe, High-Quality Education, 2) Teacher Recruitment and Retention, and 3) College and Career Readiness. 

I was pretty proud of coming up with these themes! And I really do believe in them. And yet, I wasn't listed in this document and I received this comment on one of my Facebook posts: 

With comments like these, and my loss of the race, I realize that some voters really care about what your specific, measurable goals are as a candidate. I even saw some candidates (who won) refer back to the goals they are determined to fight for as they step into office. Just like a good essay. your concluding paragraph should mirror your introductory paragraph in it's thesis statement. And the rest of the essay should include paragraphs with introductory sentences outlining a piece of your thesis, and evidence that support your claim. I could have done better. And should I run again, I'll put more thought into this piece of the campaign puzzle.