The Saratoga Good Government Group was holding the meeting to explain the nuts and bolts of a political campaign. Are campaign buttons important? What is the optimum size and color of a campaign brochure?

These and some more important issues like reaching out to people were addressed at the meeting.

"If you have done Little League umpiring, it helps if you mention that in your brochure. You can connect with people easily," said Marlene Duffin of the Good Government Group.

"The most difficult thing to do during a campaign is to go and ask people for money," added Duffin.

Saratoga City Councilman Stan Bogosian spoke about connecting with people during an election campaign. He also talked about local control and regionalism.

"But the biggest challenge for me was dealing with the budgetary issues," he said. "The city has been in deficit mode for the last few years. I was very fortunate when I was mayor. We had a budgetary surplus."

Stephanie Petrossi of the Saratoga Elementary School Board talked about the need to define the issues clearly and how to get friends involved with a campaign.

Duffin displayed a lot of buttons and brochures from various campaigns and talked about the merits and demerits of each one. Marge Bunyard of the League of Women Voters talked about a website called www.smartvoter.org where citizens can find more information on candidates who have filed their nominations.

The meeting was not well attended and at one point there were only a handful of people in the room. "This is the summer. We have a lot of people on vacation," said Andy Barnes, chairman of the Saratoga Good Government Group. "If the meeting was on something like the proposed utility tax, a lot more people would attend."

Barnes said the group will keep advertising and he hoped that more people would get involved.