The Iowa caucuses are essentially neighborhood meetings of the major political parties. The Democrats and the Republicans this year will hold caucuses in nearly 1,700 precincts across the state.

Caucuses are not elections. They are the mechanism through which individuals show their support for a candidate and tell the parties what issues matter. Attending a caucus is easy and is a fascinating insight into the political process.

During the caucuses, people have the opportunity to speak up for issues that matter most to them.

Every two years, the two major political parties hold these caucus meetings to discuss the platform and upcoming events. But every four years, during the presidential elections, the caucuses are also used to determine who the parties’ presidential nominee should be.

Since Iowa is the first state in the nation to hold a caucus or primary, during Februaries of presidential election years, all eyes are on Iowa to see who the early leaders will be in the presidential race.

Some good key facts to know when attending the caucuses:

• The caucuses start at 7 p.m. Arrive early, because once the caucus starts, late-comers will not be allowed in.

• People must be registered to the party for which they are caucusing. That means the person must be a registered Democrat to participate in the Democratic caucus and a registered Republican to participate in the Republican caucus.

• If not registered to a party or are registered to a different party, a person can still caucus. People can change party registration at the precinct caucus.

• The person must reside in the precinct where they are caucusing.

• They must be eligible to vote. If they have not registered to vote yet, they will be able to do this at the precinct caucus.

• The person must be 18 years old by election day.

• Precinct caucuses may last anywhere from an hour to several hours, depending on the size of the caucus. People are allowed to leave at any point.

Precinct caucuses are just a first step in Iowa’s presidential nomination process. Both the Democratic and Republican Caucuses follow the same basic procedural pathway:

• Precinct caucuses (February): These happen at the neighborhood level. Here, individuals indicate a preference for president, elect delegates to represent the precinct at the county level and discuss resolutions.

• County conventions (March): The delegates elected from the precincts go to the county Conventions, vote on resolutions to be sent to the district level and elect delegates to go to the district conventions and on to the state conventions.

• District conventions (Usually April): Resolutions approved at the county conventions will be combined and voted on at the district conventions. From here, they are sent to the party to become part of the party platform.

• State conventions (Usually May): Delegates for the national convention are selected and the state party platform is finalized.