2021 DSA CONVENTION What you need to know and when you need to know it by Why conventions? Conventions are the method DSA uses to determine and change our national priorities. All chapters & YDSA chapters send delegates, as well as some ‘at large’ members Why conventions? As conventions got larger alongside the growth of DSA, they have taken on a few characteristics. About 1000 delegates, a large venue, and a long process of voting as a body, on both resolutions and for the National Political Committee. Why conventions? Delegates represent DSA membership at the convention and are proportionally representative of their chapters. This is the current calculation method: The NPC has established a target goal of 1,300 delegates to the 2021 DSA National Convention. Of the total number of delegates, 100 delegates will be reserved for at-large delegates who are not members of a chartered chapter. The remaining delegates will be distributed among chapters using a delegate-to-member ratio of 1-to-70, or one delegate per every 70 members, based on chapter membership numbers apportioned on March 8th, 2021. Locals with fewer than 70 members will be apportioned one delegate. Apportionment of Alternates shall be at a ratio of 1:5 (1 alternate per 5 delegates) for chapters with more than 5 delegates. More on all this..... later..... Role of the NPC DSA’s primary political leadership is the National Political Committee (NPC), a sixteen-person body which functions as the board of directors of DSA and is elected every two years by the delegates to DSA’s National Convention. The DSA Constitution: ● requires that eight slots of the NPC be reserved for women, and that at least five of the NPC slots be reserved for people of color. ● gives the NPC the power to charter DSA locals and commissions, as well as DSA’s Youth Section. The NPC: ● guides and leads the implementation of DSA’s major political and organizational goals , which are broadly defined every two years by the delegates to the National Convention ● gives instructions to the national staff about how to carry forward DSA’s day-to-day work. ● creates task forces and committees to guide particular areas of DSA’s political work. ● conducts long weekend meetings four times each year ● elects five of its members to serve on the Steering Committee (SC). Who is our NPC now? ● Abdullah Younus, New York City, NY ● Austin Gonzalez, Richmond, VA ● Blanca Estevez, Northwest Arkansas ● Dave Pinkham, Austin, TX ● Hannah Allison, Lawrence, KS ● *Jen McKinney, Secretary/Treasurer, Eugene, OR ● *Jennifer Bolen, San Francisco, CA ● Justin Charles, New York City, NY ● Keon Liberato, Philadelphia, P ● Kevin Richardson, NC Piedmont, NC ● *Kristian Hernandez, North Texas ● Maikiko James, Los Angeles, CA ● Marianela D’Aprile, Chicago, IL ● Megan Svoboda, New York City, NY ● *Natalie Midiri, Philadelphia, PA ● *Sean Estelle, Chicago, IL Young Democratic Socialists of America National Coordinating Committee ● *Labiba Chowdhury, YDSA Co-Chair ● *Neah Havens, YDSA Co-Chair (*asterisked members are on the Steering Committee) What is our “political direction?” In January, the NPC approved a plan to substitute a longer political platform in place of a “priorities resolution” to be adopted by the 2019 national convention. This platform defines long, medium and short term political goals of DSA as an organization. The NPC decided in April 2019 to postpone development of a political platform on their own. Instead, they proposed to the 2019 convention a resolution calling for a two-year long process to develop a political platform for DSA to debate and adopt at our 2021 convention. What else happens at conventions? Normally, a lot of fun stuff. ● Interviews with elected members ● socializing events for delegates and alternates ● Speeches from labor leaders and leadership in other organizing projects What is a resolution? Just like in local chapter meetings like this one, resolutions are formal proposals to be voted on. At the national convention, these resolutions are typically changes to the national political direction of the organization, requests for creation of new resources for chapters. To be considered at the 2021 convention, a threshold for signatures to be considered at the convention: Resolutions, amendments to the Constitution or Bylaws must have a minimum of 100 signatures of support from DSA members in good standing Changes to the draft platform must gather 250 signatures from members in good standing in order to be considered for the convention. Of those 250 signatures, at least 50 signatures must be gathered from 3 different chapters. What else happens? One thing you did not see on the official “How DSA Operates” chart are political caucuses or other member associations. These are ideologically defined groups that typically (though not always) span several chapters and help like-minded members vote as a block. In 2019, the delegates elected represented a wide range of caucuses, although many have reformed since then and the names of groups are different. Examples of some political caucuses that were influential in the outcome of the 2019 convention included: ● The Libertarian Socialist Caucus (LSC) ● Socialist Majority (SM) ● Bread & Roses (B&R) ● The Collective Power Network (CPN), not a caucus ● Build (not technically a caucus) OK, you’ve sold me on this convention thing. Great! Let’s get some delegates. Sacramento DSA has been apportioned 11 delegates and 2 alternates. Our election method (Single Transferable Vote) was determined by the NPC to ensure regularity across different chapters. Locals shall conduct and supervise their own elections of Convention delegates and alternate delegates in accordance with the applicable provisions of the DSA Constitution and Bylaws ... no later than June 17th , 45 days prior to the start of convention. All locals shall use an STV method in order to conduct their election Any member in good standing of a local may run for delegate and vote in their local’s delegate election. How to become one of our eleven delegates Continuing with election processes from before: Each local must report the result of its elections in writing to the National Office no later than June 23rd. The report must include full contact information, including the email address under which the member is registered, for all delegates. Challenges to the credentials of any delegate or alternate must be submitted in writing to the National Office no later than Tuesday, July 27th and shall be forwarded to the Credentials Committee appointed by the NPC for consideration. What’s the timeline from National? This is the timeline: https://convention2021.dsausa.org/2021-convention-timeline/ February 22 – April 1, 2021 ● Constitutional and Bylaws Change submissions open ● Resolutions submissions open ● First draft of platform released March 8, 2021 - Delegate apportionment set April 1 – 30, 2021 - At-large delegate nomination period April 2 – June 16, 2021 - NPC candidate nomination period April 2 – June 17, 2021 - Chapter delegate elections ; elections must occur no later than June 17, 2021 and results must be reported by June 23, 2021 What’s the timeline from National? May 2 – May 20, 2021 - At-large delegate elections May 15 – June 13, 2021 - Pre-convention conferences (more on this later) May 15 – June 15, 2021 - Early-bird registration June 15 – July 15, 2021 - Regular registration June 16, 2021- Deadline for NPC candidate nominations June 17, 2021- Deadline for chapter delegate elections June 23, 2021- Deadline for chapters to submit the results of their delegate elections July 15, 2021- Registration deadline July 16, 2021- First NPC candidate forum, more pending number of candidates August 1 – 8, 2021- Convention Our elections Since the deadline is June 17 we will be holding the following schedule: Presentations from delegate candidate will be scheduled for the General Membership Meeting on Saturday, May 15 Our election will occur on Saturday, June 12, at a specially scheduled General Membership meeting, using Single Transferable Vote through the nationally provided OpaVote system. Results of the election will be released on the deadline of June 17th and submitted to national before the 23rd. Candidate submissions Delegate candidates must fill out this Self-Nomination form: https://forms.gle/DSDJfeL2Mpw4fAFY9 These responses will help members get a sense of who they are electing to represent them at the national level. After submitting this form, delegates are encouraged to present at the May GMM. Candidate Elections I’ll let OpaVote, the software we will be using, explain how single transferable vote (STV) works. In short: Order on your ballot matters! What happens next? DSA will host five Pre-Convention Conferences leading up to the 2021 Convention in August. All conferences will be hosted virtually and are open to any member. Members who are running to be delegates to the Convention are strongly encouraged to attend. Dates: May 15th at 7am PT to 2pm PT - Registration closes 4/30 May 22nd at 8am PT to 3pm PT - Registration closes 5/7 June 5th at 9am PT to 4pm PT - Registration closes 5/21 June 12th at 10am PT to 5pm PT - Registration closes 5/28 June 13th at 10am PT to 5pm PT - Registration closes 5/28 Register here