2021 DSA CONVENTION.pdf -

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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 The NPC: Committee (NPC), a sixteen-person body which functions ● guides and leads the implementation of as the board of directors of DSA and is elected every two DSA’s major political and organizational years by the delegates to DSA’s National Convention. goals, which are broadly defined every two The DSA Constitution: years by the delegates to the National Convention ● requires that eight slots of the NPC be reserved ● gives instructions to the national staff about for women, and that at least five of the NPC how to carry forward DSA’s day-to-day work. slots be reserved for people of color. ● creates task forces and committees to guide ● gives the NPC the power to charter DSA locals particular areas of DSA’s political work. and commissions, as well as DSA’s Youth ● conducts long weekend meetings four times each year. Section. ● elects five of its members to serve on the Steering Committee (SC). Who is our NPC now? ● Kevin Richardson, NC Piedmont, NC ● Abdullah Younus, New York City, NY ● *Kristian Hernandez, North Texas ● Austin Gonzalez, Richmond, VA ● Maikiko James, Los Angeles, CA ● Blanca Estevez, Northwest Arkansas ● Marianela D’Aprile, Chicago, IL ● Dave Pinkham, Austin, TX ● Megan Svoboda, New York City, NY ● Hannah Allison, Lawrence, KS ● *Natalie Midiri, Philadelphia, PA ● *Jen McKinney, Secretary/Treasurer, Eugene, OR ● *Sean Estelle, Chicago, IL ● *Jennifer Bolen, San Francisco, CA ● Justin Charles, New York City, NY Young Democratic Socialists of America National Coordinating Committee ● Keon Liberato, Philadelphia, P ● *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 The NPC decided in April 2019 to substitute a longer political platform in postpone development of a political place of a “priorities resolution” to be platform on their own. adopted by the 2019 national Instead, they proposed to the 2019 convention. convention a resolution calling for a This platform defines long, medium and two-year long process to develop a short term political goals of DSA as an political platform for DSA to debate and organization. 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 To be considered at the 2021 this one, resolutions are formal convention, a threshold for signatures to proposals to be voted on. be considered at the convention: At the national convention, these Resolutions, amendments to the Constitution or Bylaws must have a minimum of 100 signatures of support from resolutions are typically changes to the DSA members in good standing national political direction of the Changes to the draft platform must gather 250 organization, requests for creation of signatures from members in good standing in order to be new resources for chapters. 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 Examples of some political caucuses that “How DSA Operates” chart are political were influential in the outcome of the caucuses or other member associations. 2019 convention included: These are ideologically defined groups that typically (though not always) span ● The Libertarian Socialist Caucus several chapters and help like-minded (LSC) members vote as a block. ● Socialist Majority (SM) ● Bread & Roses (B&R) In 2019, the delegates elected ● The Collective Power Network represented a wide range of caucuses, (CPN), not a caucus although many have reformed since then ● Build (not technically a caucus) and the names of groups are different. 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 June 17, 2021- Deadline for chapter delegate elections May 15 – June 13, 2021 - Pre-convention conferences June 23, 2021- Deadline for chapters to submit the results (more on this later) of their delegate elections May 15 – June 15, 2021 - Early-bird registration July 15, 2021- Registration deadline June 15 – July 15, 2021 - Regular registration July 16, 2021- First NPC candidate forum, more pending number of candidates June 16, 2021- Deadline for NPC candidate nominations 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 Dates: Conferences leading up to the May 15th at 7am PT to 2pm PT - Registration closes 4/30 2021 Convention in August. May 22nd at 8am PT to 3pm PT - Registration closes 5/7 All conferences will be hosted virtually and are open to any June 5th at 9am PT to 4pm PT - Registration closes 5/21 member. June 12th at 10am PT to 5pm PT - Registration closes 5/28 Members who are running to be delegates to the Convention are June 13th at 10am PT to 5pm PT - Registration closes 5/28 strongly encouraged to attend. Register here Q&A