YDA New Orleans Wrap Up

This past weekend about 250 Young Democrats gathered in New Orleans for this years winter conference. The weekend was full of great trainings, discussion, the usual YDA drama, great food, and a ton of fun. Here is my wrap up for the weekend.

Thursday around 80 YD's participated in a community service project in New Orleans, they helped work on a home that was devastated by Katrina. I didn't get in until around noon Thursday so I instead got to roam the town and enjoy some of New Orleans great food and culture. Thursday night there was a Hip Hop caucus event that many YD's attended to talk about community and activism.

Friday the conference officially started. The State Presidents had two trainings that morning, one of campaigns and field work and the other was on finance. In the trainings we learned how to target and organize within our states, as well as how to raise money and budget on a campaign.

Then in the afternoon I had "the SPA business meeting" where we had an election for Vice Chair (Congrats to Melanie from TX) and discussed how we, as State Presidents, feel about issues within YDA and how they effect each of us. Friday night we had the General opening session where we heard from speakers and highlighted a service project in each region.

Saturday we started the morning with committee and caucus meetings. Then we had the great pleasure of having lunch with Lilly Ledbetter and DNC Secretary Alice Jermond. Lilly gave an awesome speech about her fight for equal pay in the workplace and about how we need to work together for equality. You can watch the video from the lunch here.

After lunch I attended the Rural Caucus meeting, where they had a Louisiana State Legislature as a speaker, he spoke about how to work in rural communities and methods that he used when campaigning. After the caucus meetings we had region recaps and then many of us went on a ghost tour of the French Quarter, which was really cool.

Sunday morning we finished up with a few meetings then General Session, after that we explored the town and left our YDA family.

Also I didn't know how to fit this in the post so here it is, but I felt that I couldn't leave it out. We frequented the famous Cafe Du Monde sometimes multiple times a day.