cda

Bumped, but this should not be taken as an endorsement of any particular candidate. If other candidates for office within the College Democrats want to post here on Future Majority, I'm happy to provide an equal and open forum. All you have to do is use the contact form to email me. --Mike

As a blogger here on Future Majority, it has given me great pleasure to blog about news and events regarding College Democrat chapters, state federations, and our national organization, from across the country.

Many of you have been with me every step of the way, reading posts about my blogging battle against the College Republican National Committee, fighting to save the Liberty University College Democrats chapter, or organizing thousands of students in New York for the first time to get involved during this past 2008 elections.

It is with that same spirit, that I aim to run for a national position on the College Democrats of America executive board. At our national convention starting July 24 in Washington, D.C. I will be running for the CDA Political Affairs Director.

The news of my candidacy took some in our organization by surprise, as I am knowingly running against an incumbent candidate seeking re-election. However, given my proven track record as former president of the College Democrats of New York, I believe I can make the greatest impact in our national organization by becoming the next Political Affairs Director.

For the most part, the role of Political Affairs Director has concentrated on the Caucus system, a group of caucuses to recruit individuals of different races and backgrounds and to bring them in to the College Democrat organization. While that is something I will continue to do, I want to be on the national board to affect change for the organization for every member, regardless of background. That is why I am running on a platform of new ideas, including taking up political issues by the organization on a national level, including better student advocacy for education policy, student loans, and fostering a better national presence. We have proven to the country that we can be a powerful organizing force in the elections; now we must prove that we can be a powerful student advocate group as well, fighting for issues to represent students across the country.

The rest of my platform you can check our at my campaign website. Thanks again for all your help and I hope to see you in DC this summer.

Bumped. --Mike

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to listen in on a conference call, along with college democrat leaders from across the state, as the leadership of the College Democrats of America and Organizing for America made a joint conference call.

The Political Director of OFA started with a recap of the achievements of the organization during the election season, along with the purpose of their organization. Accordingly, the purpose of OFA is to help promote President Obama's agenda, as well as expand their organization. During the election season, the Obama campaign set up Students For Barack Obama chapters (SFBO) which worked with college democrat chapters to help get Barack Obama elected. Once the election season ended, David Plouffe and Organizing for America worked to transform those SFBO chapters to Organizing for America chapters (OFA).

In one of the most pressing issues that OFA college groups will be focusing on, is the new college tuition proposal that President Obama announced last week, which aims to drastically increase the amount of money that students will get to pay for college.

In the coming days and weeks ahead, both OFA and the College Democrats across the country will be putting pressure on our legislators to accept the Obama adminsitration's new proposal.

Bumped.

Cross posted on the College Democrats of NY blog:

I'm very pleased to share with all of you the announcement of the College Democrats of America national convention, to be held this year on July 23-26 in Washington, DC, on the George Washington campus.

For more info check out the facebook event:

I had an awesome time at last year's convention and I can't wait for all the great speakers and events at this year's coming convention.

There is also a chance that I may be moving up in the word of college democrats, from my current position as President of the College Democrats of New York, to a position on the national level. I'll keep you all up to date on the latest.

David Plouffe thanks young voters for all their work, encourages them to GOTV their friends and campuses tomorrow, and expresses his confidence in high youth turnout:

Barack Obama will be addressing our nation's youth on a special conference call for college democrat members and Students For Barack Obama members. I'm so excited about this. The call will probably be listen-in only but could you imagine- our next president talking right to our nation's youth and up and coming generation? Nothing better to do than to fire up his ground troops about a week before election day.

The call is going to take place 7pm Eastern Time on Sunday. i'm so excited. i'll post more about the call when its over tomorrow.

Bumped. --Mike

The College Republicans of America have apparently become very angry about all the great work that we are doing here in NY and for Obama. After College Democrats of NY (CDNY) went to PA to help Obama, we wrote a blog asking what happened to the College Republicans and why they are so weak this election cycle. Well we got a response.

First they questioned our line of attack. They feel that not doing any work, not being able to be found, and not wanting to do anything public, is leading and fighting to get John McSame and fellow Republicans elected.

Well I don’t know about you but to me if we can’t see you, hear you, or know that you exist, you probably don’t. The College Republicans had a chance this year to defend four congressional seats in NY, take a few back and protect the State Senate, but with only three weeks left it appears that the Democrats will pick up at least three and probably four Congressional seats as well as take back the State Senate.

C'mon College Republicans- at least give us a little bit of a fight.
As the College Dems that were in Bloomsburg know, we didn’t see a single Republican in central PA. In fact the McCain office was not even open when we stopped by. If this is the great organizing that the McSame campaign, RNC and CR believe is good organizing, maybe they should take a cue from the College Democrats and the DNC. Maybe instead of raising all this alleged money to talk about Obama Palin’ around with terrorists, maybe they should actually talk to voters and see what they believe in, what worries them and what they want for the future.

To quote the California College Republicans Co-Chair

“As the saying goes, Money talks and shit walks. The College Republicans are screaming while the College Democrats are sprinting.”

Well while the College Democrats are walking, Obama and the Democrats are walking their way into the White House and into Congress.

One final thought- its interesting that the NY College Republicans have yet to say anything on this matter or the PA college republicans for that matter. It takes a chairman from the opposite coast of the country to be put on the defensive for their organization. Can't really blame them- their PA Chairman had to resign b/c he was too busy typing racist thoughts against Obama than actually working to get McCain elected.

This blog post is written by CDNY communications Director Brian Young.

The New Leaders Council has announced its honorees in the first annual Emerging Leaders 40 under 40. Our very own Sarah Burris has been selected as one of those emerging leaders.

It's encouraging to see that progressive organizations are beginning to address and nurture our young talent, and the New Leaders Council may be at the vanguard of that effort.

Here are the honorees:

Libuse Binder
Author of Ten Ways to Change the World In Your Twenties.

Aimee Boone
Deputy Executive Director/Finance Director for the Texas Democratic Party.

Raven Brooks and Gina Cooper
Leaders of Netroots Nation, the key organization focusing on how progressives can use technology to shift the public policy debate.

David Burd and Ethan Porter
Founders of the College Democrats of America Alumni Association.

Sarah Burris
Reporter for Rock The Vote, fundraiser for campaigns in OK, KS, CA, NV and civic youth organizations.

Elizabeth Caputo
President of Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, New York's premier forum for bringing together progressive candidates and young leaders.

Andre Carson
Won special election in 2008 to represent the 7th Congressional District in Indiana.

Won Choi
Executive Director of Tying Nashville Together, major Tennessee citizen coalition of churches and businesses.

Aimée Christensen
Energy and environment consultant to Virgin, involved in many entrepreneurial efforts, and Board Member of Apollo Alliance.

Jack Conway
Attorney General of Kentucky and leader in public safety issues.

Judith Freeman
Director of the New Organizing Institute, training progressive online organizers and communicators.

Gabrielle Giffords
Congresswoman from Arizona, member of House Armed Services Committee.

Amy Graham
Director of Operations for LiveFeed – hunger relief efforts.

Anton Gunn
Author of Revolution Driven Life, speaker and South Carolina political leader.

Tyler Hudson
Communications pro, youngest staff member and speechwriter of the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

Aaron Keyak
Press Secretary for the National Jewish Democratic Council.

Scott Kleeb
Rancher, PhD, and Nebraska Senate Candidate.

Rachel Kleinfeld and Matt Spence
Co-Directors of Truman National Security Project, the nation's only organization that recruits and trains progressive national security leaders.

Anima LaVoy
Executive Director of Swing Semester, the nation's first political immersion program providing students with 10-week grassroots electoral jobs in swing states.

Ricky Le
Executive Director of California Democratic Congressional Delegation and key leader of Vietnamese community in San Jose, CA.

Sarah Leonard
VP of Glover Park Group Los Angeles, former Spokesperson for America Coming Together, leader of many California campaign efforts.

Nate Loewentheil and Kai Stinchcombe
Executive Director and Founder of the Roosevelt Institute college student policy think tank.

Ian Manheimer
Director of www.Glassbooth.org, which provides info on what Presidential candidate supports your beliefs.

Dyana Mason
Executive Director of Equality Virginia, Virginia's major organization working for full legal equality for GLBT citizens.

Peter Murray
President of the Center for Progressive Leadership, which has trained 3000 young progressive leaders across the nation.

Tony Payton Jr. and Josh Shapiro
The youngest legislator in PA and the Deputy Speaker of the PA State House.

Jon Powers
Iraq War Veteran, teacher and candidate for Congress in NY-26.

Ben Rahn and Jonathan Zucker
Leaders of www.ActBlue.com, the nation's largest online fundraising clearinghouse, with over $60 million raised since 2004.

Edmundo Rocha
Owner of "Para Justicia y Libertad" blog - http://xicanopwr.com/.

Justin Rockfeller
Co-founder of Generation Engage non-partisan youth civic engagement organization.

Tim Ryan
Ohio Congressman since 2003, Appropriations Committee Member.

Sam Stein
Leading political blogger seen on www.HuffingtonPost.com.

Emily Sussman
President and Founder of www.ThinkBlue.net, which researches and supports candidates best helping to engage young voters.

Shaunna Thomas
Director of the Young People For (YP4) program of People for the American Way.

Congratulations to all the honorees and keep up the good work.

Update: A correction has been issued for this piece. Two young people did address the convention on Monday and Tuesday. Read the full correction here.
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My final write-up on the DNC.

On Thursday, Senator Obama finished the long primary process and accepted his party’s nomination in front of 75,000 supporters. In no small part, Senator Obama stood on the podium at Invesco field thanks to the hard work, and votes, of millions of young voters, many of who cast their first ballot in support of his campaign.

Turnout among young voters in the Democratic primary was double the level recorded in 2004, and young voters broke heavily in favor of Senator Obama. In the Iowa caucuses, young voters performed on par with the "reliable" senior vote, and were widely credited with providing Senator Obama’s margin of victory.

That trend continued at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, in which young people played a larger-than-usual, though still not proportional, part in the proceedings. Young people made up a record 16% of all official participants in Denver, including 631 delegates. This represented a huge increase over 2000 and 2004, when young people made up 9 and 11% of convention participants, respectively.

As Crystal Strait, political director of the California Democratic Party and active Young Democrat noted during a press conference by the DNC Youth Council, young people were still not represented in the convention at the levels in which they participate in Democratic politics. Young people made up 19% of the Democratic electorate in 20004, and under the DNC Charter, should also make up 19% of the delegates at the Democratic Convention, 3% higher than the record levels found in Denver.

Off the convention floor, though, young faces could be found in abundance. The College Democrats of America held their own national convention in Denver, concurrent with the DNC. The group flooded the city with hundreds of student activists who came for trainings, speeches from top DNC officials, and perhaps a chance to view Senator Obama’s acceptance speech live.

During the day, panels coordinated by the DNC Youth Council – a board consisting of leaders from College Democrats, Young Democrats, Democrats Work, and Future Majority (myself and coblogger Kevin Bondelli are both members), as well as all members of the DNC under age 36 – provided access to elected officials and party leaders like Howard Dean and Scott Kleeb, as well as advice on best practices for organizing young voters or running for office.

Non-partisan youth organizations, such as the Bus Federation and Rock the Vote, were also in attendance, throwing parties at night and flooding the street with viral campaigns during the day. It was hard to walk down the street without noticing Bus Federation volunteers dressed as vampires, angels, or devils to raise awareness about Trick or Vote, their national Halloween GOTV canvass. Often not more than a few yards away, Rock the Vote street team members handed out cryptic black postcards with white numbering. The numbers changed each day, and represented important statistics on young voters.

Despite this unprecedented youth involvement at the convention, young people were more likely to be seen than heard by the delegates and party officials in Denver.

Though they are the official youth arm of the Democratic Party, the College Democrats were unable to provide the vast majority of their membership in Denver access to the first three nights of the convention. The Young Democrats and DNC Youth Council had similar problems obtaining credentials for their members early in the week, and young Democratic organizers in Denver needed to rely on their state parties or personal connections to obtain credentials to the Pepsi Center. The situation was much improved for Thursday night's events at Invesco Field, for which party youth organizations were mostly able to provide access to their members.

Most surprisingly, the one place young voters were completely absent at the Democratic National Convention was at the podium. During my four nights at the convention I did not see one young voter or youth organizer – from CDA, YDA, SFBO or otherwise – address the convention. Young Democrats looking forward to Chelsea Clinton’s introduction of her mother as a kind of passing-the-torch to the next generation moment were disappointed when the former First Daughter’s role was reduced to narrating a video about her mother’s life.

Thursday at Invesco Field was no better. Not one young person took the stage that night – not even during a brief period in which the party introduced half a dozen “regular folks” to talk about the problems they face. It was a curious and conspicuous omission considering the economic plight of “Generation Debt.”

The closest the Party came to including young people during the night’s proceedings came during the speeches of Al Gore and Sen. Obama, both of whom acknowledged the unique role of young people in pushing for change during this election.

To the extent that this is a change election, it is also generational election. Age was the greatest predictor of how someone would cast a vote in the primary process. Unfortunately, the convention organizers chose to talk at young people this week rather reward them for their activism with a place at the podium. Young voters are pushing the Democratic Party towards victory, yet it appears that the convention organizers still adhere to the old adage: children should be seen, but not heard.

Totally bumped by Sarah Burris (Ian is such a rockstar!)

The first three days at the College Democrats of America convention in Denver this weekend were enjoyable and informative, but also a clear reminder of CDA's shortcomings. Many of the trainings they offered were excellent, but the question then becomes to what degree will students actually use these skills as they head back to campus this fall? Is CDA ready to become an organization focused on effecting real change or is it still dominated by students who would rather pad their resumes than roll up their sleeves and engage in serious campaigning?

After talking with convention delegates who have been long time CDA members at the chapter and state level, I heard various frustrations that many students have with the organization - frustrations which rarely rise to the surface to be discussed by CDA leadership.

The overriding grievance was that CDA remains a mostly marginalized and underfunded part of the Democratic party, due to the fact that it is still part of the DNC. Leaders of state federations also complained that the national CDA leadership provides no money and very few resources to the states. States would like financial support, speakers for events, support for field programs, increased coordination with boarding states, and other resources that the national leadership has not provided. Another disappointment was the fact that most national CDA leadership positions were uncontested during the elections. Even elections that were contested were largely determined ahead of time by candidates who had already lined up the right key endorsements.

On Saturday, the elections for CDA President and Vice President took place. Katie Naranjo and Alec Schierenbeck ran unopposed to succeed Lauren Wolf and Awais Khaleel for the top two national posts. Alec's speech was well received, but focused entirely on national issues important to all Democrats and made no mention of any plans of his for CDA. Katie's speech was more substantive and promised a series of encouraging improvements. She told delegates "we're here to make a change," and that vowed to make students "a valued constituency." We'll have to wait and see whether or not these pledges for action materialize in the coming years.

Sunday ended on a high note with an incredible speech by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who told the story of how he became Mayor and tied it into a broader vision. Booker spoke against excessive individualism and described unity and community as core American values. Afterwards he received a standing ovation from the entire CDA convention. Sam Hodge, CDA Political Affairs Director, came on stage and called it the best political speech he had heard.

Bumped. -Craig

I've been in Denver at the College Democrats of America convention for the last two days. I will comment on state of CDA in a future post, but first I'd like to share what was my highlight of the convention so far.

During the four hours of the "Be Kick Ass! '08: Training" sessions today, I attend a presentation given by Parag Mehta, the DNC's Director of Training. I was fortunate enough to have caught a training that Parag led at Netroots Nation a few weeks ago, but this was even more engaging and informative. The presentation was geared for College Dems, but many of the tips are applicable to student organizations in general. Here are some things Parag suggested to help campus leaders as they head back to school this fall:

How do you get off to a good start with your group's first two meetings?

First meeting: This is when you should greet new and continuing members and motivate them to get involved. Welcome members, introduce the organization and its goals, have a good time, and get students pumped up for the coming semester.

Second meeting: This meeting should be a work meeting. Show new students that your organization actually cares about doing things. Ideas include leading a phone banking training, voter registration training, or community service project.

Where should you hold your meetings?

There are many lot of options: student unions, student lounges, etc. Don't use a lecture hall or classroom. Students are in classrooms all day and lecture halls don't work as well for a collaborative meeting where everyone feels like they are a part of the organization.

How do you get food for your meetings?

We all know that college students gravitate towards free food, but how do you get food if your organization has little to no spare money? Try going to businesses that you know tend to lean Democratic (Costco, Whole Foods, etc) and ask them if they would be willing to donate some food for your first meeting. You'll be surprised by what they're willing to give friendly student groups.

What do you do about people who don't show up?

When you have your first meeting or event you'll get people who RVSP on Facebook or MyBO say that they'll attend, but then never show up. Instead of simply shrugging it off and letting these people go, keep a list of everyone who RSVPed for your meeting/event. Then after your meeting/event, pull a few students aside who enjoyed it and ask them call through everyone on the RSVP list who didn't show up. A simple message like "hey, I went to this event and had a great time, here's what we did, and I hope you can come next time" can be very effective at pulling these people back in.

Also, make sure to send a follow up message to everyone who showed up to the meeting. Remember to thank them, ask them to bring their friends next time, and let them know what's next for the organization.