Netroots Nation

Watch live the panels today talking about youthiness

40 Under 40: Political Rising Stars
SAT, 06/18/2011 - 3:00PM, M100 FG

The game has changed. What is it like to be a young politician in the modern world? Meet the nation's political rising stars--a group savvy at utilizing Twitter, Facebook and the blogospehere to engage and educate young voters. Also, we'll talk about why you should avoid photo tags of your Everclear jello shots and eliminate email adresses like keggarboy69@gmail.com.

PANELISTS: Representative Ellie Hill, Assemblyman Elliot Anderson, Senator Shannon Augare, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Representative Jefferson Smith

Something else that might have some youthy elements to it
Sat, 06/18/2011 - 3:00pm, L100 H

With high unemployment and foreclosure rates for many Americans--particularly African Americans--and the euphoria of hope and change sinking fast, the panel will discuss how to work online and offline compatibility to engage, energize and win back first-time 2008 voters, with an emphasis on youth and African American voters. We will discuss what is at stake for blacks and young adults and share ways to tell the story of those whose lives have been affected by health care reform, foreclosure assistance, Pell grants, and other reforms. We'll also look at how to combine online and offline efforts to engage members of this disaffected community in broader online discussions and actions.

PANELISTS: Debbie Hines, Jeneba Ghatt, Judy Lubin, Kristal High, Rep. Donna Edwards

You can find the Agenda here
Thursday

• Cultural Organizing, Youth and the Left
  THU, 06/16/2011 - 9:00AM, M100 H

  During election years, both the right and the left jockey for position to utilize pop culture and powerful artists and youth to help sway the discussion. In the past two elections, these efforts have become more and more localized. What is the relationship of the left to cultural organizers and what role does technology play in this conversation?
  PANELISTS: Molly Moore, Shamako Noble, Davey D

• Why Organizing around Community Colleges Matters
  THU, 06/16/2011 - 10:30AM, L100 H

  2010 marked the first year when more than 50 percent of undergraduates chose to attend two-year community colleges over traditional four-year colleges and universities. Because traditional youth organizing has largely centered on four-year colleges and universities, a large proportion of the potential progressive base is routinely overlooked and underrepresented in organizing, advocacy and movement-building. Community college students tend to live, work and play in the same community after completing their studies, so community colleges present huge opportunities for progressives to invest in long-term, place-based infrastructure-building. Imagine if every one of the 12 million community college students was armed with organizing and advocacy tools. Who are these students and why are they the backbone of the progressive movement? And why does this approach have the potential to be truly local and sustainable over the long-term?
  PANELISTS: Catalina Ruiz-Healy, Sujatha Jahagirdar, Ayofemi Kirby, Lena Carew, Toody Mafua'ofa

Friday

• Changing of the Guard: Youth Leading Democracy
  FRI, 06/17/2011 - 4:30PM, M100 FG

  The Middle East is blowing up, and pro-democracy youth are lighting the fuse. Youth are oftentimes pegged as perpetrators and purveyors of conflict and violence, but what goes less noticed is that youth are also the agents of positive social change around the world, particularly in peaceful pro-democracy movements. Social media is paving the way to make this possible. Youth took front and center stage in orchestrating the recent revolutions in Iran, Moldova and now thus far in Tunisia and Egypt. Is social media just a common platform linking these movements together? Or does this up and coming generation also share common democratic values that tie us together like never before? Chances are, it's a little bit of both.
  PANELISTS: Erin Mazursky, Lamees Dhaif, Trinh Nguyen, Mohammed Zouhair Ait Benhamou

• Friend of FM Christine Pelosi is leading off the Netroots Candidates Reception Friday June 17 at 5:45pm in Exhibition Hall. They will have one minute speeches from candidate running at all levels of service from ditch digger to Congress. Join DFA, WCF, and friends for cocktails and candidates.

Saturday

• 40 Under 40: Political Rising Stars
  SAT, 06/18/2011 - 3:00PM, M100 FG

  The game has changed. What is it like to be a young politician in the modern world? Meet the nation's political rising stars--a group savvy at utilizing Twitter, Facebook and the blogospehere to engage and educate young voters. Also, we'll talk about why you should avoid photo tags of your Everclear jello shots and eliminate email adresses like keggarboy69@gmail.com.
  PANELISTS: Representative Ellie Hill, Assemblyman Elliot Anderson, Senator Shannon Augare, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Representative Jefferson Smith

• We need Netroots for the Troops volunteers Saturday June 18 at 1pm to help prep military CARE packages. please help! Click here to sign up.

The DFA Netroots Nation Scholarship Program holds a special place in the collective heart of the Future Majority team. In 2008 Sarah Burris was a recipient, and Michael Connery and I were selected in 2009.

Netroots Nation is an amazing experience, and Democracy for America has been providing opportunities for progressives across the country who may not otherwise be able to attend to share that experience.

The first round of the selection process is now underway, and progressives interested in applying should do so as soon as possible and start recruiting supporters. DFA is seeking to send a diverse delegation of talented progressives to Las Vegas this summer.

This scholarship program requires the financial support of the progressive community. You can make a big difference for a progressive organizer by donating to the scholarship fund.

This is one of the best talent development programs in the country for progressives, so whether you are interested in applying for a scholarship or investing in the program, the time is now.

Submit an application for a 2010 DFA Netroots Nation Scholarship

Donate to the Netroots Nation Scholarship Fund

Dear friends & readers,

My name is Colin Curtis and I am one of the bloggers here at Future Majority as well as the State President of the Kansas Young Democrats.

Today I would like to humbly ask for a minute of your time and for your support in getting a DFA Scholarship for Netroots Nation.

Netroots Nation amplifies progressive voices by providing an online and in-person campus for exchanging ideas and learning how to be more effective in using technology to influence the public debate. Through our annual convention and a series of regional salons held throughout the year, we strengthen our community, inspire action and serve as an incubator for ideas that challenge the status quo and ultimately affect change in the public sphere.

This scholarship would be tremendously helpful in allowing me to attend this year and bring what I learn back to Kansas and help me continue my work for youth. Your support would be greatly appreciated!

Please take a moment and voice your support here.

Thank you for your consideration.

Colin

EAVB_CBUPHAETYL

During the Youth Caucus at Netroots Nation the most compelling item for discussion was whether there were youth issues or if every issue has a youth perspective.

I tend to believe the latter, and here's why.

When most people think about youth issues (youth as in young voter, not minors) the two things that most often come to mind are college access/affordability and community service.

College access and affordability

43% of the 20 to 29-year-old population has never attended college (CIRCLE Fact Sheet). Since the is an extremely strong correlation between political involvement and education level, it is not surprising that it receives a lot of attention from politically active youth, but it still neglects nearly half of young Americans.

In addition, the rising cost of a college education and slashed financial aid budgets affect the older parents of potential students as well. College affordability is not purely a youth issue, nor is it an issue for all youth.

Community Service

Community service is one of those issues that older people have decided is a youth issue. The GIVE Act, though a good piece of legislation for upper-middle class youth, is pretty much useless to those who can't afford to take advantage of it. Community service is not a critical issue to those young Americans whose basic needs are not being met.

Serving communities should also be something that does not fall solely on the shoulders of youth, but should be an issue for all generations.

Health Insurance Reform

Health insurance reform is the biggest issue around today, yet we don't see it addressed as a youth issue very often. "While young adults account for only 17 percent of the U.S. population under the age of 65, they disproportionately make up 30 percent of those Americans under the age of 65 who don't have health insurance (Campus Progress)." Young Americans are the most in need of health insurance reform, and organizations should be working to provide a youth perspective in the debate.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

It is strange that military policy does not get considered from a youth perspective more often, since the vast majority of active servicemembers are young Americans.

The Economy

Young Americans have been hit by the current recession harder than most, yet the youth perspective is rarely seen in the discourse. Job prospects for recent college graduates are dismal, and the economic climate is even worse for youth without college degrees.

The Environment and Climate Change

Youth perspectives are heard more often when it comes to the environment compared to other general issues due to the success of the youth environmental movement. However, when the issue is discussed in the mainstream media or in government offices the youth perspective is less prevalent. Conservation and climate change obviously affects young Americans more than anybody else: it will be us and our children that have to live with the consequences.

Obviously this does not touch on every issue there is, but it should start to reveal that all issues affect young Americans, and therefore should have a youth perspective in the discourse. While the establishment may want us to be relegated to a few "youth issues" like college affordability and community service, it is up to us to speak out on the general issues where our voices are noticeably absent.

Every issue is a youth issue, and it's our job as progressive youth to prove it.

One of the panels I attended at Netroots Nation was Repairing our Democracy: Voter Registration Modernization and other Solutions with speakers Secretary Debra Bowen California's Secretary of State, Dean Logan the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk for Los Angeles County (the nation’s largest county), Jonah Goldman a national expert on voting and elections, and Justin Levitt counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. The panel was also moderated by Eric Marshall, campaign manager for the National Campaign for Fair Elections in the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's Voting Rights Project.

Highly knowledgeable experts on the panel seemed to develop the consensus that the system is broken.

"We must have a system of error correction that is speedy enough so that people aren't disenfranchised and the error is corrected," Secretary Bowen said. "We need more consistent rules of residency for students. Some places are down right hostile about allowing students to vote, some are welcoming, but many are very hard on students."

"There are huge barriers to over seas voters and our military. When I visited Iraq and Afghanistan I met with the voting official who is not elected but appointed to do the job. . ."

Bowen continued to describe an over 500 page manual that the military official must be familiar with because there are so many voting laws for each state he must know.

"If we're disenfranchising people who are serving us it's time for the states to voluntarily figure out one cohesive consistent way that it works."

LA County Clerk Dean Logan told a story about a meeting he had with other election officials where it was asked if they could redesign the entire voter registration from if anyone would keep the original... none would.

Logan said they had 500,000 newly registered voters, and on the 15 day cut off for voter registration deadline California Counties had a Midnight Madness for people who had up to the last minute to register to vote.

"We had people coming in in their pajamas and it was packed! But the day after that cut off, we received 64,000 forms by people who missed the deadline. The next day 100,000 people sent in forms. We failed them administratively," he admitted.

But, Mr. Goldman said that new technologies provide a "non-partisan solution to a non-partisan problem that we can all work to fix."

Mr. Logan agreed believing

"despite this archaic system we are using technology better, allowing people to verify their information. But if you're online and realize that you need to change your address or you need to correct it, then that's where it stops, there is no way to update that."

The panel agreed the system breakdown is targeted at registration itself. Everything that happens on the back end is relatively smooth, even Logan said that when it comes to provisional ballots 80-90% of them count and can be verified, but the breakdown happened in the registration process somewhere.

Secretary Bowen said the argument against a massive reorganization and standardization effort would be the constant "states rights" argument. But Bowen believes that registration difficulties that occur in places like Florida and Ohio do affect California in a substantial way. Everything from Universal Registration to Election Day Registration are all options on the table but neither are being considered at the federal level.

The Military and Overseas Voters Empowerment Act (“MOVE Act”) authored by Senator Chuck Shumer was approved by the US Senate

"after a Rules Committee survey last May showed that as many as one in four ballots cast by military voters went uncounted in last year’s presidential election," Shumer's office said.

Among other things, "the bill would require states to provide ballots electronically. Additionally, it beefs up the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) at the Department of Defense, which is the main source of election-related information and assistance for many members of the military. The legislation, S. 1415, also addresses problems the military and overseas voters face in registering to vote from outside the U.S. It would bar states from rejecting military ballots for lack of a “Notary” signature—a feat difficult to achieve in the bases of Iraq and Afghanistan."

The Student VOTER Act was also re-introduced this session back in March. Late July will also bring the second hearing for the Student VOTER Act in the Committee on House Administration and will hopefully go into mark-up in September when it should also be in line for a floor vote.

Matthew Segal from the Student Association for Voter Empowerment told me via email that Majority Leader Steney Hoyer has been extremely supportive so he's optimistic we can get the bill on the floor this year. If you missed it, former US Senate Leader Tom Daschle has been a fantastic public advocate on the Student VOTER Act, and Zoe Lofgren, who chairs the subcommittee on elections within the Committee on House administration has also now signed onto the bill, as has Susan Davis, who is another member of both the full committee and subcommittee.

Segal says

"their leadership will assist us in getting the bill marked up this September. We [also] hope that other youth organizations will join us in making this one of their principal legislative priorities for 2009 and 2010."

As Bowen said, issues like Voting Rights aren't as sexy as issues like Health Care, but the ability to register to vote, be able to vote, and have that vote counted as its cast is the foundation of our democracy. We should be able to count on all of those things.

Crossposted to DailyKos, please recommend.

I'm finally back to writing after my marathon conference schedule starting with the YDA National Convention in Chicago and ending in Pittsburgh for Netroots Nation 2009.

First I would like to thank Democracy for America for providing me with the opportunity to attend through their scholarship program.

I was a little underwhelmed by the panels this year compared to the offerings at Netroots Nation 2008. While this may have been due to the excitement of the Presidential election last year, I think there are some improvements that could be made to make upcoming Netroots Nations just as impressive.

1. More Variety: This year it felt like many of the panels were repetitions of other panels, and many of the panelists were used in 2 or 3 panels. While it would make sense to offer a popular panel more than once due to a packed schedule, it did not seem like this was the reason for the overlap. This could have just been a result of a smaller number of panels being proposed this year, but that could have been remedied by better promotion of the panel proposal process.
2. Panels for Online Operatives: Netroots Nation began as a blogging conference for the Daily Kos community, and the vast majority of the panels still seem to be catered to the writing audience. Now that Netroots Nation has opened up and has become one of the premier conferences for online campaign staff, it would be great to see more panels/trainings on technical practices and strategy. A few panels from NN09 did this, such as the ones on e-mail writing and social media ROI, but I think a larger offering would be extremely valuable.
3. Have Both Introduction and Advanced Panels: Most of the attendees of Netroots Nation have been to a prior Netroots Nation or YearlyKos. However, it seems that most panels are very entry-level with fewer opportunities for learning more advanced strategies or topics. There should be new things to learn even for those attendees that have been coming for years.
4. Mixer Events that Aren't too Loud to Talk: One thing I have noticed over the last 2 Netroots Nations is that the official mixers/parties tend to have music that is so loud that it is difficult to talk with people. While I enjoy a good loud party as much as the next guy, it isn't the best way to let a community meet each other and talk. Hopefully in the future there will be more official gatherings that are more conducive to communicating.

Of course the best thing about Netroots Nation is meeting people you have been working with and talking to online face-to-face. It was great meeting many of you, and for those that I wasn't able to meet up with in Pittsburgh, hopefully we will soon.

What are your thoughts/ideas about NN09 and how to make future Netroots Nations better? Share in the comments.

I had a serious problem trying to upload video at NN but here are the rest of those that I posted on Friday are now here!

Panel Part 2

Panel Part 3

Panel Part 4

The most meaningful comment out of this I believe came from Christina Hollenback who said that when it comes to young people and health care if they don't pass the Public Insurance Option then as far as she's concerned they didn't do anything. For young people who have few options the Public Insurance is the only thing that will work for most of us. Without Public Insurance she's right, they may as well have done nothing.

And for a president who was elected because of young people, I'm not sure this is the best political strategy.

Yesterday, at Netroots Nation some good friends of the youth movement presented a panel on the successes of the youth movement and discussed where we go from here in terms of policy and continuous engagement for the young voters that elected Barack Obama.

Here is the Introduction by Jefferson Smith of the Oregon Bus Project and Biko Baker from the League of Young Voters. I'm dealing with a pretty sketchy internet connection as the hotel seems to be stuck in 1999, but as it uploads I'll post here and comment.

Erica Williams from Campus Progress

Hey everyone. I'm competing for a DFA Netroots Nation Scholarship (the same one fellow FMer Sarah Burris won last year) and I need your help.

Please visit http://democracyforamerica.com/netroots_nation_scholarships/401-kevin-bondelli and support me in the competition. You need to create a free account with Democracy for America if you haven't done so already in order to vote.

Here are two reasons why you should vote for me:

1: I'll blog the conference like I did last year. Here are those posts:
Netroots Nation: Recap of Thursday
Netroots Nation: Friday
Netroots Nation: Saturday Part 1
Netroots Nation: Saturday Part 2
Final Thoughts on Netroots Nation

2: Who else is Sarah going to take pictures of pretending to be Matt Stoller?

Convinced? Awesome! Please vote for me and spread the word!

Thank you all!

-Kevin