Dear Young Democrats,
As you may have already seen, rechartering information is now available on the Convention website, and the rechartering window is now open.
In advance of this year's convention, we have created new materials that we hope will provide clearer guidance on navigating the chartering and vote apportionment process. This includes a comprehensive guide to all aspects of chartering, vote apportionment & allocation, seating delegates, and other business that comes before the Credentials Committee. It also includes a one-pager outlining the types of campaign participation materials that qualify for additional votes, as well as a guide providing greater clarity about. All of this can be found linked in the main guide or in the master chartering folder. Please let me know if you have any questions about the information in these documents or other aspects of the chartering process. (If I get enough similar types of questions early enough, I can work on improving these documents or creating new ones as needed.)
The deadline to submit all chartering and vote apportionment materials, along with initial delegate lists, is July 9. After that date, submitting documents will carry penalties in accordance with YDA rules. I encourage you to review the requirements now and reach out to me with any questions, rather than risk penalties at the deadline.
What typically takes the most time to gather? There's a few things you should especially start thinking about now:
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Compiling your membership list. Vote apportionments are capped at 1/2 of a unit's membership-- so if your unit is entitled to the maximum 100 votes, you'll need a membership list of at least 200 to ensure you don't receive any penalties. (The numbers for each unit are available in this spreadsheet If you don't already have a continual process for gathering membership information from your affiliated chapters, I would recommend beginning to gather these now. A template is linked in the Chartering Guide and/or the Master Chartering Folder above.
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DNC Member Certification. All units must have a certification from their DNC member. (Template linked in the chartering folder above) I would recommend reaching out to them now to get this squared away.
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Campaign participation votes. Submitting documentation that your unit participated in a Democratic candidate or issue campaign can earn you up to 20 additional votes. We've created a guide that offers clearer guidance on this aspect of the process.
I encourage you all to reach out to me with any questions about the chartering process (and thank you to those of you who already have!), especially those doing this for the first time. While at first it looks like there's a lot to do, most of what we're asking for likely already exists or is easy to gather.
Looking forward to working with you all,
Harry Bittker
Chair, YDA Convention Credentials Committee
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