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Rob's Vision for YDA Communications

Below are some of Rob's ideas for improving the role of YDA Secretary. 

Sharing Information
  * Share Contact Information
  * Build a Document Library / Share Print Materials
  * Establish a Program Bank

Meeting and Exceeding "Secretary" Expectations
  * Create Accessible Meeting Minutes
  * Be an Accessible Officer

Putting YDA on the Cutting Edge of Technology
  * Highlight Active Young Democrats
  * Integrated Content and Calendar System
  * Beyond the Web and Email

Share Contact Information - The YDA national organization's website is a hub for young people wanting to get involved.  We should do a better job of automatically pipelining contact information of people who sign-up with the national to the state and local chapters so that the local organizations can reach out and engage potential members.  Politics is local and that's where we most need to help potential activists connect. 

Build a Document Library - Similarly, YDA marketing materials and training content can be posted in electronic, editable format so that they can be re-used by local organizations substituting local content.  Beyond YDA-created materials, this can be a place for local leaders to share amongst each other like the high school organizing manual from Mississippi. 

Share Print Materials - We cannot forget the value of actual print communications.  Nor should we have to re-invent the wheel every time a chapter or state creates a brochure, flyer, how-to, presentation, newspaper ad, manual, etc.  We should gather a repository of documents and make them available in an editable format that states and chapters can download and customize for their needs. 

Establish a Program Bank - In my many conversations with Young Democrats from across the country, I hear about great ideas like creating an internship accessibility program in Massachusetts or purchasing a Bus for campaign invasions in Oregon.  We should compile these best practice ideas into a program bank so successes can more easily be repeated. 

Create Accessible Meeting Minutes - Taking minutes at meetings is one of the major roles of the Secretary.  I believe we can go beyond simply taking minutes and also make these available in Spanish and in a screen reader accessible format for our vision-impaired members.  We are the big tent Democratic party and we should be accessible to all of our potential activists.

Be an Accessible Officer - In my opinion, to be an elected officer of an organization, it is imperative to be accessible to the people who elected you to the position.  I want you to have my personal cell phone (847-682-6440) and email (robdolin@wuxx.com) and feel free to contact me at any time.  

Highlight Active Young Democrats - As a national organization of skilled young people in the 21st Century, we should be using the technology available to us to highlight the success of our members.  This can include everything from creating an easily-update-able list of YD's in elected office to being a reference point for other chapters to maintaining web-feeds of occasions when our members appear in the national media.  

Integrated Content and Calendar System - Right now, YDA has separate systems for producing web, print, and e-mail materials.  As much as possible, we should build a content management system (similar to what we have for the YDA Pace) and we should increase access and distribute more frequently.  This could also provide an archive for e-mail alerts.  We should have a similar YD calendar system so that YD organizations (and allied organizations) can share information about their larger events that might be of interest to neighboring groups.

Beyond the web and e-mail - Not every potential YDA member has web and e-mail access.  We should look to be leaders in innovative political use of emerging communications forms like cell phone text messaging or podcasting.  We are the YOUNG Democrats, we should be innovating on the cutting edge. 

Please help to refine this vision by sharing your feedback: feedback@robdolin.com.