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Welcome guide
On behalf of YDA’s National Leadership and Staff, I am thrilled to introduce the “YDA Welcome Guide”
specifically for your High School chapter. We hope this guide serves as an invaluable resource for you
and your chapter as you continue to be a part of our Young Voter Revolution.
YDA recently celebrated its 75th anniversary and it is an exciting time to be a Young Democrat.
Throughout YDA’s history we have made an important impact on local, state, and national elections,
and have built key networks of friends and colleagues around the country to get youth involved in the
political process and committed to Democrats from an early age. YDA has transformed itself into a
political powerhouse that builds chapters, recruits activists, wins key races, elects Young Democrats
to office, and transforms the political culture.
Young voters will be nearly 50 million strong in 2008, the largest number since 1972. What does this
mean for you and other young voters? It means we truly are on the verge of a real Young Voter
Revolution.
It has been proven that engaging young people from an early age, even before they are of legal voting
age, they will continue to turn out consistently throughout their lifetime. Time and time again, when we
talk to our friends about what it means to be a Democrat and how issues big and small impact their
daily lives, we see the results. You are the catalyst behind this change. You are the Young Voter
Revolution.
As we compiled this welcome guide, we aimed to provide your chapter with the immediate steps to get
started and to grow and sustain your chapter. The goal here is to empower you to go out and continue
the Young Voter Revolution in your area. We want you to be able to make the difference in your
communities through service projects, engaging young voters for Democrats, and advocating for
issues you care about.
Thank you for your dedication and your commitment. If you have more tips or creative tools you think
would be useful to include in future manuals, please send them to us at chapter@yda.org.
Keep it Blue,
David Hardt
YDA President
Introduction to the Young Democrats of America
Building Infrastructure For The Young Voter
Revolution
Introduction
The Young Democrats of America (YDA) is the nation’s largest youth-led, partisan, political
organization. YDA mobilizes young people under the age of 36 to participate in the electoral
process as voters, future voters, activists, leaders, and candidates. The Young Democrats of
America has been the official youth arm of the Democratic Party since 1932, and is considered
a non-federal 527 political organization.
YDA has over 2,000 local chapters in all 50 states with over 200,000 members, including
middle school, high school, and college students, young workers, young professionals, and
young families, reflecting the broad diversity of our nation and the Democratic Party. Our
programs engage Young Democrats through their local county, college, or middle and high
school chapters, through state and regional programming, and nationally through campaigns
and issue advocacy work and at our national conferences and convention.
YDA’s goal is to build a generation of young Democratic voters. Dubbed the Young Voter
Revolution, our campaigns use a tested field model to identify young voters, and future voters,
engage them in peer-to-peer communication and education, and turn out the vote with
traditional and innovative methods.
YDA is committed to electing Democrats up and down the ballot, in red and blue states, as
well as engaging in electoral strategies around key ballot initiatives. We also work with allied
organizations nationally and in our targeted states to maximize outreach and resources.
Our campaigns utilize an ambitious “VOTE DEMOCRAT” pledge program and for high school students
and the under 18 population the “PLEDGE TO REG” program to expand and develop our member base
in all 50 states. It has been found that if young people pledge to register and/or vote for Democrats,
they are more likely to follow through, and more receptive to Get Out The Vote (GOTV) tactics
approaching an election. We then combine paid campaign operations in targeted areas with volunteer-
led programs across the country to get out the youth vote and raise awareness for Democrats.
Our network of state and local chapters are the key to our organizing efforts. YDA has evolved
our campaign model into a year-round effort to grow and sustain our chapter network with
direct support and staff assistance. You, as a new High School Chapter leader, have a lot of
freedom to set up and govern your chapter in a way that works best for you and your members
while also supporting YDA’s goals and mission. We strive to make our local chapters stable
and long lasting, with a membership base that is continuously growing and sustained. After
building your initial membership, you may have new members joining through your state’s
website, or the national YDA website, and it is important to engage those new members in the
work of your chapter, ensuring that your chapter outlives you and your initial members.
As part of the Young Democrats of America the members of the YDAHSC organization represent high
school students at all levels of the Democratic Party. The organization claims a substantial percentage
of YDA’s membership with about 20,000 high school students.
The High School Caucus empowers high school students to get involved in the American political party
system. High School Democrats, besides volunteering and talking about politics, also give back to their
community through community service projects and campaigns. High School Democrats train
themselves and others in the ways of leadership, to become leaders both now and in the future, in
their communities, in the Democratic Party, and in our nation.
The High School Caucus was approved by the YDA National Committee in 2005 in Phoenix, Arizona. The
national group is headed by an Executive Board, with a National Committee consisting of
representation from individual states. YDAHSC’s leadership consists of a National Chair, an Executive
Director, and Executive Vice Chair, a Vice Chair of political Affairs, a Vice Chair for High School
Outreach, a Director of Political Campaigns, a Treasurer, and Regional Directors in the Midwest, Mid-
Atlantic, North East, Pacific, Greatlakes, Southeast, Southcentral, and Southwest Regions.
Developing Your Local Chapter
First meeting
Your first meeting is an important step for your chapter. It will give your initial members an
insight to the Young Democrats of America, glimpse of what your chapter will develop into, and
the type of involvement and action that your members can be a part of. You can begin
developing your chapter’s mission and goals for the year, begin planning how you will recruit
and retain new members, and brainstorm events you want to have to kick off your chapter.
Coalition B uilding
• Attend the meetings of like minded clubs and organizations on campus such as
debate, Junior State of America (JSA), Gay/Straight Alliance, and Amnesty
International.
• Team up with other club’s projects or events- do a beach clean up with an
environmental club, a community service project with a student of color organization,
or a poetry slam with a creative writing or art club.
• Have joint events. Share the costs and have double the turnout by co-sponsoring
events
Staff Advisor
Staff Advisors are a vital part of any YDA High School chapter, and usually required by your
school. An advisor should be a teacher, staff member, or an administrator at your school who
has an interest in politics. They will act as a chaperone to all events your chapter partakes in,
and will assist you, the leader of your chapter in all planning and executing of events. They will
also be an important part of maintaining the chapter’s existence from year to year. It is
important that your club is student run, student led and doesn’t turn into a government
lecture. The staff advisor should not run or facilitate the meetings, that should be your job as
the chapter leader!
Retentio n
Keeping your members engaged and active in your chapter is also essential in not only the
growth and development of your chapter, but also in keeping your chapter strong and long
lasting.. You will need a strong core of returning members to lead campaigns and events, and
ensure that your chapter outlives your leadership when you graduate. By developing leaders
out of your younger members, you can be confident that your chapter will continue on the path
that you and your original members will have paved.
Identifying Leaders:
• Build investment in the organization by giving responsibilities and entrusting new
members so they feel personally connected to the organization and it’s goals
• Give all leaders the opportunity to take on a leadership role over time
• Ask for help from your members; they will help when asked!
• Have one-on-one meetings with new members to identify interests, passions, skills,
and personal goals. Have Juniors and Seniors team up with Freshmen and Sophomores
and mentor them so they will be able to lead the chapter in years to come
• Give opportunity for members to give ideas for programming that they can “own”, take
charge of and carry through.
Peer-to-Peer
We talk to other young people so that we can build a voting bloc of young Democratic voters.
That effort starts when we talk to our peers, who are more likely to persuade other young
people, about the issues that are important. We ask them to sign a pledge to register for
Democrats and then ask them to fulfill their pledge once they are eligible to register.
Build Membership
Now that you have information for other young people at your school and in your community,
you can invite them to events that your chapter is having and build your membership. The
Pledge to Register is a campaign tool and a membership building tool.
Ev ents
On a High School campus events are largely what you will use to recruit members, get publicity
for your chapter, and to get your members active on your campus and in your community. It is
important to host your own events, and to make your group visible at other school events.
Co-Sponsoring Events
• Have a table at your next big sports event that will attract a lot of attendees
• Co-sponsor a lunch time event or a day of your schools next spirit week
• Host a debate between your chapter and your school’s Republican club.
This is just the start! Remember, you are not treading these waters alone. YDA is here and
ready to assist you at anytime. Feel free to contact any of our State Chapters, our Board of
Directors, or our National Staff at anytime.