Socialists Summit & YDSA Convention 2026 Report

This report is intended to be shared with organizers within the NDP and is not intended for public distribution. We ask those who receive the report to not share its contents beyond their organization and others who have received it from the CYND delegation.

Executive Summary

Attending the YDSA Convention and the DSA Socialist Summit has been an impeccable learning and solidarity-building experience for the CYND delegation. Each member has made important connections with DSA and YDSA members and organizers, including the incoming YDSA National Co-Ordinating Committee (NCC), labour organizers, DSA committee leadership, and DSA-endorsed municipal candidates.

Many Canadians are aware of the rise of the DSA in the USA and their success has led to growth of Canada’s desire for socialist, class-based politics. The DSA faces political conditions the NDP does not, including not being an established political party and needing to operate as a surrogate within the liberal Democratic Party. Despite such challenges, the DSA celebrates 14 electoral victories for 2025-2026 alone (8 primaries, 6 general elections), including Mayor of the largest city in the country. Many within DSA have their eyes set on the White House as they actively prepare to vote to endorse and campaign for a presidential candidate. As the NDP rebuilds and prepares for the next provincial and federal elections, there’s no doubt the party has much to learn from the DSA and YDSA on organizing to win. Our youth wing in particular has much to learn from the YDSA, who left an incredibly strong impression on all 8 of our observers. The YDSA notably does not prioritize electoral organizing, instead prioritizing producing “lifelong socialist organizers” through combining political education with leading pressure and unionization campaigns on their respective campuses. This approach has led YDSA to grow to 3600 dues-paying members and almost 160 active chapters nationwide, with levels of membership engagement and buy-in far exceeding that of our youth wings.

The delegation further observed that the YDSA embraces factions (informal caucuses) within their organization, which from our observations leads to constructive and productive disagreement followed by an emphatic coming-together. Each caucus outlines a distinct theory of change for how they would like to see the DSA focus its organizing efforts and where they envision the organization in the long term. Caucuses only run members for a small portion of internal positions, which reinforces a culture of collaboration to build a cross-caucus synthesis. It is also an expectation that members join (or align themselves with) a caucus in order to run for a position. As a result, prospective candidates are forced to articulate the vision of their caucus and relate it to how they would best organize in that position. This effectively bridges theory and practice – turning members into leaders who develop into more politically conscious and articulate socialist organizers. The fact that their leaders are developed through militant student activism and union organizing has produced a cadre of socialist organizers who would, from our more electoralist-minded perspective, make for great candidates. A strong socialist, collectivist culture has developed within YDSA as a result, contrasting with the often personal, localist and clique-based nature of politics within the NDP and other electoral parties.

The YDSA Convention exceeded expectations for learning how CYND might improve its internal structure, procedures, and organizing efforts. One notable observation was that each day of the Convention, the YDSA plenary was consistently ahead of schedule with well-organized and excellently moderated sessions. They were able to debate and pass nearly all of the submitted resolutions. A great deal of credit for this goes to the Open Slides platform, the approach to submitting motions, and the professionalism of the Chairs—each of whom were recent YDSA alumni who have continued in the DSA. The YDSA has kindly shared their Open Slides code with the CYND delegation.

Outside of the plenary, the delegation learned that the YDSA’s cross-chapter approach to national campaigns has been highly successful and has strong potential to be adapted to provincial YND and campus club campaigns. One of the out-going YDSA Co-Chairs candidly shared that implementing a national campaign approach was a difficult sell to on-campus chapters when first proposed, but through deliberation, consultation, and democratic processes was adopted and has ultimately strengthened the efficiency and effectiveness of on-campus chapters. The delegation believes that with the guidance of the YDSA, adopting a similar province-wide or nation-wide campaigning approach is both possible and promising for stronger youth organizing. It should also be noted that the section on cross-chapter collaboration for on-campus YDSA chapters describes the same process used by off-campus DSA chapters. The delegation believes this model could be adapted to federal and provincial EDAs to prevent our campaigns being weakened and under-resourced as seen with the current approach of primarily working in silos. This report includes sections on lessons learned specifically from the YDSA Convention plenary on on-campus chapter organizing, YDSA financials and funding, Open Slides, and opportunities for YDSA collaboration.

The Socialist Summit hosted fantastic educational workshops which, while geared toward DSA chapter organizing, have exceptionally high potential for adaptation for NDP EDAs and central leadership. The unique approaches to organizing, strategy, and outreach which have been undertaken by the DSA have proven to result in electoral victories and significant gains for labour and social justice movements. The DSA has expressed great enthusiasm to work with the NDP to build democratic socialist movement. This report includes sections on lessons learned from the Socialist Summit summit events in organizing, media, comms, and opportunities for collaboration.

This report concludes with recommendations for provincial YNDs, CYND, EDAs, and central. These recommendations were drafted by the delegates based on the lessons they learned on the YDSA plenary floor, from the various DSA workshops they attended, and from individual conversations with successful leaders and organizers in labour, social justice, and electoral politics.

The CYND delegation went to Chicago to learn how to win and this report aims to share the tools with the NDP to do exactly that. They have been equipped with the knowledge, resources, and connections for the NDP to build a winning strategy inspired by DSA victories. We ask that these recommendations be taken under consideration by decision-makers and members in all wings of the NDP.

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born,” so says the old man. The stakes could not be higher. Change is coming, and we want to see the NDP take advantage of this unique political moment. Our future is worth the fight.

Structure & Elections Analysis

The YDSA is led by a 9-person National Co-Ordinating Committee analogous to the CYND Executive. The Co-Chairs and At-Large members are elected as a block through Meek Single Transferable Vote (STV). Notably, instead of executive portfolios (such as Policy Director, Comms Director), all non-Co-Chair positions are members-at-large. A smaller executive, according to the YDSA, is easier to co-ordinate. The YDSA Constitution stipulates that “At-large members may take on responsibilities according to their specific skills, in consultation with the rest of the NCC and the National YDSA Organizer” - thus giving greater flexibility in role assignment. Furthermore, all NCC members must either serve on or lead a Committee.

Elections for the NCC are always competitive thanks to the YDSA and DSA’s multi-tendency pluralist culture. There were 3 candidates for two Co-Chair positions and 15 candidates for seven At-Large positions. The Co-Chairs are elected first, followed by the At-Large members. The YDSA Constitution stipulates that 5 of the 9 total members of the NCC must be gender-diverse, and that 4 of the 9 total members of the NCC must be racialized. The large block of seven At-Large positions combined with the Meek STV system allowed for members to have lots of options and to be able to make careful decisions on what type of representation they wanted to have on the NCC.

The results reflected the plural nature of the organization, as members routinely democratically express an intention to ensure all or as many tendencies as possible are represented - while still having effective, central leadership, as evidenced by the election of two Co-Chairs from the same caucus. There are no provisions for regional parity, with members keeping regional diversity in mind when voting for their Co-Chair and At-Large candidates (see below). We believe this is a more effective system than a mandated cap on execs from one province, which leads to extremely complicated electoral maneuvering that often leads to candidates being unfairly disqualified or organized against simply on the basis that their victory might disqualify another candidate from the same province.

Role

Person & Caucus

Campus

Co-Chair

James H (B&R)

Florida International University

Co-Chair

Mae B (B&R)

University of Oregon

NCC-at-Large

Dare C (B&R)

University of Louisville

NCC-at-Large

Jacob G (Labor Ind.)

University of Oregon

NCC-at-Large

Roxy S (Labor Ind.)

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

NCC-at-Large

Kaeden B (R&R)

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

NCC-at-Large

Tomas J (R&R)

Florida International University

NCC-at-Large

Seamus P (SoR)

Loyola University Chicago

NCC-at-Large

Angel J (Global Majority)

University of Cincinnati

Analyzing these results, there is strong Midwestern & West Coast representation on the YDSA Executive. This provides opportunity for the following provincial YNDs to possibly collaborate and organize in-person with specific members of the NCC: Mae B and Jacob G for BC youth, Roxy S and Kaeden B for the Manitoba YND, Seamus P, Angel J and Dare C for the ONDY.

In terms of NCC capacity, the NCC appoints and directs a paid National YDSA Organizer analogous to the NDP’s National Director, charged with building up chapters and executing resolutions passed by Convention. Having such staff capacity has allowed the YDSA to scale up its nationwide campus organizing - a clear boon in turn to the National DSA which funds them. NCC members themselves are also stipended: $2150 USD / month for Co-Chairs, $1150 USD / month for NCC At-Large. This allows NCC members to treat their positions essentially as a part-time job, dedicating much more time and effort to the organization than someone in a purely volunteer role could. The outgoing YDSA Co-Chair told us that stipends were granted to the NCC during the DSA’s 2023 financial crisis, when most professional staff had to be laid off and so a lot of work fell back on elected leadership.

The YDSA Constitution also stipulates the existence of three standing committees, the Youth Growth & Development Committee, the Communications Committee and the Youth Labor Committee. Further exploration should be done into the structure, level of activity and rank-and-file member engagement of these Committees. The Youth Growth & Development Committee is interesting since it appears to combine political education with organizing training, in line with the YDSA’s project of developing lifelong socialist organizers.

Political Analysis: Multi-Tendency Debate

The Democratic Socialists of America considers itself a “multi-tendency socialist organization”. This makes it unique among the pantheon of the American left, which consists generally of small and ideologically rigid sects. As the old joke goes: “Put three socialists in a room and you’ll get four different political parties.” For the moment, the DSA seems to have broken the cycle. They have created an organization in which social democrats are able to coexist with Trotskyists, Marxists with anarchists, and Kautskyites with Leninists. It is a remarkable achievement and one that has paid dividends to the organization, as it has been able to employ the unique skills and passions of the various factions of the left, from anti-imperialist activism to rank-and-file labour organizing to an impressive intellectual culture, all under a single umbrella.

The YDSA Convention involved debates on several important resolutions surrounding the future direction of the organization. Each debate had undertones that connected back to the broad ideological church DSA has managed to build: Should the organization focus more on labour work or electoral strategy? Is the primary task to fight the immediate threats of fascism and war, or does that risk losing sight of a long-term project to build socialist consciousness? Often, debate came back to a year: 2028. It promises to be a make-or-break moment for DSA at-large. Labour-focused delegates were able to pass a resolution calling for an “international general strike” on May Day 2028, in line with the one called for by UAW President Shawn Fain. Meanwhile, debate over a resolution calling for a “class struggle campaign” in the 2028 presidential election carried significant undertones around the potential candidacy of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

AOC was the elephant in the room through the presidential campaign resolution debate. Both sides seemed to avoid saying her name, because each coalition seemed split on why they were supporting or opposing the resolution, but almost everyone in the room had AOC on their minds. Some supported the resolution because they thought it would allow DSA to choose its own candidate and avoid being tied to an AOC campaign, while others supported it with the intention that it would be Ocasio-Cortez leading this class struggle campaign. Meanwhile, the more anti-electoral factions of the organization warned against any intervention in the presidential election, while an even smaller group thought this resolution, in seeking very direct DSA involvement in a presidential campaign, was unrealistic and that the organization was not yet ready to run its own campaign — and thus should line up behind AOC. In the end, both the May Day 2028 and presidential campaign resolutions passed, setting up 2028 as an extremely pivotal year for all factions of the Young Democratic Socialists of America.

Another interesting debate was the one over “a strategic sanctuary campaign”. The YDSA has spent much of the past year focused on opposing the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on campuses and defending undocumented students. This resolution called for the YDSA to establish sanctuary campuses as a national priority campaign for the coming year and focus specifically on university contracts with companies such as Palantir, Flock Safety, and Elbit Systems. An amendment was proposed to the resolution by members of the small Marxist Unity Group (MUG) caucus which inserted language referring to Karl Kautsky’s “strategy of patience” and framed the sanctuary campaign as one of many “transformative and agitational” demands which would slowly build socialist consciousness. Delegates speaking against the amendment and in favour of the original resolution framed the situation as one that required immediate urgent action. “I would understand this amendment in peacetime,” one of them said, “but we have to recognize that we are at war.” However, the amendment was passed, as MUG delegates ably positioned their proposal as one creating strategic guidelines which guard against liberal reformism and vanguardist adventurism rather than taking away from the urgency of the fight itself. The debate was an impressive example of how a smaller group was able to make constructive additions to a resolution to provide their own strategic input and bring different factions of the organization together without lasting bitterness, with the resolution in its amended form ultimately passing by a wide margin.

The “DSA right” (meaning the more electorally-focused Socialist Majority Caucus and Groundwork), a smaller and more marginalized faction in the national youth organization, managed to score a major victory of their own on the floor of the convention, passing a resolution to re-establish YDSA’s Youth Electoral Committee (YEC) and run a “YDSA electoral project”.

Campus Chapter Organizing

YDSA Peer-to-Peer Cross-Chapter Collaboration

The YDSA found that cross-chapter collaboration has yielded great success for effective campaigning for on-campus chapters. Having national initiatives and messaging rather than separate efforts and campaigns allowed for resource-sharing and debriefs to improve local organizing efforts.

This includes consultations with on-campus chapters, primarily via campaign proposals decided on at Convention or by leadership being brought back to on-campus chapters for review and approval. Right now, the YDSA is focused on running a nationwide sanctuary campus campaign, which was approved for a second year at convention. With a single agenda, tailored to each chapter’s conditions, the campaign aims to build collective momentum and unify the membership around a common goal.

The YDSA and its chapters are extremely active. The YDSA as a whole hosts two in-person events per year for all chapters, the YDSA Convention and the Organizing Conference (co-sponsored by Jacobin in 2026 with over 400 attendees). The student movement in the YDSA chapters far exceeds the provincial YNDs and CYND in organizing capacity, strategy, consistency, and outcomes. They organize strikes, host workshops and social events, unionize workplaces, lead electoral campaigns, and much more. Their objectives go beyond recruitment and into developing the next generation of working class activists who will continue their organizing and political work in the YDSA’s “adult” counterpart organization, the DSA.

Click here to see the YDSA Convention Compendium linked on their website.

Significant On-Campus Chapter Growth

On-campus chapters have seen significant growth and member-retention. It is important to note that YDSA disaggregates their on-campus chapter data to see (1) total members of on-campus chapter(s), (2) annual fee paying members, and (3) monthly solidarity-dues paying members (plus annual fee). The following chapters were identified as seeing the most significant increase in paid members (minimum annual fee paying):

Columbia University

466%

Michigan State

0 to 28 members

University of Washington

600%

University of Minnesota Duluth

375%

University of Colorado

335%

University of Maryland College Park

423%

The University of Oregon chapter has also been repeatedly identified as being among the most successful on-campus chapters in the YDSA. One of the co-founders of the chapter, Mae B, now as of this Convention the Co-Chair of the YDSA, led a student strike of 4000 undergraduate workers of the University of Oregon Student Workers UAW local. Many of the largest chapters in YDSA have gotten their strength and built up cadre from such militant labour organizing and pressure campaigns such as “ICE off campus.”

Labour Organizing

Organizing for May Day 2028

There has been deliberations and planning for May Day 2028 at the Socialist Summit and at the YDSA Convention. Of particular relevance to the NDP is Resolution 04, which was passed at the YDSA Convention, affirming their intent to organize an international general strike for May Day 2028. As both CYND and YDSA have expressed strong interest and intent to collaborate, it is likely that CYND and the NDP—as the DSA also prepares for May Day 2028 —will be asked to participate. This would require far stronger connections with labour than those CYND and the NDP have at present.

Click here to see Resolution 4.

Building Working Class Solidarity Towards May Day 2028 Panel

Key Takeaways:

Exclusive and limited edition merchandise being advertised prior to May Day events increased turnout and was an effective fundraising initiative.
Adopting an inside-outside organizing strategy yielded far greater success across chapters compared to previous May Day efforts.
Hosting May Day events with only labour partners (no non-profits) and with partners outside of labour (ex. People’s Arms Embargo) both led to different gains, but were both effective strategies.
Organizing May Day events other than marches (ex. May Day festival) was a very successful approach to increase union and community participation.
Unorthodox initiatives (ex. Car Caravan to shut down airport travel) were found to be generally successful, but not always appealing to all desired partners.
Education campaigns and initiatives (ex. Socialist Night School, How-To Discuss May Day with Co-Workers, etc.) have proven helpful to increase turnout to events and gain members.
Having organizers with pre-existing relationships in labour or unions, or members already part of unions themselves, were immensely valuable for coalition-building and organizing.

Organizers advised that for chapters in areas with few or no relationships with labour, or a lack of unions entirely, that chapters invest time and resources in building unions to create long-term partnerships.
Investment in labour solidarity reverberates over years and builds relationships that are ready to mobilize when elections come.

DSA organizers recognized that Democrats have taken notice of the DSA siphoning off their labour supporters. This has led to Democrats trying to participate in or infiltrate DSA events.
DSA organizers have found they have to maintain deliverables and have fast responses to build and sustain relationships and coalitions with labour and unions.
DSA chapters have prioritized “Strike-Ready Committees” with the objective of developing the strike “war chest” and being ready to support strikes within 24 hours of being called.

Click here to see the full notes taken during the panel.

Rank and File

“Rank and File” is a term used frequently in DSA and YDSA proceedings. It refers to the Rank and File strategy, which generally includes the following:

Strategic Jobs

DSA labour committees can figure out key workplaces in their cities and encourage members to get jobs there together.
Chapter labour committees can set up regular meetings for those getting new jobs, along with mentoring from more experienced comrades or experienced non-DSA union members.
Portland DSA set up two “Socialist Job Fairs” over two years at a union hall and community centre.

Representatives of organizing committees in different workplaces presented what they were doing and then sat at tables so attendees could follow-up.
The organizing committees were non-union, trying-to-unionize, and already-union workplaces.
The Socialist Job Fair was advertised on social media and with fliers in coffee shops and colleges (attracting non-DSA attendees).
Registrants were first vetted by phone or in-person to weed out management spies (they found none, but some did think it was a regular job fair). They were told the location the day of and specific employers were not mentioned until organizing committee members were able to speak one-on-one with potential new hires.

Strategic workplaces can vary place to place.

For example, in NYC, the Labour Branch went through a lengthy process to determine the criteria for strategic workplaces in their city:

Economic leverage
Social / political leverage
Ease of entry
Demographics
Working conditions
Whether DSAers were already working there

Using this criteria, NYC identified six target industries:

Nursing

Open potential coalitions with patients.
Among the most trusted professions.
Militancy during COVID-19 pandemic.

Teaching

Open potential coalitions with parents and students.
Teacher strikes offer an opportunity to bargain for the common good.
Recent outburst of militancy in the USA (strike wave 2018-19).
Chicago teachers, inspired by Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”, provide a textbook case.

UPS
Transit
Building trades
City government

National Networks

DSAers who are already in relevant unions should work in existing national networks.
Where there are local groups of union members who are already organizing or seeking help in organizing, the DSA can offer:

Practical support
Invite speakers
Invite union members to educational events
Do fundraising

Strike Support

Although they are not common, strikes are great opportunities to develop relationships with willing unions.
It’s not bad to show up on the line, but it’s better to offer help before it gets off the ground.

This is only possible is DSAers are in the union or close to it.

In building strike support, the first thing to figure out is what the chapter has to offer union members that will strengthen their strike:

Connections with unions or other organizations that will support the strike materially and morally.

What relationships can the chapter or individual members call on?

Research on the employer’s vulnerabilities
Technical help with leaflet making, communications, or media strategy
Fundraising
Tasks during the strike, such as food distribution, child care, and picket line presence.

It is difficult to offer support if local officers are not interested (which is most likely if they haven’t heard of the DSA, or they have never tried to mobilize their own members).

The Alameda Health Systems (AHS) (Bay Area 2020) is a good example of strike support tightening connections between the chapter and union members.

East Bay DSA member and president, Johnny Pearson, of AHS chapter of Service Employees Union Local 1021 introduced DSA members to union activists more than 6 months before the strike. Pearson specifically introduced DSA members who had various skills or organizing experience to elected officers. DSAers helped by assisting workers to plan a press conference, and as the campaign escalated, the DSA working group grew and more DSAers learned new skills. They brought social media expertise, video experience, and organizing savvy. Union members and DSAers organized town halls featuring union activists and DSA political candidates who supported them, held an art build for picket signs, and email and text campaigns to pressure the Board of Supervisors, and held a dozen phonebanks to get DSA members out to AHS picket lines. DSA members and chapter leaders held weekly Zoom meetings. Union leaders said this allowed them to build a collaborative relationship when union members brought ideas and continued to develop them with the DSA.

Building Labour Notes

Since 1979, Labor Notes has existed as the unofficial coordinator of that “troublemaker wing” (class conscious current) of the labour movement.

It does this through its articles and books, through its industry-specific networks of activists in K-12 schools, the Postal Service, nursing, and higher education, through trainings put on for local unions, and through national and local conferences that draw thousands of participants.

The conferences bring together workers from different unions to learn from each other. DSAers can bring co-workers to these biennial national conferences.
They can also help unionsists organize one-day local conferences (Troublemakers Schools) where workers can learn organizing skills and discuss big-picture political questions.

In the best cases, the local organizing committee for the school stays together and sponsors other events.
Although Troublemaker Schools aren’t DSA projects per se and need to be organized by a broad committee, DSAers can initiate them, build them, speak at them, and bring their co-workers to them.

Many DSA chapters use Labor Notes training materials, in particular a facilitator’s guide for a three-part training based on the books Secrets of a Successful Organizer.

Taking our Campaigns to Union Members

Unions can be a key for DSA campaigns and candidates, a Green New Deal, and Medicare for All.
Chapters should be familiar with the locals in their areas and know their political proclivities.

Chapters can offer to sit down with officers or the appropriate union committee to discuss how they can work together (without assuming the local is 100 percent on board with what the national has passed).

Chapters can ask to make presentations at union meetings and request official support in the form of donations, publicity, and recruitment of volunteers.

Such requests carry more weight when coming from a member of the local, or even from a member of another local.
Requests are more likely to be successful when the ask is “how can we work together?” rather than “come join our existing campaign”.

Click here to access the YDSA’s Rank and File presentation guide.

Free Labour Notes Resources

Secrets of a Successful Organizer Handouts

Running for Local Union Office: A Labor Notes Guide

Auto Workers Organizing

How to Strike and Win: A Labor Notes Guide

How to Build a Union Reform Caucus

Flowchart: Do We Need a Reform Caucus?

Discussions with Organizers

Roxy, a labour organizer at the University of Oregon, offered some interesting insights and advice for integrating labour and youth organizing.

When you organize a workplace, you learn how to organize a supermajority (compared to pressure campaigns, where you only require a majority).
When you’re running a pressure campaign, tabling, and/or canvassing for signatures, add a tick box for student workers. Then, have a separate team tasked with contacting everyone who says they are a student worker.

Participatory Democracy

The DSA hosted a workshop detailing the concept of participatory democracy for the national level organization and at the chapter level. It was targeted towards new members who have recently joined a chapter or are beginning to put in the work of creating a new one.

The workshop began with a presentation of the DSA’s ideological orientation and how it has evolved over the past decade. The DSA describes itself as an organization that “acts like a party”. These principles, as adopted at the 2025 convention, assert that the DSA is currently in the process of building the structures and programs to eventually create a bottom-up socialist party of the working class. In the interim, the DSA is focused on organizing for
“influential enfranchisement” – pushing the terms and boundaries of debate rather than letting the establishment limit those options.

Within the DSA, the use of participatory democracy aims to create the conditions to push the boundaries of external debate. At the national level, convention and general meetings determine the political activity of DSA to ensure that its organizing efforts are responding to the “zeitgeist” (the public mood). Chapters have two elected co-chairs and members organize in steering, standing, and campaign committees with specific administration and activism tasks, determined by local members. There are also other opportunities at the regional level for panels, town halls, political education, book clubs, and skills training.

Solidarity Income-Based Dues

The DSA uses an interesting donation model which they call “solidarity income-based dues”. The idea is that they ask members to “give your 1% to the 99%”. This gives them a donation ask that gives the donors’ contribution clear and consistent meaning. Further adding to this is that their donation webpage explicitly and plainly states what their contributions will directly support in the DSA:

Click here to see the DSA income-based solidarity dues webpage.

This approach to donations has been so successful that they’ve even been able to make merchandise with the tagline. At the Socialists Summit, they ran out of Solidarity Income-Based Dues buttons and stickers on day one. Members are actually excited at the prospect of donating to the DSA. This approach does a couple of things exceptionally well:

It makes it clear what donations are going towards.
It gives donors agency. They get to decide where their money goes.
While donations are still voluntary, it creates a sense of obligation towards the movement to pay your dues (similar language to union dues).

YDSA Financials & Funding

The YDSA has two main and entirely separate budgets:

YDSA Main Budget (ex. Merchandise, NCC salary, etc.)
YDSA Event Budget

The NCC (equivalent to executive) is composed of two Co-Chairs and seven Members-at-Large. Each of the NCC members are paid a monthly stipend to cover basic living expenses (approximately $2,000 USD). The largest NCC budget expenditures were travel-related (approximately 6,000 used of 9,000). Increasing the NCC travel budget is a priority moving forward as more trips will be planned for the coming year as this has shown to increase positive outcomes (ex. NCC members spending time with chapters to train and work with them, they will be visiting every on-campus chapter in the country throughout the coming year).

General Income Breakdown

YDSA solidarity-dues

Approx. $29,000 USD

DSA funding

Approx. $199,000 USD

Open Slides

Open Slides is the voting platform used at YDSA Convention. It is an open-source program, which YDSA has given CYND access to. From observing the convention proceedings, Open Slides appears to be a highly efficient tool for moderating discussion and facilitating the voting process.

The Open Slides platform includes access to:

Agenda, Motion, Elections, Participants, Files, Projector, etc.
The ability for participants to mark themselves as “present” so that they’re able to vote and for the chairs to know the amount of delegates on the floor.
A chat tab for delegates to submit complex motions (i.e. points of information) which are more intricate than the usual points.

Write-in only, no reading messages in this tab.

A messages tab for the Chairs and tech support team to send private messages to individual delegates or message blasts to the group.

Click here to see the OpenSlides Review drafted by delegate, Brodie Friesen, for more details on OpenSlides and the implementation process.

Media & Communications

External Media for Socialists

The DSA hosted a session about interacting with external media. They shared how to utilize media to spread their message and politics, as well as grow their organization. While mostly focusing on interacting with traditional media, they also made some points about social media use as well.

This training stressed the importance of creating media advisories and press releases, which is something CYND has not yet done. This media strategy has allowed the DSA and YDSA to gain more publicity, and reach more people outside of their typical audiences. This training also stressed the importance of preparedness when interacting with media, and outlined that the DSA has designated individuals that have specific media training. CYND would benefit from having members in different roles and regions media trained so they are well prepared to represent the organization.

Please click here to access the detailed notes from this session.

Phone Video 101

The DSA hosted a session about the fundamentals of filming and editing phone video for political content on social media. The advice they shared comes from the experience they’ve gained in content creation for various DSA-endorsed candidates, including Zohran Mamdani.

The DSA recognizes that phone video is its most accessible tool to craft narratives and bolster the organization as a whole. It has allowed them to build capacity and reach at the national level. Additionally, it is often the only way to capture critical moments. Recognizing its value, the DSA also knows that phone video must be of good quality. If people cannot see nor hear the video well, then the video is not usable. Good videos signal that the DSA is organized, serious, and strong.

Please click here to access the detailed notes from this session.

Possible Opportunities for NDP-DSA/YDSA Collaboration

Provincial YNDs

Connecting with YDSA on-campus chapters for campus club training.

All campus clubs should explore connecting remotely, however, those closest geographically to strong YDSA on-campus chapters may consider in-person events and cross-collaboration.

Campus Chapter

University of Oregon

Strong union organizing

Columbia University