DSA Resolutions for the 2019 Convention Introduction from the Resolutions & Amendments Committee This document contains resolutions for debate at the 2019 DSA Convention. Each resolution is divided into several parts, including: • Title & Authors • Budget Analysis from DSA’s Staff • A cost estimate prepared by the author(s) • The Resolve (the portion of the resolution that gets debated at the Convention) • Background Information (or “whereas clauses) that give context on the resolution Shortly following this document’s release, our committee will begin accepting amendments to these proposals through a Google form posted at www.dsausa.org/national-convention. The deadline to submit amendments is July 9th. In early July, we will also release a series of straw polls to all of the Convention delegates which we will use to prioritize the order of proposals for the final Convention program. We will not accept amendments to the background information (aka the whereas) section of resolutions since these sections are not debated at the Convention or published following the Convention. Finally, you may notice as you read that in a few areas the number assigned to each proposal jumps. Do not panic! We received many proposals on similar topics and in some cases, authors of separate proposals were willing to merge their documents, which has caused a few gaps in our numbers. Happy reading! Introduction to DSA Budget Office Analysis 2019 will be the largest convention in DSA history, as our membership is the largest ever. Unsurprisingly, this year we also see the largest number of proposals, whether resolutions or proposed changes to the constitution and bylaws, for delegates to debate. Taken on their own, many of these resolutions are thoughtfully written and the large number of resolutions indicates high engagement in our organization and our democratic process. Some resolutions are statements of our political positions. But many are realistically actionable (either implicitly or explicitly) only by either shifting how staff spend time from one thing to something new, or spending on new staff or direct costs. Furthermore, the structure of how we will make these decisions requires you to consider each resolution on its own, yet it would be impossible to do everything. Much like in participatory budgeting, there is a set pool of resources that must be allocated, and hard choices have to be made through group discussion and voting, but unlike through that process, this one does not proceed in a holistic way. If so many proposals pass that they are not possible with the budget, the new NPC will be required to make decisions about which ones to prioritize within our existing staff capacity and national budget. This is what happened after the last convention, when for example a bail fund was passed by delegates but we lacked staff capacity to set it up and manage it. This is why when a resolution passes, it is not always possible to follow it to the letter. In effect, the more the convention body can focus on passing a few priorities, the more powerful that body will be. To provide you information to help you discuss in your chapters and then at convention how to allocate our resources going forward, staff and the Budget and Finance committee prepared a “DSA Budget Office” analysis of each proposal before us. This is the first time we are attempting a project of this magnitude in the condensed pre-convention timeline, so we apologize for any mistakes and generalizations, and hope you find it helpful! Staff Capacity - Simplified Staff Areas of Work Below is a chart of our current staff. Some resolutions seek to address problems which we have already started to address with our increased staff this spring, but which have not yet been felt by chapters and members (for example, additional Member Services). Other resolutions would introduce the need to make a decision between cutting existing staff work and reallocating their time, or not carrying out the resolution. It is important for members to understand the work of staff in order to make these broad mandates, though ultimately day to day staffing work is assigned by the national director. This spring we finally felt we could afford to expand staff, so we began hiring. Our staffing now stands at 16 full time and 1 part time, with 5 more positions projected and in the hiring process. Once that hiring is complete we will have 23 full time and 1 part time staff - still small for an organization of our size, but almost double what we were a year ago. For comparison, during the 2017 national convention we had a staff of 7 full time and 1 part time workers. Name Title Notes Maria Svart National Director Reports to the National Political Committee. Heidi Chua Assistant to the Supervised by National Director. National Director, Heidi and her team process payroll for our growing staff, will be able fiscal officer to more quickly process expenses and reimbursements for staff and members as we do more and more complex projects, pay our bills and enter them into our books, coordinate and process dues sharing, analyze expenses and income to understand our financial health and help with fiscal planning. Heidi also helps manage the National Director’s calendar and supports the NPC administratively. Fatou part time Finance Supervised by Assistant to the National Director. Camara Manager Fatou keeps our financial books updated. In process of NEW: Finance Supervised by Assistant to the National Director hiring Coordinator Kristina Operations Director Supervised by National Director Sepulveda Kristina and her team ensure the foundations of the organization are sound by improving efficiency and reliability of all operations functions, whether member services, chapter logistical support, or staff administration. Lisa Flores Administrative and Supervised by Operations Director. Office Coordinator NEW: Lisa is providing additional chapter support in addition to the Chapter Pipeline, such as around incorporation questions and maintaining a more updated chapter contact list at the national office. She also ensures our national office is functioning and remote staff have the technical and other support they need to do their work. Lawrence Program Associate Supervised by Operations Director. Dreyfuss Lawrence provides operations support around many national programs and events as well as external comms coordination. He also runs the swag store which we will continue to expand and eventually open up as a throughway for chapter swag fulfillment. Zachariah NEW: Full time Supervised by Operations Director. Boyer temporary Program NEW: Zachariah answers [email protected] almost all day Associate every day, but also will support other projects such as incorporation question, until the end of August. In process of NEW: Compliance Supervised by Operations Director. hiring Manager NEW: The Compliance team will support chapters doing local, state, or federal election work to ensure compliance with all applicable laws, through creating how-to guides, leading trainings, and assisting with local research as needed, as well as doing all direct reporting to the Federal Election Commission. When there are lulls between elections the team will assist with incorporation questions from chapters. Projected to NEW: Compliance Supervised by the Compliance Manager. hire Associate Michael NEW Conventions and Supervised by Operations Director. Grochowski Conferences NEW: Michael starts July 8 and will bottom line event planning for all Coordinator national and regional gatherings from conventions to trainings, while Field Organizers will continue to work with chapters on content but will be freed up to spend more time with chapters in person or on the phone. Rebecca NEW: Tech and Data Supervised by Operations Director. Ruechel Manager NEW: Rebecca starts July 8. She and Eileen will work with the Tech Team on projects such as creating a member portal for membership info and direct chapter access to the membership database, our rollout of tech organizing tools ActionNetwork, Spoke and VAN, and improved use of data to support organizing. Eileen Database Coordinator Supervised by Tech and Data Manager. Casterline Eileen maintains the national database with the constant updating with member information and financial contributions as well as cutting lists for chapters and all other work such as managing the delegate allocation and registration process for convention. Alison Development Director Supervised by National Director. Baldree Alison runs all fundraising projects from constant renewals reminders to expiring members and postal and online fundraising to major donor asks, as well as training chapters in capacity building through grassroots fundraising. Elizabeth NEW: Membership Supervised by Development Director. Yoo Services Associate NEW: Elizabeth is taking the role of answering member inquiries, freeing up Lisa and Claudia to focus on chapter support and internal comms, respectively. Alison and Elizabeth will expand our existing renewals program of mailing, email and phone call reminders to expiring members, improve the automation of member notifications about expired credit cards which will increase our income, and respond more quickly to member inquiries as Elizabeth will be able to devote more time to it. Elizabeth will also support the national working groups going forward to free up Lawrence’s time. Claudia Internal Supervised by National Director. Cahill Communications and Claudia manages our national social media accounts