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Welcome guide
Building a Generation of YoungVoters for Democrats:
Activating and Strengthening Your Chapter 
 
 
Dear Young Democrats,On behalf of YDA’s National Leadership and Staff, I am thrilled to introduce the “YDA Welcome Guide.”We hope this guide serves as an invaluable resource for you and your chapter as you continue to be apart of our Young Voter Revolution.YDA recently celebrated its 75
th
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. YDA has transformed itselfinto a political powerhouse that builds chapters, recruits activists, wins key races, elects YoungDemocrats to office, and transforms the political culture.Young voters will be nearly 50 million strong in 2008, the largest number since 1972. What does thismean for you and other young voters? It means we truly are on the verge of a real Young VoterRevolution.The Young Democrats of America is leading the Young Voter Revolution. YDA’s peer-to-peer young votermobilization programs helped elect Democrats up and down the ballot in red and blue states. Timeand time again, when we talk to our friends about what it means to be a Democrat and how issues bigand small impact their daily lives, we see the results. You are the catalyst behind this change. You arethe Young Voter Revolution.As we compiled this welcome guide, we aimed to provide your chapter with the immediate steps to getstarted and to grow and sustain your chapter. The goal here is to empower you to go out and continuethe Young Voter Revolution in your area. We want you to be able to make the difference in yourcommunities through service projects, engaging young voters for Democrats, and advocating forissues you care about.Thank you for your dedication and your commitment. If you have more tips or creative tools you thinkwould be useful to include in future manuals, please send them to us atchapter@yda.org.Keep it Blue,David HardtYDA President
 
 
Introduction to the Young Democrats of America
Building Infrastructure For The Young VoterRevolution
Introduction
The Young Democrats of America (YDA) is the nation’s largest youth-led, partisan, politicalorganization. YDA mobilizes young people under the age of 36 to participate in the electoralprocess as voters, activists, leaders, and candidates. The Young Democrats of America hasbeen 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, includingmiddle school, high school, and college students, young workers, young professionals, andyoung families, reflecting the broad diversity of our nation and the Democratic Party. Ourprograms engage Young Democrats through their local county, college, or middle and highschool chapters, through state and regional programming, and nationally through campaignsand 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 VoterRevolution, our campaigns use a tested field model to identify young voters, engage them inpeer-to-peer communication and education, and turn out the vote with traditional andinnovative methods.YDA is committed to electing Democrats up and down the ballot, in red and blue states, aswell as engaging in electoral strategies around key ballot initiatives. We also work with alliedorganizations nationally and in our targeted states to maximize outreach and resources.Our campaigns utilize an ambitious “VOTE DEMOCRAT” pledge program to expand and develop ourvoter contact base in all 50 states. It has been found that if young people pledge to vote forDemocrats, they are more likely to turn out to the polls on Election Day, and more receptive to Get OutThe Vote (GOTV) tactics approaching an election. We then combine paid campaign operations intargeted areas with volunteer-led programs across the country to get out the youth vote for Democrats.
Infrastructure & Sustainability
The Young Democrats of America is a national organization that connects local and statechapters to a national organization and movement. All of our local chapters are chartered notonly with the national YDA organization, but also with their state “parent” organization. It iscrucial to charter with your state and remain in contact so that your local chapter can continueto be engaged in state issues and campaigns, network with other local chapters in your area,and learn of national campaigns and events that will be disseminated through your stateorganization. Each state elects a State President, a National Committeewoman, and a NationalCommitteeman that represents your local interests to the National Committee of YDA.
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