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College & Universitychapter
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”specifically for your College chapter. We hope this guide serves as an invaluable resource for you andyour chapter as you continue to be a part 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 to get youth involved in thepolitical process and committed to Democrats from an early age. YDA has transformed itself into apolitical powerhouse that builds chapters, recruits activists, wins key races, elects Young Democratsto 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.It has been proven that engaging young people from an early age, even before they are of legal votingage, they will continue to turn out consistently throughout their lifetime. Time and time again, when wetalk to our friends about what it means to be a Democrat and how issues big and small impact theirdaily lives, we see the results. You are the catalyst behind this change. You are the Young VoterRevolution.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, future voters, activists, leaders, and candidates. The Young Democrats ofAmerica has been the official youth arm of the Democratic Party since 1932, and is considereda 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, and future voters,engage them in peer-to-peer communication and education, and turn out the vote withtraditional and innovative 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 and for College students andthe under 18 population the “PLEDGE TO REG” program to expand and develop our member base in all50 states. It has been found that if young people pledge to register and/or vote for Democrats, they aremore likely to follow through, and more receptive to Get Out The Vote (GOTV) tactics approaching anelection. We then combine paid campaign operations in targeted areas with volunteer-led programsacross the country to get out the youth vote and raise awareness 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 continue
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