Blog

Join us May 1, 2021 online as we meet for training, networking, electing officers, and continuing to build the future of the New York State Young Democrats (NYSYD). This document is the official Call to Convention for the 2021 State Convention.

Convention Officers

The 2021 Convention Credentials Committee Chair is Jim Kane. The Rules Committee Chair Julia Elmaleh-Sachs. The Policy Committee Chair is Robert Drumm. The Convention Chair, Secretary, and Parliamentarian will be announced at a later date.

Chartering or Re-chartering

Counties

County chapter chartering packets will be distributed and made available electronically on or before January 2, 2021, and will be due for submission by electronic mail by no later than 11:59:59 PM EST on April 1, 2021.

Each county chapter that is chartering or rechartering must submit the following items to the Credentials Committee by emailing them to Chair Jim Kane at credentials@nysyd.org as individual attachments on or before April 1, 2021:

1. A roster listing all members within the county chapter and required data in accordance with Article II Section 1.1 and Article III, Section 5 of the NYSYD Constitution. The roster must include each member’s first name, last name, address, zip code, date of birth, and email address; the telephone number is optional but recommended. The roster must be sent in a spreadsheet format (e.g. Excel, Google Sheets). Any roster not sent in a spreadsheet format (i.e. as a PDF) and/or are missing the aforementioned fields will not be accepted.
2. A scanned copy of the certification of the current highest-ranking officer (usually the County Chair) of the county chapter’s Democratic county committee
3. A list of all current officers of the county chapter
4. A copy of the county chapter’s Constitution and/or Bylaws
5. A copy of the chapter’s Code of Ethics/Conduct
6. A preliminary delegation list (each chapter will be entitled to 1 delegate for every 10 validated members)

Chapters who do not submit the aforementioned items in the required formats will have their applications rejected with the Credentials Committee informing said chapters of the errors. If the errors are not corrected and the amended application is not resubmitted by April 1, 2021, the application will be rejected.

In accordance with Article IV, Section 1, the chartering fee is $65 and $0.50 for each validated member. Chartering fees can be paid at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ nysyd2021chartering.

Should concerns arise within the Credentials Committee regarding the authenticity of documents submitted by county chapters, the Credentials Committee will be empowered to investigate, as necessary, by means including, but not limited to, contacting the county’s Democratic Committee leadership, and requesting copies of sign-in sheets from county chapter events.

All county chapter members over the age of 18 must be registered members of the Democratic Party, according to the New York State Board of Elections no later than April 1, 2021. It is recommended that any member of a chartering county chapter newly registering or re-registering to vote with the Democratic Party register at their county’s Board of Elections office and photograph a timestamped, submitted voter registration form should concerns arise by the Credentials Committee. Members who turn the age of 18 between April 1, 2021 and the final gavel of the convention shall be exempted from this clause. It will be to the chapters’ benefit to check the registration of their membership on the New York State Board of Elections website prior to submitting rosters to the Credentials Committee in order to mitigate the chances that members will not be stricken as ineligible to be charter members.

County chapter members who do not turn the age of 36 before the final gavel at the convention and will be at least the age of 16 before the first gavel at the convention will be eligible to be listed as charter members for a county chapter.

Caucuses

Pursuant to Article VII, Section 6, all caucus chairs (or their designees) shall submit the following to the Credentials Committee by emailing them to Chair Jim Kane at credentials@nysyd.org as individual attachments on or before April 1, 2021:

1. A roster of at least 20 members which shall include the person’s first and last name, email address, date of birth, and county chapter
2. A list of at least two programming-based events the caucus sponsored where there is a discussion, training, networking, or other resource-based advancements along with the date, location, and approximate number of attendees
3. A list of at least two “action-based” events the caucus sponsored for campaigns or candidates including, but not limited to, door knocking, phonebanks, fundraisers, and textbanks along with the date of the event, whom the event benefited, location (if applicable), and an approximate number of attendees
4. A list of the dates of all quarterly caucus conference calls. For this clause, a caucus having at least one (1) conference call between May 2019 and May 2021 will be considered sufficient.
5. A copy of the caucus’s most current bylaws

Should a caucus not submit the required items by April 1, 2021, the Credentials Committee will have no option but to designate the caucus as a “task force” and the Chair elected at the convention shall have no voting power in the next biennium.

The Credentials Committee shall review the materials submitted by the caucuses for review. The caucuses that do and do not meet the benchmark requirements (i.e. will remain a caucus or be designated a “task force”) as defined in Article VII, Section 6 shall be informed as such no later than April 15, 2021.

Delegates to the Convention

Preliminary delegation lists are due April 1, 2012. Final delegation lists are due April 20, 2021.

Each chartered county chapter shall receive one (1) delegate for every ten (10) validated members in its roster.

Delegates and alternate delegates must be members in good standing of the chapter they represent in accordance with Article III, Section 3 of the NYSYD Constitution. Proxies are permitted, and individuals may be empowered to act as proxies on behalf of delegates, so long as such individual’s name is submitted to the Convention Secretary prior to the commencement of voting.

No one person may hold more than 3 proxies, in accordance with Article III, Section 4 of the NYSYD Constitution.

All delegations are subject to the provisions of the vote cap as outlined in Article III, Section 6.1 of the NYSYD Constitution.

The Credentials Committee shall submit their final pre-convention report of eligible members, delegates, and alternates to chapters by April 15, 2021.

Executive Board Elections

All members of the New York State Young Democrats are invited to consider running for an officer position on the State Executive Board. Applications will be collected via Google Form. The link for applications will be distributed on or before February 1, 2021, by email, the NYSYD website, and NYSYD’s social media pages. Applications are due by 11:59:59 PM EST on April 15, 2021. All applications will be automatically time-stamped.

Pursuant to the constitution and bylaws, positions you may consider running for are:
President, Executive Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, two National Committee Members, Regional Vice President (Capital, Central, Downstate, Hudson Valley, Upstate, and Western), and Legal Director (must be an attorney licensed to practice in the State of New York).

In addition, the following caucuses will hold elections: Caucus of Color; Disability Issues; High School; Jewish; Labor; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ); Rural (YDR); and Women. Only members of the aforementioned caucuses may vote in these elections. These positions are not subject to the online application process.

All elections will be monitored, recorded, and have votes tallied by the Convention Secretary.

Executive Board Election Procedures

All candidates must submit their applications via Google Form by 11:59:59 PM EST on or before April 15, 2021. However, if no candidate submits an application for a position by that date, applications to the Executive Board may choose to extend the deadline for those positions.

All Candidates shall have an opportunity to address the convention and answer any questions delegates may have prior to their election. All elections will be conducted by roll call vote by the Convention Secretary, by order of the Chair, with the delegation chair of each county chapter designating how many votes it will apportion to each candidate. Each candidate may only run for one position. In an election for a position involving one candidate, one must receive a majority of the votes cast otherwise the position will remain vacant. In an election for two candidates, one candidate must receive a majority of votes cast, a failure for either candidate to achieve a majority will result in a further round of debate and voting until a majority is reached. In an election for a position involving more than two candidates, one candidate must receive a majority of the votes cast, and if no candidate receives a majority. then the candidate with the lowest number of votes shall be dropped from the ballot and the election will be rerun with the remaining candidates until one candidate receives a majority of the votes cast.

Neither write-in votes nor nominations from the convention floor will be accepted.

Following the conclusion of the convention, the newly elected officers will take their oaths of office and assume their positions.

Regional Vice President Board Election Procedures

Each region shall elect a Regional Vice President pursuant to the Constitution, Article III Section 3. Only individuals who are members in good standing of a chapter within the region shall be eligible to run for that region’s Vice President position. The elections for Regional Vice Presidents will occur in a manner and time identical to all other Executive Board positions, except only votes from the respective region will be counted for each regional election and vote caps will be applied accordingly.

Caucus Chair Election Procedures

All caucus elections shall happen in breakout rooms or designated videoconference lines. No election may proceed until the Convention Secretary calls the caucus election to order. Once the Convention Secretary calls the caucus election to order, no new participants will be allowed to join. The Convention Secretary may designate the current caucus chair as presiding officer of the caucus election provided that they are not running for re-election.

Council of Presidents Chair Election Procedures

The Council of Presidents Chair election shall happen in a breakout room or designated videoconference line and only chartered chapter presidents or their proxies may attend. No election may proceed until the Convention Secretary calls the caucus election to order.

Constitutional Amendment Procedures

Any proposed amendments to the Constitution must be submitted electronically to the Rules Chair Julia Elmaleh-Sachs at rules@nysyd.org. Any proposed amendments to the Constitution must be received by 11:59:59 pm EST on April 15, 2021. All proponents for a Constitutional Amendment shall be entitled to be heard by the Convention Rules Committee. Proposed amendments to the constitution must both articulate the specific provisions amended and the rationale for the amendment.

Convention Resolution Procedures

Any proposed resolutions to be passed by the convention must be submitted to the Credentials Committee Chair Jim Kane at credentials@nysyd.org and must be received by 11:59:59 pm EST on April 15, 2021.

Policy Platform Procedures

Any proposed policy platform planks to be passed by the convention must be submitted to the Policy Committee Chair Robert Drumm at platform@nysyd.org and must be received by 11:59:59 pm EST on April 15, 2021.

Agenda and Programming

Pursuant to the NYSYD Bylaws Article V, the Planning Committee of the New York State Young Democrats shall be designated as the Convention Program Committee and shall be empowered to create the agenda and program of the convention in consultation with the convention officers and the NYSYD Executive Board. All programming, events, schedules, etc., as it is announced, will be shared on the NYSYD website and social media.

Due to technology restraints, only credentialed delegates, alternates, convention officers, convention committee chairs, NYSYD officers, and candidates will be allowed to be on the videoconference. All other attendees and guests will need to watch via a livestream.

Key Dates

January 2, 2021

• Chartering packets distributed electronically

February 1, 2021

• Executive Board Election Applications Open

April 1, 2021

• Chartering packets due
• Proposed delegate lists due
• Caucus re-chartering packets due

April 15, 2021

• Executive Board applications due
• Constitution and Bylaws amendments due
• Credentials Committee report due
• Policy platform proposals due
• Convention resolutions due

April 20, 2021

• Chartering fees due
• Final delegate list due