Save the date! Our 2019 DSA National Convention will be held August 2nd-4th in Atlanta, Georgia.

The national office will include general interest convention updates in the monthly Dispatch and in occasional member emails. If you are a DSA member in good standing, and want to receive more frequent and detailed National Convention update emails, you can opt-in for those here.

Table of Contents

• Convention Schedule and Livestream
• Updated Convention Rules (updated 6/24)
• Amendments to Resolutions and Constitution and Bylaws Changes (updated 7/24)
• Registration, Housing and Travel (updated 7/3)
• DSA Convention for All: Venue Information and Accessibility
• Scholarship and Travel Share Waiver Information (updated 7/10)
• Self-Organized Time (updated 7/24)
• Straw Polls on Proposals (updated 7/24)
• Preconvention Zoom calls to Discuss and Debate Proposals July 16-25, Budget Call July 28 (updated 7/29)
• At-Large Delegate Elections (updated 6/10)
• National Political Committee Elections for 2019-2021 (updated 7/24)
• Simplified Convention Budget (updated 7/12)
• Apportionment Ratio
• Postponing the DSA Political Platform Process
• Important Dates

Convention Schedule and Livestream

Updated Convention Rules (updated 6/24)

Please read the convention rules passed at the April 2019 National Political Committee meeting and revised as of June 5.

Amendments to Resolutions and Constitution/Bylaws Changes

The deadline to submit amendments to Resolutions and constitution/bylaws changes was extended. Any member or group of DSA members in good standing could submit amendments to proposed resolutions and Constitutional and Bylaws changes through Tuesday, July 16.

You can find the text and cost estimates of resolutions submitted here. Two new resolutions have been added to the Resolutions Compendium, #74 “Bernie Policy Recommendations” and #89 “In Support of Just Cause.”

You can find the text and cost estimates of proposed constitution and bylaws changes here. The deadline to propose changes to the DSA national constitution or bylaws was May 2. You can find the current DSA constitution and bylaws here.

Registration, Housing and Travel

Information about rates and how to make arrangements for attending the Convention is here. Please note that the hotel booking deadline was extended to Monday, July 8, 2019. You can find Metro Atlanta DSA’s local guide here.

DSA Convention for All: Venue Information and Accessibility

You can find more information on accessibility here, including a map from the MARTA to the site showing the wheelchair-accessible entrance, Quiet Room information, and information on child watch and the Breastfeeding/Chestfeeding Room.

Scholarship and Travel Share Waiver FAQ (updated 7/10)

You can find a scholarship and travel share waiver FAQ, including deadlines and scholarship distribution process information here. The deadline to apply for scholarships was Sunday, 6/23. Additional information about travel share was emailed to delegates on Tuesday, July 9. You can find that information here.

Self-Organized Time

We will have self-organized time Friday evening and Saturday evening for one hour and a half. The deadline to apply for self-organized time was Tuesday, July 16th.

Self-organized breakout meetings can be used for meetings of regional, ideological, identity, or issue based groups. Priority for breakout meeting space was given to national committees, commissions, and working groups, then distributed on a first come, first serve basis.

The deadline to apply was Tuesday, July 16th. This allows us to allocate based on AV needs. For those who applied by the 16th, we will confirm whether and when you have breakout time by Monday July 22. Any remaining spaces after that will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Straw Polls on Proposals

On July 15th, the committee released the first of two straw polls to delegates that will be used to identify proposals for the Consent Agenda and to prioritize proposals for debate on the Convention floor. Results were emailed to delegates on July 23rd. The second straw poll was released July 23rd. The deadline to vote is Friday, July 26th. If you are a convention delegate, and you did not receive the second straw poll email, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Preconvention Zoom calls to Discuss and Debate Proposals July 16 – 25; Budget Call July 28

The Resolutions & Amendments Committee organized a series of Preconvention Zoom Calls for members to discuss and debate proposals for the Convention. The calls were held July 16-25. A Pre-Convention Budget Presentation, including a mid-year budget analysis, was held July 28. Recordings of these calls were emailed to everyone who RSVPd and posted on the Discussion Board. They will be emailed to all delegates and alternates July 30. 

The calls were broken down as follows:

• • Grievance & Code of Conduct Resolutions
  • State, Regions, & Organizational Structure Proposals
  • NPC Reform, Governance, & Dues/Finances
  • Bernie & Electoral Resolutions
  • Political Resolutions #1 (Eco-socialism, Housing, Internationalism, Antiracism)
  • Political Resolutions #2 (Labor, Immigrants’ Rights, Gender, Criminal Justice Reform)

At-Large Delegate Elections

Voting for at-large delegates ended 6/2. Elected delegates were notified by email on 6/7. More information, including the results and voting process, is available here. The candidate nomination period closed May 10.

National Political Committee (NPC) Elections for 2019-2021

The nomination period for NPC candidates ended June 16th.

We held three NPC candidate forums on Zoom. Each call featured a different group of candidates. Members received a form to submit questions in advance. The calls were recorded, and videos were posted on the Discussion Board, emailed to everyone who RSVPd, and emailed to all delegates.

You can find a description of NPC member responsibilities here and more info about the NPC election here.

Simplified Convention Budget (updated 7/12)

You can find a simplified budget as of 7/1 for the National Convention here.

Apportionment Ratio

In 2019, chapters will be able to send one delegate to the national convention per every 51 members in good standing. The NPC has apportioned 100 at-large delegate seats for members who are not in a chapter. At-large members and members of Organizing Committees were eligible to run for one of the 100 at-large delegate seats.

Postponing the DSA Political Platform Process

At their April 2019 meeting, the NPC decided to postpone development of a political platform and instead propose to the 2019 convention a resolution calling for a two-year long process to develop a political platform for DSA to debate and adopt at our 2021 convention. You can read more details here.

Important Dates