Advisory notice: YDWA General Board Advises Change to Executive Board Positions

At the upcoming Bellingham convention, the YDWA general board will propose an amendment to the YDWA constitution. We would like to split the Vice President of Political and Legislative Affairs into two positions: “Vice President of Policy and Legislative Affairs” and “Campaign Director.”

In the past this role has been covered by two separate executive board members, so this is not a new concept. The reason we would like to split the position in two is to create greater capacity for each role, and have a position solely devoted to campaign efforts.

The current language is:

• d. Vice President of Political & Legislative Affairs: Shall direct the organization’s involvement in political campaigns, shall direct legislative action and lobbying efforts on behalf of the organization, and shall chair the Political & Legislative Affairs Committee. Shall be responsible for all activity related to the organization’s political involvement in federal campaigns including campaign targeting and state-wide campaign invasions, shall be responsible for the organization’s federal legislative involvement and action on the federal level included issue awareness and legislative advocacy, shall serve as the liaison to all federal campaigns, federal elected officials and their respective offices.

The new proposed language is:

• d. Vice President of Policy & Legislative Affairs: Shall direct legislative action and lobbying efforts on behalf of the organization and shall chair the Political & Legislative Affairs Committee. Shall be responsible for the organization’s state and federal legislative involvement and action including issue awareness and legislative advocacy.
• e. Campaign Director: Shall direct the organization’s involvement in political campaigns and chair the Campaign Committee. Shall be responsible for all activity related to the organization’s political involvement in federal campaigns including campaign targeting and state-wide campaign invasions, and shall serve as the liaison to all federal campaigns, federal elected officials and their respective offices.

If you have suggestions or questions about this language, feel free to leave a comment on this post. We are sharing this advisory notice now, to give people the opportunity to oppose this change, and time to consider running for each position.

“Must dos” of each role in laymen’s terms:

VP of Policy and Legislative affairs: work with caucus chairs to create a legislative agenda, and organize our YDWA 2015 lobby day! Be available to work with caucus chairs who want to take a greater role in forming policy in their issue area.

Campaign Director: form a committee to decide our top five campaigns to focus on this year, and help coordinate one day of action for each. Be available to answer questions and encourage local chapters’ campaigns efforts.

*Not official until passed by the body at the YDWA convention