As some of you may have noticed, our website is constantly evolving and adding new features to make information more accessible to our members. So I advise you to spend a few minutes to look around the site and discover some of our new features.
The picture of the day is President Obama and our next Associate Justice of the SCOTUS, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
In other news, the Executive Board has decided to move our weekly meetings to the 1st, 3rd, and last Mondays of every month, so that we will not overlap with the meetings of other Democratic clubs throughout Indianapolis. We have also moved the start times of the meetings to 7 pm in order to better accommodate our Guest Speakers. Our first General meeting will be on Tuesday, August 25th at 7 pm in the Schwitzer Basement (The exact room and Guest Speaker is TBA). Our first General Meeting on the new schedule will be on Monday, September 7th at 7 pm.
We are still looking for volunteers for the UIndy Life Expo and Welcome Week Circus, both are on August 21st. Let us know if you are interested in volunteering for this, so we can add you to the list. A list is also being made of club members who are wanting to attend the One City Indy Youth Rally and/or the Marion County Democratic Clubs Unity Picnic both are on August 23rd, we are hoping to get people to volunteer to carpool other members from the campus to these 2 very important events.
The Executive Board is meeting on Wednesday afternoon to discuss things and to work on getting things prepared for the beginning of the year. The results of the meeting will be posted on here and anyone that wants to attend the Executive Board meeting is more than welcome to because we believe in transparency, so just let us know and we can provide the details to you. This school year should be a very good year for the UIndy College Democrats and we want all members to be actively involved, because without you, we are nothing!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend and that everyone is enjoying their summer break! Summer is more than half way over and classes will be starting again before we know it!
There is so much news to talk about so let's get to it! A new feature we are starting today with every new post is the picture of the day. The picture of the day, today, is President Obama meeting with the Russian President Medvedev.
On August 23rd is the One City Indy Youth rally from 5 to 7 pm. They are needing volunteers to help out with things, and ICCD will be having a booth there that we need people to come and work at, so any volunteers can let me know that they want to help out. It is in the afternoon, and we want everyone club member to show up, and I hope to have carpooling going on from UIndy to the IUPUI track stadium where the rally is taking place. Don't forget, it is going to be the state's largest youth rally and we will be setting 2 world records at it!
Also on August 23 from noon to 4 pm at Garfield Park is the annual Democrats Clubs Countywide Picnic. All of the city's Democrats clubs will be taking part in it along with UIndy's College Democrats Club and hopefully even ICCD. There will be plenty of elected officials there along with many party members and activists, so feel free to come join in on the festivities.
After talking to IUPUI's College Democrats, they are on board for ICCD and the Constitution for it has been written. We are still working on contacting the College Democrats at Butler and Marian Universities to get them involved in it. More information on the details of meetings and such will be posted in the coming weeks when more details have been worked out.
The UIndy College Democrats Constitution has been amended for the first time since 2005, and it has had a major overhaul, that was quite necessary. The Executive Board will be getting together soon to discuss it and then at our first meeting of the new year, the General membership of the club will be allowed to vote on the approval of the amendments.
We are signed up to have a booth at the UIndy Welcome Week Circus on August 21st, we are going to be having a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey and we will also be recruiting new members, fundraising, and registering Marion County residents to vote. We also are set to have a booth at the UIndy Life Expo, and we will be needing volunteers for both events. Please let me if you are wanting to volunteer.
The National Convention for College Democrats of America is July 23rd through the 26th, and our President, Christopher Jackson, will be attending and representing the UIndy organization at it. He is also a candidate for the CDA Director of Political Affairs, so please wish him luck on this!
There are some details to discuss at the first meeting of the year, along with the amendments to the constitution, including the night of the week that we will be meeting, if we are going to go to a schedule of 3 meetings a month, guest speakers (who I have been hard at work recruiting), and planned activities and functions for the year, the selection of Committee Chairpersons, and much more. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday August 25th, and we hope to see everyone there, and free food will be provided at the meeting! I will send out an email to everyone when the date of the first meeting is finalized.
Yesterday, Tuesday June 8th, Mr. Jackson spoke at the Decatur Township Democrats Club and their Club President, Jon Easter, proposed that they waive the membership fee for any young Democrat that is under the age of 25. Mr. Easter's proposal passed, and thus that makes the Decatur Twp. Democrats Club, the third Democrats club in the areas surrounding the UIndy campus to waive fees for young members. This is a very, very good thing because it demonstrates how vital the youth movement is to these clubs. I think State Representative Candidate, Timothy Huber, said it best last night at the Decatur meeting to the club members, "We aren't getting any younger, and these kids are the future of this club!"
We need to become more involved in the community and in these local clubs, if we ever want to be taken seriously and have a role in local politics. So please, feel free to join other club members at these meetings, it will mean alot for their organizations. The Decatur Club, beings it is my home township club, also appointed me as the Chairman of their Youth Committee, in order to try to get more youth involved.
Later this week, I will post more about our newly amended organizational constitution and in coming weeks, news about the Indianapolis Coalition of College Democrats and our participation in UIndy Life Expo, Move-in Day, and the UIndy Circus Welcome Week activities will be posted.
Please feel free to post comments below and let me know what you think about this developing news, or about any ideas you have for the club!
Last night, June 3rd, Mr. Jackson, our Club's President and a Candidate for Indpls. City-County Council, spoke at the meeting of the Southside Democrats Club, about the impact that young Democrats will have in keeping Indiana blue in future elections. He also spoke about the soon-to-be-created Indianapolis Coalition of College Democrats, his brainchild and something that more information will be posted on here about in the near future. The Southside Democrats Club held a vote to waive the membership fees for College Democrats, and the vote passed unanimously to allow the fee to be waived. This is very important news, because this makes 2 very important city Democrat clubs that have hopped on the banwagon and have recognized that young members are vital for their organizations, and Indianapolis' future. We should be very appreciative of what these clubs are doing, because they are going out on a limb to let us know that they are welcoming us with open arms to their groups.
Next Monday, June 8th, Mr. Jackson will be attending his home township club, the Decatur Twp. Democrats Club, and making a brief speech on UIndy College Democrats, ICCD, the youth vote, and his candidacy for Indpls. City-Council. The Decatur Twp. Club is working very hard with Mr. Jackson, and it would be nice to have some of our UIndy members attend this meeting to show support for Mr. Jackson's campaign to increase youth influence and engagement in the Indianapolis Democratic community, and there is the potential for some very important announcements to be made at this meeting regarding these things. For more information about this meeting, check out the Decatur Twp. Democrats Club page at:
http://www.decaturdemocrats.blogspot.com/, or email Christopher Jackson at:
chljackson@uindy.edu.
Btw: How does everyone like the new logo that I created for the club? Leave comments below and let me know!
On May 28th, our organization's President, Christopher Jackson, spoke at the Perry Township Democrats Club on behalf of UIndy College Democrats. He discussed the vital role that young Democrats have in the community and how we can help further the Democratic cause in the city. He also spoke of the creation of the Indianapolis Coalition of College Democrats, something he hopes to have established by the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.
The most important news that comes from this function is that the Perry Twp. Club voted unanimously to waive their membership fee to any new members that are college students, in an attempt to stimulate the youth movement and encourage young Democrats to join their clubs. It has also been mentioned that Perry Twp. Democrats would like for us to oversee the elections in 4 precincts that surround and include the UIndy campus, but this idea is still in its infancy and might not materialize.
Tomorrow, June 2, Mr. Jackson will be speaking at the Southside Democrats Club about UIndy College Democrats. His hope is that the Southside Democrats Club will also vote to waive their membership fee for college students that wish to join their organization. He hopes to extend this momentum to other area Democrat clubs and to have UIndy Democrats become vital members of these organizations. If you would like to attend the Southside Democrats club meeting to show support for your UIndy Democrats or would like to join the Perry Township Democrats club, email Christopher Jackson for more information at
chljackson@uindy.edu.
