image via the ny times

My parents, especially my mom, helped inspire my passion for politics and staying on top of issues and current events. She has been active with environmental groups that try to educate the community about the issues that affect our health and safety. When I was in high school, I would join her at events and meetings.. and was very inspired by the passionate, hard-working people I met. One issue I learned a lot about, from a very early age, was that of radioactive waste transportation and “disposal.” It’s an issue that isn’t anywhere close to being resolved—even today. She also has been instrumental in helping me find informative and thought-provoking sources of news and opinion beyond the mainstream media.
My father has been an avid recycler as long as I can remember, and I’m keeping that tradition alive with my subway trips carting paper and plastics to recycling centers!

Jennifer, who just signed up to volunteer with The White Roof Project, has recently taken up the cause against Hydrofracking and urges everyone to see Academy Award nominated Gasland.

When she isn’t attending MYD events Jennifer can be seen on stage! After a sold-out, critically-acclaimed run at the Metropolitan Room in March, Jennifer will return for an encore engagement of her cabaret show on May 6th and 13th. Details are available at: www.jennifersheehan.com.

Member of the week will be on vacation next week! Do you know someone you’d like to highlight on our blog? Nominate them by emailing Taylor at taylor[@]gomyd[.]com

Prince had worked his way up to the Vice President of Finance in the Virginia Young Democrats when he moved to New York in 2006. Like many young people Prince balances political activism with a career and took some ‘time off’ during the 2008 election to focus on his professional development. Last year, when Prince joined MYD he found that his interests varied and attends several meetings and events a month. Democratic and American principals at their core inspire him to remain active.

My political beliefs are defined by the first line of US Constitution (We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure Domestic Tranquility, provide for the Common Defense, promote the General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America).

Providing for the general welfare means that everyone has the same opportunity to achieve their potential by ensuring everyone is treated equally and free from bigotry (as the Warren Court established, “separate is inherently not equal”), everyone is provide a solid basic and higher education, and that government does it’s part to balance out the macroeconomic business cycle that no individual can control by providing commonsense programs that help people as a crutch during hard times.

While in law school, I served as an intern in federal and state court. Upon graduation, I completed a public service fellowship in the Consumer Frauds Bureau of the N.Y.S. Attorney General’s office. At the AG’s office, I worked to prohibit unscrupulous businesses from selling products within the state so that New Yorkers would not fall victim to deceptive business practices. Additionally, I am helping my law school raise funds through our annual Public Service Auction to support students who will be taking unpaid public interest positions this summer.

That being said, Jeff is a Super-MYD member with various interest and is active in several committees. Really, why only pick one when there are so many issues worth devoting time to? Taking advice from his Grandmother Jeff can see how the various issues intertwine and depend on each others’ successes.

While attending MYD committee meetings I learned of specific issues such as hydrofracking in upstate New York, food inequality, gender inequality, and healthcare.
My grandmother used to tell me that nothing is more important than your health. I agree. Without good health, your dreams may go unpursued. I am presently thinking of local, state, and federal incentive based programs to encourage people to exercise. Looking ahead, it is my intention to work with fellow Manhattan Young Democrats to create greater awareness with regard to these issues in order to effectuate positive change.

Why not take Jeff’s lead and check out a few committee events and meetings? You can search through them HERE. You never know what you might find!

Do you have someone you’d like to nominate for MYD Member of the Week? Email me at taylor [at] gomyd.com!

Eric Katz is currently attending Cardozo Law School while simultaneously holding posts in various school organizations and as the Labor Caucus chair of NYSYD. There’s a calmness to Eric that would lead you to believe he’s not that busy until he casually mentions that he’s heading out of town for this or that conference, or he’s been granted this or that fellowship, or he’s working on a huge project for law school. Like many of us Eric was empowered by the elections of ’08, but he had started his political career earlier by writing about Congestion Pricing at The Albany Project. It was really only a matter of time before Eric was an active member of MYD.

But what’s really important to me isn’t how I first heard about MYD, it’s why I’ve stayed involved.  I’ve had the chance to go to a lot of political groups and talk with a lot of people involved in politics, and I’ve never met a more welcoming, open, and friendly group as MYD.  The atmosphere is unlike anything I’ve experienced in the political world.  People at MYD want to get to know you, befriend you, and get you involved.  They check their egos at the door and they work together to get stuff done while having a good time.  That’s the environment that keeps me coming back.

In the summer of 2010 at the NYSYD Convention Eric was elected Labor Caucus Chair, a cause that he has dedicated his studies to.

I’m a labor guy and I went to law school specifically to become a union-side labor lawyer. Unions and the labor movement are near and dear to my heart. My grandpa was a labor activist and communist and both of my parents have a lot of intimate experiences with unions on both sides of the table. We spend so much of the precious time of our lives at work, so justice and democracy on the job are crucial issues to me. If you have democracy on the job, you’ll always strive for democracy in all aspects of your life. And I truly believe that the labor movement is the best hope for workers to gain respect and justice in the workplace.

What’s so important to me about melding labor activism with young democrats is that too many of my generational colleagues don’t understand why labor is so important. We forget that the 8 hour day, the 5 day work week, and all sorts of benefits were forged on the backs of unions. We dismiss the notion of solidarity in the workplace and we assume that unions are for blue collar folks instead of those of us with secondary degrees. The fact is that labor and young professionals have all sorts of ideas and interests in common and we need each other. So in the long run, it’s critically important in my mind to help educate my fellow young democrats why labor is important to them.

With the current war against Organized Labor being waged in America it’s absolutely essential to have young people like Eric leading the march!

Do you have someone you’d like to nominate for MYD Member of the Week? Email me at taylor [at] gomyd.com!

Christina is a new member of MYD and already an active participant in the Women’s Issues Committee (she’s on the Host Committee for Engendering Progress, 2nd annual event to honor women thought-leaders, activists, and philanthropists on Thursday!) Christina was interested in joining MYD while at Barnard but didn’t think that she had the time to commit, and it’s no wonder! She was an active member of several clubs and organizations, holding several high positions (Vice President of Student Activities for one!) Christina moved to New York from San Diego in 2004. Right before the 2004 Presidential Election, which fell 4 days before her 18th birthday!

That fall, I remember buying a lot of Kerry/Edwards gear, and those essentially made up my wardrobe for about 2 months.  My favorite t-shirt was one that said “JFK in 2004″ – a shirt which I remember wearing during a GOTV canvassing trip in Pennsylvania in the few days leading up to Election Day 2004.  As a wide-eyed 17-year old who hadn’t had much exposure to politics, it was so exciting for me to be a part of that.  Since I couldn’t vote, the thing that I knew I could do was to make sure that other eligible voters did exercise their right to do so.

Community involvement is very important to Christina. During her time at Barnard she took a position at the New York Legal Assistance Group and the Family Law division of the Legal Aid Society, helping low-income New Yorkers. Afterward Christina worked at a Law Firm for two years, specializing in pro-bono cases and acting as a Mandarin Chinese interpreter for workers’ rights cases.

At the Legal Aid Society, I worked in Family Court, assisting with child protective and juvenile rights cases for low-income New Yorkers.  During those experiences, I felt that I was able to contribute somewhat to the greater community.  A person’s socioeconomic level should not prevent them from access to the assistance and resources that they deserve, and I’m glad that I was able to work in organizations that fought tirelessly to bring these rights and resources to the under-represented.

Christina’s passions and experience are too vast to list in full! Join her and the rest of the Women’s Issue Committee on Thursday at Engendering Progress to learn more about Christina and our other awesome new MYD Members!

Before moving here, people had always told me that New Yorkers were rude and constantly in a rush, but it wasn’t long before I realized what an unfair and exaggerated generalization that was.  People are always on the go here because they’re working for and towards something that they believe in.  It is this passion and drive that inspires me to be a better person, to speak up, to fight for what I believe in, and to never settle for mediocrity.  It’s in New York where I’ve really grown up, and come into my own.  It is New York that has taught me what kind of person I want to be.

Do you have someone you’d like to nominate for MYD Member of the Week? Email me at taylor [at] gomyd.com!

Julia Hanes grew up in a very political family in a suburb of Philadelphia. Politics were always a hot button issue at the dinner table and Julia has fond memories of filling out her first ballot and watching her father, Hon. D. Bruce Hanes being sworn in as Montgomery County’s Register of Wills. She’s even confessed that it was more exciting when President Obama won the election than when the Phillies won the World Series!

Julia moved to New York in 2000 to study Art History at NYU, during school she put politics on the back burner but in the past few years has picked up volunteering and political action again.

I joined because the members of MYD are very friendly and passionate people.  Most importantly, MYD is an open space for ideas and will encourage you to pursue any issue you feel strongly about.

Julia is a member of our newly founded Women’s Issues Committee, the committee is planning our Second Annual Engendering Progress event next Thursday at Marquee (tickets HERE). Women’s issues, specifically sexual health and crisis intervention are Julia’s focuses within MYD and her career path.

As a member of the Women’s Issues Committee and a volunteer for RAINN, I am very focused on the rights of victims.  Cutting funding to Planned Parenthood is not only detrimental to women who rely on those centers as their only resource for information on sexual health, but it is a slap-in-the-face to women who need emergency contraception and/or STD testing after being raped.  It is sad that people have focused on one big issue, but have forgotten about the already marginalized women they are hurting.

It’s also Julia’s birthday on Thursday! Happy Birthday Julia! See you next week!

Do you have someone you’d like to nominate for MYD Member of the Week? Email me at taylor [at] gomyd.com!

When Alex Muwu Li was three years old her parents left their fishing town in The People’s Republic of China to start a new life in New York City. Six years later, at the age of 9 Alex hopped on a plane, landed at JFK at 7am and has lived here ever since.

Alex thrives on the youthful energy of the city and doesn’t mind that being politically active (she worked on Paul Newell’s assembly campaign in 2008, and can be seen in THIS movie documenting the experience!) and socially conscious means that she gets very little sleep. “Go out and do things. Who needs sleep when they’re young? You’ll sleep when you die!” is what the little nagging voice in the back of her head tells her, and she does! Alex is active in MYD’s LGBT Issues committee (who will be getting together this Saturday!), an issue that she has been active in since attending The Beacon School on the Upper West Side.

With the help of my best friend, we brought the then defunct Gay Straight Alliance back into my high school. My favorite political moment happened back in 2006. On the annual day of silence, students and teachers voluntarily chose to remain silent in order to stand in solidarity with LGBT youths. The silence mimics the alienation that LGBT youths face everyday due to their identity. That day, our expectation was to maybe get 100 people to participate, so naturally we printed out 200 “silence pledge” cards just in case. We ran out of pledge cards before the doors to the school were even opened and we scrambled to print out more as the word spread even further by first period. By our count, we had close to 500 participants and 10 teachers who taught “silent classes” because we had encouraged them to do so beforehand. In a school usually filled with nearly 1,000 chattering teenager during breaks between class time, walking down the halls that day was to put it mildly, eerie because nearly half of the students body was silent, everyone else felt compelled to tone down their chatter. It felt so good to walk down those halls that day with my head held high because on that day, despite the fact that I was silent, I felt like I’ve never said so much in my life to my fellow classmates. The slight nod of the head to everyone wearing a “pledge card”… more meaning was conveyed in that single gesture of solidarity than in all my 4 years of knowing some of them, and it felt beyond great.

Join Alex along with other members of our LGBT Issues committee this Wednesday at the 5th Annual Women’s Awards at the Stonewall Inn.

Do you have someone you’d like to nominate for MYD Member of the Week? Email me at taylor [at] gomyd.com!

By popular demand we’re bringing back our Member of the Week! Each week we’ll be highlighting one of our amazing MYD members (check out past posts HERE).

Is there someone you’d love to learn more about? Someone who you know does fantastic work who you want to tell the world about? Do you want to nominate yourself? That’s great! Send me an email – taylor [at] gomyd.com – with the person’s name, contact info and a brief description of why you think they should be in the spotlight!

For you political nerds - here is a picture of me and Dule Hill (no big deal).

Today is my last day as MYD President! I can’t believe that my term is over, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone. The past three years that I have spent as a member of the MYD Executive Board have been way more than a volunteer experience. At times it has been a full time-job, at times a group of friends and even more times than that, it has been a family.

I wish I remembered what I typed into google in 2007 to find you guys. I think it was something simple like “Democrat Club NYC”. I never set out to be President, I never set out to be political actually. Until I started and realized how amazing it was to work with the people that MYD attracts. You are passionate, you are creative, you are so so smart. I remain in awe of you every day.

As my time as President winds down I keep thinking about November 4, 2008. I was sick, I was exhausted… we all were. I woke up, I voted, I took a deep breath and I said “Taylor, you didn’t do everything but you did as much as you could.” Then I met you at a bar, where I had told the owner we were bringing 250 people and he didn’t really believe me so he didn’t have the space ready. You crammed yourselves in, standing on staircases and leaning over banisters as the management went out and bought new televisions so you all could see. For as long as I live I will never forget when we won California. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, before I could register what I had just read I heard the cheering, like a thunder roll through the streets of New York City. Then I knew. What it meant for all of us that day was that if you have hope and you have love and you have a passion then you can do anything. That moment will live with me forever, because man, that was exciting. That’s why we do what we do everyday. Hope is our bread and butter.

We’ve tried to emulate that experience in small doses this year. I hope you felt empowered and excited. I am extremely proud of all the work we did together. I’m proud that we helped get good Democrats into the State Senate. I’m proud that we went to The Bowery Mission one weekend and scrubbed the staircases together, and everything in between.

Every time a new person walks through the door into an MYD meeting I remember when I walked through. I wasn’t sure what I wanted out of the experience, just excited to try something new, consider all expectations met and exceeded. It has been a fabulous adventure for me. I have changed so drastically and found so many new things about myself from being here with all of you.

Thank you for the challenge, thank you for your commitment and thank you for the opportunity.

You can reach me indefinitely at taylor@gomyd.com.

At our January meeting we have the ability to make a few changes to the MYD Constitution.  The Executive Board has worked together to craft the following changes that we feel help clarify certain aspects of MYD.

To summarize:

- Voting Policy: We are adding two subsections under Article III; Section II of the Constitution. First, we want to make sure no past MYD board member takes advantage of the MYD mailing list for campaigning purposes. Second, we are outlining the election procedure so there will be no confusion in the case of contested elections.

- IOC Chairs: In Article VII; Section I of the by-laws we are stating that IOC chairs are elected by members of their committee and they report to the Officers.  A new committee can be established if 6 MYD Members approach the Executive Board with the intent to form one and are approved.  The board will promote the first meeting of the committee, at which a Chair will be elected.

- Directors: In Article VIII; Section I of the by-laws we are adding in that Directors are appointed by, and report to directly to, the Officers.

Additionally, we will be clarifying the text so that “Officers” refer to the President, Executive Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer and “Executive Board” refers to Officers, Directors and IOC Chairs.

Full text after the jump, changes are in italics. Please let me know if you have any questions: president[at]gomyd[.]com.

Additions to the MYD Constitution

Article III
Section 2

The officers of the MYD shall be elected every year for one (1) year terms, commencing in January 2003. For the year 2002, officers will be elected within thirty days of the approval of the Constitution and By-laws of the Young Democrats of Manhattan County. Officers of the MYD must be members in good standing and submit a completed application consisting of answers to several questions posed by the current Executive Board, two weeks before the election. The answers to the application shall be made available to the general membership at least one week prior to the election.

a) The Executive Board will decide, at a meeting prior to the election, if candidates for MYD office will have access to the MYD membership list for the purpose of campaigning. If approved by the Executive Board, access to the list and permission to use the list must be afforded equally to all candidates for MYD office.

b) Nominations for candidates for officer positions shall be made from the floor with the consent of the nominee. In the case of an uncontested candidacy, the nominee has the option to address the membership. In the case of a contested candidacy, the President Emeritus (most recent past President) will randomly designate the order in which the candidates will speak. All candidates waiting to speak or having already spoken must be isolated from the membership meeting. Once each candidate has spoken, the President Emeritus shall declare the nomination period closed and distribute ballots to the members in good standing. All votes shall be cast in secret using the ballot as provided. The candidate with over 50% of the vote shall be declared the winner. If no one candidate receives over 50% of the vote, there will be a run-off election between the two top vote-getters. Votes shall be counted and certified by the President Emeritus along with a verifying agent designated by each of the candidates.

By-Laws

ARTICLE VII – STANDING COMMITTEES

Section 1
The standing committees of the Manhattan Young Democrats shall be: the Finance Committee, Healthcare Issues Committee, Economic Issues Committee, Community and Social Equity (CASE) Committee, Environmental Issues Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, Transportation Committee and Education Committee.

Section 2
Committee Chairs are to be elected by a vote of paid-MYD members at the first Committee Meeting after the General Election. If for any reason the Chair can no longer Chair the committee a vote will be held at the next available meeting. A new committee can be established if 6 MYD Members approach the Executive Board with the intent to form one and are approved.  The board will promote the first meeting of the committee, at which a Chair will be elected.

ARTICLE VIII – CABINET MEMBERS

Section 1
The cabinet may consist of the following Directors who are appointed by the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer after a call for submissions has been announced to the MYD Membership. Directors report directly to the Officers.