WHY A TRANSPARENCY PLEDGE
We, the authors, believe in transparency because it is the right thing to do, because DSA is a member-driven organization and every member deserves equal access to information. We wanted a way to express and share a commitment to building a better NPC with our comrades here regardless of the outcome of the convention. So, we developed this pledge as a way to accomplish it. While this isn’t a binding pledge, we thought it would help show the delegates and the membership what we believe is the right way to run an organization. We trust you, the membership, to be able to use the information to hold us, the candidates, accountable.
We submitted for consideration to all candidates between July 22nd and July 23rd, 2019 via email, twitter, the DSA national forum, and text message. The list of those signed on is current as of July 26th at 5PM ET.
Solidarity & Transparency,
Dan Q., Austin S., Michelle B., Emily C., Jen M., & Sauce
THE TRANSPARENCY PLEDGE
If elected to DSA’s National Political Committee, I pledge to lead with transparency even if transparency reforms do not pass on the convention floor. I will:
Minutes, Voting & Agenda
- Ensure the publishing1 of preliminary meeting agendas for all leadership body meetings if one has not already been posted, no less than 30 days prior to the meeting.
- Ensure final meeting agendas are published no less than 72 hours prior to the meeting.
- Ensure that either
- Minutes for all regular and special NPC and NPC/SC meetings are posted no more than 7 days following the meeting they record; or
- A notice is published that the minutes release has been delayed within 7 days following with an estimated time of publication and reason for delay.
- Maintain an open voting record, whether through roll call votes or publishing my votes, and shall make motions for roll call votes whenever permitted.
Meeting Norms
- Not abuse executive session by closing meetings except when legitimately required for confidentiality, by law or the National DSA Constitution & Bylaws, following proper order.
- Only take parliamentary action during regular session open to DSA’s membership.
- Refrain from holding NPC/SC calls, votes, or other discussions of official business outside of official NPC/SC meeting settings.
- Advocate that all regular and special meetings of the NPC and NPC/SC be treated as public to membership by default regardless of whether in-person or remote.
Administrative Transparency & Communication
- Publish thorough and adequate budget reports on time, including a summary every business quarter, and a detailed financial report every fiscal year
- Hold office hours remotely for 2 to 4 hours each month, which are scheduled at least two weeks in advance and published to membership.
- Commit to the work being done by the membership to improve the grievance process and handle those in a timely manner.
- Ensure that all audio communication is transcribed, and all text is translated into Spanish within a reasonable timeframe.
Footnotes
[1] Publishing, in this and all future references, means to a location that is accessible to all of the membership, ideally the discussion forum or a future membership portal.
NPC CANDIDATES SIGNED ON
- Austin S.
- Jen M.
- Emily C.
- Michelle B.
- Dan Q.
- Sauce
- Austin G.
- Kristian H.
- Lloyd G.
- Jen B.
- Jen S.
- Darby T.
- Ravi A.
- Russell W-I.
- Tawny T.
- Tim Z.
- Abdullah Y.
- Blanca E.
- Daniel M.
- Zac E.
- Erika P.
- Hannah A.
- Maikiko J.
Questions
Fill out a form here.