You see, at last nights weekly YDU meeting it was announced that YDA was insolvent – no money, no staff, no idea how they got into this situation. Now there is no excuse for a national Democratic group to go belly up, especially one that focuses on youth, and especially one that claimed so much success in getting President Obama elected. You see, the Young Democrats of America is the official arm of the Democratic National Committee, specifically designed to reach out to youth and get them involved in politics.
But, here we are, a national democratic organization goes belly up. Now as a board member for the Young Democrats of Utah (again we are under YDA) we were told of YDA’s financial trouble…oh, about three weeks ago. After a desperate, and apparently unsuccessful, fundraising drive, the status of our national organization is less than certain. Now YDA may be shaking its head, wondering what happened – but I think I have it figured out:
Leadership, or rather a lack there of. From the first time I ever attended a YDA conference, I was amazed to see the utter lack of desire for candidates to actually run an organization, rather they wanted to have something to put on their resume. Now I have to wonder if, under their job description, they will actually put “drove organization into the ground.”
But who is really harmed in all of this? Statewide organizations, such as YDU, who now have to pick up the financial burden YDA once agreed to cover. In Utah, for example, our Executive Director’s (who has catapulted YDU to the forefront of Utah Democratic politics) job has been put into mild jeopardy, all because YDA was not smart enough to know how to balance a budget. Now, don’t cry for our ED, our board made a commitment to shift everything around in order to keep him – but what of other states who have tighter budgets than ours? They will have to make some tough decisions.
Good job, Young Democrats of America – not only have you screwed your own personal careers over, but you have made things even more difficult for states such as Utah (where we have finally started to see some Democratic progress in elections) to make a change.
To this day, the YDA web site makes no mention of the mistake they made or how they intend to fix it. My fellow board members tell me that leaders have magically forgotten to turn on their phones over the last week – strong leadership indeed.
So, in closing, please let me make a plea for you to contribute to the Young Democrats of Utah. We are open and honest about how we intend to spend your money, and our track record speaks for itself.
