President's blog

Thank you for taking an interest in chartering your club with the Virginia Young Democrats!

The process is very simple and can be a great way to help your local club. VAYD can help connect your club with other young democrat clubs in the area to help make your impact that much more successful. VAYD can also help connect you with Democratic leaders here in Virginia.

All you need to do is fill out the form below and then attach the documents from the bottom. The documents below include:

• Officer List
  • We do not require any certain positions, simply list what the leadership is for your club.

• Membership List
  • We require that you have at least ten members with a name, email and birthday listed for all of them.

• Outreach Plan
  • Detailing how you plan to increase club membership and make your club accessible to all Democrats. A sample is below.

• Constitution
  • The document that governs your club operations. A sample is below.

Once you submit you should receive a follow-up e-mail from a member of the executive board telling you when we will vote to approve the application.

QUESTIONS?

For questions about the chartering process, please email VAYD Membership Director Trent Armitage at membership_director@vayd.org. If you would prefer to mail your charter application, please send it to:

Virginia Young Democrats
1710 East Franklin Street, 2nd Floor
Richmond, Virginia 23223

Courtesy of Politico, a bipartisan coalition of Virginia leaders (including Mark Warner, Jim Webb, and Tim Kaine) express their support for the Rehabilitation of Historic Schools Act. From the article:

"A few years ago, Richmond couldn’t afford to borrow the money to turn a deteriorated, Depression-era high school into a modern K-12 facility. But local leaders and the Richmond City Council devised a novel solution. If the private sector rehabilitated this city high school into a regionally operated, high-tech high school for the top students in central Virginia, this could technically be seen as a “new” use. The IRS agreed. Using the 1986 law, this formerly run-down school is now home to one of the highest-ranked U.S. public high schools.

With that in mind, we all support the Rehabilitation of Historic Schools Act, legislation that would eliminate this roadblock to school renovation and allow local governments to use the historic building rehabilitation tax credit. The legislation isn’t a silver bullet. But it is the only proposal before Congress to leverage private capital to help modernize our public schools."

Courtesy of the Associated Press, Rick Perry produces a verbal gem.

It's not surprising that the Republican Party has trouble reaching out to young voters when one of their leading voices forgets the 26th Amendment.

I just wanted to take a brief moment to thank each and every one of VAYD's chapters for their work this past campaign cycle. From Bristol City to the Eastern Shore, Arlington to Danville... we saw young people knocking on doors, making phone calls, and in many cases stepping up to run for office on behalf of the Democratic Party. Together, we helped individuals like John Miller, John Edwards, Creigh Deeds, George Barker and so many other strong advocates for the interest of young voters return to the General Assembly.

Courtesy of our friends at the Democratic Party of Virginia a sampling of George Allen's hypocrisy on the Ryan plan.

On September 26, Terry McAuliffe is opening his home for a Women of Truth and Courage Reception that is being thrown by the Farm Team.

There will be a special unveiling of Barbara Johns by "Americans who Tell the Truth" artist Richard Shetterly.

Barbara Johns, at the age of 16, led her classmates at Moton High School in Prince Edward County to protest segregation in Virginia's schools. Her action led to a lawsuit that was eventually incorporated with three other cases into Brown vs. Board of Education.