MYD Officer Application To be voted on at the January MYD General Meeting Submitted applications (not including contact information)

will be available on gomyd.com for the membership to view no later than one week prior to the election. Applicants must be a 2014 dues paying member Please submit to president@gomyd.com no later than two weeks prior to the January MYD General Meeting Name: John Bartos Position Running For: Treasurer E-Mail: john.bartos@gmail.com Phone Number: 917-363-7420 Occupation: MBA candidate at Fordham University MYD events attended in 2013: Engendering Progress, Young Gets It Done, MYD Straw Poll, Holiday Party, Summer Party, Minimum Wage Panel, Open Seat Project information sessions, MYD general meetings (February through July, September) Please answer the following questions. 1) What is your vision for the Manhattan Young Democrats for 2013? Give some concrete examples of initiatives you would like to undertake before the end of the year. I believe that civic/political education has traditionally one of the strongest aspects of MYD's mission, and I'd like to see that continue in the new year. We always have a ton of progressiveminded New Yorkers who know about MYD and turn out to the monthly meetings, and I think that our organization serves an invaluable role in informing people about the political process in NYC and its various institutions, i.e. community boards, local Democratic clubs, the county party, etc. I think that MYD has done some great work just in the past year alone through the development of its policy platform, as well as engaging our local elected officials to come out and debate/discuss policy issues with our membership in forums and panels, and I hope to see more of this in 2014. Our organization has been a great facilitator for people who want to be more involved in the political process and who are not sure where to start, especially in this overwhelmingly Democratic city. Fortunately, there's never a shortage of issues or campaigns to get involved in here or the greater New York State area, and people can come to MYD to learn about how they can be personally active in an issue they care about, or become passionate about something they weren't even previously aware of. One issue I care greatly about is the current leadership in the New York State Senate, which in spite of a nominally Democratic majority, remains in the control of Republicans who have time and again thwarted the passage of progressive legislation.

A few years ago, MYD was invaluable in calling attention to so-called "Democratic" State Senators who threw control of the chamber to Republicans for greater personal power, and I hope MYD can bring light to the current situation as it did then. 2) Why do you think youre a good fit? Please list relevant experiences you would draw from and strengths you could bring to the position you are running for. As Political Director for MYD in 2013, I ran the most recent iteration of the Open Seat Project and fielded approximately 80 MYD members to serve on New York County Democratic Committee by building up relationships with the various Democratic clubs of Manhattan and strengthening existing ties. Even though this was my first year as a member of MYD, I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people and really got a sense of what MYD is all about. Although I have never previously served as treasurer of an organization, I am well familiar with the duties of the position and have been in close contact with the two most immediate predecessors in this role at MYD. While some may think that the sole purpose of the treasurer to safeguard the money, it is also important to be a diligent record-keeper and administrator when it comes to filing the disclosure reports lawfully required of MYD as a political committee. Beyond that, as one of the four Officers of Manhattan Young Democrats, the Treasurer represents the organization wherever he/she goes and is expected to promote and portray MYD in a positive light, and I believe I am prepared to do this. 3) Serving on the executive board of MYD is a significant time commitment. How committed will you be as a member -- how would you be able to fit your leadership responsibilities within your current schedule? Please list your commitments outside of your employment (i.e. leadership positions in other clubs). Great question. It does indeed require a lot of careful balancing of personal and professional responsibilities, and in addition to my current role as MYD's Political Director, I am also a member of Manhattan Community Board 8 and sit on the executive board of the Lexington Democratic Club. Running the Open Seat Project was practically a full-time job in and of itself, and while I found that juggling all of these duties was exceedingly difficult at times, I also learned a lot about how to manage the different commitments during this process. Also, while the responsibilities of the Treasurer require diligence and fastidiousness, it is not as intensive or all-consuming in the way that Open Seat Project is, so the change in work load will definitely work to my advantage (though I'd definitely love to lend a helping hand to whoever runs Open Seat in 2015!) I can confidently say that, if elected to the position of Treasurer, I will be dedicated to this role, and will be a constant presence in the Manhattan Young Democrats. 4) What 3 (three) issues would you consider most important to New York?

Campaign finance reform, campaign finance reform, and campaign finance reform. In all seriousness, economic development and affordable housing are my #2 and #3 issues. Campaign finance reform is critical and something that MYD should highlight more often. Under the current system, we have state legislators taking money from corporate donors in exchange for introducing laws that would adversely affect New York City residents who are not part of these legislators' constituencies in upstate New York. Instituting real campaign finance reform would go a long way toward fixing this serious problem. It's also important to think about how to revitalize New York State's economy as a whole. I doubt that the recent ballot initiative to build casinos will do much to address this issue, and hydrofracking is absolutely the wrong path to go down. Affordable housing in NYC is something I consider equally important to the first two issues I mentioned, especially as more and more of the city's housing stock becomes deregulated; fortunately, we have a Mayor-elect who has said that this will be a priority in his administration, and I look forward to seeing what plans he puts forth in this regard. 5) What do you see as the biggest challenge to engaging young voters? In broad terms, how can we make changes to correct it? Apathy. As I noted in my answer to #1, we live in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, and thus many people choose to stay home during election day because they believe that their vote will not make a difference, which is absolutely not the case. The thing I notice most often in talking to my peers is that even though they generally espouse political values that are in line with the Democratic party, they are not registered party members because they don't want to be affiliated one way or another. That aside, the fact that there have been such low turnouts in recent election cycles among the population of registered Democrats in NYC is, in my opinion, a bigger problem; I frankly don't know where to begin in terms of changing this, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done to increase voter turnout. 6) (Optional) Is there anything else you think MYDs membership and leadership should know about you before reviewing your application? I just want to say thank you to anyone who is taking the time to read my application and will be considering whether to vote for me in this position. Regardless of whether I am successfully elected as Treasurer, I look forward to seeing everyone in MYD next year and making our group more successful than ever.