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

!ill be available on gomyd"com for the membership to vie! no later than one !ee# prior to the election" Applicants must be a $%&' dues paying member Please submit to president@gomyd.com no later than two weeks prior to the January MYD General Meeting

(ame) Andrew Goldston *osition +unning ,or) Secretary -.Mail) agoldston@gmail.com *hone (umber) ///.///.//// Occupation) ommunications Director! Senator "i# $rueger %D&Manhattan'

MYD events attended in $%&0) lots( )ncluding but not limited to* YG)D! Primary Straw Poll! +irst ,-- Days! most general meetings and board meetings! etc. *lease ans!er the follo!ing 1uestions" & 2hat is your vision for the Manhattan Young Democrats for $%&03 Give some concrete e/amples of initiatives you !ould li#e to underta#e before the end of the year" +irst and .oremost! )/m committed to e0ecuting the secretary/s primary duties* keeping track o. the club/s in.ormation and logistics! .rom meeting minutes to membership lists. 1ut beyond the basics! there/s two categories o. pro2ects ) want to undertake! one speci.ic to the role o. secretary and3or how the club runs! and the other more programmatic. 4ere are a .ew e0amples* (uts.and.bolts pro4ects) +evie! ho! !e organi5e our lists" )/d like to conduct a re5iew o. how our membership and email lists are maintained and organi#ed! and recommend some changes to increase e..iciency and help us better engage and communicate with the membership. +evie! ho! !e run our meetings" )/d like to work with the president and elected o..icers to re5iew how we run our membership meetings and board meetings! to help increase e..iciency and member engagement. +evie! ho! our rules !or#" 6orking with the president! elected o..icers! and any other interested members! )/d like to go o5er our charter and bylaws and de5elop recommendations to clean up or amend pro5isions that might need some tweaks. 7here are also policies that don/t e0ist on paper yet in a .ew areas that we may want to establish! such as .ormal guidelines on how

the club manages its .unds. ) don/t want to propose any speci.ic policies on these 8uestions mysel.! and any proposals should be the result o. an inclusi5e process 9 but as someone with se5eral years on the board! ) may be a good person to help .acilitate the discussion. ) know these nuts&and&bolts pro2ects are not super e0citing! so )/m not going to dump walls o. te0t here! but i. you want to discuss this in more detail! shoot me a te0t or gi5e me a call( My phone number is :,;& ;<-&;=:>. *rogrammatic pro4ects) 6obby training" )/m particularly e0cited the prospect o. putting together a lobbying training .or our members! hope.ully leading into one or more lobby days .or our members to speak with elected o..icials this year. 6everaging the MYD policy agenda" MYD and our issue committees did a great 2ob putting together a good policy agenda! but )/d like to work with the political3communications team to .ind more ways to le5erage that policy agenda during the course o. the year. -lection.year activism" State elections are this year( MYD has a tremendous capacity to put young people on the doors and the phones in key races throughout the downstate region! and when we do! people notice( ) want to work closely with the o..icers and the political team to help target the best opportunities .or MYD to make a di..erence and mobili#e members into electoral acti5ism this cycle. $ 2hy do you thin# you7re a good fit3 *lease list relevant e/periences you !ould dra! from and strengths you could bring to the position you are running for" As one o. MYD/s longest&ser5ing board members! ) hope to bring institutional memory and e0perience to the table as one o. the club/s .our elected o..icers. ) belie5e in MYD and its mission! and ) count many o. our most acti5e members among my .riends and political collaborators. Gi5en my past e0perience in the political! communications! and new media roles on our board! ) think )/m well&e8uipped to assist with pro2ects that cut across these roles. 0 Serving on the e/ecutive board of MYD is a significant time commitment" 8o! committed !ill you be as a member .. ho! !ould you be able to fit your leadership responsibilities !ithin your current schedule3 *lease list your commitments outside of your employment (i"e" leadership positions in other clubs " ) ha5e no leadership positions in other clubs 9 MYD will be my .irst priority! second only to the go5ernment and political work ) do on behal. o. Sen. $rueger. ' 2hat 0 (three issues !ould you consider most important to (e! Yor#3 Go5ernment Accountability and ?e.orm 9 this remains the linchpin .or winning a better! more progressi5e state legislature and better policy in a host o. areas. Albany/s dys.unction and corruption are the reason we continue to ha5e rent laws that are too weak! a minimum wage that/s too low! a ta0 structure that isn/t progressi5e enough! etc@ 7he combination o. generali#ed Albany dys.unction %e0* how do we not ha5e an independent budget o..iceA' and the legali#ed corruption o. our campaign .inance

system make it incredibly hard to do good things and incredibly easy .or well&heeled special interests to wield outsi#e in.luence. 7ransportation 9 a key .actor .or our economy as a whole! and .or the economic mobility o. young! lower&income! and middle&class Bew Yorkers. Mass transit is the economic engine that dri5es our economy. 6e need dramatically more .unding .or the M7A and ma2or mass transit e0pansions! and political change is the only way to get it. 4ousing 9 this is a personal issue .or most o. us. BY /s housing shortage is insane. C5en .or those young people entering solidly middle&class or upper&middle class careers! when you/re a young pro.essional it/s somewhere between hard and impossible to .ind a..ordable housing. And both our demographic/s 8uality o. li.e and the city/s economy su..er as a result. 9 2hat do you see as the biggest challenge to engaging young voters3 :n broad terms; ho! can !e ma#e changes to correct it3 DCngaging young 5otersE seems 5ery broad and can mean a lot o. di..erent things. 1ut in terms o. engaging 5oters in our target demographic in the local political process and acti5ating them so they can ha5e a more acti5e role in local politics! ) think there are two ma2or barriers* rele5ance and access. Anyone! young or old! needs to ha5e a reason to engage. And particularly .or those raised in the era o. national cable tele5ision and the internet! there/s a 5ery national .ocus and a 5ery and oppositional! partisan! #ero&sum spin gi5en to politics as many o. us are introduced to it. 7he result is we/re con.ronted with twin challenges to the rele5ance o. local political engagement* .irst! many don/t understand that local go5ernment really does matter and really does a..ect our li5es as much i. not more so than the .ederal go5ernment! and second! many are turned o.. o. partisan politics entirely by the boiled&down way our media treats partisanship. +or these reasons! lots o. younger .olks write o.. local politics as irrele5ant. At the same time! local politics can be e0tra inaccessible to youth. 7he local club system has been diminishing in rele5ance .or some decades! but to the e0tent that it still e0ists %and here in the city! it surely still does'! it is almost entirely about geography. 1ut as young people! we mo5e around a lot. So we/re cut o.. %or think we are' .rom one o. the main traditional gateways into local acti5ism 9 and because we mo5e around! the clubs don/t work hard to seek us out. )t/s a mutually rein.orcing problem. At the same time! the shrinking o. local news in ma2or outlets has le.t another gateway into local politics attenuated. orny as it sounds! organi#ations like MYD are the solution to some o. these problems. 6e pro5ide an easy&access .unnel .or interested young people to enter a political scene that might otherwise be hard to .ind .or outsiders. 6e in5ite in young people more or less without regard .or geography! introduce them to the club system! local electeds! and local issues. 6e make it easy .or them to engage in local politics! acti5ism! and campaigns. And in pro5iding that access! we also put on display how local politics can indeed be rele5ant to them. 6e/5e been pretty success.ul at this in the past .ew years 9 but we can do e5en better by more success.ully marketing our club outside its traditional membership base. 7hat means .inding producti5e ways o. including those younger than their mid&<-s! and meaning.ully e0panding our membership and relationships in northern Manhattan.

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