2026 Member Convention Bulletin

Issue #4 - Tuesday, May 5th, 2026

A message from the Co-Chairs

Comrades, 

At our last General Chapter Meeting we voted to set our chapter’s number one priority as getting Byron Sigcho-Lopez on the ballot as an independent in the IL-04 Congressional race this November. Members have collected thousands of signatures and turned out to an impressive number of canvassing shifts, hitting the pavement and knocking doors regularly since late February. But with just two weeks until petition filing opens for November, we are still short of the surplus of signatures required to ensure Byron is on the ballot and avoids any challenges. We need members to show up to canvass for Byron over the next two weeks. 

There are many reasons to come canvass right now. For one, it’s getting warmer! But also, canvassing is a major opportunity for our party to be out in the world talking to working class people about Byron, DSA, the issues that matter, and about democratic socialism. Meet comrades, have political conversations with strangers, and get some sun in too. What’s not to love? 

Never canvassed before? Don’t worry we have trainings before every canvass. Nervous? We’ll make sure you’re paired with a more experienced canvasser for your shift. Want to canvass on your own time, or find ways to help remotely? We can get your materials to canvass on your own, we have virtual phonebanks for canvass turnout, and we need help “curing” signatures heading into filing. 

There are many ways to help. Sign up here to get started.

In solidarity,

Lyra and Sean

Convention Updates 

Our Member Convention is just a month and one day away!

Help make our convention a success by signing up to volunteer day-of or by helping with planning in the lead up to the Convention by joining the GCM Subcommittee, which has its next meeting this Thursday, 7PM on Zoom.

Important Deadlines to Remember:

• Saturday, May 16th: Bylaw amendments due

• Sunday, May 17th: Officer nominations open

• Friday, May 22nd: Resolutions due

• Saturday, May 23rd: Draft agenda released

• Sunday May 24th: Officer nominations close

• Tuesday, May 26th: Officer candidates announced

• Friday, May 29th: Resolution amendments due

• Saturday, May 30th: Revised agenda released

Key Links:

• Proposal submission form

• Volunteer sign up form

• RSVP form

• Microsite with all info

Member Submissions 

Last week’s discussion prompt: Over the past year Chicago DSA has experienced tremendous growth, yet developing both a middle layer of organizing and maintaining a leadership bench has remained a challenge.

How would you like to see the chapter develop our newer members? In what ways can we empower newer members to feel confident in taking on bigger roles, and how can we work to increase delegation and communication throughout all levels of membership and engagement?

Devin Sugerik, Northside Blue Line Branch

I think after a DSA 101 and 102, new members should be directed to one-on-one with an experienced member as a prescribed next step, rather than a tertiary option for a new member to search out for themselves. I think these one-on-ones should be an opportunity for a new member to be shown/explained the Chicago DSA structure, express their interest in any specific movement or initiative, and share any relevant skills that might make them uniquely suited to a specific role (i.e. public speaking, election organizing, social media management, graphic design, extensive familiarity with theory, speech writing, administrative organizing, strike/labor organizing). That way people will feel less "thrown into the pool" if they already have relevant skills and experience with a specific working group.

Leonard Pierce, Northside Blue Line Branch

The first step is attending meetings. Spending time with comrades in person is the best way to find out what work is being done and what might suit you best. A great place to test out your capacity and interest in leadership is at branch meetings (regional, labor or YDSA), since they always have low-effort tasks that need doing. Plugging into one of the more active sections like Communications, Member Engagement, Logistics & Planning, or Political Education is also an excellent path to becoming more engaged in the chapter. Finally, the best socialists are ones who are socialists for life! Many members who have been engaged with Chicago DSA would be happy to have one-on-one meetings with you or even mentor you, so don’t be shy about reaching out — there’s no substitute for experience!

Tom B, Northside Blue Line Branch

I'm a newer member. I live in Lincoln Square. Every DSA event I've attended was at least a 30 minute commute. It's long enough to be prohibitively annoying, and I'm sure other members have it worse than me. The branches are just too big to be the most local organ of outreach. 

That's not just a convenience issue; it's an organizing gap. DSA should have organizers across the city hosting local meetings and socials. I'd be much more likely to keep up with DSA priorities if I learned about them at a small group of my neighbors than via email. Lincoln Square's socials are a good example of this kind of organizing, but of course they're just casual events. In addition to being an easier onramp for new members, local outreach is a talent development pipeline. Organizing a local group gives members who wish to take on more responsibility or burnish their leadership credentials an opportunity to prove themselves. To get new members and keep them involved, DSA should feel like it's in our backyards, composed of our neighbors, and led by people we know. 

Jerry Harris, Northside Blue Line Branch

Burnout is always an organizational problem. Taking on too much work, not getting enough support, having a bad interaction with another member, personal problems in one's life, etc. All of these call for different types of solutions. But one thing I've found helpful is a life long commitment to socialism, understanding it will have ups and downs, and it's alright to take personal time when needed. Having meaningful relationships with comrades that go beyond a political relationship, a feeling of community, knowing your contributions matter and being told so  -- all these things help. Furthermore, a firm belief in the justice of our cause, an honest recognition of our problems and flaws, taking the long view, and making socialism fundamental to your identity  -- it's just who you are -- will help sustain you through the years.

Silvia O, Northside Blue Line Branch, Revolution! Caucus

The most important thing we can do to develop newer members is give them their own, small tasks to take on and own. I myself was developed by taking on tasks in the Unite + Fight campaign last year plus taking on re-starting the chapter's tabling at farmer's markets. This naturally lead into my NSBL SC role, a steady escalation of responsibilities. That said, the NSBL SC position was also an EC position, and while I rose to the challenge due to support from other comrades in the same position, most of our several EC members that resigned this term had never held a position in the chapter before being rocketshipped up to the highest and most intense leadership positions.

We need to build out the middle layers of the chapter with escalating levels of responsibility. Chapter bodies should be encouraging new members in their meetings to take on small tasks and own them and resist the temptation for the SC to do everything themselves. Even if the SC as chapter leaders could do the task better or faster, it is better to let a new member do badly or even fail but then do better in the future than to just have the task done. Next, low level positions of responsibility. Labor Branch has done an excellent job with this in their Strike Captains, branches with their "organizing committees", and the Byron Campaign has greatly expanded on this with encouraging members to become canvassing leads. Finally the highest "middle layer" still below the EC is the various Steering Committees of chapter bodies. We should amend branches to separate their Steering Committees from the EC, allowing people to take on leadership of branch work which usually requires little to no organizing experience compared to leading a WG but instead can provide experience that is useful such as organizing and chairing meetings and setting up low stakes events and activities.

Rachel Monk, Northside Red Line Branch

During my time on the NSRL branch leadership, we significantly increased our member engagement and became much less siloed from the rest of the chapter. We formed an organizing committee which meets once per week to plan the monthly branch meeting and handle branch logistics, and an agitprop network made up of neighborhood-based "cadres" who carry out on-the-ground work like flyering and outreach as well as hyperlocal social events. Our organizing capacity is night and day compared to September; our middle-layer folks are stepping up to take on larger leadership roles, and newer members are taking their place in the middle layer.  

But this wasn't solely a matter of "if you build it, they will come." God knows we had our share of "organizing committee" meetings in the fall to which not a single person outside of steering showed up! We had plenty of people attending branch meetings, but steering struggled to delegate tasks to others, because the core tasks of running a branch took up most of our capacity, and developing those relationships is itself real work that requires its own capacity. The change didn't happen overnight; it was a painstaking process of problem-solving, small wins, and taking the time (always a scarce resource!) to really get to know our members and identify rising leaders. 

While structure is very important, I think some crucial prerequisites to this type of growth are also cultural. Are we approachable to newcomers? Can we clearly articulate our role in the chapter's external goals to our members? Are we deliberating openly and productively, or is the actual content of the discussion being subsumed by procedure? Is this a space where women's and men's labor and perspectives are treated equally? Do people of color or others from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the chapter feel a sense of belonging here? Etc.

Sean Duffy, Northside Blue Line Branch, Bread & Roses Caucus

Chapter leaders: do less to do more. 

Whenever a task arises, ask yourself: “is this something that only I can do?” If the answer is no, delegate that task to someone lower down the “ladder of engagement”. This is easy to say and harder to do, but you can and need to do it. 

“But Sean if I don’t do it then it A) won’t get done, B) won’t get done well, and/or C) will take much longer than if I just did it.” 

Yes. Don’t do it anyway. Whatever short term trouble comes with training another member to do a task will ultimately be outweighed by the long-term impact of 1) you as a leader doing less, and 2) others who are less involved doing more and learning from it. 

Example: earlier this year I started a Northside Blue LIne Branch book club. For the first session, I did everything. For subsequent sessions though, tasks were divided and delegated among participants. I made this easier for the group by including a task list at the bottom of the agenda for every session with time allocated to go through it to close out every club meeting. 

At least once I had to tell the group “if no one else can pick up X task, we will need to cancel”; and then someone finally volunteered. Sometimes no one will volunteer and you will in fact need to cancel or scale back the thing you wanted to do. That’s OK. Remember: the goal isn’t to just get a thing done. The goal is to get the thing done in a way that builds the party.

Your corner of the chapter can do this too. Start with this training and worksheet: tinyurl.com/Chicago DSAgetitdone 

Will B, Northside Blue Line and Labor Branch

Developing new members, in my mind, means developing three particular attributes: expanding the ability and capacity of a member to do the work of organizing for socialism, deepening the level of a member’s political analysis as it relates to that work, and strengthening a member’s commitment to the socialist project and to DSA. Getting newer members involved in work that accomplishes the first, and ensuring they have the space to discuss that work in a way that accomplishes the second, will help to accomplish the third. Labor Branch’s strike solidarity work has long been really useful for this, with many Chicago DSA cadre over the last decade coming up through our support for strikes. Shout out to Mark, Ruby, Liam, Evelyn, and Ellie for leading our solidarity efforts on the UIC GEO strike!

Soren Fliegel, Northside Blue Line and Labor Branch

“Organizing fundamentals” would tell us that new members should be put under structure. They should have regular contact with more experienced members who check in on how they’re doing, answer questions, and provide guidance. Recent innovations from unions like the CWA and SBWU would place this member in a cohort with others in a similar position. There they would participate in organizing fundamentals training (EWOC?), political education, and develop relationships with others in their cohort as they get tapped into the chapter. 

Next, to combat feeling overwhelmed by the nature of an endless fight towards democracy and a socialist future, the developing member should be given a role in a discrete project. The struggle to organize Amazon is a great example (though no doubt at times it can feel overwhelmingly large as well). From the outside, organizing Amazon may seem like something reserved only for those who are able to take jobs as workers. However, there is certainly a large role for other DSA members to play as well! Look no further than the ASO program. Amazon Solidarity Organizers can work on anything ranging from smaller tasks for a new skill set, to large ongoing projects suited for veteran organizers–perfect as an onramp for new member development. In addition, Amazon organizing needs are vast; ASOs can fundraise, lobby, research, develop trainings, and even host events like the recently successful Jobapalooza to recruit workers and ASOs. 

This program is more than a fight to organize the largest private employer in Chicago, it is also an opportunity to build a fighting and militant chapter. Rather than scaling back leadership positions through EC reform, developing new members through struggle aims to bring new leaders into the fold who will have deep ties to ongoing projects and the rest of the chapter.

Jaclyn Hutchins,  Northside Blue Line Branch

I believe building personal relationships is the bridge between initial member interest and sustained membership engagement within Chicago DSA. I first engaged with Chicago DSA in 2020, however, my first meetings and interactions with comrades wasn’t until the September 2024 GCM. Then not until March 2025, while in a friendly environment, the intensity of debate and complexity of Robert’s Rules can feel intimidating. It’s not always the formal democratic processes or emails with weekly events that move people from paper members to leadership, but through small-group settings like Chicago DSA run club. The one-on-one connections established when taking an interest in someone's background and motivations, allow for shared values and experiences to come to light, ultimately leading to becoming more engaged and very active within Chicago DSA.

As Marshall Ganz outlines in People, Power, Change, relational power acts as the “glue" that converts casual into a deep, long-term commitment. Beyond just making someone feel welcome, building these relationships can serve as a primary tool for leadership development within Chicago DSA. If done correctly, we’re able to leverage two aspects: experienced members can identify a new member's personal motivations and skills to recruit and recommend areas of interest within Chicago DSA, ultimately lowering the barrier, and a new member has built the trust required to commit their time and energy into the organization.

Violet J, Northside Blue Line Branch, Revolution! Caucus

I increasingly believe that leadership development may be the most critical missing infrastructure in our chapter. Without the programs that turn new members into leaders, all other work will always suffer from a lack of available membership whom are committed to DSA and trained in the skills that make our work possible.

There are two main changes I'd like to see. First, I would call upon our wonderful Political Education and Membership Engagement committees to build further defined programming beyond the 101 and 102 that give clear paths forward to membership. Further programming should focus on transmitting skills from leadership to new members and building the ideological foundation that explains the necessity of the party.

Second, we as leaders must delegate as much of our work as possible. The initial cost of organizing and training is indeed higher than simply performing work on our own, but I think at this stage of party building we should see that work in membership development as more crucial to our roles than our assigned tasks.

Dallas “Sunshine” Knapp, Northside Red Line Branch

Something I’ve been reflecting on about Chicago DSA is that we have not reproduced ourselves; many of the people in leadership when I joined in 2019 are in leadership positions in 2026. We are a decade after Bernie’s first campaign for president and we have experienced much in our journey, but we have struggled to maintain recruitment of fellow travelers along the way. I think this is because we struggle to delegate work in a way which builds people up over time. I believe we can address this challenge through a dedicated practice of purposeful non-action: leaders should create space for other members to step up and develop organizing skills by doing something for themselves. If we create a supportive environment enabling action then members will engage in the process of self-organization.

Jamie W, Northside Red Line Branch, Groundwork Caucus

When I first joined Chicago DSA, my experience was not ideal. I often found myself in an endless series of meetings where I felt out of place, invisible, and unnecessary. Coming from organizing in deep red states, where your consistent membership could hover in the -teens instead of the hundreds, I learned organizing was relational to the core; every new person held potential you hadn't yet unlocked. No new organizer was worth wasting. Chicago DSA was comparatively disorienting, and I could not understand why I felt like, in a city with seemingly so much fight to have, I felt like I was begging for crumbs. None of this was the fault of my comrades, but rather the burnout of balancing leadership responsibilities with developing new leaders. While the Member Engagement Committee has made real improvements in the last year, I want to see these structures expanded into a chapter-wide culture of growth.

I’d suggest a three-pronged approach: First, more face-to-face interaction to build relationships and confidence among new members, including socials and DSA office hours where comrades can gather, work, ask for help, and plug into tasks across areas of work, experience levels, and viewpoints. Second, we should expect everybody in the chapter to have a system for delegating one-on-ones with new members when they attend their first meeting. Third, we should expand our 101 and 102 trainings into an additional 4–5 part series, with a curriculum coordinated and developed chapter-wide and hosted by facilitators from relevant bodies of work (for example, how to have organizing conversations (EWG and Labor), a dive into DSA history (Poli Ed and EC), or event planning (Comms and LPO) so new members can connect across the organization, build mid-tier skills, avoid silos, and gain confidence to develop the next generation of cadre themselves. 

Mel Tully, Northside Red Line Branch, Groundwork Caucus

If Chicago DSA hopes to become a mass socialist party that can challenge the ruling class, it needs hundreds of members capable of taking on organizing projects and asking others to work alongside them. 

The road to get there from where we are now is long. The first step is having chapter leaders who frequently take the time to ask comrades to step up. In addition, we need an organizing culture where new members are welcomed and help them find areas of work that interest them, and walked through the process on how to become more involved.

Members must be trusted to take on what is essential work for a working group or branch. They should feel supported and be able to ask questions of more experienced members when needed. 

The work of our chapter must be engaging and exciting enough that people see the value in investing their limited time into it. Goals should be lofty but also achievable. Long-shot campaigns that lack an internal organizational benefit which can be explained to members may burn through nearly as many people as we brought in. 

It is essential to have tasks that members are able to undertake with frequency and take responsibility over as time goes on. Public-facing work like tabling or canvassing are relatively easy to replicate and train members on. 

The upcoming municipal elections represent a great opportunity to develop our membership. Delegating our field operations to branches gives us the ability to run many parallel operations which turns new members into consistent canvassers and field leads. Branch leaders and EWG must work in lockstep to create field operations that scale and can take in more members over time and build them into leaders in and of themselves.

Have thoughts on one of this week’s Member Submissions? 

Submit a reply using the form here.

Prompt for discussion, week 5

At the 2025 National Convention, DSA committed to a strategy of uniting labor and the left to run a socialist for President in 2028 on the Democratic Party ballot line. The most prominent potential candidate with the highest likelihood to run (and run as a socialist) in the 2028 Democratic President Primary is currently Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, although she has not made any commitment yet to run or otherwise made public moves indicating she is putting together a campaign. 

If AOC does not run, DSA would likely need to recruit a DSA member in office with much less prominence to run (e.g., Claire Valdez) or try to get a progressive Union leader to run (e.g., Shawn Fain, Sara Nelson). Without AOC or another DSA-backed candidate in the race, the most progressive candidate likely to run is IL Governor JB Pritzker. The most likely candidate with the best chance of clenching the nomination at this point though is CA Governor Gavin Newsom. Other potential major candidates include former Vice President Kamala Harris and disgraced former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. 

Given DSA’s prior commitments, the state of the race, and the current political conjuncture more broadly, how should DSA nationally and our chapter locally orient towards a potential AOC presidential campaign or that of another socialist? And how can we prepare now to make the most effective intervention in the 2028 Democratic primary regardless of who the candidates are?

Submit a response using the Bulletin Submission Form linked here. Member Responses for this Prompt will be published in next week’s Convention Bulletin. Please try to submit responses no later than Sunday evening every week.

Sean Duffy, Northside Blue Line Branch, Bread & Roses Caucus

In response to Sarah CR’s submission for Bulletin #3

In last week’s bulletin Sarah CR talked about our chapter’s experiment with Social Clubs “so [that] members feel a connection to each other and the organization” and in order to “combat individualism and isolation causing civil society to fray, as described in [Robert Putnam’s] Bowling Alone.” The increase in individual atomization and decrease in social connectedness over the last ~40ish years is obvious and only getting worse post COVID and post smartphone. 

We need to rebuild what Putnam calls “social capital” (poor descriptor IMO) among the working class. Put more aptly, we need workers to know each other, trust each other, and to understand that their advancement is predicated on solidarity and cooperation rather than through division and competition. And we need to foster this level of connectedness among our membership too.

As I wrote in an earlier Bulletin, I think this is best achieved through members interacting face-to-face on a regular basis with generally the same people. To that end, I think our chapter needs to invest in opening more office spaces, particularly in the Northside Red Line and Southside Branches. Ideally, these would be storefront spaces (for high visibility) with the space to accommodate gatherings of up to 40 people. This would allow us to host more programming more frequently and in more parts of the city. 

I don’t think online spaces are very effective at fostering social connectedness and oftentimes are actually counterproductive. As Anton Jager wrote in his recent book Hyperpolitics, the internet is an “environment for deinstitutionalized, impermanent engagement, offering repertoires of social expression that require little to no long-term obligation. Atomization and acceleration go hand in hand: people are lonelier in the new century, but also more agitated; more atomized, but also more connected; angrier, yet more disoriented.” 

This Week in Midwest Socialist

No new articles this week.

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