Young Progressive Democrats Set to Change Leadership

In an e-mail to supporters Sunday, Heather Schmidt, president of the Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County, announced the resignation of a number of executive board members .

Election of new executive board members will take place on Wednesday, October 24 at JJ Brewsky’s in Camarillo. Late nominations are being accepted until October 14.

Schmidt is stepping down as president but will remain chair to the executive committee.

“There comes a point where we decide what is the most effective way for us to make social change,” wrote Schmidt.

“Some of us in active leadership of this organization have decided that at this point in time, the most effective way for us to make social change is in ways other than the Young Progressive Democrats.”

 

“As for those of us leaving the organization, we will always support and be committed to the young voters and activists of this community,” she said.

“We will continue to be social activists and to invite you to have fun being social activists with us.”

Schmidt has graciously given the Conejo Valley Democrat permission to publish the resignation e-mail here. It appears below. It is particularly interesting to read the short, month-by-month history she has compiled of the club’s accomplishments. This appears near the bottom of this post.

The Young Progressive Democrats have done a lot in the club’s brief history, as Schmidt’s account makes clear. The Conejo Valley Democrat salutes their accomplishments.

 

 

Sunday, October 7th, 2007
Press Release

 

Resignation of Executive Officers of the YPD Oct 8 2007

 

Dear Young Progressive Democrats and Friends of YPD,

In our year of existence, we have seen an amazing change in youth involvement in this community, across the spectrum of political parties. We have met Greens in their 20s that want to mend ways with the Democrats and work together towards building a progressive message for our community. We have met young Republicans that are not only civilized, but out-right welcoming, and we have sat together and discussed issues as friends. But most of all, we have met Young Democrats who want to be involved, who crave to be active and who have been quietly looking for a place to suit their desire to make social change.

Much to the disappointment of the more conservative faction of this community, there are Young Democrats here and they do care about voting and making their votes count. This is what we have learned over the last year.

When this club began just over a year ago, in September of 2006, the small group of people that started it had a vision much different from what it has become today. That is not to say that the Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County is anything other than a great, power-house of an organization; however, for some of us, it is no longer what we were looking for and have decided that it is time for us to move on to bigger and better things.

It is important to always remember that this organization was founded for reasons and values uncharacteristic of the typical Democratic Club — our mission has never been JUST to get Democrats elected, but rather to cultivate progressive leaders in this community that will not only be one-day elected but build a permanent progressive infrastructure in our community that will last.

Most importantly, though, our mission was to always have fun while doing this — to do this and not be muddied down with technicalities.

We wanted to have a forum where if we have an event, we have an event — there are no agendas, no personalities and everyone is welcome. We wanted to give young people room to seek their self-interest and speak their ideas free of worrying who is waiting around the corner to use their words against them.

We wanted to take the politics out of politics and have a good time as social activists making significant change.

The Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County is an organization that many of us are proud of building, are proud of standing up for and are proud of saying was our baby from the beginning. But the turn this organization must take now is that of a Democratic Club whose mission is different than our vision and so we turn it over into the hands of those clearly ready to raise the funds and do the work that this Democratic Club is now ready to do.

As for those of us leaving the organization, we will always support and be committed to the young voters and activists of this community. We will continue to be social activists and to invite you to have fun being social activists with us.

And if worse comes to worse, you will always find us at J.J. Brewsky’s on Drinking Liberally night, whether we’re really liberally drinking or passing out light-bulbs or talking Presidential Primaries.

There comes a point where we decide what is the most effective way for us to make social change. Some of us in active leadership of this organization have decided that at this point in time, the most effective way for us to make social change is in ways other than the Young Progressive Democrats. I hope as leaders of this community we have helped guide many of you to the paths you were already moving towards on your own.

As always, in Peace and Prosperity.

Heather Schmidt
Outgoing President and Chair to the Executive Committee

 

 

Calendar of Accomplishments

In its first year, the Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County accomplished more than many Democratic Clubs or organizations do in a lifetime.

Please take a moment to take a trip down memory lane with us and get nostalgic with us in our year of great change.

 

September 2006
The Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County is founded in a small home in Simi Valley, California. There were 13 people and the organization has exploded since. Many members of the Young Progressive Democrats also attended an open training with Barbara Graves and the Precinct Captains system to learn more about making our community a more progressive one.

October 2006
The Camarillo ACORN featured an article on the Young Progressive Democrats walking precincts with candidates for office available in print and online.
The Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County hosts its Kick-Off Party to introduce itself to the community and have a great time. The event was at the outdoor patio at B.J.’s in Oxnard and many stopped by to see.

November 2006
Teams of YPD activists hit the streets and help campaigns in posting signs all over town for various Democratic candidates and causes. YPD also designs and sends out a postcard to Decline to States for Congressional Candidate Jill Martinez and State Assembly Candidate Ferial Masry and facilitates a county-wide robocall with selected candidates and causes to every high-propensity Democrat in Ventura County.

December 2006
The Ventura County STAR does a feature article on YPD coming to town available in print and online.
The Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County hosts its first annual Madison-Jefferson Holiday Party, co-hosted with the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee, the Ventura Democratic Club and the Stonewall Democratic Club. Eighty attendees enjoyed political discussion and Holiday Fun.

January 2007
Drinking Liberally VC Chapter starts and the Young Progressive Democrats reconvene after the holidays to begin planning outreaching to students and other young activists in the community.

February 2007
Drinking Liberally VC Chapter takes it to new heights with new faces and events seeing upwards of 30 to 40 people. YPD also attended an immigration march in Oxnard in support of the many immigrants that are looking for legalization and support in our community.

March 2007
YPD attended a number of vigils and peace marches in support of peace and in observance of the anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war. We attended a vigil in Ventura, a vigil in Thousand Oaks and a peace march in Ventura later in the week. YPD hosts its first annual Saint Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl in downtown Ventura. YPD instilled political fun and activism into the evening, including playing political charades, raising awareness of the organization and signing up fifteen new Democrats in the bars hit up through the evening. Also, members from YPD that oppose the LNG plant off the cost of Oxnard attended and protested the hearings to put the plant into our community. The plant was denied access to the Oxnard waters, but the fight still continues.

April 2007
In observation of Earth Day or Earth Month, the Young Progressive Democrats engaged in a variety of activities in honor of our Mother Earth. The April meeting held a lively discussion with student and activist Spencer Burke (student of Harvard University) on Global Warming and its effects on our community and at the end of April, Drinking Liberally VC and YPD passed out 100 energy-saving, Earth-friendly light bulbs to the patrons of Dargans in downtown Ventura. At the end of April, the Young Progressive Democrats also crashed the California Democratic Party state convention and mingled with other Young Democrats, including our young State Assembly representatives and Presidential Candidate Bill Richardson at the San Diego Young Democrat’s Art Museum event.

May 2007
The Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County holds a meet-up at the UFCW Hall in Ventura to hear speakers and activists on the Rocketdyne Power Plant in Simi Valley. Screening of the Rocketdyne History Channel, and documentarist John Hofius and STAR journalist Teresa Rochester led a discussion on the meltdown and tragedies of the powerplant overlooking Simi Valley. The end of May also saw a Women’s Issue Luncheon to connect young women to older political mentors. Mayor Maricela Morales discussed Women’s Economic Interests.

June 2007
June was healthcare month for the Young Progressive Democrats and Drinking Liberally VC. At the first Drinking Liberally for the month, we listened to speakers from OneCareNow.org and Planned Parenthood talk about the healthcare crisis in America. Activists hit the street in June and asked Father’s Day pedestrians in downtown Ventura to sign petitions in support of Sheila Kuehl’s SB 840 for Universal Healthcare. And, the Young Progressive Democrats closed out the month by hosting a successful Dinner and a Movie Date Night with YPD, where we had a delicious California Pizza Kitchen dinner and screened Michael Moore’s newest film on healthcare SICKO.

July 2007
YPD garnered the support of many community members in July by hosting its first big fundraising Garage Sale. The morning was busy and we had great things to sell thanks to our devoted supporters. Special thanks to all the volunteers that helped out with the preparation and day. Also in July, the Young Progressive Democrats and Vote Blue Central Coast hosted an activist training and voter registration walk where we hit the streets and registered some new Democrats. We called it a Registration Rodeo to round up new Democrats and enjoyed a Western-style Pizza Party upon return. Many local candidates and electeds joined us in being trained and changing the registration patterns of our community.

August 2007
YPD launched a huge web campaign to garner interest from those that cannot always attend events and activities but still like to be involved. We bumped up our activity on youth outlets like myspace and facebook, we launched our website ypdofvc.org, we opened a blog and started guest blogging and posting on other sites and we even started our online newsletter “The Domestic Ass.” The Young Progressive Democrats were also represented at a more intensive training with Barbara Graves and the Precinct Captains system to learn about being precinct captains and interfacing with our community members.

September 2007
The Conejo Valley Democrat blog does a feature article on the Young Progressive Democrats available online. In the beginning of September, YPD was proud to be honored by the San Fernando Valley Young Democrats and California Young Democrats for hard work and to help build the club with a monetary grant to help our club keep moving in great directions. The Young Progressive Democrats and Drinking Liberally VC hosted an awareness of the Presidential Candidates event, called the President Hopefuls, at J.J. Brewsky’s in Camarillo. People eating and attending happy hour even stopped by to join us and hear representatives from all of the local campaigns. We had representatives from the Obama campaign, NWPC on behalf of Hillary’s campaign, the Draft Gore 2008 initiative, the Kucinich campaign, the OneCore Edwards campaign and one of our members even stood up and talked on behalf of his support for Bill Richardson. It was held on the same night as the Presidential Debates, so much great discussion was had. The Cal State University Channel Islands campus chapter of YPD is certified and begins.

 

 

Taking It to the Streets: The Young Progressive Democrats Gear Up

Heather Schmidt admits to being discouraged after Senator John Kerry’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2004.

“When I became involved in politics in 2004, I was one of the only ‘young’ people left after the Kerry-Edwards campaign and felt completely isolated, almost to the point of quitting! It is not isolating to be the only ‘young person,’ rather it is isolating to feel like the issues and the things that are important to you are not important to others, so then what is the point?”

But unlike many people in her situation, Schmidt did not quit. Instead, she and Refugio Mata organized a new group that would be responsive to and represent the political opinions of people like her: the Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County.

And the ball keeps rolling.

Today, the Young Progressive Democrats’ membership list is composed of more than 800 people of diverse backgrounds, occupations, and ages.

The organization’s first meeting drew 13 people. Meetings today can draw more than 100 people.

 

There are several organizations for Democrats in Ventura County, but Schmidt and Mata had compelling reasons for starting their own.

“Primarily we felt that the Democratic clubs in the county were not geared towards addressing the needs and the interests of young people such as a youth-oriented club would,” said Schmidt.

“Also, we felt that we needed to have a forum that was more open and progressive, especially as it pertains to discussing issues and giving people a place for their voices to be heard.”

Mata, the organization’s community outreach and communications chair, added that the Young Progressive Democrats were “formed as a reaction to the latest dangers and harmful impacts of neo-conservatism at large on the local and national arenas.”

 

“We wanted to do our part to start working on reversing the overall authoritarian conservative tilt that our country and our communities were sliding into,” he said.

 

“We also wanted to inject new life and energy into the Democratic Party by asserting our progressive values. By the same token, we wanted to serve as the conduit through which new progressive leadership could be fostered.”

 

Fostering leadership skills in their members is a primary goal of the Young Progressive Democrats. The group holds special events, connects its members with training, provides networking opportunities, and helps them get involved with other progressive organizations and causes.

 

They plan to soon conduct their own leadership training events.

 

Another focus for the group is getting its members politically involved and providing political education.

 

“Young people have an entire set of issues, or rather very similar issues that are framed in a different way, and they need to understand that their vote is important for that reason,” said Schmidt.

 

The organization tries to cater its activities to the desires and interests of its members.

 

“Rather than focusing on what we think is important or what we think is interesting, we have taken the approach of focusing on the individual and the self-interest of young people in an effort to get them politically involved and to the polls,” said Schmidt.

 

But the Young Progressive Democrats’ vision goes beyond that.

 

“We are definitely espousing a new school of thought that is trying to build a pan-progressive infrastructure–in the past, organizations have leaned heavily on a single-issue focus–with new types of goals and in the way that we advocate for people to do politics,” said Mata.

 

“Doing” politics is a key activity of the group’s members. Many volunteered for Ferial Masry’s 2006 bid for the California State Assembly. Others are involved in get-out-the-vote activities and voter registration, which Schmidt said will be a vital ingredient in expanding the influence of Democrats and winning elections in the 24th congressional district.

 

The Young Progressive Democrats are plainly serious about energizing their members and fomenting social change.

 

“This is not the typical club where people just meet to socialize and drink tea,” said Schmidt.

 

“While we have many social events to get people involved and keep them having fun, we are doing more things that make this more like a business. We have an annual report, we do strategic fundraising, budgeting and yearly planning, we set goals and stick to them…we don’t just have a monthly meeting and do a special event once in a while–we plan to make significant changes in the community and we strategize to do it.”

 

Schmidt identified a number of key issues important to Young Progressive Democrats.

 

Education is a big concern, with access to loans, grants, and scholarships being foremost, as well as educational quality.

 

Access to health care and its high costs also motivate the group’s members.

 

“Over 60% of students graduate from college with a bachelor’s and expect to get a job with health insurance and do not find one,” said Schmidt.

 

“A woman’s right to chose regarding anything that they do with their body,” including the issues of sex education, birth control, and abortion are also important to members, said Schmidt.

 

And Young Progressive Democrats are concerned about equal rights, said Schmidt, and particularly issues of race, religion, and sexuality.

 

 

The group was initially cautious about endorsing particular candidates for public office, instead concentrating on building the organization, but in August the Young Progressive Democrats established a procedure for selecting candidates as the organization’s choice.

 

“We have put together a policy that includes each candidate needing to answer a questionnaire and speak openly to our membership about what youth issues are important to them, how they will address those in office, and why young people should vote for them,” said Schmidt.

 

Mata commented on what kind of candidate the organization might be looking for: “We are definitely different from most Democratic Clubs in that we support progressive Democrats and progressive policies, not just any kind of Democrat.”

 

Despite this preference, the group maintains an open-door policy toward candidates.

 

“We wanted to make sure that every candidate was welcome to come to our club and speak openly about their candidacy and that all people felt welcome, because we are most definitely the most welcoming Democratic organization in Ventura County,” said Schmidt.

 

“We even encouraged, and continue to encourage, people of other political party to come and speak to and with us as a group.”

 

If it was unusual that Schmidt and Mata would take political participation to new heights by forming an organization that would motivate hundreds of people across Ventura County, it was even more unusual for Schmidt to step down as president only a year after the Young Progressive Democrats’ inception.

 

“In 2007 I did not want to run for president again simply because I thought someone else should have the chance at having a hand in building this amazing organization as it is today,” said Schmidt.

 

“I like to get things started, get people motivated and then help them find and hold positions of leadership that will help build their characters, careers, etc.”

 

“I think one of the major problems in the Democratic Party and in other local political organizations is old leadership. Someone gets into ‘power’ and has a firm, tight grip on it for years and years and years. I don’t like that. It discourages people from being involved and intimidates people from speaking up. I want everyone that wants to run for a position of leadership in our organization to run and have the experience that I have had. I want very much for our organization to stick to its membership-driven mission and see constant change-over, constant internal movement, constant mobilization of members.”

 

Schmidt said that Mata and Simi Valley blogger Brian Mack are two candidates for the organization’s presidency.

 

When the group’s new president takes office, Schmidt will move into the position of executive director of the administrative staff.

 

Going forward, Schmidt identified the organization’s goals: “To get more young people involved, to continue to work to find out what will get them in and keep them in, to provide opportunities to young people at schools in Ventura County and to create a more permanent progressive infrastructure into the community of Ventura County, to continue to work on changing the dynamics of the district and not to stop and get comfortable once they do change, to try and make Ventura County a more youth-friendly community, including job training, job placement, education access, etc. And, to continue to focus our activities on what our members are seeking rather than what we or other ‘party line followers’ are asking for.”

 

For more information about the Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County, visit the organization’s website at ypdofvc.org or the group’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/vcyoungprogressives.