Back from my trip to Atlanta

Today I am back in the DCDP headquarters working away for democrats in Nashville but this weekend I put on my Tennessee Young Democrats Prez hat and headed to Atlanta for the YDA Southeast Regional meeting.

We are the strongest region of YDA (which each state in the region will swear to if you ask us.) We met to coordinate efforts, learn what other states are doing, what works and what doesn’t, to have a general meeting and then of course to network…aka socialize.

We started off the day talking about best practices and what each state organization has been doing. We then moved into credentials (we are all looking forward to chartering before the National Convention in Dallas.) If I seem frustrated and stressed out between our Spring Convention in Omaha and our National Convention in Dallas this could be the culprit. Don’t want any penalties against our great state! We then moved into our training session with our National YDA Political Director Tony Cani. It was an always important topic. Chapter building: How to grow our chapters; the types of people that make up organizations and chapters; how to motivate; how to retain members; and then how do we become an organization that is recognized and taken seriously.

We ended the day with general session. We elected new officers for our region and the winners are:

Regional Director: Robert Hooks from Mississippi
Deputy Director: Nikema Williams from Georgia
Secretary: Benson Manica from Georgia
Treasurer: Pat Grayson from Alabama
Judicial Council Representative: Kirk Miller from Georgia
Judicial Council Rep Alternate: Seannalyn Brandmeir from Tennessee

We ended the evening with a party at Shout! in Midtown Atlanta. All and all it was a great event with a great group of dedicated young democrats.

Want to come to the next event? Register for the YDA Spring Convention in Omaha, NE May 18-20th. www.yda.org

Seanna Brandmeir
President, Tennessee Young Democrats

Also, just up on the web. www.ydasoutheast.org