Tennessee Federation of College Democrats Convention

Fellow Democrats,

As many of you might or might not have known, last weekend was the Tennessee Federation of College Democrats Convention at Lipscomb University in Nashville. I know I speak for everyone on the Exec board when I tell you that we appreciate those of you who woke up at the crack of dawn to drive to Nashville and support our candidates.

Before we get too far into the process, let me give you a brief description of the convention. This is the first convention that the University of Tennessee had ever attended in my memory and I have been on the exec board longer than anyone except Clare and Carrie. So we honestly had no idea what to expect. The Federation is supposed to be the last step between our chapter and the nation wide College Democrats. They are responsible for helping grow the number of chapters and supporting the growth of current chapter's memberships. They also have a small pool of money that they can use to help other chapters.

Included in their perks is a vote with the Executive committee for the state democratic party. Essentially this means that they have a say in the direction of the state party.

We hadn't been able to get into contact with the Federation for a very long time and finally we were told about this convention in the later part of last year and we organized a contingency to represent us.

The convention itself was fairly small with only 21 people attending (8 from the University of Tennessee). The only schools in attendance were Belmont, Union, Lipscomb, UT Chattanooga, Tennessee State, University of Tennessee, and MTSU.

Needless to say, we were the largest contingency and we also found out that we are the largest chapter in the state of Tennessee!

After a brief strategy session and a guest speaker from Organizing for America, we held elections and the University of Tennessee claimed 3 spots on the Exec board. Jennifer Baldwin took Secretary, Erica Perry took Minority Affairs Director, and Bobby Patton took Membership Director.

We are all very proud of our Exec Board representation. We hold 1/3rd of the Exec Board of the Federation, more than any other school. Be on the lookout for big things that will be coming out of the Federation in the next year!

Sidenote:

Our next meeting will be Tuesday night at 7:30 in HSS. The room number is to be announced and so is the speaker. We have lots to catch up so we hope to see all of you. Remember that the Freshman Representative to the Exec Board will be voted on next meeting as will the appointment of Residence Hall representatives! So be ready to politic your fellow members!

Until next time,

Vote Democrat