Since August 2008, Katie led the College Democrats to new heights and helped to make a key difference in the historic 2008 elections. CDA led students to:
- Register over 350.000 voters
- Knock on over 1.2 million doors
- Make over 1.5 million calls
- Organized over a dozen bus trips for students to swing states
- Help over 3,000 students travel during the election
This year, CDA has focused on three key areas: membership, organizational structure, and outreach. For one year, we had many successes, thanks to dedicated leaders and members:
- Launched Respect Our Vote – a youth organizing tool to report voter suppression and search for voting laws
- Appropriated thousands of dollars to assist state and campus chapters with election activities
- Work with Students for Barack Obama during the election and after to represent young people.
- Held the first College Democrats Winter Policy Conference in Washington DC with administration officials.
- Represent student issues to the administration regarding tuition loan programs, and college accessibility.
- Launched No Desk Left Open – a public relations campaign to bring attention to hardships faced by families during the recession when it comes to affording college tuition.
- Launched green initiatives to educate members on personal and policy environmental issues.
Here is how far CDA has come:
- Expanded the CDA E-newsletter to have consistent updates on news and opportunities.
- Managed a dedicated and hard working board that continues to organize efforts for the following year.
- Created transparency between the board and national council leaders, with more frequent updates and conference calls.
- We appreciate and applaud the new Alumni Association, organized by CDA alum.
- Established a state partnership program to give grants to state federations and chapters.
- Appointed and assisted regional directors who worked on re-chartering programs, googledocs updates, and state federation plans.
- Provided a re-organization of all CDA documents, to strengthen CDA’s foundation.
- Actively engaged caucuses and constituency groups to create a more inclusive and diverse CDA.