Member Onboarding

R5: Member Onboarding and Retention

Whereas:

Rhode Island DSA seeks to create a more robust political culture capable of fostering the kinds of base-building organization most urgent and necessary to socialists.
Political education is a necessary means to build a political culture that can organize the working class outside the formal political system, to leverage its power within that system.
The DSA is an ecumenical socialist organization with differing theoretical tendencies who work together towards practical organizing goals.
An emphasis on building practical organizing skills in alignment with organizational goals provides the necessary common ground for socialists of different tendencies to provide a unified political education curriculum.
A cooperative, intrinsically motivated, egalitarian, and discovery-based approach to political education takes potential liabilities of ecumenical socialist organizing and, by design, makes them strengths.
At the same time, it is necessary for new members to have a basic understanding of socialism, the platform of the organization, and Rhode Island DSA’s priorities.
Further, Rhode Island DSA needs a clear system for recruiting, onboarding, and retaining new members.

Be It Resolved:

Section 1: Member Onboarding

That the Membership Coordinators shall provide to each new member an overview of the chapter’s functions, political program, and platform.
That a Membership Survey be provided to each new member to ascertain how they may best be integrated into the organization.
That the Executive Committee shall coordinate the chapter in maintaining a record of all roles and responsibilities, whether or not they involve formal positions, to help new members find opportunities to get involved.
That the Membership Coordinators and the Political Education Chair shall invite each new member to attend a New Member Orientation, scheduled to occur no less than once every two months.

That this New Member Orientation should provide a basic level of political education to each new member, including the definition of socialism (workers’ collective ownership of the means of production) and Rhode Island DSA’s strategy for achieving socialism.

That the Membership Coordinators, and the Chair of the Political Education Committee, shall offer an opportunity for mentorship to each new member.

Section 2: Political Education

That the Political Education Committee shall fully update the Foundational Series curriculum to bring it into alignment with the Chapter Platform and Program by the end of August, 2023.
That the Political Education Committee, starting May 20th, 2023, shall establish the practice of monthly workshops or modules intended to build socialist praxis.
That the Membership Coordinators, and the Chair of the Committee, shall be designated to select mentors that shall assist new members in setting goals and monitoring the mentee’s work and progress in a working group or committee.

That the mentors shall be involved in the same work as their mentee
That the mentors shall have practical experience in the area they are providing mentorship
That guides, templates, and resources shall be designed and made available to mentors and mentees by the Political Education Committee

That the Political Education Committee shall plan and host an Advisory Series to train a group of advisors, and that those advisors be capable of:

That by the end of August, 2023, the Political Education Committee shall have recruited and trained at least four advisors and ten mentors, with at least one mentor in each working group or committee.

Section 3: Social Events Coordination

That there shall be an ad hoc Social Events Committee to plan and host a mixture of events, with broad appeal to a wide audience, as well as specific interests that motivate the movement of membership.
That the Committee’s work shall be led by two Social Events Coordinators accountable to the Co-Chairs of the Chapter for their work.
That the work of this Committee and these Coordinators shall be to plan and host events that foster community fellowship and engagement amongst comrades, as well as bolstering the recruitment and retention efforts of the chapter.
That the Political Education and Social Events Coordination Committees shall work together to maximize growth and onboarding opportunities for new members, and regularly offer social events with broad appeal that are appropriate for new working-class recruits.