Main Page

From Boston DSA Wiki

Welcome to Boston DSA's wiki! It's here to serve as a reference for how our chapter works, how to organize, and how to get involved in our work.

This wiki is members-only; any DSA member in good standing can request an account here. Make sure to use the email address you used to join DSA. Someone does have to manually check your membership and approve the request on the back end, so if you don't hear anything in a day or two, email tech@bostondsa.org and ask. If you are not yet a member, you can join DSA here!

Getting Started in Boston DSA

  • Boston DSA events calendar: Contains info about all of our upcoming events! Most Working Groups meet every month, we have a General Meeting every two months, and we have an Annual Convention every April.
  • Join our Discord server! This is where we do almost all of our discussion outside of meetings!
  • Request an account for this wiki. Make sure to use the email address you used to join DSA. Someone does have to manually check your membership and approve the request on the back end, so if you don't hear anything in a day or two, email tech@bostondsa.org and ask.

Chapter Policies

Chapter Communications and Technology Platforms

  • Discord: Where we do almost all of our discussion outside of meetings. To get the invite link, either log in to this wiki and visit the Discord wiki page, or log in to the Member Portal.
  • Email: We send regular events emails to our membership, and each Working Group has their own email list.
  • Zoom: How to set up a Zoom call
  • Signal: The chapter's de facto encrypted messaging app, often used instead of text messages
  • Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
  • Google Drive: for leadership to share files with membership - for more detail, see Boston DSA Member Drive
  • ActionNetwork: to manage member data - for more detail, see ActionNetwork
  • Spoke: for sending out mass texts - for more detail, see Spoke

Chapter Structure

Officers

Working Groups

Working Groups carry out our external political work. Working groups meet regularly, and information about working group meetings can be found on the Events page.

Neighborhood Groups & Regional Branches

Boston DSA spans all of Eastern Massachusetts (east of Worcester County), other than Cape Cod. Because we have a large territory, some cities and neighborhoods within it have their own elected leadership, mailing lists, campaigns, and discussion groups to focus on local issues. All members of these regional branches and neighborhood groups are members of Boston DSA.

All working groups and neighborhood groups/branches have channels on the BDSA chapter discord.

  • Allston/Brighton
  • Arlington
  • Brookline
  • Dorchester
  • East Boston/Chelsea
  • Jamaica Plain
  • Malden
  • Medford
  • Merrimack Valley
  • MetroWest
  • North Shore
  • South Shore

Committees

Committees help the chapter function by carrying out administrative work and other internal organizing. They maintain the various systems we use to do work in the chapter, such as administering elections and maintaining member data.

  • Administrative Committee (AdComm)
  • Direct Action, De-escalation & Security (DADS)
  • Communications Committee (Comms)
  • Protest Organizing & Political Strategy (POPS)
  • Boston Y/DSA Committee

How-to Guides

The How-to Guides cover a wide variety of topics, and serve as the formal documentation for how to do things in the chapter. These are generally not formal policies that have been voted on by the CC or the whole chapter, but consist largely of either technical documentation for the various tools and platforms that the chapter uses, or best practices documents to ensure chapter members can have shared expectations for how to carry out organizing tasks.

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