Main Page: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 01:12, 5 September 2025

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 Bylaws
Chapter Resolutions Archive
Chapter Policies: Links to chapter bylaws, guidelines and policies regarding member data, security, financials, and other sensitive topics.
Unified Grievance Policy and Harassment Policy

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.

Cambridge Working Group
Ecosocialism Working Group
Electoral Working Group
Healthcare Working Group
Housing Working Group
Internationalism and Immigration Working Group
Labor Working Group
Political Education Working Group
Palestine Working Group
Somerville Working Group

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
Roxbury
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.

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 == Getting Started in Boston DSA ==
+* [https://bostondsa.org/events/ 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 [[How to use Discord|Discord]] server!''' This is where we do almost all of our discussion outside of meetings!
-* [https://bostondsa.org/events/ 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.
 * '''[[Special:RequestAccount|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 [mailto:tech@bostondsa.org tech@bostondsa.org] and ask.
-== Chapter Resources ==
+== Chapter Policies ==
-===Getting Organized===
+* [https://www.bostondsa.org/bylaws/ Chapter Bylaws]
+* [[Chapter Resolutions Archive]]
+* [[Chapter Policies]]: Links to chapter bylaws, guidelines and policies regarding member data, security, financials, and other sensitive topics.
+* [https://docs.google.com/document/u/3/d/e/2PACX-1vQDWES0fFuHwAeXvVuD3guK1wSeR9i_Xs5cRIqZ2Fv_ppKeXfyb2u7N_RLpjgPAtQ7alRk8UbKPkLdR/pub Unified Grievance Policy] and [https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/harassment-policy-resolution-33/ Harassment Policy]
-Making things happen and getting other people involved.
+== Chapter Communications and Technology Platforms ==
-* [[How-to Guides]]: This page includes process documents and best practices for a range of activities within the chapter, including events planning and scheduling, graphic design resources, and sharing the Zoom nicely.
+* 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 [[How to use Discord|Discord]] wiki page, or log in to the [https://members.bostondsa.org/home Member Portal].
-* [[Chapter Policies]]: Links to chapter bylaws, guidelines and policies regarding member data, security, financials, and other sensitive topics.
+* Email: We send regular events emails to our membership, and each Working Group has their own email list.
-* [[Chapter Communications]] (and other technical resources): A list of the various media the chapter uses for communications, along with information for use and process guidelines.
+* Zoom: [[How to set up a Zoom call]]
-** Importantly, it includes [[How to set up a Zoom call]].
+* Signal: The chapter's de facto encrypted messaging app, often used instead of text messages
-* [[Voting|Online Voting Guidelines]]: Information about the online voting and discussion system used for absentee voting on resolutions posed at chapter-wide meetings.
+* Social Media: [https://www.facebook.com/BostonDSA/ Facebook], [https://www.instagram.com/boston_dsa/ Instagram], [https://x.com/Boston_DSA Twitter]
-* [[National DSA|Information about National DSA]]
+* 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 ==
@@ Line 30: / Line 35: @@
 ** [[Membership Coordinators]]
 ** [[Communications Coordinator]]
+** [[Clerk]]
+** [[Treasurer]]
+** [[At-Large (Coordinating Committee)|At-Large]]
 * [[Harassment and Grievance Officers]]
@@ Line 40: / Line 48: @@
 * [https://bostondsa.org/our-work/healthcare/ Healthcare Working Group]
 * [https://bostondsa.org/our-work/housing/ Housing Working Group]
-* [https://bostondsa.org/our-work/internationalism/ Internationalism Working Group]
+* [https://bostondsa.org/our-work/internationalism/ Internationalism and Immigration Working Group]
 * [https://bostondsa.org/our-work/labor/ Labor Working Group]
 * [https://bostondsa.org/our-work/political-education/ Political Education Working Group]
-* [https://bostondsa.org/?page_id=580 Socialist Feminism Working Group]
+* [https://bostondsa.org/our-work/palestine/ Palestine Working Group]
+* Somerville Working Group
+=== 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
+* Roxbury
+* [https://www.southshore.bostondsa.org/ South Shore]
 === Committees ===
 [https://bostondsa.org/our-work/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.
-== Not sure how to do a thing? ==
+* Administrative Committee (AdComm)
+* Direct Action, De-escalation & Security (DADS)
-These handy [[How-to Guides|'''how-to Guides''']] include process documents and best practices range of activities within the chapter, such as events planning and scheduling, graphic design resources, and sharing the Zoom nicely. It also includes guides for [[ActionNetwork|how to use Action Network]] and [[How to make a Facebook event|how to get an event on the chapter calendar]].
+* Communications Committee (Comms)
+* Protest Organizing & Political Strategy (POPS)
-== How to contribute to this wiki ==
+* Boston Y/DSA Committee
-# If you're a member of Boston DSA in good standing, '''you can [[Special:RequestAccount|request an account here]]'''. Make sure to use the email address you used to join DSA. If you're not a member of DSA, [https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership/ join here!]. If you can't afford dues, email membership@dsausa.org and request a hardship waiver. If you're in another DSA chapter and would like access, contact the admins at boston-dsa-wiki-admins@googlegroups.com.
-# Abide by these rules:
-## Don't write other people's personal information besides first names (and last initials; think Rosa L) and non-personal email addresses (like tech@bostondsa.org or other emails they made for this purpose). No home addresses, workplace information, last names, personal email addresses, or work email addresses without explicit consent.
-## Don't write anything about sensitive direct actions.
-## Don't write anything that might compromise coalition partners or their members, or other vulnerable people.
-## Get consent when taking notes at a meeting; people may want to use an alias or go off the record.
-## These rules apply to Google Docs that you link to in the wiki as well. If a Google Doc has sensitive information in it, it should not have link sharing on (so that when people click on the link, they will only see the content if they have been granted permission to see it).
-# Pitch in!
-## If you see something incorrect or out of date, don't hesitate to fix it.
-## If you have extra information that abides by our rules, add it!
-## If an edit is getting changed back and forth multiple times, there's an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Edit_warring edit war], and we like no war but class war. If you see an edit war, try resolving it through communication or tell the admins at boston-dsa-wiki-admins@googlegroups.com and we will take care of it.
-## If you see information that violates our rules or is clearly inappropriate, undo the edit AND tell the admins at boston-dsa-wiki-admins@googlegroups.com. As always, our [https://www.bostondsa.org/code-of-conduct/ code of conduct] applies.
-[[Example wiki page]] has basic instructions on how to create and edit new wiki pages.
-[[Why use a Boston DSA wiki?]] and [[Wikifaq]] cover the answers to some basic questions regarding wiki use.
-If editing a working group resource, consult [[Standards & Practices]] for a template and general guidelines.
-[https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents Here] is a comprehensive guide to [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing_pages editing existing pages], adding new pages, and viewing revision history.
-[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Here] is a cheat sheet to formatting edits to pages.
+== How-to Guides ==
-[[Contribution Wish List]] - check out what people want to see or add something you want to know about!
+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.