8/21/18 — Edit noted at the foot of the document.

Dear Comrades —

Following up on the letter we sent you in February of this year, we have completed a draft we would like to eventually propose to every chapter and organizing committee in the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, for adoption as the constitution of a regional organization we would like to call Northwest DSA (NWDSA). To make the proposal better, we are putting this draft up for public comment by any DSA member in this region in good standing, until 25 September 2018 at 5pm Pacific Daylight Time (4pm AKDT, 6pm MDT). We will then work to integrate comments or provide rationales for their exclusion and present the draft to chapters and organizing committees no later than 1 October 2018.

Our efforts to create this document are centered on building an organization to do the following for the Pacific Northwest:

Identify and support possible new OCs and chapters

Help connect members in unorganized areas

Facilitate inter-chapter cooperation (e.g. statewide actions, natural disaster planning)

Allow a space for organizers to communicate and share tactics

Facilitate resource sharing between chapters

Allow coordination of state and regional level campaigns

Empower and enfranchise members in unorganized areas

Operate regional conventions

We hope to ask that the executive committees of all of these chapters submit the proposal to their membership for a vote at their October or November general meetings. We encourage organizing committees to do the same. The DSA Constitution requires three chapters in this region to approve the draft constitution before it is submitted to National, but we would like to hear from every organization in this region if at all possible.

The draft can be found here and is open for comments: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b_FJVs4xIaVFvEc2HSrHpKXNMWj3RRUPE7odnuzIgu4/edit?usp=sharing

In Solidarity,

Ben Chatterton — Portland DSA

Laura Couch — Seattle DSA

Dag Arneson — Eugene DSA

KC — Salem DSA

Ava Butler — Benton County DSA

Eugene Blair — Whatcom DSA

Simon Vansintjan — Southeast Alaska DSA

Reed Ingalls — Olympia DSA

*We will be submitting the constitution proposal to the following units:

Anchorage Local

Southeast Alaska Organizing Committee

Whatcom Organizing Committee

Seattle Local, including its South King County and Eastside Branches

South Sound Local

West Sound Organizing Committee

Olympia Local

Everett Organizing Committee

Spokane Local*, including its Palouse Branch

Tri-Cities Organizing Committee

Walla Walla Organizing Committee

Cowlitz County Organizing Committee

Vancouver Organizing Committee

Portland Local

Salem Organizing Committee

Eugene Local

Benton County Organizing Committee

Central Oregon Organizing Committee

Boise Organizing Committee

*It has come to our attention that Spokane is a full chapter, and have corrected the text. We regret the error. -BJC