5-Year Work Plan

This plan was passed in the summer of 2022 and is an aspirational document of the strategy and direction of the DSA National Tech Committee. It is intended to be revisited and revised yearly.

Overview

The National Tech Committee (NTC) exists to organize DSA members working on tech projects to support DSA members, national campaigns, national committees, national working groups, local chapters, and DSA staff. The NTC will collaborate with DSA leaders, including the elected National Political Committee and DSA staff, to identify needs and provide consulting, technical design, implementation, and volunteer coordination for tech projects.

This document outlines the NTC’s 5-Year plan, in accordance with Resolution 25 and the NTC’s previously approved resolution work plan. In order to inform this work plan, we consulted with NTC members, staff, and national bodies, along with analyzing the 2021 chapter survey data. We have structured our goals into 3 broad categories, addressing areas which we identified throughout the course of our process.

Table of Contents

    1. Previous Work + Inspiration
    2. Structure
    3. Challenges
    4. Strengths
    5. Organizational Evaluation
    6. Goals
        • Goal 1: The NTC is the home for socialist technologists to organize together with a thriving membership, where people enjoy their work and stay involved for multiple years
        • Goal 2: The NTC is able to reliably deliver ambitious projects that advance the goals of DSA
        • Goal 3: The NTC is the leader on data and tech for all of DSA
    7. Closing

Structure

The NTC was founded in 2017 and currently consists of 118 members across 5 departments , along with 640 members on the mailing list. It was created during the days of DSA’s meteoric rise, and essentially built the plane as it was flying in order to meet increasing demands before tech staff was hired. The structure then was a loosely organized group with 3 coordinators. In 2020, we realized that it had become unsustainable and something new was needed. We completed new bylaws and selected a new steering committee to approach the work in a more holistic way, attempting to end the “ad-hoc-racy” that had become the norm.

The NTC is governed by the Steering Committee, which consists of 8 appointed members. This includes a Chair, who is the NPC liaison; a Vice Chair; a Communications Chair; a Tools Coordinator; a Membership Secretary, and 2 At-Large members. Some staff members, such as the Data & Tech team staff, serve as ex-officio members of the Steering Committee.

The Secretariat serves directly under the Steering Committee and is led by the Secretariat Steward. The Secretariat is divided into Departments, which contain Commissions, each led by a Steward. Departments represent evergreen work, whereas commissions are created for time-limited engagements.

Challenges

Lack of organizing experience in the NTC: The NTC attracts people with technical skill: software engineers, website developers, data analysts, etc. These members make up the core of our committee. They are the members that can build websites, launch applications, create maps, and analyze data. However, there are more skills other than technical skills that are needed to lead and run the NTC. The NTC has a dearth of members with organizing experience: people who know how to run a meeting, facilitate onboarding ramps, understand the importance of relational 1:1s, and can build community across the group.

Transparency vs. security: We want to make it easy for new members to get onboarded while holding (and establishing) high standards for access to sensitive information. There is a need for documentation and clear processes to free people to get work done without being blocked by a need for direction or permission from above.

Developing structure: As mentioned earlier, we initially had a lack of structure – now that there is a structure, we are continuously trying to improve it. We have identified that there is a need for better feedback loops between the Steering Committee and the commissions and departments, and it’s difficult for new members to understand all the work that is happening and where. When we try to build an org chart there seem to be some redundancies and missed opportunities for more cross-collaboration.

New member mobilization: Our personnel department has developed processes for contacting and mobilizing DSA members who express interest in contributing to our work. However, we need to increase our conversion of members who make it through the initial mobilization into long-term, active contributors. This second, often steeper ‘hump’ of onboarding someone to a project, often requiring not just expertise but learning new context and processes, has been cited by multiple stewards as a falling off point. As one member put it, ‘we are mobilizing, but not organizing.’ We recognize that some amount of bureaucracy is required, but it can become a barrier for members contributing. At the current moment, some members feel there is too much bureaucracy. Core contributors have expressed the feeling that diminishing returns trying to engage and onboard new members makes such work feel wasted compared to focusing on the labor itself. We still struggle with member diversity, though we have made intentional efforts to improve.

Getting work done: The NTC hasn’t yet proven its ability to deliver consistent work at a reliable pace. While a typical software product team might include a product manager, designer, and multiple engineers, all full-time employees, we don’t have the luxury of working at that scale – even core contributors are lucky to give more than a workday every week or two. On more complex projects like myDSA this makes it hard to make promises or set firm delivery dates, which can have reverberating effects across the organization. Having inconsistent team sizes means that more work falls onto lonelier core contributors and staff, which can erode solidarity among members and increases the risk of burnout and technical debt.

Siloed technical work across the national organization: Ad-hoc project teams spring up across the DSA, either in response to an immediate crisis or need. Often these teams are successful at delivering projects in the short term, but dispersing even innocuous websites and tech tools across multiple hosts can be a major liability for the national organization. This leads to inconsistent practices around security, accessibility, internationalization and design standards, not to mention a lack of control of what content is being hosted under the DSA name. When a team completes a project, it is often unclear who will take responsibility for it moving forward. On a more immediate level, this siloing indicates we are duplicating work and missing chances to bond with other members or share expertise and best practices.

Strengths

We are improving feedback mechanisms throughout the NTC: The Steering Committee is meeting with secretariat stewards, project stewards are meeting every other week to share strategies, and more 1:1s are happening at the project level. We should continue iterating on this. Across the board more people are starting to highlight things they want to see changed – these are good signals that our existing contributors feel investment and that we can iterate on these established processes.

MyDSA is close to release: This project has strong potential because it unlocks so many use cases for our national organization that are difficult to implement with our current capacity. Hitting our initial v1 release will mean solving some major organizational questions for staff and making it easier for members across the DSA to run new authenticated applications. Done well, this could also lower costs and increase security for both chapters and the national organization.

Expertise: The NTC consists of DSA members who have deep knowledge of both technical work and who should be considered cadre members of DSA. This means the NTC understands the technical needs of the organization at all levels and is equipped to meet them. The NTC has been successful at recruiting members that include career software and web developers, project managers, data engineers, security analysts, and organizers.

A strong Steering Committee: The NTC kicked off a new Steering Committee in March 2022. This iteration of the Steering Committee includes members who hold full time jobs in tech and have held leadership positions in their local DSA chapters. We have a member that works in progressive politics as an analytics engineer, a data scientist studying for his PhD, a data architect with professional background in designing, building, and delivering enterprise technology, and a long-time NTC member and website developer who renegotiated his contract with his employer to dedicate 8 hours a week to the NTC. We have a member who developed a custom membership portal for their chapter. Steering Committee members have successfully provided crucial technical skills for winning campaigns in DSA. Our Steering Committee has a track record for delivering results and producing tangible wins for DSA members and organizers.

We are building momentum: New members who do stick around are enthusiastic about the NTC and many projects that have been attempted for years have recently become active. For example, myDSA, chapter websites, WordPress support, and technical handbooks have been in various stages of idea or completion since DSA’s explosive growth in 2016, but have only recently gained a structured approach with dedicated work going toward them. These projects have become viable and are likely to finally be delivered thanks to the NTC’s growth and development. We also know we are building people power because our members are starting to engage in our social events and community building efforts. We see our members fostering relationships with their fellow comrades and are witnessing a nascent, yet powerful, community forming.

Organizational Evaluation

 

National Bodies

We met with eleven other national working groups and committees to ask them about their experience with using, and struggling with, technology in DSA. The responses were wide-ranging and extremely enlightening, pointing toward a deficit of basic tools and training to properly equip our national leaders to organize effectively. Nearly everyone we spoke to was familiar with the Memo on DSA Resources for National Committees, but past that any universally shared knowledge was limited.

Groups could be categorized into three basic buckets of technical ability/knowledge/capacity (these are not value judgements, just realities we should grapple with):

    1. Savvy: These groups have one or more members that have enough technical competency to automate their tools to make organizing tasks easier. Think “routing Google Forms responses into a Slack channel to delegate work to a group of organizers.” These groups also tended to have more sophisticated websites, both internally and externally.
    2. Competent: While not creating much original tech work, these groups are trained on the tools needed to accomplish their tasks. These groups are strong on tools like Action Network and GSuite.
    3. Lacking: These groups are struggling to even email their members or track membership. They are not generally aware of tooling that exists and have trouble even knowing what more ambitious projects the NTC could help them build on a long-term horizon.

Even within the first two groups described above almost all of the tech work and tooling is done on an ad hoc basis with very little plan for how to document and sustain it from leadership term to term.

We can also break down the general tech concerns of these groups into a few categories:

    1. Communications: Social media, email (internal groups and external), Slack and chat platforms. Relatively high consistency here.
    2. Website: A blend of communications, internal structure, and external-facing campaign work. There really is a lot here because most groups have different goals for their websites (and sometimes different websites for different goals!)
    3. Internal organization: Tools like AirTable and ActionNetwork (which also falls under comms!) to help organize members, but also tools like GSuite (docs, forms, sites, sheets, drive)
    4. Automation: Tools and scripts that sit in between some of the above. There is not a ton of this work yet.

Chapters

In 2021, the DSA Growth & Development Committee surveyed chapters on their use of various tools and their data and information practices. To gain a deeper understanding of the need of chapters, we conducted an exploratory data analysis of the survey. We cross-referenced this with chapter-level membership data to determine potential relationships. The result is a dataset consisting of 53 variables from 178 chapters.

The purpose of this analysis is to answer the following questions:

    1. What resources are needed by the chapters?
    2. What chapter characteristics determine resource needs?

The first question allows us to determine on what projects we should focus our efforts whereas the second allows us to determine what chapters we should focus on.

The first questions of the survey asked whether chapters are “using now”, “would like to use”, or “not using / not interested” in the following products: Action Network, Spoke, VAN, Google Voice, a website, a mass emailer, or another database tool.

Figure 1. Use of various software solutions

Action Network Spoke VAN Google Voice Website Mass emailer Database tool
Using now 108 78 46 62 122 109 57
Would like to use 47 74 97 42 46 38 43
Not using / not interested 22 25 34 73 9 30 77

​From this we can see that chapters are, in general, using those tools that are readily available to them. Chapters overwhelmingly would like to use VAN and Spoke.

Another set of questions on the survey asked about what potential projects would be “most useful” for each chapter going forward. We find that most want ActionBuilder, with street canvassing applications (e.g. React, VAN), broadcast text applications (e.g. Spoke), and webhosting being the next few requests.

Figure 2. Which of the following would be most useful for your chapter going forward?

Action Builder (a tool for organizing that lets you do things like assessments, wall charts, assigning tasks, and track information on your people) 69
A street canvassing app (such as Reach, which is similar to VAN) 28
Broadcast text (people can opt in to a 5 digit texting number and receive broadcast messages) 23
Web hosting 20
Other 4
None / Don’t know /  Not sure 30

As a socialist organization, we should always be concerned about operational security on both the national and local level. Accordingly, the NTC is interested in chapter-level sensitive data practices. We allowed each surveyed chapter to select all the means by which they protect sensitive membership information and chapter credentials.

Figure 3. How does your chapter protect sensitive membership information and chapter credentials?

Google Doc 90
Membership database 76
Password manager 57
Manually revoking access to certain documents 63
Encrypted files 13
Other 7
None 45

As a “select all that apply” question, the total value will add up to more than the number of chapters surveyed. We find that only 89 chapters use more than one method. Concerningly, we find that 45 chapters have no strategy or protocol for protecting such information. Further, we found a relationship between chapter membership size and a lack of sensitive data strategy (p = 0.095 at α = 0.1). It may be safe to conclude that smaller chapters could benefit from NTC support. It may then be beneficial to create an organization-wide standard sensitive data policy for chapters to use and adapt.

Goals

It should be understood that this is a living document. The NTC will commit to reviewing this document at least twice a year. During these revision periods, we will adjust goals, numbers, and projects as necessary.

    Goal 1: The NTC is the home for socialist technologists to organize together with a thriving membership, where people enjoy their work and stay involved for multiple years

    Currently the NTC struggles with recruiting and retaining an active membership base. We want to not only increase the size of our membership, but ensure that members have an enjoyable and rewarding experience volunteering with the NTC. We also imagine a world where NTC members can be in a room of people who work in tech, mention their involvement with the DSA NTC, and be met with name recognition, curiosity, and interest. We want the NTC to have a reputation in the greater tech world as a primary place for leftist technologists to contribute their skills to the cause.

    We will know it when we see it:

    • NTC has grown to 350 members contributing per year
    • 45% of members are still active in NTC 6 months after their join date
    • NTC increases its diversity of membership, ensuring we are intentionally recruiting BIPOC members, women and non-binary members, and taking care to be a committee that is accessible to all abilities.
    • When NTC is brought up among socialists who work in tech, they are familiar with the group and want to join
    • We have a healthy and vibrant Steering Committee who work collectively to form a vision for the NTC and develop leaders across the committee.

    Current and future work that could support this goal include:

    • Building solid recruitment and onboarding pipelines
    • Investing in running regular social events
    • Create a way for people to be involved with the NTC without a large commitment
    • Training NTC leaders in organizing

    The way we will get there:

    • Year 1 (2023):
      • Grow to 150 members with 25% actively contributing
      • Increase the mailing list to 1000 people
      • Develop a mechanism for tracking the diversity of its membership
      • Hold consistent social events and community building efforts
      • Build and successfully implements an internal organizer training program
      • Complete a member handbook and onboarding guide
    • Year: 2 (2024):
      • Grow to 200 members with 30% actively contributing
      • Increase the mailing list to 1500 people
      • Host 15 social events in the year
      • Have 50% of its active membership participate in the tech organizer training program
    • Year 3 (2025):
      • Grow to 250 members with 35% actively contributing
      • Increase the mailing list to 2000 people
      • Host 18 social events in the year
      • Develop and runs an organizing training for Steering Committee members and stewards
      • Have 60% of its active membership participate in the tech organizer training program
    • Year 4 (2026):
      • Grow to 300 members with 40% actively contributing
      • Increase the mailing list to 2500 people
      • Hold 18 social events in the year
      • Perform a comprehensive review of the member handbook and onboarding guide
      • Have 75% of its active membership participate in the tech organizer training program
    • Year 5 (2027):
      • Grow to 350 members with 45% actively contributing
      • Grow the mailing list to 3000 people
      • Hold 18 social events in the year
      • Have 90% of its active membership participate in the tech organizer training program

    Goal 2: The NTC is able to reliably deliver ambitious projects that advance the goals of DSA

    At the core of the NTC we leverage the skills of technologists in our membership to deliver results to organizers in DSA. We want to bolster our ability to produce timely, reliable, and robust solutions to our stakeholders. To do this, we not only need to meet Goal 1 to strengthen our membership, but we also need to produce a track record of delivering technical results. We see these larger projects as necessary to scale DSA to the point where it can wield the power necessary to threaten capitalism. myDSA will automate work that currently consumes many hours of staff time. dsaID will enable members at all levels to develop applications and websites that can be securely shared behind a member-exclusive login, ensuring that DSA work can be securely conducted and discussed online. A voting application will allow chapters and national bodies to achieve greater and more consistent democratic outcomes without incurring the heavy costs of existing voting applications. Official NTC support for WordPress will strengthen the many groups already using WordPress by providing expertise and guidance on how best to utilize their platforms. Chapter website work will ensure that all chapters have a visible and consistent presence online. A VAN replacement will help create independence from the Democratic party’s infrastructure. These are all projects that will not be accomplished without a coherent and thriving NTC within DSA.

    We will know it when we see it:

    • The NTC has successfully launched and maintained 3 projects that met the needs of organizers in the NTC
    • The NTC has mechanisms to gather feedback on the technical and data needs of organizers in DSA
    • Overall, our stakeholders are satisfied with our results and products

    Current and future work that could support this goal include:

    • Understanding organizing needs
      • NTC steering team members meet with DSA chapter leaders
      • NTC developed and analyzes a survey of data and tech needs from DSA chapters
      • Have a mechanism for hearing new ideas from members and deciding whether or not to launch the idea as a new commission or not
    • Receiving feedback
      • NTC develops and analyzes a bi-annual survey collecting feedback of active products (like myDSA)
      • Launch a ticketing system to receive feedback and requests from organizers

    The way we will get there:

    • Year 1 (2023):
      • Launch myDSA and expand its features to include dues changes
      • Launch dsaID and onboard member-developed applications to use the single sign-on login portal
      • Deploy a system for voting at the 2023 convention
    • Year 2 (2024):
      • Develop and run an annual survey to assess the technical and data needs of DSA membership
      • Develop a system for which DSA members can propose new projects to the NTC
      • Deploy a ticketing system for all national bodies, chapters, and members to get technical help
      • Establish a committee to report on viability of DSA-owned infrastructure
      • Deploy a system for voting for all national bodies and chapters
      • Provide a comprehensive review of work undertaken throughout the year and reassess goals
      • Produce report establishing viability of DSA-owned infrastructure replacing the current tools we have contracts for
    • Year 3 (2025):
      • Release first iteration of VAN alternative
      • Deploy and actively maintain 4 technical solutions/projects
      • Release and support a communication alternative to Slack for staff, members, national bodies, and chapters
      • Provide a comprehensive review of work undertaken throughout the year and reassess goals
    • Year 4 (2026):
      • Use VAN alternative in half of DSA midterm electoral campaigns
      • Assess any existing projects, collected feedback from users, and mapped out projects to improve these projects
      • Provide a comprehensive review of work undertaken throughout the year and reassess goals
    • Year 5 (2027):
      • Use VAN alternative for all DSA electoral campaigns
      • Deploy and actively maintain 6 technical solutions/projects
      • Upgrade Nextcloud to implement document collaboration
      • Provide a comprehensive review of work undertaken throughout the year and reassess goals

    Goal 3: The NTC is the leader on data and tech for all of DSA

    We believe that by delivering on technical projects as laid out in Goal 2 that we can earn the trust and respect of our comrades in DSA. In addition, we want the NTC to be seen as the technical leaders in DSA and to be trusted with key relevant decisions. We also want to earn our place as trusted partners to the data and tech staff at DSA.

    We will know it when we see it:

    • The NTC is consulted in the planning of any potential tech solutions for DSA national bodies, campaigns, or staff
    • The NTC is consulted when DSA national bodies, campaigns, or staff have technical, data, or digital tool needs
    • The NTC provides recommendations and guidance for all tech solutions proposed to the NPC
    • The NTC has built relationships with leaders in chapters and national bodies
    • The NTC has built relationships with DSA data and tech staff

    Current and future work that could support this goal:

    • Build member capacity to provide technical support to DSA chapters and formations
    • Produce documentation:
      • For best practices around web design, security and accessibility
      • For best practices for using data, tech, and digital tools
    • Provide technical workshops for DSA chapters and national bodies
    • Provide digital security training to DSA committees and chapters
    • Build out a liaison structure between NTC and chapters and national bodies
    • Publish a blog about making a socialist tech organization work, with consistent updates
    • SC takes policy positions
      • On broader issues of the intersection of socialism and tech
      • On internal DSA tech matters

    The way we will get there:

    • Year 1 (2023):
      • Develop and implement both a chapter and national body tech liaison program, with 40 chapters and half of all national bodies actively participating
      • Develop a data security policy for chapter implementation
      • Ensure that all chapters have a website
      • Ensure all national bodies have a maintained website that meets their needs
      • Produce 4 trainings each for national bodies and chapters
      • Deploy a website for the NTC which is regularly updated
      • Release at least 2 policy position papers
      • Produce at least 2 papers on best practices
      • Produce at least 1 technical workshop and one convention-focused technical workshop
      • Implement a successful pipeline for members to be integrated into EWOC
      • Overhaul the discussion board to be more user-friendly and promote positive communication among members
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with at least 20 chapter leaders
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with leaders of all national bodies
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with the 2021-2023 NPC
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with the incoming 2023-2025 NPC
    • Year 2 (2024):
      • Have 100 chapters and all national bodies actively participating in the tech liaison program
      • Produce 6 trainings each for national bodies and chapters
      • Ensure that all chapters have a data security policy in place
      • Release at least 4 policy position papers
      • Produce at least 2 papers on best practices
      • Produce at least 2 technical workshops
      • Have 25% of new members participating in the pipeline between NTC and EWOC
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with at least 20 chapter leaders
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with leaders of all national bodies at least once
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with the NPC at least twice
    • Year 3 (2025):
      • Have 150 chapters and all national bodies actively participating in the tech liaison program
      • Produce 6 trainings each for national bodies and chapters
      • Release at least 6 policy position papers
      • Produce at least 2 papers on best practices and update all previous best practices documents
      • Produce at least 2 technical workshops and 1 convention-focused technical workshop
      • Have 50% of new members participating in the pipeline between NTC and EWOC
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with at least 35 chapter leaders
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with leaders of all national bodies at least twice
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with the NPC at least twice
    • Year 4 (2026):
      • Have 200 chapters and all national bodies actively participating in the tech liaison program
      • Produce 6 trainings each for national bodies and chapters
      • Release at least 6 policy position papers
      • Produce at least 4 papers on best practices
      • Produce at least 4 technical workshops
      • Have 75% of new members participating in the pipeline between NTC and EWOC
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with at least 45 chapter leaders
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with leaders of all national bodies at least three times
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with the NPC at least twice
    • Year 5 (2027):
      • Have all chapters and all national bodies actively participating in the tech liaison program
      • Produce 6 trainings each for national bodies and chapters
      • Release at least 8 policy position papers
      • Produce at least 4 papers on best practices
      • Produce at least 4 technical workshops and one convention-focused technical workshop
      • Have all new members participating in the pipeline between NTC and EWOC
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with at least 60 chapter leaders
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with leaders of all national bodies at least four times
      • The NTC Steering Committee meets with the NPC at least twice

    Closing

    Organizers fuel DSA, but organizers need tech. In our increasingly online world, technology and data help us scale and be more effective as socialists – allowing us to win campaigns and materially improve the lives of working class people as we build power. As the National Tech Committee, we want to be the body that is equipping DSA with socialist-owned tools and data so we can no longer be at the whims of giant corporations and the Democratic Party.

    The NTC is excited to present these goals as our 5-Year work plan. We are emboldened by our strengths: the NTC is powerful because of the technical talent of our members and their commitment to DSA, and we are consistently improving our structure and capacity. These strengths must be leveraged if we are to become powerful enough to threaten capitalism.

    ​