So after making the mistake of getting the slowest shipping possible, my copy of Michael Connery’s (of Future Majority) Youth to Power: How Today’s Young Voters Are Building Tomorrow’s Progressive Majority finally came yesterday. I read it cover-to-cover as soon as it hit my hands. I just want to say that every person that is a leader in YDA should read this book.

It is important that as leaders of progressive youth organizations we know the history of the movement, in order to learn what has worked and what has failed, as well as the knowledge of how we came to be what we are now. As I wrote in an earlier post, one of the advantages of the youth movement was its ability to innovate and learn from trial and error. Youth to Power gives a great analysis of the past successes and failures of our movement.

Specifically valuable for leaders in YDA is the chapter on Rebuilding the Democratic Youth Brand. This chapter extensively covers YDA and CDA, and many of you were part of that history.

Some of the most interesting points are on the use of the internet and mobile technology, the role of music and culture in engaging youth, and the comparison of the Conservation youth leadership pipeline to its weaker progressive counterpart.