Submitted by Andrew Bowman
Depending on how you choose to get involved in politics, Summer can either be the least or most interesting season of the year. For those more into elections, the hottest months mark a lull between the Spring Primaries and the Fall General; a dormant period that is especially silent during odd-numbered years. On the other hand though for people more interested in outreach, Summer is a prime opportunity, as many communities use this period of fair weather for gatherings and events that organizations such as the South Central Young Dems can attend to bring themselves to the community. It was against this backdrop that the SCYD held their June 2025 meeting against, and it was such an influential context that the meeting itself was moved from June 19th to June 26th to accommodate participation at Jubilee Day. And much like Summer itself, the first of our Summer meetings reflected the two very different tempos that can be seen in local political action.
The meeting began on the more relaxed end of business with general updates, of which there were the two: the first being a commendation for the work done at events and the latter being a report on the establishment of cordial communications with the Camp Hill Democrats. Of the two updates, the recognition from the Camp Hill Dems is of particular note as it marks perhaps the most enthusiastic recognition of the South Central Young Democrats by another subgroup of the Democratic Party and even led a new member to attend the meeting. The Camp Hill Democrats seem to be very interested in our mission and would very much appreciate if our members attend their next meeting at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, August 19 at Trinity Lutheran Church. Beyond that, non-event related business was contained to the VP report, which mostly centered on refining our endorsement process both to reach more candidates and allow candidates to revise their submissions. The discussion this spawned focused mainly on the goals of endorsements and maintaining a healthy quality vs quantity balance so our endorsements carry weight. For now though, we believe our efforts would be best focused on establishing contact with local political groups that can distribute our endorsement form.
After the VP report came the main event of the meeting: the Events Planning report. This report, delivered by Katie, detailed four events that the South Central Young Democrats organized and/or participated in as well as seven upcoming events. The report on the events previous to the meeting was generally favorable, detailing how we utilized our attendance at multiple events such as York Pride and the No Kings protest to drive membership, especially at No Kings, which was a politically focused event where we had our own table instead of sharing with the Democrats of the county. Of course, there’s always room for improvement, specifically with outreach events. Most notably, we need to get people out into crowds more, which is especially important when we’re sharing a table and the other occupant is attracting a crowd that spills over in front of our space. As for future events, we have a variety coming up from the more socially-focused “Drinks, Democracy, and Music Trivia” on at 6:00 PM on July 7th at the Handsome Cab to the more outreach-focused events such as New Cumberland Pride on July 19th and Central PA Pride in Harrisburg on July 26th. Sign ups for these events and more can be found on the Discord server.
As we chart our course forward, we find ourselves repeatedly switching gears. One month, we’re out knocking doors for candidates, the next, we’re pulling double duty at Pride and 50501. This pattern of tempo changes will ironically be a constant of working in the South Central Young Democrats, but if anyone can take advantage of this, it should be us. And if we can keep up the good work, once Summer is over and election season starts, we’ll be riding a wave of momentum into our next big gear switch.