Joining the DSA Happens in Two Parts:
Part 1
Join with national here: https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership/
Membership for DSA is maintained at the national level. The vast majority of activities put on by Madison Area DSA do not require membership, however, you’ll need to sign up as an official member with national to vote with the chapter, hold chapter offices, and gain access to certain chapter resources.
Part 2
After you join with national above, they will pass your information to your local chapter so that they can contact you. You can wait for this to happen on its own, but that can take between 1-3 weeks. To speed things along:
- Double check which chapter you’re a member of (or will be a member of) using the chapter lookup tool here: chapters.dsausa.org.
- If the result shows ‘Madison Area’ as your chapter, proceed with step 2, otherwise you should follow whatever instructions the Chapter Lookup Tool provides to link up with your home chapter.
- Find your welcome letter or most recent confirmation of payment.
- This will probably have come from the address info@dsausa.org and look something like this:
- This will probably have come from the address info@dsausa.org and look something like this:
- Forward this email to dsamadison@gmail.com and let us know you’ve joined and would like to connect. Please be sure to include your First name, Last name, Pronouns, and the Email you used to join the national org. We’ll reach out and get you connected to the chapter via email!
Membership and Joining FAQs
Q. I think I may have messed up with the stuff above. Did I send the right email? Did you get it? That’s a lot of steps!
A. As long as you’ve joined up with national and are in the area, we will get your information eventually and contact you. It may just take a bit longer. We’ll reach you, comrade!
Q. I joined up but nobody has contacted me!
A. It is possible that your membership information was overlooked or still on its way. If you’d like to make contact, follow the below instructions labelled “Part 2” above.
Q: I live in another part of the state/country but would really like to make Madison my home chapter, can I do that? Can I be a member of more than one local chapter?
A: A member’s chapter is determined from the address they used to sign up with national, so no, you cannot be an official member of a chapter outside your residence, or be an official member of more than one chapter.
That said, there is nothing at all stopping you from organizing with the Madison Area DSA. People choose not to be official members for a variety of reasons, but socialists of all stripes are welcome to participate in the vast majority of MADSA chapter activities.
Q: I’d like to be a member, but the dues would be too much of a burden, what can I do?
A: Dues are not required and can be waived by filling out the following form with national: https://act.dsausa.org/survey/dueswaiver.
Q: What’s the difference between Monthly Dues and Annual Dues? Does it matter which I sign up for?
A: Monthly dues will cost a little more than the discounted Annual rate, but when comrades sign up for monthly dues, National returns a percentage of that money to the chapter itself. The local chapter receives no portion of annual dues.
Q: I’d like to donate a little more to the chapter beyond my dues, is there an easy way to do that?
A: Yes! You can use the Voluntary Dues Link here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BK8JVBN6TETUY
Q: I’m donating to the chapter through the Voluntary Dues link, but I have not signed up with DSA national (or have ended my membership with them). Does paying the ‘voluntary dues’ via the above PayPal link make me an “official member”?
A: No. The only way to be an official member of the chapter is to register with National. That said, the vast majority of Madison Area DSA’s meetings and activities do not require membership. Most of our working groups are open to non-members and several are explicitly hybrid by design. So, while all are encouraged to join ‘officially’ so you can get the benefit of a vote within the chapter, the ability to hold office, and access to certain platforms, organizing directly with the chapter without membership is fairly commonplace.
Q: I’m not a member but I work very closely with the Chapter/ a Working Group and it would help to have access to some of the platforms exclusive to members (like Slack). Is there any way to gain that access?
A: Yes, ask your Working Group Leadership (Steering Committee, Co-Chairs, Etc.) to request Provisional Access on your behalf using this form: https://airtable.com/shriT6avsNwtYkvC7.