Why Recruit?
DSA members have by this point seen that present political events mean a lot of people are finding their way to our organization on their own. Indeed, since the beginning of September 2024, DSA Cincy has grown by nearly 100 members-representing ~33% growth from September 2024 to the end of March 2025. While we have developed an onboarding system, most of this actual recruitment has been fairly passive, from people who learned about our organization or who finally joined due to external events. So why should we do active recruitment?
- We want to not just be influenced by history, but to influence it. If we rely primarily on external events to determine our rise, fall and success, and don't take seriously developing our own power to win and change the world, we won't amount to the political force we would like to be in the US.
- The more relationships we develop in DSA, the more power we have. Every person who joins DSA isn't just one more member or volunteer-they're a person with a wealth of social relationships and history with people, and the more of these social networks we bring into DSA, the stronger our organization can be in our larger society.
- It develops our own organizing skills. Being able to have an organizing conversation and make direct asks are core skills for any organizer. This applies at all levels of campaigns and efforts, be it asking someone to sign a petition, or to join an organizing committee at your workplace. And every organizing conversation we have is a learning opportunity for ourselves to do better with the next one. Take the chance, make the ask, and learn from each one for next time!
- Direct recruitment asks work! One of the largest membership bumps in DSA history was the 100k recruitment drive in 2020, where chapters across the country recruited thousands of new members to DSA. Direct asks to the people in our lives who should be involved work, we just need to make the ask!
Recruitment Steps
So you've been persuaded-it's worth asking people to join DSA! How do you get started doing this? There are many different approaches, but one that's pursued by many different campaigns is shared below:
- Make an initial list of at least five people to recruit. Notably, this list does not have to be restricted to people who have described themselves to you as socialists. Instead, think of the people in your life who have been sympathetic to socialist demands in your life. The family member who told you they voted for Bernie in 2020, the coworker who opposes the genocide of Palestinians-anyone who you've had a positive conversation about politics with in this vein is worth talking to!
- Open a positive conversation on your shared values and vision for the world. Many leftists open up conversations about politics with the unorganized by starting with the problems. Unfortunately, opening with this framing often leaves people feeling hopeless to resolve those problems and unwilling to commit to action. Instead, open with shared socialist political values that you both have in common.
- Spend most of your time listening. A good organizing conversation does not look like you delivering a speech to the other person-it looks like you listening and genuinely engaging with their thoughts and concerns about the world.
- Channel towards a positive solution-DSA. After your conversation has touched on the things you both care about and what the other person is thinking about, talk about DSA and our efforts to build a mass organization that is able to fight for the things we care about. Share why DSA matters to you.
- Directly make the ask. In any recruitment conversation, it is of the utmost importance you directly ask the other person if they will join DSA. You aren't imposing, anyone has the power to say yes or no as they wish, but many people don't realize joining is an option, or are waiting for implicit permission to be invited in. Give it to them!
- If they say yes, walk through signing up with them. Sometimes people say yes, the conversation moves on, and by the end both have forgotten to take the step of actually filling out the join form. Make sure to show them the join page (link provided here), and walk through the form with them step by step!
- Know your follow up. Whether you get a yes or no, it's good to make sure they know about other actions and events coming up you think they'd be interested in. And if they're unsure, a good event could be enough to change their minds. Make sure you know your follow up ask, whatever it is!