It’s caucus time again, and the midterm caucuses are a great chance to get involved with your local Democratic party and to help boost momentum for the 2018 elections.

The 2018 Democratic Caucuses are on Monday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m. at Central Middle School in Waterloo.

Registration will begin at 6 p.m., and you must be in line by 7 p.m. sharp to participate.

If you caucused in 2016, you probably experienced a large crowd working to convince you to vote for their candidate.

While this is typical for a presidential year, the midterm caucuses are slightly different.

The three purposes of the 2018 caucuses will be to: provide updates about local and state parties; elect delegates to county, district and state conventions; and to discuss and adopt resolutions to then be recommended to the County Platform Committee.

In order to participate in the Democratic caucus, you must be a registered Democrat, and you must be registered in the precinct you live in (you can check your precinct location at the Iowa Secretary of State’s website).

NOTE: all precincts will be held at one caucus location — Central Middle School in Waterloo.

Once you are a registered Democrat in the correct precinct, you will be able to run and vote for delegates, as well as propose and vote on resolutions to the party platform. If you’re not already registered don’t worry, as you can register on caucus night at Central Middle School.

The main purpose of this caucus is to hear about local Democratic party strategy and begin the caucus to convention process that elects party leadership and makes decisions about the party platform and policies. Unlike presidential years, not all precincts will break into preference groups.

To learn more about the caucus, the Northern Iowa Democrats will be hosting a caucus training night on Thursday, Feb. 1, at 7 p.m. in the Presidential Room of Maucker Union.

The 2018 caucus is not only a great way to get involved with an often-overlooked part of the democratic process; it also gives people many opportunities to be directly involved with the county and state party.

Plus, not only can attendees be elected as delegates to the county, district and state conventions, but attendees can be elected to the state central committee.

My advice to anyone who identifies as a Democrat, Liberal, Progressive, etc. is to get involved with the local party, participate in the caucus and help move this party toward a better future.

People don’t expect young people to be involved, so let’s prove them wrong.

If you have any questions about the caucus process, the Northern Iowa Democrats or anything else, feel free to email me at [email protected].

For information about the caucus, visit http://iowademocrats.org/caucus/

— Natalie Dean, President of the Northern Iowa Democrats