SDS in the News - How to Count Chapters

The new SDS is in the news with articles in

The Nation

and

Left Turn

The Nation claims that SDS has over 100 chapters. Left Turn says 250. In fact I'd guess that SDS has between 15 and 50 chapters (by which I mean chapters with regular meetings). This number is particularly important for SDS as the organization is already built upon historically based hype - so being grounded in reality is good.

SDS isn't the first organization to have inflated chapter counts. There is a generally tendancy to do this in student activism.

Why Chapter Counts Get Inflated
This happens when you assume that every person at a school (or in a community) represents an active chapter.

This is often wrong because individuals may be involved in no organization at all (I know people who attend national events, but never get around to starting or participating in a local group), they may be involved in a local group that is independent or affiliated with another network, they may drop off the face of the earth (they might volunteer for a position of responsibility, like regional coordinator, and never be heard of again), or they might have the intention of starting a group but not do it.