Process for Introducing and Managing Resolutions.
Process reviewed and approved by the DPCA Excom on December 4, 2017.
1a. Any member of Democrats Abroad may ask an elected DPCA member to sponsor a Resolution to be submitted to the Resolutions Committee. The DPCA member has the choice to sponsor or not. The DPCA member does not need to be from the member's country committee.
Alternatively
1b. A DA member may also submit a draft text for a vote to his/her CC. If adopted, a CC DPCA member must be willing to sponsor a Resolution to be submitted to the Resolutions Committee.
2. If the elected DPCA member chooses to sponsor the resolution, s/he takes ownership of the Resolution, and is responsible for submitting the document to the Resolutions Committee for review.
3. The Resolutions Committee makes sure the text of the resolution is drafted appropriately, reviews the resolution for redundancy with previous resolutions, consistency with DA values and factual accuracy. If necessary, the Resolutions Committee sends the resolution back to the resolution owner (the DPCA member) for further edits/corrections and restarts this step. The DPCA member is responsible for edits and re-submission to Resolutions Committee for approval.
4. When the Resolutions Committee has approved the format and content of the resolution, the Resolutions Committee then sends the resolution back to the DPCA member for submission to the DPCA. The DPCA member then submits the draft to the Int’l Chair for inclusion in the next DPCA meeting agenda, or if the ExCom deems it necessary, the Excom may call for an online debate and vote regarding the resolution.
Additional guidance - Resolutions at the General Meeting AND throughout the year (posted April 22, 2019)
The Resolutions Committee works with authors and sponsors of resolutions to revise them for (1) technically correct formatting, (2) accuracy and inclusion of relevant facts including DA's past positions, and (3) advice regarding changes that increase the likelihood of passage by the DPCA.
Resolutions to be considered at an Annual General Meeting of the DPCA must be received by the Resolutions Committee prior to the meeting; the deadline for submission is generally a date set at least 15 days prior to the meeting itself.
At that point the official list of resolutions will be distributed by the DPCA Chair along with the 15-day notice for the DPCA global meeting itself.
Changes after that date are not allowed to avoid confusion, but changes may happen in the meeting itself by motions to amend.
Once the meeting begins, authorship and sponsorship are irrelevant; the text is in the hands of the DPCA and may be changed even against the author's wishes.
The DPCA may also approve resolutions outside a global meeting, so if your resolution does not meet the formal deadline, it is perfectly in order to submit a resolution after the deadline, as the Resolutions Committee regularly organizes online discussion and debate of new texts. With DA's adoption of a 2020 platform just over a year away, we know how important resolutions are, so do not hesitate to contact the Committee at resolutions@democratsabroad.org with your draft texts in the upcoming months.
Instructions from 2021
The Resolutions Committee welcomes resolution submissions, and would like to remind everyone of the schedule, process, and a few best practices to use when submitting your resolution:
Schedule
Resolutions are due to the Resolutions committee on Thursday, April 15th 2021, 30 days before the 2021 Global Meeting on May 15th.
Resolutions will be distributed to the DPCA body on Friday, April 30th 2021, 15 days before the 2021 Global Meeting.
Do you have an issue that you'd like the DPCA to consider?
Here are questions to consider before submitting a resolution:
Is your issue something of concern and/or relevance, either directly or indirectly, to members of Democrats Abroad? If yes...
Has your issue already been a subject of a resolution (see resolutions by year, on the right), and/or was it addressed in the most recent 2020 Democrats Abroad Platform? If yes, please consider if our position should be updated or left as is.
If no resolution or platform plank exists, or the resolution or plank needs to be updated...
Get to know resolutions and their standard format.
Review past resolution text (see resolutions by year, to the right)
Consider the three parts of a resolution:
State the problem to be solved or the issue to be addressed. Describe the problem/issue in one or more sentences starting with "whereas"
Propose a solution; what Action is called for to address the problem, in one or more statements starting with "Let it be resolved"
In your final "resolve" paragraphs, identify those persons or institutions, etc. who are responsible for the Action. "Typical" actors, depending on the issue, may be the DPCA Excom, the Democratic Party, or our Membership...
For example, to bring your issue to the attention of the DNC, you would want to "Resolve" to direct our DNC representatives to raise this at the next DNC meeting.Please ensure that any citation or claim, especially one involving numbers or historical events, are accurate (with a link to a reliable source).
Draft your text, then find a sponsor and follow these steps to submit it
Anyone may draft a text, but only a DPCA voting member may submit it to the DPCA (via the Resolutions Committee).
If you are a DPCA voting member, send your draft to the Resolutions Committee (at resolutions@democratsabroad.org); we will review the content and style and work with you to resolve any issues.
If you are not a DPCA voting member, find someone who is who will take ownership of your text and submit it to the Committee. (That member does not have to be in your own country committee.)
You may also urge your country committee to adopt your resolution, instructing its Chair (a DPCA member) to submit it (see above).
The Resolutions Committee will now review your draft for content and style and will contact you with their recommendations.
Documents listing Resolutions adopted by the DPCA (in the 21st Century)
Please note that this is an informal list. If you need the official record of any particular resolution, please contact the International Secretary (secretary@democratsabroad.org).
Working Document: Resolutions 2004-2011 (Please note this file was last updated Feb 17, 2014.)
2008 Resolutions - Istanbul November 2008
2009 Resolutions - Washington DC April 2009
2010 Resolutions - Florence March 2010
2011 Resolutions - Washington DC October 2011
2013 Resolutions - London April 2013
2014 Resolutions -- Washington DC
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