DPCA Resolutions: Announcements about Process

The deadline for submitting resolutions to be considered at the Global Meeting is 30 days out, or April 13.  Please be aware that two years ago, we introduced an online process to enable DPCA Members to submit, review, debate and vote on resolutions via email and WebEx.  So if time does not permit adequate debate and a decisive vote, these can be taken up post-meeting via online correspondence and meetings.

Dear DPCA members,

Please find below Rules (from the Charter) and Guidelines (from the Resolutions Committee) for Resolutions, we hope these will be helpful in the coming days.
best regards
Susan
Susan Vaillant
Chair, Resolutions Cmte

Will
Will Bakker
International Secretary
Secretary, Resolutions Cmte

Resolutions - Rules and Guidelines
January 2014

The upcoming meeting will begin on 2 March 2014. The deadline to submit resolutions for this meeting will be 31 January 2014, at midnight, Washington D.C. local time. Be sure to submit your resolutions to International Chair Katie Solon (chair@democratsabroad.org). The Resolutions Committee asks that you also address your resolutions to Resolutions Committee Chair Susan Vaillant (susaninstrasbourg@gmail.com).

DPCA Resolutions and the Resolutions Committee

The purpose of the Resolutions Committee is to prepare resolutions, submitted by DPCA Voting Members or Country Committee Executive Committees, for consideration during general meetings. Typically, a member of the committee will be assigned to work with each submitting member to develop clear wording and precise content for each resolution. The Resolutions Committee also makes recommendations regarding the resolutions, at DPCA general meetings.

The Resolutions Committee according to our Charter

3.3 (a): Any member may request the International Chair in writing, not less than thirty (30) days before the meeting, to place additional items on the agenda, and shall simultaneously furnish the text of any resolutions proposed for adoption. The International Chair shall circulate such additional items and proposed resolutions, as well as other resolutions, to the members of the DPCA not less than fifteen (15) days before the meeting. Items may be added to the agenda at the meeting by majority vote of the members present or represented.

3.3 (b): The International Chair may name a Resolutions Committee for the meeting to review any resolutions presented to the Chair as additional items for the agenda. The duty of the Resolutions Committee shall be to refine the language of proposed resolutions and obtain approval of the refined language from the person(s) / committee(s) submitting the proposed resolutions and to advise and make recommendations to the DPCA concerning the substance of the resolutions.

Suggestions from the Resolutions Committee

These are merely recommendations. There are no strict rules in our Charter or from past Resolutions, so the Resolutions Committee will work on any resolution submitted in accordance with the DPCA Charter. Following these suggestions will allow the Resolutions Committee to help you craft the best possible resolution.

1.     To be effective, the object of a Resolution should be a call to action. In most cases this will be a call to action by the DPCA, including calling on DPCA to take action to call on a third party (e.g. DNC, Democratic legislators, the White House, DA members) depending on the sense of the Resolution. Please limit the use of "Whereas" paragraphs, and instead focus on the action to be taken.

2.     Resolutions are different from topics for lobbying (e.g. during the DC door-knock). Resolutions passed by the DPCA can form the basis for our platform, or they can shape how the DPCA works. They are the official statements and regulations of our organization. (See Charter Section 2.1.)

3.     Any DPCA Voting Member may submit a resolution for a general meeting, with no requirement to pass the resolution at a lower level. Be advised that passing a resolution in your Country Committee is a good way to prepare it for the DPCA. Your fellow DA members will help you refine the aims and the language of the resolution, and local endorsement will make it easier to gather support for the resolution among DPCA members.

4.     Please include complete contact information with your resolution, including dates when you will not be available. In accordance with Charter Section 3.3(b), the Committee needs to work closely with you!

5.     Resolutions submitted by the deadline will be distributed to all DPCA members just 15 days later. Please submit your resolution as early as possible, to give the Committee time to work with you. If your resolution will be improved or approved by your Country Committee in the near future, don't wait to send it to the Committee –- we can make whatever changes arise from your Country Committee as we collaborate to research and refine your resolution. In fact, the Resolutions Committee can continue to make changes to your resolution, with your approval, in the days before the general meeting itself.

6.     The 2014 Resolutions Committee is now working on resolutions tabled from the previous general meeting, in London. If you believe that a resolution from a previous general meeting should be considered at the March 2014 meeting, or if you're not sure whether a resolution is under consideration for that meeting, please contact the Resolutions Committee Chair.

The Resolutions Committee looks forward to your submissions and to working with you to keep the DPCA moving forward. You are very welcome to address questions and comments to Resolutions Committee Chair, Susan Vaillant (susaninstrasbourg@gmail.com).

Dear DA leaders,

One of the most important items of business at each Global Meeting is the consideration of resolutions. The key portion of the Charter for the upcoming meeting is the deadline: Resolutions for consideration at the Global Meeting may be submitted to the International Chair up to 30 days before the meeting, that is, by January 31.

Please send the text as an attachment to chair@democratsabroad.org and susaninstrasbourg@gmail.com

That's the short version. The long story is that the DPCA Executive Committee has been working with the Resolutions Committee this year to clarify the process of submitting and considering resolutions. What follows is a brief overview for your information. We hope it will be helpful to you in the coming weeks.   

First, and as before: Any Voting Member of the DPCA may submit a resolution to the Resolutions Committee. Resolutions submitted by DPCA Voting Members must be presented at a global meeting (electronic or in-person) for consideration, as required by the Charter.

Second: Resolutions adopted by Country Committee Executive Committees, but not submitted to the Resolutions Committee by a DPCA voting member, may nonetheless be submitted to the Resolutions Committee by any member of that CC Executive Committee. The Resolutions Committee will consider whether the submission meets criteria for submission to the DPCA. The decision of the Resolutions Committee to submit or not in such cases should be made in a timely fashion, to allow the submitter to pursue other avenues.

The subject of the resolution should address a topic of relevance to members of Democrats Abroad. This may be a current political issue or an issue internal to Democrats Abroad. The topic should appear in the title in unambiguous language.  Resolutions with the greatest chance of success are those that are short, concise, topical and reflective of Democratic Party values.  

As before, co-sponsors to a resolution and passage by Country Committee ExComs are not directly relevant to the consideration of a resolution. These strategies are relevant to passing a resolution in March, but not necessary to submitting one now. If a DPCA Voting Member submits a resolution by the deadline, then the Resolutions Committee will review it for your consideration in DC.

The Resolutions Committee will be communicating with you over the next week or so, to update you on the status of the resolutions considered during the 2013 Global Meeting in London, and to further explain the overall process for handling proposed resolutions between Global Meetings.

Please let us know as early as possible if you plan to submit a Resolution and on what topic, by email to susaninstrasbourg@gmail.com . This will allow better planning of the upcoming Global Meeting.

Best regards,

Susan Vaillant
Chair of the DPCA Resolutions Committee

Will Bakker
International Secretary

Dear DPCA members,  
The Resolutions Committee has prepared a process to streamline the review, debate and adoption/rejection of Resolutions in a timely manner without the necessity of a face-to-face global meeting of DPCA members.   This process has been approved by the DPCA Excom.   Our first step is to address those Resolutions that are outstanding since the most recent global meetings.  

Seven Resolutions were submitted and reviewed prior to the most recent face-to-face global meeting but due to time constraints were not submitted for a vote.    In view of the fact that the packed agenda and limited time (2 days) of such global meetings simply do not permit adequate discussion of all texts,  the Resolutions Committee has proposed a process that would streamline the review, debate and adoption/rejection steps of Resolutions in a timely manner, independent of a face-to-face global meeting.  

This process as described below has been approved by the DPCA Executive Committee.  Its first application will be to those seven outstanding resolutions, and if successful will be applied to future Resolutions so that they can be addressed in a fair and timely manner.    Please note that these seven resolutions were all reviewed by the Resolutions Committee and posted prior to the meeting.    Any future Resolutions must be submitted to the ResCom before the rest of the process will be set in motion.

These seven resolutions are
• Resolution in support of efforts to Minimize and Challenge Political Gerrymanders
• Resolution in support of making Election Day a Nationwide Public Holiday    
• Resolution to increase opportunities and reduce confusion in Bidding for Global Meetings
• Resolution to Strengthen Diplomacy
• Resolution to Establish a Residence-Based Taxation Task Force
• Resolution for Simplified Tax Filing for Americans abroad who simply don’t owe any U.S. Income Tax
• Resolution in favor of equal Civil Rights for Americans living in Territories of the United States

THE PROCESS  

1) REVIEW -  DPCA members review the current texts online at http://wiki.democratsabroad.org/display/Resolv/DPCA+Resolutions  

2) AMENDMENTS -  We ask DPCA members to submit any amendments directly to the Resolutions Committee at resolutions@democratsabroad.org  which will review and publish these electronically.   Adequate time (approximately three weeks) is allowed for DPCA members to prepare and/or discuss these should they so wish with their country Excoms, etc. etc.     
PLEASE USE THIS EMAIL ADDRESS TO SUBMIT ANY AMENDMENTS AND ANY OTHER COMMENTS    resolutions@democratsabroad.org      

3) DISCUSSION & VOTE ON ACCEPTING AMENDMENTS -  
The amendments will be considered and voted up or down during a WebEx meeting. The meeting will be three hours long and include discussion of the resolution itself. Each of the seven resolutions will be considered in turn, with two parts:
    - Discussion and voting on each amendment
    - Discussion on the merits of the resolution as amended during the meeting
The meeting will follow a strict agenda, with 25 minutes allowed per resolution, in order to keep the meeting to its three hour maximum. 

The Webex meeting will be scheduled for the convenience for our Asia-Pacific members, probably starting around 7am DC time.     The Webex meeting will be recorded for future reference.  

4)  POSTING OF FINAL TEXTS PRIOR TO VOTE TO ADOPT.    Within two day of the WebEx meeting, the ResCom will distribute (posting on the DPCA-Leadership Listserv and by email)  the final texts of all Resolutions for an up or down vote.   

5)  FINAL VOTE TO ADOPT (or REJECT) RESOLUTIONS.     This will be an online vote, using Survey Monkey or a similar, non-anonymous polling tool.  In accordance with Charter Section 3.8, there will be three possible choices -  YES (to adopt),  NO and ABSTAIN.   The voting period will be three days.

THE SCHEDULE

1)  REVIEW.  Please start now   

2)  AMENDMENTS.   Please submit to Resolutions Committee between August 24 and September 14 at resolutions@democratsabroad.prg     These will be posted by the ResCom after review, no later than September 24.  This allows for ample time for DPCA leaders to discuss - should they so wish - with their respective Excoms, etc.

3) WEBEX AMENDMENTS DISCUSSION & VOTE.    September 29.   

4) FINAL VOTE.  October 5-7.  

PLEASE USE THIS EMAIL ADDRESS TO SUBMIT ANY AMENDMENTS AND ANY OTHER COMMENTS    resolutions@democratsabroad.org    

Current members are Susan Vaillant (Chair), Will Bakker (Secretary), Carol Adamson, Dee Dee Camhi and Alleana Leonard 

Dear all, if you have submitted a draft Resolution to the Resolutions Committee, here is an update on the process -

Once the submission deadline is reached - which was April 1st - the Resolutions Committee members review the texts, discuss among themselves their comments to reach some kind of consensus, and then one of us will contact the submitter(s) of a given resolution with our recommendations - if there are any - for improving chances of getting the resolution adopted without undue delay - given that time for debate at the international meeting is always very limited, and scheduled for end of meeting (there is also a preliminary get-together on Resolutions just before the official start of the meeting - see agenda) .

These recommendations will be basically editorial ; we also check that the topic has not already been adequately addressed fairly recently (e.g. last year’s meeting, the platform, etc.), redundancy (another submission that covers the same issue and in some cases, how these may perhaps be combined), relevancy to DA, etc.. The final text is up to the original submitter(s) of course. We then make recommendations to DPCA members prior to the meeting regarding all the submissions & post the final texts in their entirety so members can review for themselves before getting to the meeting. If you have co-sponsors and the original text has been altered you’ll want to inform them.

The list of submissions can be found at the link we posted in an email last week. We will start contacting the submitters no later than next week. Thanks for your patience

best regards
Susan
Susan Vaillant
Strasbourg, France
Resolutions Committee

Dear all, 
following up on DPCA Secretary Will Bakker’s message serving as notice of the upcoming 2015 DPCA Global Meeting, please find below Rules (from the Charter) and Guidelines (from theResolutions Committee) for Resolutions, we hope these will be helpful in the coming days.

best regards
Susan 
Susan Vaillant
Chair, Resolutions Cmte

Will 
Will Bakker
International Secretary
Secretary, Resolutions Cmte

Resolutions - Rules and Guidelines
 

The DEADLINE to submit resolutions for the 2015 global meeting will be April 1st, at midnight, Washington DC local time, and should be sent directly to Will at secretary@democratsabroad.org  and cc'd to Susan Vaillant, Resolutions Committee Chair,  susaninstrasbourg@gmail.com

There will be a preliminary meeting on April 30 to discuss submissions at the Resolutions and Charter Amendments Pre-Meeting (at meeting site in Punta Cana), April 30, 3:00pm.   Theformal meeting to debate, adopt, reject or table Resolution submissions will take place on Sunday May 3 from 10:45 a.m. to 12:30 pm.    (We strongly recommend that all those who submit or wish to debate resolutions attend the preliminary meeting, in case there is not time to address adequately all form and content issues on Sunday.)

DPCA Resolutions and the Resolutions Committee

The purpose of the Resolutions Committee is to prepare resolutions, submitted by DPCA Voting Members or Country Committee Executive Committees, for consideration during general meetings. Typically, a member of the committee will be assigned to work with each submitting member to develop clear wording and precise content for each resolution. The ResolutionsCommittee also makes recommendations regarding the resolutions, at DPCA general meetings.

The Resolutions Committee according to our Charter

3.3 (a): Any member may request the International Chair in writing, not less than thirty (30) days before the meeting, to place additional items on the agenda, and shall simultaneously furnish the text of any resolutions proposed for adoption. The International Chair shall circulate such additional items and proposed resolutions, as well as other resolutions, to the members of the DPCA not less than fifteen (15) days before the meeting. Items may be added to the agenda at the meeting by majority vote of the members present or represented.

3.3 (b): The International Chair may name a Resolutions Committee for the meeting to review any resolutions presented to the Chair as additional items for the agenda. The duty of the Resolutions Committee shall be to refine the language of proposed resolutions and obtain approval of the refined language from the person(s) / committee(s) submitting the proposed resolutions and to advise and make recommendations to the DPCA concerning the substance of the resolutions.

Suggestions from the Resolutions Committee

These are merely recommendations. There are no strict rules in our Charter or from past Resolutions, so the Resolutions Committee will work on any resolution submitted in accordance with the DPCA Charter. Following these suggestions will allow the Resolutions Committee to help you craft the best possible resolution.

1.     To be effective, the object of a Resolution should be a call to action. In most cases this will be a call to action by the DPCA, including calling on DPCA to take action to call on a third party (e.g. DNC, Democratic legislators, the White House, DA members) depending on the sense of the Resolution. Please limit the use of "Whereas" paragraphs, and instead focus on the action to be taken.

2.     Resolutions are different from topics for lobbying (e.g. during the DC door-knock). Resolutions passed by the DPCA can form the basis for our platform, or they can shape how the DPCAworks. They are the official statements and regulations of our organization. (See Charter Section 2.1.)

3.     Any DPCA Voting Member may submit a resolution for a general meeting, with no requirement to pass the resolution at a lower level. Be advised that passing a resolution in your Country Committee is a good way to prepare it for the DPCA. Your fellow DA members will help you refine the aims and the language of the resolution, and local endorsement will make it easier to gather support for the resolution among DPCA members.

4.     Please include complete contact information with your resolution, including dates when you will not be available. In accordance with Charter Section 3.3(b), the Committee needs to work closely with you!

5.     Resolutions submitted by the deadline will be distributed to all DPCA members just 15 days later. Please submit your resolution as early as possible, to give the Committee time to work with you. If your resolution will be improved or approved by your Country Committee in the near future, don't wait to send it to the Committee –- we can make whatever changes arise from your Country Committee as we collaborate to research and refine your resolution. In fact, the Resolutions Committee can continue to make changes to your resolution, with your approval, in the days before the general meeting itself.

6.     Any resolutions tabled from the previous general meeting will be considered at the May 2015.  If you’re not sure whether a prior submission is still under consideration for that meeting, please contact Will directly.  

The Resolutions Committee looks forward to your submissions and to working with you to keep the DPCA moving forward. You are very welcome to address questions and comments to Resolutions Committee Chair, Susan Vaillant (susaninstrasbourg@gmail.com).

Best regards
Susan 
Susan Vaillant
Chair, Resolutions Committee
Strasbourg, France