Crafting a Great Resolution

What makes a party? A shared sense of beliefs, values and purpose. A purpose is like working for the common good, it is the tagline of the party.

A party has a common set of values, such as

In making a resolution, it is good to think about how that resolution connects to purpose and to core values. So in the example that I am using of enacting a Global Marshall Plan for peace. I first ask, is it working for the common good? Yes. What values does it invoke? Community, Opportunity, Generosity, Peace, Fiscal Responsibility. I will need to craft the persuasions to invoke these values.

How much education do I need to do, how easy is it to immediately understand? Not easy, I will have to explain this and perhaps handout information. Handouts are a good plan, if you are short of time, the audience is more than a few people, the material is complex and you want to be more persuasive. Many resolutions are NOT passed, simply because people could not hear the person or could not understand what was being said about the resolution. A handout bypasses all of those problems.

There is an art to drafting resolutions that make them easier to understand and to be approved. The "whereas portion" is just a sneaky way to do a persuasive speech. The resolution part "be it resolved" is the part that eventually makes into the platform, which the party then tries to make law. It is most important to be short and clear. Don't try to cover details or engineer compromises in a resolution, that is actual lawmaking. There should be no more than three whereas points. The first one should ring with a value. You may change the whereas-s if you like and even the resolution, when you present the resolution in caucus. The same resolution presented and passed in many precincts has a greater chance of making it into the platform.

In preparing to present a resolution, I will want to have a short speech prepared to give to an audience. I will also want to be prepared with obvious questions, like how much will it cost? Where will we get the money from? All of this can be in the handouts.

Once you have a good resolution, the goal is to promote though blog articles, through email notes, through letters to the editors, and through handouts at meetings. Try to recruit other people. Find sponsoring organizations. This is the art of political persuasion. Instead of being a single voice trying to persuade a lawmaker to do what you want, you create a ground swell of political support that makes politically unwise for a lawmaker to anything but what you want.

Sample Resolution: Create Security through Global Marshall Plan

Whereas solidarity with other nations and generosity in alleviating global poverty is more effective in eliminating terrorism than with military intervention,

Be it resolved that we enact a Global Marshall Plan that would allocate at least 1-2 percent of the gross domestic product of the U.S. to eliminating global poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate health care, and to repair the global environment.

Short Sample Speech for Resolution to Create Security through Global Marshall Plan:

Our country has forgotten how to wage peace. In World War II, the United States had a Marshall Plan that successfully brought relief and reconstruction to European nations ravaged by war. Now we need to bring back the idea of the Global Marshall Plan to restore peace and goodwill. If we spend a half or even a quarter of what we normally spend on the military during non-war times, we would truly be investing in peace and friendship. The war policy is a failure policy. Using the Global Marshall Plan is effective, it is cost efficient and it is the moral thing to do.