Every summer members of VFP are given the opportunity to shape organization policy by submitting resolutions that are reviewed and voted on by the membership. Resolutions approved in previous years can be viewed at our Master Index.
For the yearly resolution process, this starts approximately 90 days before the start of the annual VFP Convention when resolutions start to be accepted and close 30 days prior to the start of the pre-Convention Board of Directors meeting. For 2017 the first day resolutions could be submitted was May 1st and the deadline for submission is July 9th.
To submit a resolution the place to start is the VFP website by going to the “2017 Annual Convention” tab where you will find a link to “Resolutions/By-Laws”. The Resolution page contains the “Resolution Protocols” which not only tell you how to submit a resolution, but also spell out the procedures that need to be followed. These “Protocols”, you could say, have been formed out of finding over the years what works and what doesn’t. For example proposed resolutions should not require national VFP staff to perform work or fund a project. This work, and funding, must be by the resolution maker due to VFP national funding and staff constraints.
There also is a Protocol that requires resolutions to no more than 300 words (roughly a page) as in the past some draft resolutions were five-plus pages long. Like good Letters To The Editor in a newspaper, short and to the point resolutions tend to be the most effective. When resolutions are too long, people will tend to skip reading “Whereas” after “Whereas” statements anyway and just go to the “Therefore be it resolved” section and see what the resolution maker wants.
And one last request. Please submit your resolutions prior to the deadline (again July 9th this year) as that gives the Resolution Committee more time to work with you to help create a resolution that meets all the requirements and will hopefully be approved by the membership.
Bob Krzewinski – VFP Resolutions Committee Chair