How to write and pass a platform resolution at your county convention

The most powerful document in a county Republican Party is not the budget, the bylaws or the donor list. It is a single paragraph, typed on a form, handed to a volunteer at a folding table on convention morning. Every plank in a state party platform that you have ever heard quoted began as somebody's paragraph. Somebody wrote it at a kitchen table. Somebody got it in before the deadline. Somebody counted heads. And somebody, usually, had read the rules of order the night before while everyone else was watching the game.

I want you to be that somebody. This is a playbook, so the steps are plain and exact, and the argument is saved for the first and last sections. One caution as we begin: county and state parties write their own rules, and the rules differ. Your party's bylaws and convention call are the final word. Where I describe a typical process, check it against your own documents.

What a resolution is, and what it is not

A resolution is a formal statement of a position or a request, put in writing and submitted to a meeting for a vote. At a county convention or county committee meeting, a resolution is how an ordinary member says: "Here is what this party should believe or ask for, and I want the delegates on the record."

A resolution may do one of several things. It may propose a plank, a sentence or paragraph of the party's platform. It may call on an elected official or a government body to act. It may endorse or oppose a policy. It may direct the party itself to do something, such as change a rule.

What it is not: law. A party resolution does not bind a legislature, a county commission or a school board. It binds no one but the party's own officers, and sometimes not even them. Its power is political. A plank adopted at the state convention is a statement of what the party's activists want, and it can be cited at the candidate forum, in the questionnaire, and when a lawmaker is asked why he voted the way he did. For what a platform does and does not bind, see What a Party Platform Is, Who Writes It and What It Actually Binds.

Step 1: Get the rules before you write a word

Before you draft, collect four documents and read them in this order.

1. The convention call. This is the formal notice of the meeting. It states the date, time, place, credentials rules and the deadline for submitting resolutions. Look for the phrase "resolutions" or "platform."
2. The county party bylaws. They tell you how resolutions are handled and what committees exist.
3. The convention rules. Most conventions adopt rules at the start. Some parties publish the proposed rules in advance. They set speaking time, who can introduce a resolution, and how floor votes are taken.
4. Last cycle's resolutions and platform. Many county parties keep the platform and the adopted resolutions from past years, and the state party posts its platform. Find out what has been passed before, so that you do not file a duplicate and so that you can copy the format that has worked.

Write down three facts: the deadline, the place where the resolution must be delivered (an email address, a mailbox, a committee chair), and the format required. If the call says resolutions must be submitted in advance by a date, a resolution that arrives after that date can be ruled out of order, no matter how good it is. If the call allows resolutions from the floor, the rules usually require a written copy and a number of copies for the delegates, and often a vote to suspend the rules.

Step 2: Pick one subject

A resolution should deal with a single subject. This is the first rule and the one that gets broken most often.

Here is why. A resolution that combines three ideas forces a delegate who agrees with two of them to vote against all three, or to vote for one idea he opposes. The usual result is that the resolution is amended, split or defeated. A single-subject resolution gives delegates a clean choice and gives the committee a clean choice.

Test your idea with one question: can I state what this resolution does in one sentence without using the word "and"? If not, you have two resolutions.

Then ask whether the subject belongs at this level. A county convention is a good place for issues the county can affect and for issues that a state platform ought to address. It is a poor place for something that only Congress can do, unless your point is to put the county on record. Say what you want, and to whom you are speaking.

Step 3: Write it in the standard form

Resolutions follow a standard shape borrowed from parliamentary practice. Learn it once and you can use it forever.

1. A title. Short, plain, saying what it is about.
2. Whereas clauses. Each one states a fact or a reason, and each one begins with "WHEREAS." Keep them few: two to four.
3. The resolved clause. This begins "BE IT RESOLVED" or "RESOLVED," and states what the party does or asks. It is the only part that is voted into the record as the party's position, so spend most of your effort here.
4. Optionally, a "further resolved" clause for a second action, such as sending a copy to an official. Use it rarely.
5. The submitter's name, precinct and contact information.

Here is a sample, labelled as an example, on a local subject. It is a model of form and not a recommendation.

Title: Publish the County's Check Register Online WHEREAS, county taxpayers fund every payment the county government makes; and WHEREAS, a searchable list of payments lets residents see where their money goes; BE IT RESOLVED that the Republican Party of this county urges the county commission to publish its check register on the county website each month.

That is under seventy words. Notice what it does. The whereas clauses are facts that no delegate would dispute. The resolved clause asks for one specific action from one specific body. A delegate can understand it in the time it takes to read it aloud.

Compare what usually goes wrong. The author tries to make the whole argument in the whereas clauses, with ten paragraphs of statistics and a quotation from a founder. The delegates tune out. The committee cannot tell what the resolved clause is asking. And every factual claim in a whereas clause is a place for an opponent to say, "That isn't true," which turns a vote on the policy into a fight about a footnote.

The rules of a good draft

• Use plain verbs. "Urges," "supports," "opposes," "calls on," "directs."
• Name the target. Who must act: the legislature, the county commission, the school board, the party itself?
• Cite only facts you can prove. If you cite a statute, cite it correctly. If you cite a number, be able to show the source. If you cannot verify it, leave it out. See also the approach in your campaign message on one page, a five-box worksheet for stripping a message to its core.
• Keep it short. Short resolutions are read, understood and passed. Long ones are referred to a committee for a long, comfortable death.
• Say yes to something. A resolution that only complains is easier to ignore than one that asks for a specific act.

Step 4: Submit it correctly and on time

1. Submit by the deadline, and earlier if you can. Send your resolution to the person or committee named in the call, and confirm receipt. Keep a copy with the date.
2. Follow the format. Some parties require a particular form, a number of copies, a signature, or a minimum number of co-sponsors. A resolution rejected for form never gets to the substance.
3. Get co-sponsors. Even where the rules do not require them, a resolution with several delegates' names on it signals support and gives you allies to speak for it.
4. Bring copies. Bring enough for the resolutions committee and, if floor submissions are allowed, for the delegates.
5. Be at the meeting. Many conventions will not take up a resolution unless a sponsor or delegate is present to move it.

Step 5: Understand how it travels

In a typical party, resolutions follow a ladder, and it matches the structure laid out in The Republican Party org chart, from your precinct to the RNC.

1. Precinct or county meetings. Resolutions are introduced and voted on. Those that pass may be forwarded.
2. The county convention. The delegates adopt the county's resolutions, and the convention may send those it adopts on to the next level.
3. District or state resolutions committee. At the state convention, a committee receives the resolutions from every county. It groups duplicates, edits for clarity and decides what to recommend.
4. The state convention floor. The full body of delegates votes on the committee's report. Items the committee does not recommend can often be raised by a minority report or a motion from the floor, according to the convention rules.
5. The platform. What is adopted becomes a plank or a stated resolution of the state party.

At each rung, fewer ideas survive. That is why a short, clear resolution that is easy to merge and easy to defend has an advantage.

Step 6: Understand the resolutions committee

At the county or state convention, a resolutions committee or platform committee reads everything. A typical committee will do the following:

• Sort resolutions by subject.
• Combine similar resolutions into one.
• Edit for clarity and consistency, sometimes with the sponsor's consent.
• Recommend one of four actions: adopt, adopt as amended, do not adopt, or refer elsewhere.
• Report to the whole convention.

You can help yourself by contacting the committee chair in advance, asking if there is a formatting preference, offering to meet if the committee wants to combine your resolution with another, and being willing to compromise on wording while holding the core. A resolution whose sponsor says "I can live with this change if the resolved clause keeps its main point" is a resolution that comes out of committee alive.

Step 7: Count your votes before you walk in

This is the step amateurs skip.

1. Know the voting body. How many delegates are there? How many are credentialed? What is a quorum?
2. Know the threshold. A resolution usually needs a simple majority of those present and voting. Some matters, such as a rule change or a platform amendment, may need a larger share. Check the rules.
3. Do the arithmetic. Say the convention has 300 delegates and all are present and voting. A majority is more than half of 300. Half is 150, so you need 151. Now say 220 are present. Half of 220 is 110, so you need 111. And if the rules require a two-thirds vote for an amendment to the platform, two-thirds of 300 is 200, so you would need 200 votes, and if 270 were present, two-thirds of 270 is 180.
4. Identify your allies and your likely opponents. Call the delegates from your area. Ask them to read the resolution before the meeting.
5. Prepare a one-minute speech. The convention rules will limit speaking time. Say what the resolution does, why it matters to the family at the kitchen table, and what you want the delegates to do. Do not read the whole resolution aloud again.
6. Prepare for questions and amendments. A friendly amendment that improves the wording is a gift. An unfriendly one that guts it is a threat. Know your bottom line.

The steelman, and my answer

The best argument against spending your time on this goes like this. Platforms are paper. Politicians ignore them. A candidate can run against his own party's platform and win, and a county resolution is read by nobody except the people who wrote it. The real action is elsewhere.

There is truth in that. A platform is not a law, and no one should pretend otherwise. But I'd say three things in reply. First, the party's platform is the only place where activists' preferences are written down by name, in public, over the signature of the convention. When a questionnaire asks a candidate whether he supports the platform, or when a primary opponent holds up a plank to a sitting member, that paper becomes evidence. Second, the process teaches the people who take part, and the next generation of leaders is made of the people who learned the rules this year. Third, and most practically, it takes an evening to write and an afternoon to pass one. No other political act is that cheap and that visible.

Mistakes to avoid

• Missing the deadline.
• Packing three subjects into one resolution.
• Burying the ask in the whereas clauses.
• Quoting statistics you cannot source.
• Skipping the convention itself.
• Fighting the committee instead of working with it.
• Insulting an opponent in the text. A resolution with a personal attack is easy to defeat on a point of order.

The bottom line

• A resolution is a one-subject, short, written request that goes to a vote, and the party's platform is built from them. Write yours in the title, whereas and resolved form, and keep it under a page.
• Read the convention call, bylaws and rules first. The deadline and the delivery point are the places where good resolutions die.
• Do the arithmetic ahead of time: how many delegates, what threshold, who your allies are, and what your one-minute speech says.
• Work with the resolutions committee, not against it, and be willing to change the wording while holding the point.
• Pair the paper with action: once it passes, send it to the official it names, and read how to testify at a hearing in three minutes and be remembered to carry it into a public hearing.