NOTE: The RRA Executive Committee is asking that members please give careful consideration to the submission of resolutions, which use up time on the business agenda. As a reminder, the Executive Committee has the responsibility for deciding which and how many resolutions can be placed on the agenda of the Annual Meeting. Thank you for your consideration.

When preparing a resolution for the RRA membership to endorse, please make sure that you include the following:

1. Action

Every resolution must have an action component for the RRA and its membership to

follow up. It is not enough to declare RRA support or opposition, or to call on members to write their congressional representatives. It would be helpful to list individuals and organizations to which the RRA office should send copies of the resolution.

2. Education

A resolution of the RRA ought to contain a Jewish connection in the body of the resolution, and the topic should be accessible to the average member. If the subject of your resolution is not well known, requires some technical knowledge, or is controversial, the text of the resolution should be supplemented by some educational material, giving background and preferably providing responses to potential questions and counter-arguments. This will enable colleagues to think about the issue before it reaches the floor. Such material should not be presented as part of the resolution to be voted on, except in basic terms supporting the thrust of the resolution. Ideally, colleagues can use this material to promote a cause in their home communities.

3. Jewish foundations

It would be helpful to the membership in studying a resolution, as well as in promoting it, to provide a Jewish background/values component as the foundation of the resolution. Textual bases are desirable, but not obligatory.

4. Meet deadlines

All Social Action resolutions with supporting materials must be received in the RRA office no later than four weeks prior to convention. (Feb. 16, 2010) This will enable the Executive Committee to review proposals and for us to distribute resolutions in advance. At the discretion of the Executive Committee, a timely resolution may be presented to the plenum after the deadline, if it relates to an issue which arose after the deadline, and if the resolution is received by the Executive Committee by the Sunday morning of the first day of convention for their review.

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