Resolutions may now be submitted for consideration at ISMA’s annual convention, scheduled for Sept. 8 to Sept. 10. It’s not too early to begin; the ISMA bylaws require resolutions to be submitted no later than 90 days before convention, which means the deadline to submit resolutions is Sunday, June 11. Once again, we will be using our online resolution submission form to make the process easier than ever.

About resolutions
Resolutions written by members and adopted or referred to the Board of Trustees by the House of Delegates can drive ISMA’s public policy, determine ISMA’s formal position on issues, or make structural and process changes to our organization. They can also reaffirm the positions taken in resolutions that will expire in 2023 unless reintroduced.

Typical resolutions encourage ISMA to take a position supporting or opposing a specific health policy issue or piece of legislation. Resolutions may also call on ISMA to actively seek (introduce) legislation on an issue. That means that introducing a resolution is a unique opportunity to make a difference for Indiana physicians and patients.

Submitting resolutions
The resolution submission form, available at www.ismanet.org/resolutionform, explains the different parts of a resolution and guides you through the writing process. The form can accommodate most resolutions, but there are exceptions.

Footnotes in resolutions will not be included in the published version of your resolution. Accordingly, the form will not accept footnotes, other citations or special text formatting, such as superscript, bold, italics, underlines or strike-throughs.

If your resolution contains footnotes, citations or special text formatting, please submit the plain-text version of your resolution using the resolution submission form. Then email a Word document version of your resolution, including any footnotes or special formatting, to policy@ismanet.org. The official version of your resolution will be the one submitted using the form. The version emailed to policy@ismanet.org will be attached to your resolution as background information. 

Other resources
ISMA has developed additional resources to help members write an effective resolution. If you’re thinking about introducing a resolution, please read the online article, “How to write and submit a resolution to influence ISMA or AMA policy,” at www.ismanet.org/HowToWriteAResolution. In addition, a downloadable template for creating a resolution is available at www.ismanet.org/ResolutionExample. 

If you still have questions about the resolution process, email them to policy@ismanet.org. And, be sure to watch your email and ISMA Reports for more details on the resolution process and convention.