MSS resolution checklist

Section A: General Information

Resolution title:

Author(s):

Author(s) phone:

Author(s) e-mail:

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Section B: Writing Your Resolution

We have considered other routes to accomplishing our goal besides writing a resolution, which may serve to more directly accomplish our goal without the time and risk of MSS/HOD debate. These routes include:

•  Contacting the MSS leadership directly to suggest changes to MSS internal policy or to ask how to best accomplish the goal of your resolution. For items of immediate and pressing importance, or for AMA policy that is not being implemented, a GC Action Item will allow your Governing Council to act immediately on your behalf at the highest levels of AMA leadership to resolve the problem.

•  Contacting specialty societies (e.g., American Academy of Pediatrics for concerns about school nutrition) with ideas specific to that specialty.

•  Contact your state and/ or national legislators about issues of local or national importance that may be outside the scope of the AMA.

•  Starting a community service or advocacy project to serve the population or cause your resolution addresses.

Briefly describe why you believe your goal can be best accomplished through a resolution, as opposed to any of the other mechanisms described above:

We have searched the AMA's PolicyFinder and the MSS Digest of Actions , and have determined that our resolution is substantially different from existing policy.

Search terms used:

We used the resolution template when writing our resolution and completed all bold fields.

We have read the MSS Resolution Writing Guide (PDF, 44KB) and have followed its recommended guidelines.

If you have suggestions for the resolution writing guide, please list them here (optional).

Section C: Peer Review of Your Resolution

We have discussed this resolution with our chapter delegate or state chair or region chair .

Name, title, and e-mail of leader(s) contacted and date(s) contacted:

We have posted a rough draft of our resolution (including “Whereas” and “Resolved” clauses) to the MSS Health Policy and News listserv at least two weeks prior to the final deadline for submission and utilized this mechanism to solicit feedback from MSS members on the strength and relevance of our resolution, and to solicit co-authors for our resolution. For resolutions intended to be submitted for consideration at the 2008 MSS Annual Meeting, you must post your resolution to the listserv by April 11, 2008.

You are also encouraged to submit your resolution to your region and/or state listservs for similar feedback.

Name(s) of listserv(s) and date(s) posted (optional):

We found feedback from the following listserv(s) helpful (optional):

Section D: External Resolutions

This section applies only to external resolutions that will be forwarded to the AMA House of Delegates. Your resolution is an external one if it asks the AMA to adopt policy or take a specific action (as opposed to asking only the MSS to adopt policy or take a specific action) If you are not sure if your resolution is external, please ask.

My resolution is entirely internal to the MSS, and this section on external resolutions is not applicable to my resolution.

(If you marked this box, please skip forward to Section E.)

For external resolutions intended to be forwarded to the AMA-HOD, we have discussed the resolution with our state HOD delegation.

Name(s) of people/organizations contacted and date(s) contacted:

For external resolutions intended to be forwarded to the AMA-HOD, we have discussed the resolution with the appropriate specialty society.

Name(s) of people/organizations contacted and date(s) contacted:

For external resolutions intended to be forwarded to the AMA-HOD, we have discussed the resolution with the MSS Delegate, Justin Mistovich, or Alternate Delegate, Peter Ragusa.

MSS Delegate/ Alternate Delegate contacted and date(s) contacted:

For external resolutions intended to be forwarded to the AMA-HOD at this national meeting, we are submitting written testimony for the House of Delegates presentation and will attend MSS testimony writing. We have considered not only the urgency of the resolution for the MSS Assembly, but also the importance of its consideration by the House of Delegates. For external resolutions to be forwarded to the AMA-HOD at the next national meeting, should our resolution be adopted, we understand that we will be required to submit written testimony in support of it before the close of business at this meeting, and we understand that we are welcome to attend the MSS testimony writing session in order to do so.

Section E: Submitting Your Resolution

We have submitted a copy of all references, including AMA and AMA-MSS policy citations, to the Department of Medical Student Services. These should be sent to:

American Medical Association
Attn: Dept. of Medical Student Services
515 N. State St.
Chicago , IL 60610
Fax: (312) 464-5845
E-Mail: mss@ama-assn.org

Resolutions for the 2008 MSS Annual Meeting must be received by April 25, 2008.

We understand that if we are unable to submit our resolution and background materials and complete all required tasks on this checklist by the deadline, our resolution will be considered late and will be treated as a late resolution, requiring a 2/3 vote of the Assembly for consideration.

Have questions? Contact any member of the Governing Council or Keith Voogd, MSS Policy Analyst.