Picture most blocs when writing resolutions during an unmoderated caucus; delegates are clustered around one person with a legal pad writing the whole working paper. While everybody else either standing around watching and nodding their heads in agreement, or discussing endlessly about the contents of each clause. This is a negative bloc dynamic, it is slow and clunky. With the burden of writing most of the resolution resting on one person, they take longer to get the draft to the floor, and they often leave members of the bloc feeling disenfranchised. How can this be remedied so that we can be more efficient and inclusive during the working paper process?
The way to fix this problem lies within this article and it might prove to be easier than anticipated! The entire resolution doesn’t need to be written by one person, in fact it shouldn’t be. In a healthy bloc, many issues should be addressed, all with varying levels of importance and content to the individual members. A good bloc leader should ask members to write specific clauses. If one of the members within your bloc feels very passionate about a particular sub-issue then ask them “Hey, I know (insert issue here) is very important to you. Would you mind drafting up a clause or two on that issue which we can then put into the resolution?” You can deploy this method for essentially every member in your bloc, and it will prove to yield a plethora of benefits.
- You build a buy-in status from members of the bloc. You show them that you are not a bully, but a leader who wants their views represented. In return, they will be more loyal to you and will fight harder for a resolution where they actually wrote part of it.
- You write a longer and more comprehensive resolution in less time. By farming out the clauses to be written, you cut down the time to write the resolution immensely. All you have to do at the end is merge the clauses, make sure everybody agrees to them, and make some basic edits.
- It gives you the maximum amount of control over your own working paper, knowing which delegate is contributing to which part of the paper Don’t be afraid to delegate. You can spend time overseeing the other members of your bloc while they write, discuss possible mergers, and make changes to the final paper of your bloc where necessary. Getting your resolution to the floor in a timely fashion will also give you more time for mergers, more time to persuade others in the committee, and more time to center debate around your ideas. A word of caution though, try not to recklessly merge everything together at the end, make sure clauses do not repeat themselves and that the entire paper is agreeable to the bloc as a whole. Budget time for negotiations during the merging of the individual clauses into your final working paper. With proper implementation, you will be able to create a quality working paper, which addresses all of the issues as discussed both within and outside of committee. You’ll be handing over your resolution to the dais, while other blocs are still arguing over preambles.
