Understanding State and National Resolutions Process

District Official Training

Jennifer Nelson

In this Section:

  • Why are resolutions important?
  • NACD Resolutions Process
  • Resources
  • State-level Resolutions

Why are resolutions important?

From the National Association of Conservation Districts website: “NACD advocates for nearly 3,000 conservation districts and state/territory associations across the United States, ensuring federal policy and funding levels reflect the mission and goals of our district members. NACD is the voice of conservation.”

As you can imagine, those 3,000 conservation districts represent a diverse landscape, with widely varying natural resource concerns and interests. In order to ensure that NACD is representing the collective interests of its members, the organization keeps a Policy Book that contains a series of resolutions to guide its positions and actions on different topics. The Policy Book is updated every year through a structured process that invites the members at all levels to participate.

The resolutions and policy process ensures that NACD’s priorities and communications are reflective of board-adopted positions on key conservation issues.  NACD’s issue papers, news releases and other advocacy work on natural resources legislation, the Farm Bill and budgets are based on the outcomes of this process.

NACD Resolutions Process

  • NACD policy, which guides the activities of the Association, is the compilation of nationally adopted resolutions
  • Policy is developed from the grassroots up through a system of graduated representation, from district/territory boards to state associations to regional boards and/or the national board
  • Resolutions may be submitted, as adopted at their annual or special meeting, by state associations of conservation districts and territories as listed in the NACD Bylaws;
  1. NACD region boards;
  2. NACD foundation committees;
  3. NACD executive board; and
  4. NACD resolutions committee

From “National Resolutions Process”, available in the  Members Only section  of the NACD website

  • States submit proposed resolutions to NACD. NACD Staff reviews the resolutions submitted by all of the states and compiles those that conform to their guidelines into a Resolutions Pad. 
  • The Resolutions Pad, as approved by the NACD Resolutions Committee, is sent to the NACD Board and state associations/territories two weeks before the NACD Annual Meeting
  • Resolutions from states/territories that meet in January are reviewed by the NACD Resolutions Committee at the start of the NACD Annual Meeting
  • Other late resolutions must be accepted by the NACD Board before consideration
  • Each resolution is assigned to a hearing at the NACD Annual Meeting.
  • If approved at the hearing (with or without amendments), the resolution is presented to the NACD board, where it can be accepted, amended or defeated.
  • NACD Staff and committees follow up on the approved proposal:
  • Within 60 days, the newly adopted policies will be assigned to the appropriate NACD foundation committee or other appropriate entity for follow up
  • Within 120 days, each committee or entity will communicate with the sponsoring entity, develop and implement follow up strategies for Executive Board approval, and post to the Members’ Only website
  • Within 120 days, a report will be sent to the NACD Board and state associations/territories showing action on all resolutions
  • Within 120 days, adopted policies will be incorporated into the NACD policy book
  • ALL policies sunset after 5 years from adoption

Resources

This overview has been summarized from NACD’s presentation “National Resolutions Process”, available on the Member’s Only Section of the NACD website, where you can also find:

State-level Resolutions

Some states follow a similar process to develop a state-level Policy Book. This can be especially helpful in larger states with many districts, and/or very active state legislatures where it is helpful to have policies in place to “get ahead” of emerging legislation.

DACD has not adopted a formal policy book, but (along with the individual districts) has has been active in working with the Delaware General Assembly on policy issues as they relate to the districts and natural resource concerns.

Here are examples of state-level policy books from neighboring states:  Pennsylvania ,  Maryland  and  Virginia . 

Additional Resources

Questions

  • Are there any issues related to Delaware that should be reflected in NACD's Policy Book?
  • Look in NACD's Policy Book. Are those issues found in NACD's policies? If so, does the policy reflect your district's position on the issue?