HOW TO PREPARE RESOLUTIONS
The Oxford and American Dictionary and Thesaurus define Resolution as a “formal expression
of opinion or intention by a legislative body or public assembly.”
Robert’s Rules of Order states that a main motion of any length or importance is usually written
in the form of a Resolution.

A main motion or Resolution should be in writing. The presiding officer has a right to
require any main motion amendment, or instructions to a committee to be in writing.

The A.M.E. Zion Church requires that all proposed legislation be put in the form of a
Resolution.
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A Resolution may optionally include a preamble to explain the reasons for a
resolution when needed to provide context that the general body may not know.
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The Resolution format begins with the words “Resolved, That” with the word
resolved being underscored (or printed in italics) and followed by a comma, and the
word That beginning with a capital T.

Delegates to the 23rd Quadrennial Convention of the Women’s Home and Overseas
Missionary Society voted to change the latest date of submission of resolutions to be
ninety (90) days before commencement of the W.H. & O.M.S. General Convention
which would be April 24, 2011.
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The deadline for resolutions for the 27th Quadrennial Convention is March 31,
2011 and must be sent to the Recommendations Committee: c/o Christina Penrose,
506 Fairdale St., Friendswood, TX 77546 or editor@whoms.org.
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The Resolution Format:
Preamble- Each clause of the preamble is state in a paragraph beginning with the
word “Whereas”.
 The preamble should never contain a period, each paragraph should close
with a comma or semicolon, followed by and, except the last paragraph,
which should close with the word therefore, or therefore be it.
Resolution – The resolution or main motion begins with the words “Resolved, That”
or “Resolved, That” with the word resolved being printed in italics (or underscored)
and followed by a comma, and the word That beginning with a capital T.
 A resolution should avoid periods wherever possible.
 If periods are necessary, it is usually better to separate it into a series of
resolutions, in which case the resolutions may be numbered by preceding
them with the figure 1, 2, etc; or it may retain the form of a single
resolution with several paragraphs, each beginning with That.
 If preferred, these paragraphs may be submitted by placing First, second,
etc. just before the word That. The following illustrates the form giving
the reasons for a resolution and then finally, the resolution itself: