Passing a Student Resolution

This guide walks you through the process of proposing and passing a resolution through a state medical association. It is based on the experience of Texas A&M College of Medicine’s Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic (SAFE) chapter, who led a resolution to support firearm safety education in medical school and residency which was ultimately adopted by the Texas Medical Association at the TexMed 2026 Conference.

The full process took about six months and included multiple drafts, two rounds of formal feedback, student voting, and final approval with amendments at the conference. While details may vary slightly between states, this guide reflects the structure used by the Texas Medical Association and can be adapted to other state medical associations.

The Process

    • Submit:

      1. Title of the resolution

      2. Short summary of why it matters

      3. Initial resolved clauses (what you want the policy to say)

      4. You can indicate if you want collaborators

    • Outcome: Approval or denial

    • Approval means your idea fits the mission and can move forward, not that it will pass

      1. Areas of importance: Making sure that the ask is feasible and that it is not already addressed in existing medical association policy

    • Includes two parts in the body of the resolution: Whereas and Resolved clauses

      1. Whereas clauses are background facts that provide evidence as to why this resolution is important. The evidence must be cited

      2. Resolved clauses are the actual policies that are proposed with actions that the medical association would have to implement if the resolution is adopted

    • Relevant state and national (AMA) policies that have been passed in this area listed below the body of the resolution

    • Your resolution draft will be evaluated by student leaders in the medical association’s medical student section

    • Areas of Evaluation: Feasibility and scope, Timeliness, Novelty, Structure and flow, Clarity, Research quality,  Response to feedback (in the Second Round)

    • Areas of Importance: 

      1. Our feedback included being told to be more specific and to add a Continuing Medical Education (CME) component to our resolved statements. 

      2. We incorporated both changes because future scoring includes whether you respond to feedback but it should be noted that that these were not good pieces of feedback and led to increased difficulty once this resolution was discussed by the state medical association reference committee

    • Recommendations: 

      1. Be broad in the actual implementation of the resolved clauses. If your resolved clause involves medical education, this will allow medical schools and residency programs to adapt the content how they want to. 

      2. Do not include CME in your resolution if (like in Texas) CME clauses have been picked up by legislators and made into required learning modules for physicians. Physicians don’t like the possibility of being told what to do!

    • The final draft is sent to student representatives across medical schools.

    • At this stage, it is recommended to reach out to your medical school’s Medical Association representative and if possible, other school’s MA’s representatives as well

    • They will vote to: Approve the resolution and send it forward or deny it

    • If approved, the resolution moves to the full state medical association.

    • The resolution is formally submitted for consideration and assigned to a reference committee.

      1. In Texas, this was the Medical Education and Health Care Quality Reference Committee

    • At this stage county medical societies, specialty groups, subcommittees and caucuses can submit written and oral testimony supporting or opposing your resolution.

      1. What happened in our case: There was significant criticism regarding the level of specificity and the CME component. Some groups were concerned about implementation across different training programs and adding new requirements for physicians

    • The reference committee reviews all testimony, amends the resolution based on testimony, and publishes a report with recommended changes

      1. Key outcome for us: The CME component was removed and language was made broader and less prescriptive

    • At the state medical association conference, authors can provide testimony at the reference committee meeting 

    • You can provide author testimony and choose to support or oppose the committee’s amendments. You can also address areas of concern that were shared in the interim reference committee report about the resolution

      1. We agreed with the amendments, which helped maintain support for the resolution

    • The Reference Committee releases a final decision to adopt vs referred for research vs discussed on the main floor

      1. Our resolution was recommended for adoption with the proposed amendments

    • Final Reference Committee report is released with all of the policy recommendations that were made

    • Resolutions are only debated on the main floor of the House of Delegates if decided by the committee or if someone chooses to pull them for discussion. Most of the time, the House of Delegates agrees with the committee’s recommendation on a resolution and the Reference Committee’s determination is adopted. 

      1. Our resolution did not get pulled, so our resolution was adopted with the amendments that the Reference Committee made to the resolution