Resolutions, Recommendations and Opinions

Deadline for the drafts of the "Policy Union Resolutions" and Recommendations to reach the URSI Secretariat : 

"Policy Union Resolutions" are drafted in advance of the General Assembly so that the draft of these resolutions can be sent to the Member Committees in advance of the Chicago General Assembly. At the General Assembly the "Policy Union Resolutions" can be amended and voted upon.

There are three types of resolutions :

• need not be drafted in advance of a General Assembly
• their purpose is to guide a commission's activities
• they will be reviewed only by the Secretary General/Board and approved automatically if they are within the terms of reference of the Commissions and do not conflict with the Union's position
• their precise wording is relatively unimportant
• they will be presented to the Council for information only (Agenda B)

• examples are changes to and staffing of Standing Committees, inter-Commission working groups, etc.
• they have no impact outside URSI
• they will be reviewed by the Secretary General/Board
• their precise wording is relatively unimportant
• they will be presented to Council (Agenda A) only for general comments, suggestions of membership, etc.

• need to be drafted in advance of a General Assembly and sent to the URSI Secretariat before 1^st March of the year of the General Assembly 
• examples are Inter-Union Committees, and Policy Resolutions
• they have (or should have) impact outside URSI
• they will be examined carefully by the Secretary General/Board and relevant Commission Chairs
• their precise wording is important, and the Drafting committee will work on them prior to the Council meeting
• they will be discussed in detail by Council
• they require formal Council approval
• in exceptional circumstances Council by a 2/3 majority can decide to consider a resolution that has not been submitted in advance.

All resolutions and recommendations should be submitted ideally in both French and English, the two official languages. If the full text is submitted in only one language, it would be appreciated if at least a draft in the second language could be prepared, especially if the text contains specialised scientific terminology.

The term "resolution" is often used in referring to all the formal statements and decisions emanating from Commissions, Committees, etc. However, before the text of a resolution is prepared, it is important to decide which of the following three forms is to be used :

• a) in an Opinion, the originator "expresses the opinion that ...", but does not propose any present or future action.
• b) in a Recommendation, the originator "recommends that ..." some other body or persons should take action on some matter.
• c) in a Resolution, the originating body itself "resolves" to act in a specified way.

It is believed that the great majority of URSI "resolutions" can be placed in one of these categories even if other words denoting action appear in the text.

In some cases, the text is restricted to the phrase "The X Committee notes that ..." without going farther. In order to make the purpose of such a statement clear, it is desirable to add the opinion of the Committee or to recommend what action is to be taken. For example : "The X Committee notes that ... and recommends that ...".

All Opinions, Recommendations and Resolutions are necessarily based on certain basic information which has been considered or discussed before the preparation of the text. Unless they are self-evident, the most important items of information (often referred to as "considerings") must form part of each resolution since they provide the background to the resolution and are frequently necessary for its proper interpretation and its intelligent application.

Hence most resolutions should be preceded by a list of "considerings". If it is not possible to provide all the necessary information in a concise group of "considerings", fuller information may be provided in a separate series of supplementary notes.

In preparing the text of a resolution, it is important to separate clearly the two sections containing a) the information on which a resolution is based (the "considerings"), and b) the resolution itself which specifies the action required. The separation of the two sections enables the reader to distinguish clearly between the background information and the action that is required.