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How we Think Up and
Write Resolutions
Kumaran Arivoli for the Medical Student Section, MSMS
Throughout middle school and high school, I was involved in Michigan’s Youth in Government program, which encourages young minds to engage with the political process. Each year, for months leading up to its annual event, the students in this program were asked to think of something they felt was wrong with the current state of affairs in Michigan and to write a legislative bill aimed at ameliorating that prob- lem. For young students with limited exposure to the real world, this seemed like a big ask. How could a middle schooler be expected to solve problems that our elected State Senators and Representatives were unable to address? Looking back, however, I can see there was something meaningful about asking for the unique and budding perspectives young people have. We were too young to vote, but we could still offer a fresh outlook on issues affecting our everyday lives. One notable achieve- ment was a 2013 anti-bullying bill, originally written for the Michigan Youth in Government program, that went on to become Michigan law.
Now, a decade later as a first-year medical student at University of Michigan, I find myself in an analogous position as a member of the American Medical Associa- tion Student Assembly, in which I serve as the Policy and Advocacy Chair at our school’s AMA chapter. My job is to guide the resolution-writing process. The House of Delegates of MSMS is not the state government, but the process is the same: propose solutions for unmet medical needs with fresh perspective.
The process begins in the fall, when we recruit fellow medical students who might be interested in writing resolutions for the annual MSMS House of Delegates session. In order to officially write and submit resolu- tions, students have to become members of the (MSMS), and if they would ultimately like for their resolution to be sent to the AMA House of Delegates session, they also have to become AMA members. In collaboration with the Medical Student Section (MSS) of MSMS, we began by organizing a virtual “Policy-Writing Workshop” on a November evening aimed at stimulating interest from potential resolution-writers. This year, leaders from the MSMS, including Wayne State University medical stu- dents Mara Darian and Ashton Lewandowski, helped organize and present this workshop, which addressed general topics such as on how to get inspired to write resolutions, but also taught technical skills, such as the
actual process of writing “Whereas” and “Resolved” statements so that they followed one another in a logical sequence.
After the workshop, we quickly went to work, creating a collaborative spreadsheet for those interested students to sign up and contribute their resolution ideas. My observation is that inspiration for our ideas often comes from personal experiences, which shape the way we view health and health care. This year, for example, I wrote a resolution calling for free and universal K-12 mental health screenings in Michigan public schools. The impetus for this was my experience with depression and suicide within my family, which makes this topic one I am particularly passionate about. A fellow first-year student, Charlotte Kreger, who previously worked on substance use disorder policies for the state of Rhode Island, drafted resolutions centered around addiction medicine. Neil Vaishampayan, inspired by his advocacy work in Washington, DC, wrote about changes he would like to see in the educational offerings in the medical school curriculum related to health systems. Our ideas for resolutions were collected on a collaborative spread- sheet that all could view. Their visibility encouraged others to sign up and contribute to the topics that interested them, forming “writing teams.” For those interested in working with students from other medical schools, MSMS similarly created a Michigan-wide collaborative spreadsheet for students from all six medical schools to contribute their ideas and join writing teams. Once these teams were created, we were able to dive in and begin the actual process of reslution writing.
This was the status of resolution writing before the holiday break in December, which gave us ample time to meet virtually during our break to research and organize our work. I personally met with my co-authors on Zoom throughout the break period and into January to discuss what we had learned from our research and which logical arguments we wanted to make. The Google Docu- ment platform was extremely helpful in this regard, as it allowed simultaneous collaboration and contribution from all members of the team in a virtual setting. When classes resumed in January, our AMA chapter held one final virtual writing workshop aimed at fine-tuning our work just prior to submission. First-time resolution authors were required by the end of January to submit rough drafts to resolution writing committee members of
10 Washtenaw County Medical Society BULLETIN SPRING 2022