YMCA Youth Conference on National Affairs
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Here are some notes about preparing to write your proposal:
  • Brainstorm for proposal ideas – Make sure that these are wide in scope, national or international, not state or local. 

  • Select your tentative topic.

  • Check your topic against the Banned Topics List at www.ymcacona.org/banned.html.  These topics are off limits (either pro or con) because they were debated in last year’s session.

  • Check your proposal topic with your State Director.  If you don’t know how to reach your state director, check www.ymcayg.org. Please note that once you get your proposal topic cleared, do not change it without checking with your state director.  You want to make sure no one else form your delegation is writing a proposal on a similar topic.

  • Research your proposal topic. 

  • After research your topic, you should begin to formulate the rough outline of your proposal.  Keep in mind that in a proposal at National Affairs, it is more important to present an idea than detailed ways to achieve this idea.  Concentrate on the idea itself, and focus your research on why it would be important to make this change. 

  • Once you have built a solid foundation for the topic, your attention should turn to your Proposal for Action.  This is the main part of the Proposal, where you will outline how to make this change that you wish to see.  Outline form is best, showing the major points and minor points in context. 

  • Make sure you share your proposal with your parents, friends, teachers, or YMCA staff member to seek feedback.  Use this feedback to make changes and corrections into your final draft. 

  • Now you are ready to submit your proposal.  Keep in mind that it is best to follow these steps above and type your proposal into a word processing program and save it so that you can check spelling, etc.  You can then copy and paste it into the online submission program.

Here is what the Handbook says about Proposals:
Each delegate participating in the Conference is required to write a proposal on a matter of importance to our nation.  It may be national or international in scope.  Each delegate within a State must clear his/her proposal topic with the State Director.  It is mandatory that each delegate within each State write on a different topic.  This will mean that a state with 12 delegates will have 12 different topics.  However, some or all of these topics may be duplicated by delegates from other states.  Proposals heard in the previous year’s General Assembly and Plenary Session are not allowed the following year.  The list of banned topics will be provided to the trip leaders each year and can be found on the website at www.ymcacona.org/banned.html.


Diagram of a Proposal

PROPOSAL NUMBER:  (Will be assigned by conference staff)

AUTHOR:  (Participant Name, State Delegation)

TITLE:  (Briefly state the basic action of the proposal.  This should be about one complete sentence.)

Major Areas to be Affected:  (List the key entities that would be impacted by this proposal).

Justification:  (In paragraph form, tell why there is a need for your proposal.  Include any supportive information; include statistics, quotes, etc. you feel necessary.  Don’t include all of your facts.  You will have an opportunity to present your ideas during debate)

Proposal for Action:  (State your proposal.  You may use outline form.  You are not writing legislation, rather, a broad proposal.)

Result to be Expected:  (Simply state the result you expect to see after your proposal is put into action.)



ONLINE PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

 
 

 

YMCA Youth Conference on National Affairs