DPSC Secretary Andrew Becker

A note on Resolution formatting for anybody trying to submit a Resolution to the County Party, State Party, or wherever: The 'Whereas clauses' in the preamble (all of the Whereas clauses) must end in a semicolon then the word "and" except that the last Whereas clause before the Resolving clauses should not have the word "and" after the semicolon. There's some disagreement about whether the last Whereas clause ends with a semicolon or a period, but the more traditional styl...e ends it with a semicolon. You also cannot have periods anywhere in the entire preamble it's supposed to be one giant run-on sentence separated only by semicolons. Instead of periods, use other punctuation. Since semicolons are used to end Whereas clauses, you also cannot use semicolons in the middle of a Whereas clause. Parentheses and em dashes (the long dash "" not the short en dash "-" or a hyphen...all three have different lengths, although modern typefaces often combine the en dash and the hyphen) can be used liberally instead of commas if this results in way too many commas. Resolving clauses end with periods, not semicolons (nor a semicolon followed by "and"). Resolving clause may *only* use one period per Resolving clause (each clause can only be *one* sentence each). Again, you can replace periods with em dashes or other punctuation. Since Resolving clauses don't end in semicolons, semicolons can be used in them. Finally, each word "Whereas" or "Resolved" should begin with a capitalized W/R and be followed by a comma ("Whereas," or "Resolved," or "Therefore, be it Resolved," or "Be it Further Resolved," and so on). It's common to use small caps, bolding, or italicization for these introductions, and also to treat them as a title by also capitalizing the first letter of words like "Further." Resolving clauses can simply say "Resolved," but more often the words "Therefore, be it" or simply "Be it" are added before "Resolved." You can also add those two phrases at the end of the last Whereas clause after its terminal semicolon instead of before "Resolved" (only if you don't end the last Whereas clause with a period), but that's very old-school.

Very interesting to analyze the results of elections. In elections for Central Committee and ADems in Sac Co, progressives have won handily. In the recent DPSC Officer elections, the Elected Members voted, by large margins, the opposite way that Ex Officio Appointees did. Club Reps were evenly divided. Representation matters, and the Elected Members are the voice of the people.

I'm proud to continue serving the Democrats of Sacramento County as your Secretary! Thank you to everybody who entrusted me with this great responsibility. Please feel free to reach out to me with your ideas, questions, and concerns as we head into 2020.