How to Submit Policy Statements for Approval

1. Submit the draft policy statement to the chair of the SCBNA Policy Committee (SNAP Committee), Erin Sexton, via email to policy@scbnorthamerica.org

2. The chair of SNAP Committee will reply to the submitter within five business days to let the submitter know that the policy statement has been received and provide an estimated date for completion of the review process.

3. The SNAP Committee will review a draft statement as quickly as practical, but this process normally takes 2-3 weeks for review and reconciling edits. Submitters are encouraged to seek early feedback from the VP for Policy of a proposed statement’s general fitness for section adoption, prior to extensive drafting.

4. It is possible to review policy statements with tighter deadlines (for example, sign-on letters that have been drafted by other organizations and cannot be edited), however we encourage submitters to not procrastinate and plan accordingly. In general, rapid review of policy statements is not preferable because it detracts from the quality of final statements, decreases opportunities to provide edits, and jeopardizes SCB’s reputation for excellence in science. Rapid review increases the likelihood of rejection without the chance of resubmission.

5. The SNAP Committee will review the proposed statement and vote to (a) approve the statement without revision, (b) approve the statement with revision, or (c) reject the statement.

6. If a statement is approved without revision or after the submitter has revised the statement to the satisfaction of the SNAP Committee it then becomes an official policy statement of SCBNA and can be submitted to the relevant decision-making entity. If the statement is from SCBNA alone (no other organizations are signing on to it) then it should be submitted on SCBNA letterhead. If it is a sign-on to a group letter, then the proponent will add SCBNA to the letter’s list of signatories.

7. A PDF copy of all final policy statements that have been approved and submitted must be sent to policy@scbnorthamerica.org so that the statement can be posted to the SCBNA website as well as the policy page of the SCB global website.