World Youth Movement for Democracy Policy on Issuing Statements & Alerts:

Statements:
Statements are strong messages that convey the values of the Youth Movement and are used to commemorate dates, to show solidarity, and to express opposition or support for a certain issue or event.

Should a Youth Movement member have a pre-prepared statement that it would like issued on behalf of the Youth Movement or an issue that a member would like for the Movement to address in a statement, they must first send it to the Secretariat staff at info@wymdonline.org. The Secretariat will quickly review the statement for any edits and will send it to the Leadership Board for their approval. Leadership Board members will have 24 hours from the time the message was sent to respond with any objections. No response means no objection and the statement will be issued through the Youth Movement Web site, Facebook group, and email list immediately following the 24 hour window. As many statements are of a timely manner, it is crucial to have a quick turnaround time for release. Likewise, if the timeliness of the alert will be impacted by the 24 hour approval window, the Secretariat may issue the alert without approval; however, this will be a rare occasion and is not encouraged.

Should a youth organization wish to have the Youth Movement as a co-signatory on a statement that they are issuing, the procedures outlined above will be followed.

Should the Secretariat wish to issue a statement, it will contact the Leadership Board for their approval and input on drafting the message. Through the solicited feedback, the Secretariat will draft and issue the statement with the considerations of the Board included. It will issue the statement using all means listed above.

Alerts:
Alerts are calls to action issued to raise awareness of immediate issues.

Should a Youth Movement member wish to issue an alert, it must contact the Secretariat with all necessary information. This includes: summary of the incident, supporting links to news articles, and clearly state action items that members can do and the target audience for such actions. Either the Secretariat or the Leadership Board Advocacy Committee will draft the alert, unless the member provides a pre-written alert. As alerts are of an even greater time constraint, the alerts will not be sent to the Board for approval, other than the involved Leadership Board Advocacy Committee members.

Members are encouraged to send alerts on their own behalf or that of their respective organization, in place of an official alert issued by the Youth Movement. Members may distribute these through the listserv by emailing the alert to youth@wymdonline.org and by posting the message to the Facebook group. These do not require Secretariat or Leadership Board pre-approval. While free expression is encouraged, all alerts must be verifiable and of general concern to all members. In addition, alerts distributed by individual members do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Youth Movement.

*To maintain the effectiveness of its statements and alerts, the Youth Movement will limit the amount issued by its Secretariat.