12. Experience counts

Experience is an asset that cannot be over valued when considering an undertaking such as ours. We didn’t have experience so turned to the secretary of state website for guidance.
The sample advisory article we found was:

The undersigned registered voters of the Town School District of ________________ hereby petition the Selectboard to add the following advisory article to the warning for the Annual Town Meeting:
1. Shall the ___________________ Town School District vote to advise the School Board to send a message to our state legislators that they should not enact any education mandates unless the mandates are fully funded by the State of Vermont?


We eagerly applied this to our issue and came up with:

The undersigned registered voters of the City of South Burlington hereby petition the City council to add the following advisory article to the warning for the May 17 ,2005 City Elections.

Shall the City of South Burlington, on behalf of concerned citizens, advise the City Council to ask our state legislators, in writing, to enact legislation that will protect young girls by requiring clinics to notify at least one parent prior to providing a surgical or chemical abortion to their minor daughter, with special provisions to protect girls in abusive situations.

What we learned from experience is that the article should be written as simply as possible so that the chance of offending the select board can be minimized.

Petitions circulated by Caring Vermont Parents to place the issue on ballots in other towns this year reflected this simpler language.