To advocate for policy promoting health and wellness of Native Hawaiian families and communities, education of Native Hawaiians in health careers, and the empowerment of Native Hawaiian physicians

1. Any member of AONK may submit a request for group endorsement of a particular advocacy issue in writing to the advocacy subcommittee. This request should include an explanation of how this issue relates to our guiding statement and should make a case for a specific action or position on an advocacy issue.

2. The advocacy committee will conduct a preliminary review of the request, and determine whether the issue is appropriate to be considered for posting as a “call for action” from individual members of AONK as well as group endorsement by the AONK board members.

3. The submitted request will then be made available to all board members for review, and made accessible to all AONK members as well.

4. The advocacy subcommittee will set a deadline for the board to vote on the proposed position.  The subcommittee will also schedule a meeting before the voting deadline where the submitting AONK member may present the case further and address any concerns from board members.

5. Board members may vote “yes”, “no” or “abstain” and a simple majority will determine group endorsement of the position.  Any board member who fails to submit a vote by the deadline will be considered to have voted to “abstain”.

6. If AONK group endorsement is not approved, the advocacy issue will remain posted as a call to action for interested individual members of AONK, but will not be acted upon by the organization as a whole.

7. If AONK agrees to take a position by the majority of the board members, the Advocacy subcommittee will develop a draft of a formal letter, legislative testimony, or other advocacy action.

8. This draft will be circulated to all board members for review, and made accessible to all AONK members as well. Once the draft is made official, the final version will be made available to all AONK members and distributed appropriately. Individual board members’ names will not be included on the group’s official letterhead for these advocacy purposes.