FGCCFL has adopted its own legislation templates for use in Student Congress. These templates are designed so that legislation will be correctly formatted and can rapidly be assembled into a docket for publication shortly after the registration deadline. They differ from both the NCFL and NSDA templates because they are intended to meet the League’s needs.

The templates are meant to be opened in any word processing program (Word/Microsoft 365, Google Docs, Pages, LibreOffice, WordPad, etc.), then edited by typing the legislation text into the document, replacing the highlighted guide text. The finished product is then to be saved/exported in Microsoft Word (.docx) format and uploaded to Tabroom.

Legislation that is not submitted as a Word document, using the template as directed, WILL NOT be considered and WILL NOT admit students to an FGCCFL tournament. This includes legislation using another league’s template, legislation with section breaks, legislation using a table for line numbering, legislation whose formatting has been altered to fit more text on the page, and anything in PDF. Such items, if uploaded, will be deleted without further explanation.

A few tips for using the templates:

• Read the guide text before you delete it. It explains what goes where and what is and isn’t necessary. Any text that’s not highlighted should probably stay unless you have a compelling reason to change it.
• Type the legislation text into the template rather than pasting. If you must paste, choose the “Keep Text Only” option or Paste Special as unformatted text. This is to avoid overriding the template’s carefully constructed formatting.
• Don’t worry if you don’t see the line numbers in your word processor. They will appear in the right place once the legislation is on the docket.
• The indentation and tabs have been set so that you should generally just be able to type. You don’t need to press Enter at the end of every line. If you’re adding a subsection to Section 2 or 3, press Enter, then Tab.
• Be wary of “immediately upon passage.” It will generally take time for people to comply with a new law, and it will take a minimum of six months to a year for administrative rulemaking. Better to choose a period of time after passage or a date certain. If using a date certain, write it as “April 14, 2025,” NOT “April 14th,” “14 April,” “4/14/25,” etc.
• There’s more than one right way to do things, but the templates will never be the wrong way in FGCCFL.

Good luck and happy drafting!