Here at the MUN Institute, we’re gearing up for Summer 2019 by adding even more awesome programs to teach middle- and high-school students everything there is to know about Model UN! Back by popular demand, we’re heading back to the University of California, Irvine.

California has a long tradition of Model United Nations education. Colleges and universities throughout the state have incredible competitive MUN programs, and Californian high schools also have a deep-rooted network of strong Model UN teams. So, coming back to teach the MUN Institute at Irvine this summer will be promoting even more Model UN education in the region!

We are so excited to announce an updated relaunch of one of our most popular guides – Conference Selection Strategy. This free guide is chock full of great tips and strategies on how to choose the right conferences for your MUN team, based on conference size, skill level, geography, and more. Perfect for MUN club leaders and advisors, this guide has everything you need in order to decide your conference schedule next year, including:

• Information on novice vs. advanced conferences
• An in-depth breakdown of the most popular MUN procedures
• Sample conference costs so you can build your budget
• Strategies for assigning committees and calculating delegation awards
• And so much more!

Whether you’re a parent or student, MUN beginner or club leader, teacher or administrator – this guide is great for learning about how and why MUN conferences are different across the United States and around the world. Click here to download the guide, or click the image below!

This guest article series was written by Nickolas Harris, the Director and founder of the international MUN conference, the Global Education City Model United Nations (GECMUN) conference held on Jeju Island, South Korea. He is also the founder of the San Pedro Sula Conferences (SPSCON) in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. He has been coaching MUN for eight years, with experience coaching delegates in the Middle East, Central America, and East Asia, and teaching a MUN elective course at Escuela Internacional Sampedrana and Korea International School, Jeju.

Missed the first part of this series? Check out Part 1 here!

#2 Lengthy Conference Schedules

The scheduling for conferences is often much too long. I understand, especially when run by teenagers and young adults, that the organizers want to maximize the number of sessions and activities. The organizers often become overly excited and want to pack in as many activities and events in one day as they can. Often, what these organizers are failing to see is that delegates are only fourteen to eighteen years old. They are not adults. The students are used to regular school days and are not ready, physically nor mentally, to cope with a 9 AM to 9 PM schedule. Lengthy conferences comes with an array of issues:

• Low quality discussions and debates at the end of the day. I often see exhausted and weary students who are ready to go home well before the end of the conference day is scheduled to end. MUN should be about quality, not quantity. It is a shame to waste the last two hours of the day on a poor debate, when students could simply go home (or to their hotel), and get ample rest in order to be ready for the next day.

• The lengthy schedules deter students from completing their school work. The students are students first, and MUNers second. Every MUN student has a full-time job as a high school student, which comes with various responsibilities. It’s irresponsible for conferences to set up schedules that are all-consuming of a delegate’s time. On more than one occasion, I have seen high-achieving students return from densely scheduled weekend conferences during which they were unable to keep up with their homework. They return to school on Monday having fallen behind. We must keep in mind the students’ well-being first and foremost when constructing a MUN conference schedule.

THE SOLUTION

I keep in mind two aspects when organizing a conference: how does this schedule compare to a school day? And, how would the average 15 year old student cope with the proposed schedule? It’s simple: an average school day is something along the lines of 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with some breaks in between. I try to make sure that the conferences I direct are not much longer than the average school day. If we start at 9 AM, we are done by 6 PM. We need to make conference schedules reasonable. It will help avoid exhausted students engaging in inefficient dialogue at the end of the day; remember, quality over quantity.

Check back next week for Part 3 of this series, which will focus on issues related to Unclear Awards Criteria!

Resolution writing is an indispensable skill for Model UN delegates especially given the fact that resolutions are an essential part of almost all committees in all formats of Model United Nations. Resolutions are the final outcome documents of committees and are international solutions to the agenda items in question and it is due to this reason that exemplary resolution writing is a skill that is almost a constant with successful and experienced delegates.

Making mistakes with resolution writing, however, is a common phenomenon in Model United Nations, be it with first-time delegates or sometimes even experienced delegates. It is because of this, that delegates need to bear in mind some common mistakes in resolution writing, to avoid them and make sure their resolution fully reflects their research and the discussions of the committee. Some common mistakes in resolution writing that when avoided better the quality of resolutions are as follows.

Mistake 1: Writing an essay– It is important to remember that a resolution is written and formatted in a manner that ensures that the entire resolution is merely (wait for it) one sentence. The basic structure of the resolution itself tries to make it concise and powerful so it is usually a good idea to remember that and try to write concise and powerful resolutions instead of long and tedious ones

Mistake 2: Not understanding the mandate of the committee- The operatives that a committee’s resolution should only include solutions that are within the mandate of the committee to carry out. For example, only the Security Council can deploy peacekeeping forces and thus a General Assembly committee’s resolution should not include an operative that calls for deployment of peacekeeping forces as it is not within the committee’s mandate and thus the solution cannot be undertaken by the committee. It’s a good idea to better understand the powers and mandate of the committee you are writing a resolution for before writing one.

Mistake 3: Mentioning specified Member States– Each resolution is to be specific to the committee, but a good rule of thumb is to try to not specify or single out a Member State in a resolution unless the agenda item itself relates to a specific Member State because the resolution is in itself a global solution. Specifying a Member State(s) when it is not necessary or sensible is a practice that affects the tone/impact of a resolution so it is important to have good judgement when specifying Member States in a resolution.

Mistake 4: Using Preambulatory clauses in the place of Operative clauses and vice versa- The mistake, in this case, is fairly self-explanatory. Operatives are meant to be solutions while preambulatory paragraphs are supposed to provide context for the resolution. It is important to understand whether the clause you add to your resolution is a solution or a contextual clause.

Mistake 5: Using operatives that are “too specific”- The resolution is a document that the whole committee produces that is supposed to be a globally applicable document which aims to “resolve” the matter at hand. Unless the agenda item specifically requires it, the more specific they are with regards to region or otherwise, the less internationally applicable it sometimes is. Confusing specificity and quality is a common mistake in Model United Nations as a great resolution is not necessarily an extraordinarily specific one. Practicing good judgement regarding specificity or minute detailing of solutions in a resolution is a practice that helps ensure better resolution quality and applicability.

This list is however not exhaustive and thus familiarizing yourself with what a resolution is, how to write one and how a resolution is formatted and structured is a necessary step.  Information pertaining to the resolution writing, structuring and formatting can be found here. With these mistakes that should be avoided in mind, go ahead and write that perfect resolution that you want to, with enough research, preparation and effort it might even be the skill that secures the gavels for you.

This guest article series was written by Nickolas Harris, the Director and founder of the international MUN conference, the Global Education City Model United Nations (GECMUN) conference held on Jeju Island, South Korea. He is also the founder of the San Pedro Sula Conferences (SPSCON) in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. He has been coaching MUN for eight years, with experience coaching delegates in the Middle East, Central America, and East Asia, and teaching a MUN elective course at Escuela Internacional Sampedrana and Korea International School, Jeju.

Miss the beginning of this series? Check out Part 1 and Part 2!

#3 Unclear Awards Criteria

At many conferences, the awards are based on a rather vague and open-ended awards criteria, and delegates often find it difficult to prepare, culminating in frustration when they feel that the results were not in their favor. Or conversely, they find themselves very surprised and perplexed when they win an award when they thought they did a poor job. The vagueness of awards criteria creates the following issues:

• Bias towards host schools and/or host schools’ friends. MUN is a truly unique system in regards to “winning” because the very people handing out the awards can be students of the same age, sometimes even from the same school. Therefore, it is essential that conferences provide a comprehensive guide for delegates which clearly explains the award system, and make sure that chairs are trained to be consistent with their evaluation methods. Without a transparent method, schools can get accused of being biased towards their own delegates. Unfortunately, in my career, I’ve witnessed at least a dozen times where there was some foul play by chairs, all of which could have been avoided by having a clear explanation of the awards process.

• Frustrated advisors and head delegates. MUN head delegates and advisors spend months helping their teams prepare for the conference, and can be frustrated if they do not have clarity and understanding of how to best prepare students if they are not given a specific set of categories and methodologies explaining awards.

THE SOLUTION

Create a comprehensive evaluation sheet that all chairs can use. By having a standardized evaluation sheet, the conference can avoid inconsistencies from committee to committee, and provide attending delegates with a mutual understanding of what is expected to win an award.

Example of a standardized evaluation sheet that could be used at a conference

Check back soon for the fourth and final part of this series, which will address issues with Opening and Closing Ceremonies!

This guest article series was written by Nickolas Harris, the Director and founder of the international MUN conference, the Global Education City Model United Nations (GECMUN) conference held on Jeju Island, South Korea. He is also the founder of the San Pedro Sula Conferences (SPSCON) in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. He has been coaching MUN for eight years, with experience coaching delegates in the Middle East, Central America, and East Asia, and teaching a MUN elective course at Escuela Internacional Sampedrana and Korea International School, Jeju.

Miss the beginning of this series? Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3!

#4 Ineffective and Wasteful Opening and Closing Ceremonies

There is a great article written about this problem with closing ceremonies by Sam Povey titled “Why Closing Ceremonies Are No Good and How We Can Fix Them”. My sentiments would echo this writer’s perspective.

Keynote Speakers: It’s great to have keynote speakers who have an inspirational message from which students can learn; I want to make it clear that I am not against keynote speakers. The problem lies in two caveats: length and purpose. When it comes to length, speeches are often painfully long. In fact, I’ve seen keynote speakers at times exceed 30 minutes. I’ve sat through at least a dozen keynote speakers who I found inspiring and interesting, but I noticed students in the crowd who were disengaged, sleeping, or reading their opening speech notes. At the end of the day, these are 16 year old students excited about the MUN conference beginning in less than an hour. Their minds are on the conference itself and not focused on the keynote speaker on many occasions.

Another issue is the selection of a keynote speaker and the cost associated (if any) of having one. Often the keynote speakers are individuals who have held or hold some type of government or NGO/NPO related position. They often have little to no understanding of what exactly MUN is, and deliver simple platitudes, to directly quote Povey, sentences like “importance of global dialogue, and how we are all destined to become leaders of our generation.” My advice would be to have speakers who, first of all, know what MUN is, and, if possible, who can actually speak to the students. A diplomat who is going to drop by for one hour and then leave is not ideal.

In a similar vein, the cost associated with having a noteworthy keynote speaker can be an issue. For a conference we attended in the past in Seoul, South Korea, there was a hefty $500 USD school fee. After attending the conference, I inquired of the conference organizers why the school fee was so high, and the answer I received was that the school fee was used to pay for their keynote speaker. With twenty schools in attendance, that means they spent $10,000 USD on the keynote speaker; this should be spent on the students, not the speaker.

Long Closing Ceremonies: The closing ceremonies should celebrate the event, organizers, chairs, delegates, advisors, and of course, it should be a time for delegates to be awarded for their hard work. As the opening ceremonies, they should be kept to a minimum in regards to time. Now, this can be a little difficult given that a large conference will need time for each committee to run through their awards quickly—it’s difficult but possible. At GECMUN, for example, we have eleven committees and our awards time during our 50 minute closing ceremony is limited to 30 minutes.

Therefore, we are adamant that our chairs spend no more than two and a half minutes per committee in order to keep to our time target. I have been to at least a dozen conferences where I have seen chairs and secretariats give thank yous for one to two minutes straight on more than one occasion. On one hand, I commend that they are showing their appreciation for others, but we have to keep in mind that there is limited time, students have short attention spans, and it becomes rather redundant when the seventh chair goes up to thank the secretary general for the seventh time. Everything in the schedule should be included because it is necessary; it’s unreasonable for chairs to be speaking for over five minutes, and secretary generals do not need to be giving 10+ minute speeches when the time is quite limited. These are MUN closing ceremonies, not the Academy Awards.

THE SOLUTION

Invite speakers who will have a meaningful message — do not be worried about the name and occupation, but focus on the message. I’ve made this mistake before. I do not want to specifically name who and when, but for one of the conferences I directed, we invited an individual with a higher level governmental position, and the individual gave a 15 minute speech, which was clearly not written by him, without any specific or meaningful message. As Povey’s article mentioned, it was a speech simply full of statements like, “You are the future.” Also, when inviting an individual to speak, use only limited funds; $10,000 for a speaker is ridiculous. Finally, for opening and closing speeches, confirm with the secretariat and chairs that there is a strict time limit, and when they have 30 seconds left, indicate the time to them.

Starting a new conference is never easy. Its difficult to find a new venue, you have to convince your school and administrators why there is a necessity to start your own conference, you have to create a certain degree of hype amongst the students—there are so many variables which make it difficult to start something from nothing, but you can avoid simply repeating the same mistakes made and create conferences that are more efficient and meaningful for students.

To summarize the entire series, keep these four things in mind when starting a new Model UN conference:

1. Make the committee sizes small. No more than thirty students per committee.
2. Make the conference schedule reasonable. Avoid exhausted students engaging in inefficient dialogue at the end of the day; remember, quality over quantity.
3. Make a clear-cut set of criteria for awards. These should be accompanied by a clear and concise evaluation sheet, which can be utilized by chairs and viewed by delegates and advisors prior to the conference.
4. Have keynote speakers only if they are going to provide delegates with a meaningful message. Remember, it is not a necessity to have a speaker if an appropriate fit cannot be found. Make sure that the secretariat knows exactly how much time they have when speaking at the opening and closing ceremonies.     

Guest Article by Darya Foroohar 

If you take a look around the world, you’ll see most of the top jobs– in every field– still occupied by men. The stereotype that men make better leaders is one that is difficult to shake off, perhaps due to the false notion that that men are better at public speaking and more knowledgeable about substantive topics, while women are better at “softer” ones, good at team building but not actually leading. Women have to fight hard to make sure their voices are not drowned out, mocked, or ignored. However, lately this issue has become more widely recognized. Our generation is supposed to combat discrimination; today’s young men are supposed to be more open-minded and less blatantly sexist. Many girls and women are encouraged to try speaking in public with support from their male counterparts. But in high-pressure activities such as Model United Nations, where judgement is based not only on the quality of your ideas, but on how well you can manipulate others, inherent biases which mirror the discrimination faced by women in the world outside of committee are brought to the surface almost unconsciously.

When I joined my school’s MUN team, I was aware of the stereotypes surrounding women in leadership and thus of possibility that I might not be taken as seriously because of my gender, but I didn’t want it to be true. I thought that by worrying about it, I would only convince myself of sexism that did not exist outside of my own mind. And so I ignored the bossy tone of voice used on me by an older male delegate who was much friendlier with his male counterparts. I brushed aside the fact that I’d never seen a committee in which only girls got awards, while I had seen many in which they were only given to boys. I looked past the instances in which male delegates seemed to look through me or seemed as if they were holding back a laugh whenever I shared my ideas. I told myself that my ideas were just simply bad, that maybe if I practiced public speaking more, I could command the room as some of the guys did, that there were girls who had experienced real harassment and so I was being childish and not focusing on the actual problem: myself.

Still, I couldn’t shake the worry that my every action was under more scrutiny because of my gender, and so I stressed over outfit choices, wondering if I should try to make myself look hyper-masculine or embrace my femininity. I debated between speaking passionately and speaking calmly, hoping my choice wouldn’t make me seem either too emotional or too quiet. I tried to change my appearance and demeanor to fit the ideal of the perfect delegate, not realizing that this ideal was made to fit someone I could never be.

All my fears were realized at my most recent conference, though I tried to not to admit it to myself for as long as possible. In my committee, there was both overt and covert sexism, the former happening when one delegate sent some of the girls creepy text messages and even groped one. His actions were reported, and he was rightfully forced to leave committee. This incident brought light to the fact that actions which should be considered unacceptable are still the norm for some boys and men who have gotten away with them all their lives. However, this explicit misogyny only covered the instances of casual sexism which happened throughout my three days at the conference.

As soon as the first unmod started, I found that attention was focused on my male friend; other delegates were talking almost exclusively to him, ignoring me until I directly asked them questions. I chalked this off to the fact that he had gotten to speak when I hadn’t, as well as the fact that he was representing the UK while I was representing Iraq– both valid reasons, to be sure. However, this kept happening even after I had addressed the entire room and brought up issues, such as national sovereignty and imperialism, that would shape the committee session afterwards, and soon, I couldn’t find any more reasons to justify my treatment. I found it frustrating to try and get attention from people who only seemed to care about the boys I was working with and who hardly let me get a word in edgewise, but since cooperation is a key part of Model UN, I had to keep trying with my anger under wraps.

There was one girl in my committee (representing Norway) who was able to command attention, but she had to do much more work than most of the boys to do so; her work was extremely comprehensive and had the support of many other delegates, and yet she had to compete with boys who had barely written a sentence. Everyone labelled her as bossy and annoying, and I admit I thought the same, irked at her success while I was struggling to be recognized for my contributions to our working paper. Our blocs eventually merged, and the boys in our bloc worked to water down her influence– something I was grateful for at first, not wanting her to take all the credit for our resolution even though it was a boy, not her, who had taken credit for a clause I wrote and then tried to explain it back to me after slightly changing it.

All these tensions boiled over during the initial presentation of our resolution, which consisted of a summary and a question and answer session. I rose to present, but sat back down when I noticed that several guys had also gotten up, nervous and not wanting to face the humiliation of being forced to walk back to my seat. Norway had also risen, and we both sat down to see one of the guys get sent back in favor of another girl who served as the token female of our group. I sat seething, angry at both the guys and at myself for doubting my contributions. My frustration grew when most of the questions asked were about a clause that I had co-written with another female delegate. The guys presenting gave very vague answers that missed the point of the clause, and I shared a look of shock and rage with my co-author. I suddenly realized my main obstacle from being recognized was not any of the other girls, but the guys who refused to acknowledge our contributions– or simply didn’t realize that we were capable of contributing anything worthwhile. Voting procedures were the next day, so I made a vow to myself to be one of those who got to go up on authors panel. But I needed allies. I talked to my co-author and, going against what I had previously believed, Norway, telling them that all three of us deserved to present the resolution and that we couldn’t let ourselves be taken advantage of by the guys in our bloc.

The author giving a speech in the ECOFIN committee of GCMUN 2019

The next day I ran into more trouble, as the boys in my bloc would constantly talk to each other instead of to the entire group; two started talking to each other about authors panel while I was five feet away without acknowledging that I was there until I forced myself in, even though we were all sponsors. Furthermore, the guys who had presented the day before refused to give me and my female co-delegates the full presentation time, saying that we needed them “to answer the tough questions.” When I asked them, enraged, why they didn’t think that we had the capabilities to answer questions about our paper, they backed down, perhaps not realizing that their words were demeaning. And indeed, it was impossible for me to explain to them that they were being sexist, because they did not realize why their actions were problematic. Their behavior was an unconscious product of societal stereotypes that manifested in subtle exclusion and ignorance. If I had asked them about it, it’s entirely possible that they would have first called me too dramatic and emotional and then totally disregarded everything else I would say hereafter. Thus, I had to argue with them without getting at the real issue of my anger. Eventually, sick of their attempts to undermine me and my female friends, I told them that they could do whatever they wanted, but that the three of us were staying up for the entire presentation and that they could do nothing about it.

The rest of committee after the panel, where I had to speak as quickly as possible to prevent myself from being interrupted, was a blur with the exception of complaints brought to me by some of the other girls that the guys weren’t letting them speak. I tried to bring this up with them, but it was too late to make any major changes. I had helped myself and a few other girls, but I couldn’t help everyone, even though I wanted to. Still, I am proud of how I acted. I am proud of how I reached out to a girl who I had previously found annoying and found friendship and solidarity. I am proud of how I worked with other female delegates instead of just throwing them under the bus. It would have been so easy to talk to guys and say that the other girls were being too emotional or going off-policy on our paper, but if I had done this, I would have been simply a puppet in the patriarchal system that forces women to fight each other instead of work together to fight for their rights. In the end, all three of us girls got awards, and I am proud of that as well. My experience showed me that because I am female, having good ideas isn’t enough; I also need to fight to make them heard, because just hoping that the world will be fair and that I will be recognized is futile. However, I also learned that banding together to fight bias can create real change and alter a situation that may seem permanently unjust. My goal for future MUN conferences is not just to make sure that I get recognized, but also to speak up for the other people in the room who feel ignored and used.

The story does not end here. It was not just me and the other girls in my committee who face the subtle yet powerful effects of misogyny. After I got home, I went on Best Delegate, and found countless articles describing instances of sexism in MUN in high school, in college, and while running a conference. Intrigued, I turned to social media, asking people who participate in Model UN to describe their experiences with sexism. The answers were almost all in agreement that MUN condones a lot of misogynist behaviors, although a few people (all guys) reported that sometimes the pretty girls get called on more often than guys. These exceptions also help show the inherent biases of MUN: even when girls get favored, it is because of their looks, rather than their ideas.

Many guys agreed that sexism was a prevalent issue, and some of the girls described their experiences, which ranged from guys sending them crude notes to their ideas being ignored and then praised when a boy said the exact same thing. Similar to my experience, one girl (who would like to remain anonymous) noted how “several times, I said an idea, was ignored, then had another male delegate restate my idea and the whole room applauded the male delegate on his ‘innovative work.’” Another issue brought up, which I did not face, was the lack of female delegates in committee—for example, one girl noted that there was only one other female delegate in the room with her. This situation is especially problematic because it only reinforces the idea that girls do not belong in the committee room and may cause some female delegates so lose interest in Model UN because they are intimidated and simply do not see anyone like them. All the detailed responses I received were from girls who had been ignored, harassed, or belittled because of their gender. This treatment is clearly a universal issue and one that must be stopped. But why has is been going on for so long?

One possible reason is that the sexism that has influenced so many girls’ MUN experiences is largely unconscious. Many of the behaviors exhibited towards women are those which have been ingrained into boys’ heads since they were very little, and it is difficult to break a pattern of thinking. Model UN is all about power dynamics, so many male delegates may think they are simply showing off their power or being a good leader as they exhibit sexist behaviors, not realizing the inherent biases which cause them to exclude female delegates. The boys I worked with were very nice people outside of committee. They were all nice, some were funny, and a few were my good friends. They apologized for their actions once committee was over, blaming it on the pressure of MUN. But although I have no doubt that some of their actions were spurred by this competition, they still managed to talk to their fellow guys without seeming to ignore them or speak over them. MUN did more than bring out their aggressive, competitive qualities– it revealed their inherent biases through their actions in committee and their willingness to prioritize men over women in a high intensity situation.

These inherent biases, easy to see once such actions are analyzed, do not appear explicitly sexist to an outside observer who has not experienced the same treatment, and therefore women are less inclined to speak up about such instances for fear of being ignored and taken even less seriously than before. If you bring up the sexism preventing you from sharing your ideas in the middle of a discussion about sanctions or nuclear disarmament, you will get scoffed at for interrupting the discussion, the guys in your group exchanging glances and then meeting up later without you to discuss the issues they wouldn’t have shared with you anyway. Even though I never uttered the word “sexism,” whenever I raised questions of fairness or exclusion to my male counterparts, I was met with uneasy glances, excuses, denial, or the phrases “it’s too late now” and “it’s just MUN.” I was lucky to have female chairs who were sympathetic when I asked them after the conference about how I could stand up for myself, but many committees do not have female chairs, which means that girls will have an even more difficult time bringing up issues of misogyny and even outright harassment.

Possible solutions to this matter involve actively listening to the women in the room and forcing yourself to consider the way you are judging a female delegate or chair. Even though MUN is very fast paced, it is important to take a step back and ask yourself if the girl you are ignoring really has such terrible ideas or if you are just assuming her ideas are irrelevant without actually having fully listened to them. If the answer is the latter, you must ask yourself why. It is so easy to ignore female delegates by using the excuse that “I didn’t know her ideas were good” or “she didn’t push for them enough.” Stop putting the blame on female delegates and take some initiative: instead of trying to speak as much as possible, really absorb what female delegates are saying (it might help you improve your ideas as well). Instead of asking why the sole girl in your bloc didn’t stand up to the circle of guys constantly talking over her, open up the discussion and ask her about her ideas regarding the topic. Instead of painting a girl as rude, bossy, or controlling, ask yourself if her actions would be considered as such if she were a guy. These behaviors may not seem like much, but if everyone did them, they would transform not only Model UN, but the world outside of committee as well.

I can only hope that more people in committee consider the implications of their actions on those around them. After having learned my lesson in that conference, I will work to stop my own internal biases from dictating my movements. But I understand that not everyone will do the same, and that any change that happens will be slow. I still struggle to imagine myself commanding the same level of attention as a guy in a suit, and this thought sometimes discourages me. I wonder how I can ever be a leader if no one wants to follow me for just being myself. But I also understand that to give up would be to surrender to the patriarchal system that tells me I should not speak up and stand up for myself. So I plan to keep going to conferences, to keep speaking up for myself and the other girls in my committee, and to keep fighting sexism, not only in Model UN, but in the world that surrounds me.

This guest article was submitted by a member of a Top 25 ranked North American Collegiate team, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of this topic. 

My first conference on the collegiate Model UN circuit was, as to be expected, a stressful and semi-terrifying experience. The delegates were much faster, more engaged, and more knowledgeable about the topics than what I had experienced in high school. I didn’t know it at the time, but one of the strongest female seniors on the circuit was in my committee, and she served as an inspiration to me both during that conference and in the ones I have attended since. I was in awe of how she was able to escape the unfortunate and severely outdated “gender roles” of MUN and lead her bloc, both in writing the resolution and in doing Author’s Panel. This continued throughout the next conferences I had the privilege of attending, with each giving me more female role models and friends, but throughout the year, I also noticed a painful and disturbing trend across the circuit: sexism and sexual harassment.

At a conference early in the year, I had an experience with an older male on my own team that showed me how prevalent sexual harassment will continue to be on the circuit if team leaders aren’t willing to change the culture. The man was my partner, and spent the few weeks leading up to the conference making me increasingly uncomfortable. First, it was “small” stuff: unsolicited sexual memes and jokes, weirdly long hugs, and far too many I love you’s for how short of a time we had known each other. Slowly, it moved into him wanting to hold my hand while we worked or touching me to such an excessive degree that other team members had to distract him for me to be able to leave. Four days before we left for that conference, I mentioned to a close friend how uncomfortable our interactions were making me and we decided together to alert a male member of our team’s leadership. I didn’t know it at the time, but nothing changed from this conversation. Even on the bus ride up to the conference, I was laying with my legs up on the bus seat so that I could fall asleep, as I hadn’t slept much the night before. My partner read this an invitation to lay on top of me for the entirety of the bus ride despite my obvious protest and discomfort, and even posted it on his Snapchat about how cute it was once I had fallen asleep. No one on my team noticed or intervened.

The first session of the conference ended that Thursday, and I found myself running to my hotel room, sobbing with my roommates, telling them about how I couldn’t believe I had to spend three more days being excessively touched and harassed by the only person you can’t escape at a MUN conference – my partner. That night, I chose to tell another male member of our team’s leadership, this time being one of more seniority, but was cut short as my partner, true to his character, intervened in our conversation. Once my partner left the room to get food, I was vaguely assured that “something would be done” about the situation. Again, however, nothing was done to help.

I sat through the rest of the conference wondering if my partner had been talked to, and realized by his continued harassment that evidently, he hadn’t been. Following the awards ceremony the final day of that conference, a full week after the first time I asked for help from leadership, I decided to call for a meeting with both the men I confided in, as well as our Head Delegate. As I began to explain the situation, it was clear that our Head Del had not been told what happened by the other two, validating my concern that nothing was actually being done to help me. At the time, I knew it was wrong that I was put in that situation and had to initiate two too many conversations with leadership, but I was honestly worried about the repercussions of asking the questions floating through my head. Why hadn’t my concern been taken seriously earlier? Why hadn’t either of the first two men I told relayed that information to our Head Del, as they both implied they would? As a freshman girl facing a primarily upperclassmen male leadership, I was intimidated by the thought of questioning their actions, and was worried that if I did, I would ruin the hard work I had done to establish my reputation on the team.

In situations like this, it’s hard to not let the “Why?” questions haunt you; it certainly was for me. The week following the conference was spent on dozens of phone calls, in various meetings, and replying to copious amounts of texts and emails clarifying the situation from beginning to end, with the people involved seeking to make amends a week too late. I became obsessed, rereading every text and every email for hours after replying, desperately trying to understand their fundamental incomprehension of how bad of a situation I was in at the conference and and how they personally contributed to that. The most painful part wasn’t the harassment; though it disgusts me that this is a normal occurrence in women’s lives, I wasn’t necessarily thrown off by having to experience it yet again. What was more painful, however, was that the two men I confided in are two of the closest friends I have on the MUN team and two of my favorite people to have met in college. Because of this, I want to stress how dangerous it is that even the “good guys” don’t always recognize red flags that the “bad guys” show, and more importantly, don’t always listen to a woman’s word verbatim and trust that their concerns are real and completely valid.

While this was the most impactful display of sexism/sexual harassment I have endured in my days doing MUN, it certainly was not the first or the only. Recently, I attended a conference that had sexist incident after sexist incident on a committee-wide basis. In fact, the frustration I had at this conference served as my inspiration to finally write about this subject. In committee, there was an entire thirty minute period where no women were called on to speak, despite the men already having spoken two or three times each. Women’s crisis arcs were thrown to the side until the very last committee session, despite their relevance, creativity, and merit. When I left at one point to speak with my female crisis director about my arc, a male delegate yelled to us, “Hope you enjoy your girl talk!” With other incidents, ranging in having a delegate mansplain to me how to properly propose a motion to divide the question, despite my having proposed it correctly, to having my chair list out my positive attributes but claim he couldn’t quite see me as a “leader,” I spent the weekend asking myself more of those “Why?” questions. Why do men find women “bossy” and other men “assertive” and are then able to use those as justifications for why women aren’t leaders? Why hadn’t I quit MUN when I had the chance? Why do I continue to find myself in these uncomfortable situations? Why do I have to pick between settling for unfair treatment and quitting an activity that means so much to me?

The bus ride back that weekend was spent answering these questions, and I realized that the reason I continue to participate on the circuit is because, in spite of everything, the moments spent with my team outside of committee have been some of the best of my freshman year, and of my entire life. The two men I mentioned earlier? They have turned into two of my biggest supporters, whether I ask them for MUN advice or help with anything else, and have come to respect that I chose to challenge their actions. The people who intervened when my partner made me uncomfortable? They have become the people I trust the most. The rest of my team? They are people who are willing to learn and to grow, showing that change is always possible. When I left this most recent conference upset about the sexism in my committee, there was not a single person on my team who dismissed my comments or didn’t want to listen to me; in fact, more people wanted to hear my story than I even had time to tell. My concern about turning into the woman who always raises concerns about the men in committee or on the team, and having that become my sole identity, has evolved into me owning the fact that I refuse to accept anything less than the respect that I deserve, which is nothing I, or anyone else, should hide or feel ashamed of. If I don’t, and if we as a circuit don’t, ask these tough questions and hold everyone accountable, even the people we love and admire, there will be no change on a circuit-wide level.

This piece isn’t meant to insinuate that women like the female delegate I mentioned can’t exist and thrive on the collegiate circuit, or that all of the men involved in MUN are sexist, but is rather an explanation of why it can be so hard to elevate to that advanced level as a female delegate. It doesn’t matter if women are still earning gavels; we should be enjoying the journey to get there instead of feeling as if we are banging our heads against a wall for entire committee sessions at a time. Every woman, whether they do MUN or not, has a story of a time where a male colleague tried to undermine or question their intelligence, or made them physically uncomfortable.

So, let’s stop asking women in MUN why they don’t just quit or accept “reality” when they face sexism routinely, simply because it might be easier and less annoying for you to not have to deal with our concerns. Let’s stop putting it solely on the women on our teams to pick up the pieces themselves when they face an uncomfortable situation and acting as though they’re an inconvenience for asking for your help. Let’s stop pretending that it is more important to protect the men and their reputations than it is to protect the women and their safety. Finally, let’s start putting more women on our teams’ leaderships, not to fulfill a quota, and not to act as a secretary, but because there are qualified women on the circuit who deserve the chance to influence the system.

As a delegate who is seriously questioning what her future on the collegiate Model UN circuit is going to look like, this is my plea to you: do your job, in whatever role you have, as whatever gender you are, on whatever team you are on, to put an end to sexism and sexual harassment in our community. This isn’t normal, should never become normalized, and has absolutely no place in a community that takes the pride that it does in cultivating the future leaders of our world.  

If you are looking for more resources, check out How to Be an Effective Ally for Women in MUN and How to Run a Women in MUN Program. If you would like to share your story on Best Delegate, email genevieve.pool@nullbestdelegate.com

The following article is written by Khai Nguyen, a Best Delegate Media Associate and BDMUNC 2019 Logistics Officer. All quotations are taken from excerpts in an interview with Ibrahim El-Kazaz, the Best Delegate Conference Manager.

From March 14-17, 2019, Best Delegate hosted their inaugural Model United Nations Conference, BDMUNC 2019, at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda in the Washington D.C. area. Although in the past, Best Delegate has assisted in hosting among the most prestigious conferences in the world, this iteration of BDMUNC, focused on elevating the conference quality for attending delegates and sponsors by highlighting MUN education above all else.

BDMUNC 2019 Senior Secretariat
From left to right: Logan Smith, Samuel Taglia, Angela Hou, & Madeleine Northfield

“Built from adviser feedback,” this iteration of BDMUNC was led by Secretary-General Angela Hou, Under-Secretary-General of Committees Samuel Taglia, Under-Secretary-General of Logistics Madeleine Northfield, and Under-Secretary-General of Registration Logan Smith, who were each integral to the success of BDMUNC 2019 in their own respective ways. The Senior Secretariat however was accompanied by Best Delegate’s Core Team, in particular Ibrahim El-Kazaz and Erik Leiden, to ensure that BDMUNC 2019 provided the educational experience that Best Delegate had envisioned. Despite the competitive nature of Model UN, Best Delegate believes that “delegates should be looking for the conference that will make them better delegates” which was why BDMUNC 2019 was focused on “empowering individuals” and provided “opportunities for delegates to improve, and know how to improve.” Furthermore, as an organization that frequently travels around the world to provide educational experiences, Best Delegate recognizes the wide variety of economic backgrounds of delegates and designed a conference to ensure that all attending delegates will “have the sufficient knowledge and ability to know what they are doing, how they supposed to do it, and how to take it to the next level, because that is what matters the most.”

Evan Wesley from Thirst Project

Alongside the Senior Secretariat and Best Delegate Core Team guidance, BDMUNC was made possible by its conference partners. In addition to providing the conference with topics, each organization additionally prepared delegate research materials ensuring informed debate throughout committee sessions based on real issues that UN organs and international NGOs currently faces. Furthermore, each of the organizations offered an expert briefing on each of the topics for an onsite specialist to address any questions or concerns that arose, while also providing their first-hand experience in regards to how their respective organization addresses the current issues. The speaker on behalf of UNICEF-USA, debriefed attending delegates on the role of UNICEF around the world, and how the organization saves and protects the vulnerable children of the world, working to ensure child rights. Erik Leiden, the representative from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), under the Education for Justice (E4J) initiative, expressed the organization’s objective to prevent crime and promote a culture of lawfulness through education activities designed for primary, secondary, and tertiary levels while helping educators teach the next generation. In addition to speaking for an expert briefing, Evan Wesley, from the Thirst Project spoke once more at BDMUNC 2019 Closing Ceremonies, highlighting the nonprofit organization that travels across the United States speaking at schools to educate students about the global water crisis, challenging them to fundraise for well construction and other water collection and purification means. Differing from the other expert briefings, the Council of Foreign Relations, with an emphasis on the situation in Yemen, was led by Yemeni Nabeel Al-Nowairah, who shared a personal narrative on their first hand experiences with the current conflict introducing a personalized viewpoint on the conflict as opposed to the neutral and filtered content found online. In “partnering with these international organizations,” these expert briefings, occurring prior to committee session were part of the BDMUNC 2019 vision of providing a “truly educational experience” for delegates both novice and experienced, because “that is what makes BDMUNC different, what makes BDMUNC special.”

Alongside the expert briefings, BDMUNC recognized its extensive population of delegates being ESL Students at BDMUNC 2019 and novice delegates, and capitalized in providing the premier MUN education experience for its attendees. Keeping in mind the Best Delegate motto, to bring out the best in every delegate, the organization implemented a variety of different elements to build the “world class experience” that take “advisers and students to the next level.” Given the prestige that is associated with Best Delegate, BDMUNC was able to magnet the strongest delegates on the global MUN circuit, to staff the conference, and assist in the “training sessions provided at the conference.” Not only were professional training sessions provided the conference, BDMUNC was able to establish an environment “where each delegate was given the opportunity to speak during the conference,” and received “personalized feedback” to improve their abilities as a delegate, and as an individual. In addition to providing delegates with educational opportunities, BDMUNC provided further educational content for attending faculty advisers and materials for their respective delegations. Prior to the conference, all registered delegations were given an optional training curriculum that was to be used to “set delegates up for success.” Furthermore, BDMUNC provided an enhanced adviser experience in providing an adviser training institute, “a professional development opportunity” that took place during the conference committee sessions. In providing such educational opportunities for both delegates and faculty advisers, BDMUNC was able to successfully bring out the best in every delegate through the experiences that Model UN celebrates.

Delegates participating during BDMUNC 2019 training sessions

Although BDMUNC is a conference oriented around MUN education, committee awards were given to recognize delegates for their exemplary preparation, innovative thinking, speaking capabilities, and most of all, their ability to bring the best out in both themselves and the others around them. Furthermore, in addition to individual committee awards, delegation awards were given to recognize delegations that have a consistent quality of cooperation and diplomacy across all of their delegates and were awarded to the following delegations:

After months of preparation, the BDMUNC Secretariat would like to thank all guest speakers and topic specialists, attending delegates and faculty advisers, and especially the Best Delegate Core Team, who have all made the BDMUNC dream a reality.

This guest post was written by Alex Marsh and Naomi Greengold, Co-Secretaries-General of Howard High School Model United Nations in Ellicott City, Maryland, with special thanks to their sponsor, Mrs. Masami Stratton.

The Howard High School Model United Nations Conference Secretariat (left to right): Zak Vilschick, Alex Marsh, Naomi Greengold, Aymin Farooq, Bolade Amoussou, Zenab Ayaz, Brittney Fonmedig, Sarah George, Nick Howard. Not Shown: Maryam Chaudhry, Josh Mensah.

On March 23, 2019, Howard and Long Reach High Schools hosted its first Middle School Training Model United Nations Conference. As the Secretariat, we ran into several challenges along the way, but it was so satisfying to plan and run it — not to mention so much fun!

It all started last October, when our Model UN Club had an idea. We love Model UN, and are glad that we were able to spend our high school careers involved in an engaging and scholastic program, but what if we could introduce it to students earlier than freshman year?

We asked our sponsor, Mrs. Stratton, if a Middle School Conference was doable. We brainstormed and thought it would be great to co-host with our neighboring high school, Long Reach. They agreed and we were off and running.

Then we ran into a few challenges. Here are the 3 key challenges we faced, and how we solved them.

One of our first challenges was getting together to plan.

We overcame that by video conferencing through FaceTime. We set meeting agendas and worked through shared documents on Google drive.

We all had busy schedules to accommodate. So during our first video conference, we set aside all of the dates we needed to meet. That way, we knew what had to be accomplished and by when.

Setting priorities and being organized was definitely our best strategy in overcoming this first challenge. We also had our sponsors check with one another the day before each planned video conference so we were aware of our commitment.

Another challenge was marketing!

Starting from scratch was especially difficult because we had no prior name recognition in the area aside from our school name.

We targeted our feeder middle schools so we can not only teach them what we love about Model UN but then they could join us when they enter high school. But how do we get the word out to them?

Our sponsors reached out to the middle school principals, but it was hard to get excitement going.

So we produced an “infomercial” — three of our leadership group recorded an “invitation” segment that the middle school teachers could play for their students to introduce our conference.

That hooked the middle schoolers and we eventually had sixteen delegates sign up from four different schools — Ellicott Mills, Bonnie Branch, Burleigh Manor, and Mayfield Woods!

The final challenge was, what do we teach them?

We decided to split the day. In the morning, we dedicated time to teaching delegates how to conduct research on their assigned country and topics. We also worked on improving their public speaking skills and educating them on parliamentary procedure.

After lunch, we held a mock session that put their learning into action. We used a “Zombie Apocalypse” simulation to encourage their imagination!

Then we had our afternoon committee simulation. We had originally anticipated shyness, but we were happily proven wrong.

The middle school delegates were engaged and excited — and they reminded us of our first times participating in a Model United Nations conference.

Now on to our next challenge — hosting next year’s conference!

We hope to make this an annual event, and can’t wait to see it grow in the future!

Congratulations to Howard and Long Reach High Schools for organizing their first MUN conference!

 Helping student leaders overcome MUN challenges is what we teach at the Model United Nations Institute — check out our highlights video below!

Each year, Best Delegate invites the North American Collegiate Model United Nations community to vote for exemplary university delegates for our annual All-Star Team! Members of the All-Star Team are active MUNers that also positively impacted the community both inside and outside committee on the college circuit. These delegates can be consistent winners on the circuit or delegates that demonstrate to you the qualities you admire in Model UN: diplomacy, cooperation, innovation, leadership, and creativity.

How does voting work?

In order to be eligible to vote, you must be a college student that has participated as a staff member or delegate at a Northern American collegiate conference in the 2018-2019 season. You are allowed to nominate up to ten delegates or staffers that you see fit, and each name will be considered one vote. Due to the All-Star Team’s emphasis on community, students may only vote for up to two delegates or staffers from their own school out of the ten total votes and, students may not vote for themselves.

Votes will be tallied, and the individuals that received the most votes will be announced as members of the North American Collegiate All-Star Team. While Best Delegate will edit inconsistencies and misspellings to the best of its ability, it will validate submissions under the following Ballot Rules:

Qualifications:

• Candidate must have participated as a delegate or staffer in at least one collegiate Model United Nations conference in North America during the 2018-2019 academic year.
• Students must include the name and school of each nominee to verify candidates’ participation at a conference.

Ballot Information:

• Ballots will go live starting today, Thursday, April 25, 2019 and nominations will conclude on Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 11:59pm PST. Ballots submitted afterward will not count towards the vote tally.
• Each individual may only submit one ballot. Multiple ballots submitted with the same information will be considered invalid.
• Votes must follow the rules indicated on the ballot.

The post Vote for the 2018-2019 North American College All-Star Team appeared first on Best Delegate Model United Nations.

We are so excited to announce a brand new guide for the Model UN community – 15 Things Every MUN Delegate Needs in Their Research Binder! This free guide is chock full of great tips and strategies on how to prepare for, and excel in, any topic at any MUN conference!. Perfect for MUN delegates of all experience levels, this guide has awesome tips on what type on info to bring in your research binder, including:

• Conference information (awards policy, etc.)
• Committee information (UN Charter, etc.)
• Country profiles (CIA World Factbook, etc.)
• Topics & Sub-topics (Past international action, etc.)
• And so much more!

Whether you’re a Model UN beginner or veteran, this guide is great for perfecting your research strategies to make sure that you have all the necessary information for your next Model UN conference. Click here to download the guide, or click the image below!

The post FREE GUIDE: 15 Things Every Model UN Delegate Needs in Their Research Binder appeared first on Best Delegate Model United Nations.

If you asked me a year ago what model UN was I would most likely answer: “a competition between students representing countries in UN bodies, to debate international relations and devise solutions”. If you asked me today, after attending the Model UN Youth Summit at the UN and Model UN Impact Conference, I would give you a completely different response.

MUNers are often so caught up in the competitive aspect of Model UN and the conferences themselves that we fail to see the true purpose of what we are undertaking. Every time we debate in moderated caucuses and negotiate during unmods we are not just completing a “simulation”. The solutions we create have the potential to change lives for the better. The resolutions that we slave over for three days include programs and initiatives that we, ourselves, have the power to implement in society. This is something I didn’t realize until after my time at the MUN Impact Conference. Model UN Impact is a non-governmental organization that strives to inspire participants in Model United Nations to take action for the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite being founded only eighteen months ago, MUN Impact has spread to six continents, connecting thousands of members of the Model UN community in a web of service, action, and collaboration.

At the United Nations MUN Summit I had the privilege of hearing from speakers such as the Secretary General, but what was far more inspiring and impressive were the countless high school and college students who spoke about the actions they’ve already taken in their own communities. I’ve been exposed to the SDGs throughout my four years of MUN, but I always pushed them aside as un-reachable and idealistic dreams. This outlook, I learned, was what was unreasonable- not the SDGs. Whether it was the group of students who started a tampon drive or the two college girls from India who have facilitated the planting of over 80,000 trees as part of “Project Vruksh”, I realized that an ordinary sixteen year-old girl such as myself has the ability to make an extraordinary impact for the SDGs. As I heard my peers speak on the floor of the UN, my pen tried to keep up with the ideas flooding my mind, scribbling them on my go-to MUN legal pad. When I got back to my hotel  room that night and looked through my notes, I noticed a shocking similarity. The ideas for projects aimed at addressing the SDGs that I had written on my legal pad reminded me of the solutions I’d scribble during moderated caucuses as I prepared to write a Model UN resolution. In fact, my real-life proposals were exactly the same as what I would advocate for during Model UN simulations.

The next day at the MUN Impact Conference, delegates had the opportunity to take the inspiration from the previous day’s summit and use it to create original solutions to persisting crises. I had the privilege of running the “Planning for Impact” workshop as a member of the Executive Board. During this activity, delegates worked to create a project addressing one SDG. The impressive ideas and initiatives that were brought to the floor blew my mind. But what was more eye opening was watching a Gambian boy living in Qatar working side-by-side a Korean girl living in Taiwan to combat the worldwide hunger crisis. At that moment I finally answered the question: “what is Model UN?”

Model UN is cross-cultural collaboration. Model UN is not just simulating the UN’s work, but being inspired by it and using that inspiration to enact tangible change. MUNers have the knowledge, determination, passion, and creativity to prove those who label the SDGs as “un-realistic” wrong. Why throw away all your hard work at the culmination of a conference? Instead of letting old resolutions collect dust in bottom desk drawers I challenge each and every one of you to pick an idea from a Model UN resolution you wrote and start by implementing it in your local community. Whether it’s encouraging your peers to adopt sustainable practices or simply educating your parents on the SDGs every small action counts. The Model UN community is far wider than a vast network of international conferences. It’s a network of change makers and influencers. So I urge you to redefine what Model UN means to you, and bring your resolutions to life one SDG at a time.

For more information, visit Welcome to MUN Impact, or email me: zfisher@munimpact.org

The post Bringing MUN to Life – One SDG at a Time appeared first on Best Delegate Model United Nations.

Here at Best Delegate, we are so excited for the Summer 2019 Model United Nations Institute! It’s going to be an incredible summer filled with diplomacy, learning, new friends, tons of fun, and so much more. Today, we’d like to introduce the staff of this year’s MUN Institute! They are the best and most inspiring MUN leaders, coming from some of the top MUN teams on the North American collegiate circuit. Read on to learn more!

The post Meet the 2019 MUN Institute Staff! appeared first on Best Delegate Model United Nations.

EagleMUNC VII took place on March 22nd-24th, 2019. Nearly 700 students attended the conference, held at the Westin Copley Place in the heart of downtown Boston.

The conference opened with keynote speakers Diego Arria, former Ambassador from Venezuela to the United Nations — who developed the “Arria-Formula Meeting” used in the UN Security Council — and former Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy.

The conference featured a number of exciting and intriguing committees, as well as their 40-hour simulation. The Time Capsule Thematic committee explored how the press’ perspective has changed through time. The Pirate Republic explored the Pirate Islands in the Bahamas after the War of the Spanish. Other more traditional committees included the United Nations Security Council and the African Union. And finally, in the spirit of EagleMUNC’s passion for crisis, they held several crisis committees including Cuba: The Special Period 1990s which had continuous exciting developments.

Here’s what EagleMUNC VII Secretary-General Andres Garcia Angulo had to say about the conference:

Delegation Awards went to the following schools:

• Outstanding Small Delegation: Walton High School
• Best Small Delegation: Mosaic Explore
• Outstanding Large Delegation: Advanced Math and Science Academy
• Best Large Delegation: Blind Brook High School

Mosaic Explore’s Faculty Advisor, Cristina Drondoe (and MUN Advisor Institute alum!), lauded the conference:

Special thanks to Garrett Byrne and Juan Olavarría for showing me around EagleMUNC! Congratulations to all delegates, advisors, and Secretariat for a great conference!

The post EagleMUNC VII Pioneers Innovation in Crisis Committees appeared first on Best Delegate Model United Nations.

Here at Best Delegate and the MUN Institute, we want to share Model United Nations with as many students around the world as possible. And that means introducing MUN to those who might not already be familiar with the activity! Check out our brand new video that goes over the most basic structure of MUN simulations, and outlines the skills that students learn from participating in MUN.

The post NEW VIDEO: What is Model United Nations? appeared first on Best Delegate Model United Nations.

Midnight crises are some of the most talked about parts of any Model United Nations Conference. We all hear those delegates in the elevator talking about the crazy things their committee did during the midnight session, or how their roommate woke them up getting back to the room at some early hour of the morning after a midnight meeting. But what is a midnight crisis? Will you have one, and if you do, how can you use this extra session to your advantage as a delegate?

The post An Intro to Midnight Crises at Model United Nations Conferences appeared first on Best Delegate Model United Nations.

Giving a speech during a Model UN conference can be tough, but practice makes perfect! One way to practice is to work on your body language. Body language is a key skill to help you look and feel more confident while making a speech – it helps you and your audience focus on the main points of your speech, rather than any distracting movements. Here are the three ways you can improve your body language:

The post NEW VIDEO: How to Improve Your Body Language When Giving MUN Speeches appeared first on Best Delegate Model United Nations.

Being a Model UN advisor (some regions call it director, moderator, coach) is a rewarding but time consuming job. You get to see students learn about global issues, build their leadership skills, and become inspired to go change the world. But it can be a lot of time and work trying to prepare all your students for Model UN conferences.

Yet, there are large, thriving after-school Model UN clubs out there. What are their advisors’ secrets to success? Here are 3 things top Model UN advisors do:

Empower their Student Officers to Lead the Model UN Club

Top advisors understand there is not enough time to do everything to run a Model UN club. And they understand that they want to empower their students to take on leadership roles. Setting up a good “Secretariat” structure — a set of student officers — is key. My own advisor understood that, and he was able to empower us as student officers to grow our after-school MUN club from 20 members to 120 members.

There are a handful of roles and responsibilities below that can be given to student officers at the very minimum:

• President: runs Secretariat meetings and club meetings
• Head Delegate: prepares and trains delegates, especially new ones
• Secretary-General: organizes the team’s mock session conference
• Secretary: membership recruitment and tracking for participation
• Treasurer: fundraising and tracking for payments

And the secret is that the Secretariat can be scaled according to your club’s goals and size. There can be Assistant Head Delegates and Undersecretaries-General to help the Head Delegate and Secretary-General, respectively, and other student officer roles as well. Even having mentor-mentee pairings can empower your experienced half of the club to train the novice half of the club.

Student officers can attend the Secretary-General program at the Model UN Institute to learn the best practices in running and growing a Model UN club.

Select Well-Organized Model UN Conferences

Well-organized Model UN conferences will provide your students with better experiences and save you time as advisor. Well-organized Model UN conferences will have clear timelines, communicate well, and publish well-written background guides. You can see all this on the website already without having attended the conference before.

The best conferences feel automated — you tell the students to visit the conference website and all the information is there. The worst conferences feel like herding cats — you’re chasing after the conference for information and your students are complaining to you at the same time (usually about why the background guides have not been posted yet).

Of course, well-organized can also refer to quality of the on-site experience such as logistics, chairs, and so forth. But you won’t know those until you get there, and even then it can vary year-to-year and committee-to-committee since student-run events are not necessarily consistent. The best thing is to ask other advisors for reputations — which ones are generally well-organized on most years. You can also check out the How to Select Conferences guide.

Share Model UN Resources to their Students

Most advisors have never done Model UN. Even advisors who coach some of the top-ranked Model UN teams have never done Model UN. That was the same case for my own Model UN advisor. But he leveraged other advisors’ expertise — he would attend faculty advisor meetings, connect with other advisors, and ask them about what resources they use to prepare for MUN conferences. The other advisors would always share — some of them would even share their entire training packets.

Nowadays there’s a wealth of Model UN resources out there:

• New delegates can visit the Getting Started page and read the Diplomat Guide.
• Advanced delegates can read up on the most popular strategies and read the Ambassador Guide.
• Delegates who want to learn how to do Crisis committees can check out the Crisis guide.
• Any delegate can follow our Research page and use our Research Map and NGO List.
• And those who want to take their skills to the next level can attend the Model United Nations Institute.

The key to sharing resources is to hold students accountable to using them. Ask them to share or implement something they’ve learned at their next after school practice. Ask them to show each other how they improved their position papers after using the Research page, Research Map, or NGO List. Better yet, have the student officers teach something from what they’ve learned — after all, teaching is the best way of learning for them AND they save you time as they become the coaches for the team!

Ready to take your Model UN program to the next level?

Sign up for the Advisors Institute, a weeklong professional development program for Model UN advisors held in the summer!

The post 3 Things Top Model UN Advisors Do to Empower their Students While Saving Time! appeared first on Best Delegate Model United Nations.

Your child is doing Model United Nations! But what exactly are they doing when they dress up in Western Business Attire and head off to a Model UN conference for a weekend? And how does it change as they go from being a novice to a more experienced MUNer?

Although there’s no formal levels in Model UN, the Model UN circuit could be informally divided into six levels of experiences. These levels are actually what are reflected in the programs of the Model United Nations Institute. Here are the 6 Levels of Model UN explained to parents:

Level 1: Middle School

Yes, Model UN is available at the middle school level! In fact, it’s actually available at the upper elementary school level, though it’s far less common. Nowadays there are an increasing number of middle school Model UN conferences worldwide. Middle school students are introduced to global issues for the first time and typically debate topics where research is easier to find — but not necessarily easier to solve — such as Child Soldiers and Equal Representation of Women. They tend to be high energy and actively build alliances to solve these issues. Middle school students can start at the Junior Diplomat program, and advanced middle school students can learn at the Junior Ambassador program.

Level 2: High School Novice

The vast majority of Model UN students start as high school freshmen and ideally attend novice conferences. These are usually 1-day local conferences where students are expected to be on country policy — whether they’re assigned Canada, China, or Cameroon — and use formal Rules of Procedure when debating about global topics such as Climate Change and Nuclear Non-Proliferation. High school novices are challenged to make both prepared speeches and impromptu speeches to persuade the room to vote for their solutions. High school novices can learn how to do Model UN by reading the Diplomat Guide or attending the Diplomat program.

Level 3: High School Advanced

Once students understand the basics of Model UN, they go on to participate in Advanced Model UN conferences. These are usually 2-4 day conferences, and many of the largest and most prestigious conferences host over 3,000 delegates at once! At this level, Model UN can become a competition as students are judged for awards as they debate specialized topics such as economic development in Africa or global hot spots such as Syria. Social dynamics — ability to persuasively build allies and diplomatically negotiate with adversaries — become much more important (as it is in real life diplomacy). Advanced high school students can take their skills to the next level by reading the Ambassador Guide or polishing their skills at the Ambassador program.

Level 4: High School Crisis

Crisis simulations are common at the college level, and now it is becoming increasingly available and popular at the high school level. Crisis simulations are when students represent Cabinet members and have to respond to crises that are thrown at them! For example, students could be simulating the US Cabinet and a terrorist attack goes off in Washington DC! What should they do next? That depends on the role they are assigned to play — the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense would react differently! Crisis committees are more complex than Advanced committees because they heavily emphasize impromptu speaking, rapid decision-making, and creative problem-solving instead of prepared speeches and research. Students can experience this at the Crisis program or pick up the Crisis guide to get started.

Level 5: High School Student Officers

By the time a high school Model UN student is an upperclassman, he or she may have stepped into a student officer role in the Model UN club. This could include serving as President running the club, as the Head Delegate (team captain) training the team, as Secretary-General running the club’s own conference or mock session, or in other impactful leadership roles. They’re often busy after-school helping take their club to the next level. Students officers work closely with the Faculty Advisor and stand out — this is how advisors can write richer details into the students’ college letters of recommendations. Leaders ready to become student officers can learn the best practices at the Secretary-General program.

Level 6: College

Model UN continues in college! College students compete in a tight-knit national (or even international) circuit of Model UN conferences featuring some of the brightest future lawyers, diplomats, politicians, government officials, businesspeople, teachers, academics, and change-makers in the world. They build a strong professional network and strong professional skill set by going to all these conferences. Many college Model UN students also give back by serving as Chairpersons (judges) for high school conferences. And some even go on to teach Model UN professionally, including serving as Diplomacy Fellows at the Model UN Institute or becoming teachers and Faculty Advisors for Model UN clubs!

Want to learn more about the MUN Institute? Check out our highlight video!

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