Effective Meetings
Meetings will depend on whether MUN is a class or a club at your school. If Model UN is a class, then it will meet regularly like a class does, while a club will need to meet at the very least once a week for general announcements and club activities.
Advisors should be at all meetings and workshops to supervise the students’ work and help teach students skills like public speaking, writing, and debating.
EDUCATIONAL MEETINGS
The most important part of meetings is teaching your current members and new members Model UN procedure, strategy, and necessary skills ahead of conferences. Educational meetings can focus on any aspect of MUN, but having an established curriculum that ensures every delegate is ready by the start of their first conference is important in ensuring that everyone is ready when they first step into committee.
It's important to remember that each conference and committee's procedure may be unique, as some conferences have procedural quirks or committees that run on alternative procedures that delegates should be prepared to encounter. The advice on this website pertains specifically to SWCHSMUN, and we encourage you to reference other conferences' sites for tips on their conference procedure.
LOGISTICAL MEETINGS
Before every conference, you should have a few logistical meetings to establish plans for conference and assigning country assignments.
Some clubs and classes choose to assign delegates to committees based on seniority, others allow for people to submit their preferences and assign based on students' responses. Others assign on a completely random basis. This decision is completely up to the club leadership and advisor.
You will have to organize flights and hotels if you are traveling from a significant distance or carpools if you're going to a conference nearby. You should encourage delegates to bring The Binder as well as certain essentials, like snacks, water, gum, deodorant, etc. These meetings should be near the conference date and be focused on preparing the delegates to go to conference.
WORKSHOPS
Meetings can be supplemented with after-school or weekend workshops that can be focused on various skills and topics: speeches, writing position papers, current world affairs, etc. Workshops can be very helpful for MUN students of all experiences and allow students to expand their knowledge on international relations. Here are some examples of workshops you can do to prepare for conferences:
Position paper writing workshop
Speech writing and performance workshop
Procedure workshop
Research presentations
Delegate Grills
Committee Simulations
Advisors should be at all meetings and workshops to supervise the students’ work and help teach students skills like public speaking, writing, and debating.
EDUCATIONAL MEETINGS
The most important part of meetings is teaching your current members and new members Model UN procedure, strategy, and necessary skills ahead of conferences. Educational meetings can focus on any aspect of MUN, but having an established curriculum that ensures every delegate is ready by the start of their first conference is important in ensuring that everyone is ready when they first step into committee.
It's important to remember that each conference and committee's procedure may be unique, as some conferences have procedural quirks or committees that run on alternative procedures that delegates should be prepared to encounter. The advice on this website pertains specifically to SWCHSMUN, and we encourage you to reference other conferences' sites for tips on their conference procedure.
LOGISTICAL MEETINGS
Before every conference, you should have a few logistical meetings to establish plans for conference and assigning country assignments.
Some clubs and classes choose to assign delegates to committees based on seniority, others allow for people to submit their preferences and assign based on students' responses. Others assign on a completely random basis. This decision is completely up to the club leadership and advisor.
You will have to organize flights and hotels if you are traveling from a significant distance or carpools if you're going to a conference nearby. You should encourage delegates to bring The Binder as well as certain essentials, like snacks, water, gum, deodorant, etc. These meetings should be near the conference date and be focused on preparing the delegates to go to conference.
WORKSHOPS
Meetings can be supplemented with after-school or weekend workshops that can be focused on various skills and topics: speeches, writing position papers, current world affairs, etc. Workshops can be very helpful for MUN students of all experiences and allow students to expand their knowledge on international relations. Here are some examples of workshops you can do to prepare for conferences:
Position paper writing workshop
- Everyone discusses best writing practices and the grading system for the particular conference's position papers
- Students write their position papers
- Students peer-edit their position papers
Speech writing and performance workshop
- Everyone writes and practices their opening speaker's list speech for conference
- Students provide feedback on presentation skills and content
Procedure workshop
- Leadership reviews conference's specific procedure
- Students practice motions and committee flow
Research presentations
- One member presents on a current events issue they feel passionately about
Delegate Grills
- Members take turns delivering speeches or answering difficult questions that pertain to their topic in an upcoming conference
- Other members or advisors prepare the topic of the speech or the question based to surprise and test the delegate
- Constructive feedback is a must for this to be an effective tool.
Committee Simulations
- Can range in preparation from a mock committee with official researched topics and even a topic synopsis or a very short run through focusing on practicing rules of procedure or somewhere in between
- A short run through:
- used mainly to educate and refamiliarize delegates with the Rules of Procedure (RoP) and Flow of Debate
- should take 30 min to an hour and have some short speeches and unmods to simulate the feel of a committee
- A Mock Committee
- This should take at least a day
- Often has a formal feel with members wearing western business attire
- Great for new delegates to get experience before their first conference