Starting a Conference
Hosting a conference is a fun and rewarding experience that can help grow and develop your MUN team. Conferences come in all shapes and sizes, some with thousands of delegates from across the world and others with only a dozen students from a local school. There is nothing wrong with either approach and each has their own merit. Also, hosting a Model UN conference can open up an important fundraising stream for your Model UN club.
STYLE
The first step to starting any MUN conference is deciding what type of conference it will be. There are several decisions to make here. Will it be an advanced conference, a novice, or for all skill ranges? Is it going to be staffed by your students or outside chairs? Some of the first things to decide are:
TIMELINES
Setting a date is a crucial step to any MUN conference. The right date can make or break a conference based on attendance and convenience. When setting a date consider events such as SAT/ACT testing, other Model UN conferences, debate tournaments, case competitions, holidays/breaks, etc. The goal is to ensure that everyone who wants to come can come.
After setting a date, work backwards to create an actionable timeline for your conference starting with head chair selections and ending with the conference. This involves the entire officer corps dividing work amongst themselves based on their job. Here is a sample of what SWCHSMUN includes in its timeline:
In addition to a conference timeline, officers (or secretariat) of the club should create similar timelines for their responsibilities.
PICKING COMMITTEES
LOGISTICS
Logistics is the "behind the scenes" portion of planning an MUN conference. Everything from the flags at opening and closing ceremonies to the gavels the chairs use must be discussed, ordered, and dealt with. For a high school conference, this entails working closely with the administration, advisor, USG of Logistics, and Treasurer. The first step for logistics is booking rooms for conference. Before you can set the date you must be sure that you can book the rooms! Make sure that each room has the capacity you need for each committee, or limit committee sizes to the sizes of your rooms. Either way, it's important to have some space in the rooms for people to walk around during unmoderated caucus, so try to book rooms that have a higher capacity than the number of delegates.
Getting placards, gavels, flags, food, guest speakers, table cloths, and secretariat all together on the day of is a daunting task, which is why conferences sort out these details well in advance.
CONFERENCE
Hosting an MUN conference is one of the most incredible experiences of any MUNer, but this doesn't mean it won't be a challenge. There will be problems that the secretariat will need to handle at every conference. Things will fall through the cracks and issues will arise the day of. This is why there always must be non-chairing secretariat members. Traditionally, this includes the Secretary General, USG of Logistics, and another high ranking officer. Their job is communicating with Advisors and manage any issues that may arise during conference.
QUESTIONS?
This is not a comprehensive guide of what goes into an MUN conference, but its a good place to start. If you have any questions about the process of putting on an Model UN conference, please feel free to email the SWCHSMUN secretariat either at our USG emails, or through [email protected]
STYLE
The first step to starting any MUN conference is deciding what type of conference it will be. There are several decisions to make here. Will it be an advanced conference, a novice, or for all skill ranges? Is it going to be staffed by your students or outside chairs? Some of the first things to decide are:
- One, two, or three day conference
- Having awards or pseudo-mock (no awards)
- Conference size
- Source of chairs
TIMELINES
Setting a date is a crucial step to any MUN conference. The right date can make or break a conference based on attendance and convenience. When setting a date consider events such as SAT/ACT testing, other Model UN conferences, debate tournaments, case competitions, holidays/breaks, etc. The goal is to ensure that everyone who wants to come can come.
After setting a date, work backwards to create an actionable timeline for your conference starting with head chair selections and ending with the conference. This involves the entire officer corps dividing work amongst themselves based on their job. Here is a sample of what SWCHSMUN includes in its timeline:
- Picking Head Chairs
- Deciding topics and committees
- Registration opening & invitation mailings
- Topic synopsis draft due dates
- Topic synopsis final draft due dates
- Conference
In addition to a conference timeline, officers (or secretariat) of the club should create similar timelines for their responsibilities.
PICKING COMMITTEES
LOGISTICS
Logistics is the "behind the scenes" portion of planning an MUN conference. Everything from the flags at opening and closing ceremonies to the gavels the chairs use must be discussed, ordered, and dealt with. For a high school conference, this entails working closely with the administration, advisor, USG of Logistics, and Treasurer. The first step for logistics is booking rooms for conference. Before you can set the date you must be sure that you can book the rooms! Make sure that each room has the capacity you need for each committee, or limit committee sizes to the sizes of your rooms. Either way, it's important to have some space in the rooms for people to walk around during unmoderated caucus, so try to book rooms that have a higher capacity than the number of delegates.
Getting placards, gavels, flags, food, guest speakers, table cloths, and secretariat all together on the day of is a daunting task, which is why conferences sort out these details well in advance.
CONFERENCE
Hosting an MUN conference is one of the most incredible experiences of any MUNer, but this doesn't mean it won't be a challenge. There will be problems that the secretariat will need to handle at every conference. Things will fall through the cracks and issues will arise the day of. This is why there always must be non-chairing secretariat members. Traditionally, this includes the Secretary General, USG of Logistics, and another high ranking officer. Their job is communicating with Advisors and manage any issues that may arise during conference.
QUESTIONS?
This is not a comprehensive guide of what goes into an MUN conference, but its a good place to start. If you have any questions about the process of putting on an Model UN conference, please feel free to email the SWCHSMUN secretariat either at our USG emails, or through [email protected]