The Binder
Every successful Model UN delegate should come to the conference with a binder filled with essential information for their committee. This forms the basis of your assets that you can use in committee to inform conversations, resolutions, and votes on proposed solutions.
ESSENTIALS
NICE TO HAVE
ESSENTIALS
- Your position paper: At SWCHSMUN we do not require a position paper. You may find that other Model UN conferences will require them in order for you to win awards. It is recommended that delegates still go through the research process and write a position paper (it will help with developing your in committee speeches). You will not be asked to submit a position paper, nor will it be evaluated by your Dais. If you write a solid position paper, you should be able to use it as a reference in your committee and lean on it when you're not sure how to vote on a resolution. This should also contain some key statistics and information you can reuse in speeches. We also encourage you to annotate your position paper so that you can more easily find these key statistics and phrases; you can use tools such as a highlighter, small post-it notes, or dog-ears on important pages
- The topic synopsis: Either you, another delegate, or your chair will inevitably refer to something written in the committee’s topic synopsis during a conference. Also, what your chair has written about is what they'll focus on in committee, especially the questions to consider. These questions are meant to be hints at the smaller nuances that the committee will focus on throughout the weekend. Use the topic synopsis and statistics from it to write speeches and resolutions that grab the chair’s attention.
- Country profile: Having a solid understanding of your country's geopolitical orientation will aide you in identifying allies and enemies on your committee's topic. Your country profile will help you navigate bloc formation, who your allies are, and who countries are that are of similar circumstance and interest in your topic.
- Blank lined paper: You will be doing a LOT of writing, between writing resolutions and speeches and passing notes, and you will be most successful if you have paper on hand to write on. This can come in the form of standard binder paper, post-it notes, or even notecards to pass back and forth. Be sure to have plenty of paper at your disposal to communicate, speak, and write as efficiently as possible.
NICE TO HAVE
- News articles: The simplest way to do be up to date on your topic is to run simple online searches. Be sure to collect articles from legitimate sources such as the BBC, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.
- Resolutions, treaties, and conventions. Having the text of past actions on hand can help you in contextualizing new resolutions in your preambulatory clauses of your resolution and expand on past action. You can find past resolutions through the UN documentation center, however, it strongly recommended that delegates not take clauses or ideas from existing UN documents. The most relevant piece of international law on your topic might not be a past resolution, but instead a treaty or convention, so be sure to research and collect all relevant action on the topic.
- Basic sources (CIA World Factbook, Wikipedia): Being able to reference a certified source like the CIA or Wikipedia on basic facts about your country can be very useful. You might encounter a crisis you have never seen before and have to extrapolate based on your country's values and governmental structure. While the country profile should help with this, having these sources in your back pocket can be useful as well.