Introduction to MUN
David Li, Undersecretary General for Content
Welcome to Oxford Model United Nations! Some of you might be veterans of diplomacy, experienced in negotiation and manipulation, with half a dozen conferences and maybe even a few certificates under your belt. To those of you, I say, welcome back! But for many others, this might be your first ever MUN conference. So, what exactly is Model United Nations? Over the next six blog posts, I will take you through the details and intricacies of MUN, and hopefully explain the complex looking web that is the rules of procedures (RoP). Do bear in mind, every conference may follow slightly different RoP, and every committee might take a different twist on the RoP, so while the procedure that I explain here will be generally applicable, you should be prepared to see something slightly different as well.
So, first, what is Model UN? Simply put, as the name suggests, Model United Nations seeks to model the United Nations. Students, pretending to represent countries, will debate each other over topics that real countries debate about in the real UN. The debate will follow what is called a “Rules of Procedure,” which is simply how the debate flows. It specifies who speaks in what order, how people vote, etc. The RoP generally seeks to mimic real life rules of procedures, with the necessary simplifications.
Before we go any further, there are some terms that are often quite confusing for new delegates, so let’s get those out of the way first.
A delegate is simply another name for a student competing in the Model United Nations conference.
A conference refers to the entire MUN event. It spans all three days, and involves every person, every committee, everything that happens. An example of a conference would be OxfordMUN.
And so, if someone says ‘throughout the conference,’ they essentially mean for the whole weekend.
Each committee is one of the individual rooms in a conference. When delegates sign up for the conference, they will also have to sign up for a committee. For the whole weekend, delegates will only debate within their own committees. An example of a committee might be the WHO committee. Or the ECOFIN committee. All WHO committee members will be in the same room, all ECOFIN committee members will be in another room, and for the whole weekend, WHO committee members will only debate with other WHO committee members.
And so, if someone says ‘in committee,’ they essentially mean during the debates, or when you are in the actual committee rooms. If you are on a break, or at your hotel, or at a delegate's social, that would not count as ‘in committee.’
Throughout the conference, the debate will be divided into sessions, spanning several days, with breaks, lunches, and dinners in between. These individual sessions are called ‘Committee Sessions.’
A delegation is a team of delegates who come to a conference together. If you are are coming with a school, you are likely part of your school’s delegation. Delegations only serve as a travel team, organizing how delegates eat, sleep, and travel. In committee, delegates should debate without taking delegations into consideration.
Independent delegates are simply delegates who compete without a delegation. They are in no way at any disadvantage, and OxfordMUN wholeheartedly welcomes both independent delegates and delegations.
The Secretariats are the people organizing the entire conference. The Secretariat General is the head organizer, with all the other Secretariats working under her.
The Chairs and Directors are the staff members that you will interact with most. They are the individuals who will manage the debates in each committee. They will enforce the rules of procedures, moderate the debate, and give delegates awards based on how well they perform. Essentially they are the judges of the debate.
Awards will be given out at the end of the ceremony, usually to the top 3, 5, or sometimes more, delegates. These awards are given out for leadership, diplomacy, creativity, and research. The Best Delegate is often gifted the gavel, the small hammer that the chairs use, but apart from that, there are rarely prizes alongside the awards. Awards should not be your top priority in any competition, much less a Model United Nations competition, where diplomatic abilities are impossible to assess accurately. But in case anyone discusses awards, this is what they are talking about.
In debate, something, usually a proposal, motion, or resolution, might be ‘tabled.’ In the real world, to be tabled can mean one of two opposite things, depending on whether you speak American or British English. In the US, something being tabled means that it is no longer being considered. Outside of the US, something being tabled means that is is now being discussed and considered. In MUN, the US definition is often followed, and so something being tabled essentially means that it has been failed, and is no longer being considered.
The next five blog posts will be about how to prepare for a conference, what a conference will look like, how resolution papers work, how points and motions work, and finally, an overview of a Model UN conference. Alongside this first introductory blog post, hopefully these six blog posts can help you adapt to the world of MUN. There will still be a lot to explore, but hopefully, after having read these posts, you will not be charging in entirely blind.