MUN the Basics 1- General Information 4. Chairs: The chairpersons are seated in the front with their gavel and facilitate the debate. “They call on speakers, time speeches, and maintain the rules of procedure. If the conference gives awards, they will also evaluate your performance, 2, Motion: a specific action made by delegates to direct debate in a certain direction. For example: motion to move into voting procedure, motion to move into time against. Yield: this is when a speaker decides to give up the remaining time in his or her speech. “Typically, the three types of yields are: 1) Yield to the Chaix meaning you give up the rest of your time, 2) Yield to another delegate meaning you give up the rest of your time to another delegate, or 3) Yield to questions from other delegates or Yield to comments to your speech by other delegates, Questions are also sometimes called Points of Information. 4. Third person: is used when addressing yourself or other delegates 5. No direct speech: No direct speech is permitted between delegates. Always address the chairs as a means of interaction between speakers. 6. “Honourable chairs, dear delegates”: Every time you have been yielded the floor, make sure to start your speech by formally addressing your audience. This ean be done in various ways, but the phrase that is most used is “honourable chairs, dear delegates” Il- Points 4. Point of Information to the chairs: used when a delegate has a question about something thatis not clearly understood in committee. Use this toask the chairs a question if you don’t understand a term or get what's going on in committee! 2, Point of Personal Privilege: used when a delegate experiences personal discomfort that hinders their ability to participate in committee. Examples: temperature of room, distractions during committee, can't hear another delegate, etc. 3, Point of Order: used when a delegate believes that there was a mistake made regarding therules of procedure. : lil - Resolutions 1. Draft Resolution: A docuinent written in resolution format, approved by the chairs, and introduced to committee but not yet voted upon is called-a draft resolution. Delegates will be spending most of their time writing and amending the draft resolutions. Once a draft resolution is passed by a committee, then it becomes a Resolution. 2, Preambulatory clauses: statements in the first section of the draft resolution that describes the problems that the committee wants to solve as well as previous measures taken———~-——nambered— nbulatory clauses are usually italicized or underlined but not to combat the problem. Pr 3. Operative clauses: statements in the second section of the draft resolution that outline THE-specifie solutions’ Tie" sponsors “wish” to implement Operative clauses are-usually”~ numbered and underlined. 4. Amendment: a change made to an operative clause of a draft resolution, Amendments can add, delete, or change an operative cause in a draft resolution. A Friendly Amendment is ‘an amendment written and approved by all the sponsors to a draft resolution and is automatically included into the text. An Unfriendly Amendment is an amendment not approved: by all the sponsors to their draft resolution and must be voted upon before it ean be included into the text. 5. Lobbying: During lobbying time you must discuss your resolution with your ally countries, as‘well as with others, so that you can improve it by rewording, adding their clauses or merging your resolution with you ally’s resolution, 6. Sponsors: delegates who authored the draft resolution or actively contributed ideas. ‘They support the draft resolution and want to see it get passed, so they should vote for it. All resolutions will require a minimum number of sponsors, 7. Signatories: delegates who wish the see the draft resolution debated but may or may not agree with all of the ideas. However, they think there is some merit to it and want to see it presented. Some resolutions will requiie a minimuin ntiniber of signatories. 8. Merging: combining two or more draft resolutions to make a bigger or new draftIw preparation of an” MUN confer document that briefly and clearly explains the policies of your country/organisation with respect to the issues dealt with at the conference. ‘There are two important reasons for drawing up this document: 1. it forces you to focus on the exact points of view of your country/organisation; 2, it serves as a reference document to your delegation members and committee members during the conference, Thus, policy statements may provide an excellent tool in the lobbying process; they may also serve as the basis for your opening speech i your committee. I~ What Does A Policy Statement Consist of? In order to produce a useful policy statement, you ought to carry out thorough research. You should also bear in mind that a policy statement consists of five parts in which you: 1. explain and define the issue and its most important terms; provide a short summary of recent international action related to the issue; refer to key documents that relate to the issue; state the country’s general position on the issue; make suggestions of your own that are in line with your country's pol solution to the issue. Make sure your poliey statement does not exceed 300 words. ies to provide a gaer ‘To stim up, the policy statement sefs out to answer three basic questions: 1, What is the background to your country’s point of view on the issue? ‘2. Whatis your country’s current position on the issue? 3. What does it hope to achieve in relation to the issue? ion Additionally, you might add strength to your position by answering the following qu 4. What have other member states that share my country’s view done in this area? JI — What To Remember About A Policy Statement? In a sense, the brevity and clarity of your policy statement shows how well you have prepared for the conference. Make sure that you read out your policy statement to your fellow delegates at several stages of your research. You will be surprised to find how many things that are clear to you 2s an expert on an issue are hard to understand for those who have not carried out your research. Your fellow-delegates’ questions and comments will lead to a clearer document that will be an excellent starting-point for your lobbying, resolutions and opening speech,MUN Research ‘There are two fields of research that you have to focus on when preparing for any MUN conference, First you need to learn about the country you represent and then there are the issues on the agenda, 1— How To Research A Country? When researching your country you have several options. One of them is trying to contact its Embassy in your country. You will find that some Embassies are cooperative and others will e less so. You will just have to try. Another option is to use the Internet. A widely used. website for this is the CIA World Factbook. Choose the country you represent and you will find the information you need. If you need a guideline on what you need to know about your country you can refer to the Council of World Affairs. This is a very useful site in preparing for many aspects of a conference. Alternatively you might try individual eountries' websites. Il — How To Research An Issue? ‘The issues on the agenda of a MUN conference are often taken from the UN website. Hence going to this website and typing in the issue on the agenda into its search engine will be a good way to start your research on these issues. Member states have websites for their Permanent Missions at the UN that can also be useful if you want to learn about the views of your country on a given issue. II — Useful Sources hitp://Awwwaun.org/english ‘ttp://wwwam.org/members/missions.shtml hitpr//eyberschoolbus.un.org/ hitps://www.cia.gov! hutp://www.cowacore/ https//wwwembassyworld.com/ http://www.economist.com, btp://www.idebate.org/index.php http:/Awww.enn.com/, http://www bbeworld,com/ ‘Additionally, you could download the ‘Model UN' application by Bellwether Systems for your mobile devices,