How to start a Model UN club: your first meeting, a 12-week plan and activities

Get approval, recruit, run a first meeting where everyone speaks, follow a 12-week plan, give students real roles and aim for a first conference.

A Model UN club meets once a week, and its members debate as the delegates of countries at the UN. A good first year runs one term of weekly meetings, then a first conference in the second term.

1. 1Get your school's approval. A one-page plan shows what the club does and what it costs.
2. 2Recruit your first members. Let students do the pitching, and keep the club open to everyone.
3. 3Run a first meeting where everyone speaks. The 60-minute plan starts with speeches, not a talk.
4. 4Follow the 12-week plan. Weekly meetings build up to a debate that students end up chairing, with activities for the weeks after.
5. 5Give students real roles. Students take on club roles during the first term and write a charter together.
6. 6Aim for a first conference. Plan the costs early, and pick a one-day conference near you.

You learn the rules with your students and chair from a short script. If you are a student, find a teacher first.

A one-page plan for the first term answers most of what a school asks before it approves a club.

Ask the person who approves clubs at your school what they need. Schools often have rules on when clubs meet and how many members they need. Bring a one-page plan with these points:

• Purpose. What students practise, such as research and public speaking.
• Members. Which classes or grades can join.
• Time and place. One hour a week, usually after school, in a named room with you or another adult present.
• Safety. How students get home after a late meeting, and which platform the club uses for messages, checked against your school's rules.
• Weekly plan. A link to the 12-week plan.
• Costs. What the club costs, and how you would pay for trips, for example through school funds or fundraising.
• A first conference. The one you are aiming for, if you have one, and its date.

If your school asks why it should support the club, point to resolution 77/336 (PDF). In it, the UN General Assembly recognizes what Model UN adds to young people's skills in international affairs, and encourages equal access for all.

If the answer is no, ask what would change it, such as a different time or a second adult. You can also run Model UN inside an existing club, or try it first as a class unit.

If you are a student

Find a teacher who agrees to supervise the club, such as a history or politics teacher, or whoever runs the debate club. Tell them what it takes: one hour a week, and the four jobs only an adult can do. You and the other students plan and run the meetings, so take the one-page plan to the school together.

If you are taking over or reviving a club

If the club still meets, read its club file and meet the student leaders. Keep the meeting day, ask the leaders to run the next meeting while you watch, and change one thing at a time.

If the club has stopped, ask whether its approval still stands and whether anyone kept its member list or conference contacts. Then ask former members to help you recruit, and start again from the first meeting.

Recruit through students, the club fair and school channels, and say what the club asks of members before they sign up.

• Let students pitch. With their teachers' permission, students who want the club talk about it for two minutes at the start of a lesson.
• Take a table at the club fair. Run a two-minute mock debate there, and show the link to the sign-up form.
• Announce it. Put the first meeting and the sign-up link in the school newsletter and on the school's own platforms, open to everyone.
• Be clear about time and cost. Tell students how much time the club takes and what a trip may cost, so nobody leaves when they find out later.

If only a few students come

Start anyway: four students can run the whole 12-week plan. Small groups travel too: a third of school delegations on mymun bring five students or fewer. Recruit again at the end of the term, when members can say what they did.

If 30 or more come

In weeks 1 and 2, students give their speeches in circles of six to eight, each with a timekeeper, while you move between them. From week 3, run two or three committees with a colleague. Hand the extra rooms to students after week 7, when they learn to chair.

If members stop coming

Message the students who left through the club channel and ask why. Often it is the workload or another activity on the same day, so move the day if many members have a conflict. Keep the first term light on homework, and give every member a task, such as timekeeper or presenting the UN News.

Keep a new club open to everyone, and select students only when a conference has fewer places than members.

Some clubs take anyone who comes, and some run tryouts like a sports team. Both have reasons:

• For tryouts. You can coach a small group closely, and a selected team can compete for awards at competitive conferences. Students who get in often take the work seriously.
• Against tryouts. A tryout picks the students who already speak well, and the club exists to teach that. Quiet students and second-language speakers often gain most, and a tryout keeps them out.
• In between. Keep the club open, and select students only for conference places, by criteria you publish first.

For a new club, stay open. You need members more than a team, and you cannot judge a tryout before students know the rules.

Spend the hour doing Model UN, not hearing about it, and end with a vote, the next date and two volunteers.

Get every student speaking in the first meeting, because students come back to a club they have already tried.

Before the meeting

• Book a room where you can set the seats in a U shape, so everyone sees you and each other.
• Pick a school question everyone has a view on, such as what one change would improve the school day.
• Make a placard for each student you expect. Each names a group with a stake in the question, such as students, teachers or parents, the way a delegate's placard names a country.
• Make a sign-up form that asks for a name, a class and a school email, and put its link on the screen.

The meeting, in 60 minutes

1. 1Arrival and welcome, 5 minutes. Students fill in the form as they come in and take a placard. Tell them in two sentences what the club does and when it meets.
2. 2Speeches, 15 minutes. With you as chair, each student gives a 30-second speech: the one change their group wants. Call on students as they raise their placards.
3. 3The merge game, 20 minutes. Pairs agree on one change, then each pair joins another and the four agree. Keep merging, about five minutes a round, until the room has one change everyone accepts.
4. 4The vote, 5 minutes. Read the final change aloud, and the room votes by raising placards.
5. 5What comes next, 10 minutes. Show the 12-week plan and the conference you are aiming for, if you have one. Ask for two students to help you run next week's meeting.

That evening, invite everyone to the club's channel on the platform your school allows, and post the next date there. The merge game practises consensus: at a conference, blocs often merge similar drafts into one with the same give and take.

Twelve meetings take a new club from its first speech to a four-week debate, with students in the chair for the last two meetings.

Pick the table for the rules your first conference uses: North American (the speakers' list, motions and caucuses) or THIMUN-style (open debate on drafts). With no conference yet, pick the one conferences near you use. If your members already go to conferences, skip weeks 1 and 2 and let them chair from week 3.

In weeks 2 to 7, a student opens each meeting with five minutes of UN News. The last five minutes go to feedback and next week's tasks. Count meetings, not calendar weeks, so a holiday only pauses the plan.

Running club debates in MUN Command

From week 3, run your debates in MUN Command, the best tool for chairing a committee, and one that many conferences use. Anyone can set up a committee in it, and students join from a phone or a school laptop. It makes these easier:

• The speakers' list and the clock. Students join a live speakers' list from their seats, and timers run on screen.
• Motions and votes. Motions go into a queue, and roll call and votes take one tap.
• Drafts. Blocs write together in a live document editor, with no Google Docs or shared folders.
• Notes. Committee chat replaces paper notes, or chits, between delegates.
• Feedback. Statistics and the full history of the debate show who spoke, when and in which caucus. As chair, you can rate and comment on each speech, so your feedback starts from facts.

Short activities keep meetings lively between conferences, and each practises one skill a conference needs.

After the 12-week plan, give each student a country on the next conference's topic, or one the club picks. Then mix one or two of these activities into each meeting.

Give students real jobs from the first term, and decide how they get them before anyone asks.

Pass on more of the work each term, so that by the end of the year students plan and run most meetings while you supervise. In a small club, one student can hold two jobs.

• Club lead. Runs the meetings and speaks for the club in school. Some clubs call this role Secretary-General.
• Head delegate. Leads the group at conferences with you, and passes on news from the organizers.
• Training lead. Plans each week's activity with you, and pairs every new member with an experienced one from the second term.
• Secretary. Keeps the member list and the club file, and posts a reminder in the club channel before each meeting.
• Treasurer. Tracks the money the club raises and spends, and brings every payment to you for approval.

Choosing who does what

Decide how students get each job before anyone asks, and tell the whole club. In the first term, ask for volunteers by week 6, and let the club lead run week 12 with you. After that, hold an election each year, and give every job an end date and a handover.

Keep four jobs for yourself: keeping students safe, approving every payment, approving every conference registration and speaking with parents.

Model UN club charter template

By week 6, write a short charter with your students: what the club is for, when it meets and how students get each job. Add the ground rules for debate you agree together. If your school asks clubs for a constitution, the charter is your first draft.

Weekly meetings cost almost nothing, so plan the money around conferences and keep the club free to join.

The weekly meetings need only a room. A trip adds the conference fee and travel, plus a hotel if the group stays overnight. These are the usual ways to pay for it:

• School funds. Ask whether your school has a budget for clubs or trips.
• Club events. Hold an event that raises money and shows off the club, such as a world affairs quiz. Check your school's rules on selling tickets or food first.
• Requests. Email parents and local businesses, saying what the money pays for.
• Local groups. Ask local United Nations associations and foundations whether they sponsor students.
• Conference aid. Some conferences offer financial aid, with their own deadlines.

Keep the club free to join, and tell families what help exists before they decide on a trip. Where a conference takes payments on mymun, you can pay for the whole group in one checkout, or let each student pay their own fee.

Pick a one-day conference near you for the second term, register early and prepare with the session plans.

1. 1Find a conference. Start with a one-day conference near you, and check what to look for first. The high school conferences on mymun show dates, locations and fees, and the list can show only those taking delegate applications.
2. 2Watch the dates. Each conference page shows when applications open and close. Follow a conference you like, and you get a notice when its applications open.
3. 3Register your group as soon as applications open. The page for teachers shows how a school delegation registers on mymun, and the trip checklist runs from approval to the debrief.
4. 4Prepare. Eight weeks before the conference, switch from club activities to the session plans. A club that has run the 12-week plan can keep sessions 1 to 3 short.
5. 5Brief your students. A week before, send them the guide to their first MUN conference.

If more members want to go than there are places, choose by the criteria you published. Members who do not go keep coming to meetings, and can chair the full mock session.

Bring in new members each year, and give every role, yours included, a successor before its holder leaves.

Recruit every year, and visit the youngest classes too, so the club does not end when one year of students leaves. Run weeks 1 to 4 again for new members, with experienced members as chairs. After each conference, share what students did with the whole school.

Handing the club on

• Keep a club file. In your school's own storage, not a personal account, keep the charter, the member list, the term plans, conference contacts and the budget. Store completed consent and medical forms where your school's rules say.
• Pair leaders with successors. In their last term, each student leader runs meetings with the student who takes over.
• Bring in a second teacher. Ask a colleague to join one meeting a month, so someone else knows the club if you leave.

Hosting your own conference

Once the club has been to two or three conferences, it can host a one-day intra-school MUN for its own students. Members chair two or three committees, and later you can invite nearby schools. You can list it on mymun for free and plan it step by step.