How to build a MUN committee lineup and country matrix

Five steps take you from a number of delegates to a full matrix, and a published rule makes every seat feel fair.

Start once you know how many delegates you expect: your timeline puts the matrix four months out. The steps:

1. 1Pick your committees. Choose a lineup that fits your size, mostly real UN bodies, with rooms for the levels your delegates bring.
2. 2Size each room. Seat few enough that every delegate speaks more than once a session.
3. 3Give each room a topic. Pick topics that give every country a stake.
4. 4Seat the countries. Fill each committee with the countries the topic needs and every region, in one table.
5. 5Allocate fairly. Publish your rule, then match delegates to seats from their preferences.

Then bring the matrix into your conference on mymun and assign every seat from there.

Plan one committee for about every 20 delegates, and let only General Assembly rooms grow much larger.

Start from the delegates you expect, not a wish list of committees. Plan 5 to 10% more seats than delegates, and mix levels, so first-timers have rooms of their own.

• About 50 delegates. Two or three committees, mostly for beginners.
• About 100. Five committees of 21 or 22.
• About 200. Eight to ten committees, which leaves room for a Security Council and a crisis room.
• 400 or more. Fifteen or more, including General Assembly rooms of 50 or more.

Three sample lineups

A one-day school conference expecting 45 delegates, most at their first conference:

• Beginner, 33 seats: WHO 17, UNEP 16.
• Intermediate, 16 seats: Human Rights Council 16, for students who have done Model UN before.

That is 49 seats in three rooms. If 15 of your delegates have been to a conference before, run a Security Council in place of the Human Rights Council.

A two-day school conference expecting 150 delegates, most at their first or second conference:

• Beginner, 73 seats: WHO 26, UNEP 24, UNICEF 23.
• Intermediate, 70 seats: Human Rights Council 24, ECOSOC 22, DISEC 24.
• Advanced, 15 seats: the Security Council at its real size.

That is 158 seats in seven committees. If more apply, add a few double delegations; if fewer, close the least requested seats and keep the Security Council whole.

A three-day university conference expecting 400 delegates:

• General Assembly, 150 seats: DISEC, SOCHUM and ECOFIN, beginner to intermediate, 50 delegates each: 40 countries with 10 doubles.
• Beginner, 90 seats: WHO 30, UNEP 30, UNESCO 30.
• Intermediate, 90 seats: ECOSOC 30, Human Rights Council 30, UNHCR 30.
• Advanced, 34 seats: Security Council 15, and the International Court of Justice 19: 15 judges and two advocates for each side.
• Crisis, 50 seats: a historical cabinet of 18 and a joint crisis of two cabinets of 16.
• Press, 14 seats: one press corps.

That is 428 seats in 15 committees, and only the General Assembly rooms pass 30. If numbers fall short, turn the 30 double delegations into single seats: you lose 30 places and no country.

The committees delegates know best

The Security Council, the Human Rights Council, WHO, DISEC and crisis committees are the rooms delegates look for. Browse every committee for its topics and the countries other conferences seat.

Size each room so debate has sides, and nobody waits all day to speak.

Seat 15 to 30 delegates in most committees: enough for two or three blocs, and few enough that each speaks more than once a session.

Below about 12, debate turns into a conversation between a few countries. Above about 40, the real work moves into the unmoderated caucus, which suits a General Assembly room and tires a specialized committee.

Beginner, intermediate and advanced rooms

Label each committee beginner, intermediate or advanced by its pace and by how much a delegate must know on day one. WHO, UNEP, UNESCO and UNICEF make good beginner rooms; the Security Council, courts, crisis and historical committees suit experienced delegates.

The veto makes the Security Council an advanced room: one permanent member can block a resolution. Show each level on your conference page, so delegates pick a room they will enjoy.

Double delegations

A double delegation seats two delegates for one country, with one placard and one vote. Use them in large General Assembly rooms, where one partner speaks while the other works the caucus. Elsewhere, a few doubles pair a first-timer with someone experienced.

Plan seats in people, not countries: 40 countries with 10 doubles seat 50 delegates. Let both partners speak, and have them agree on their one vote.

Real UN bodies teach the most, historical and fictional rooms bring the most energy, and a mix gives you both.

Real UN bodies are the core of a lineup. The favourite extra is a historical committee or a fictional crisis, such as a cabinet in an invented country. Each gives delegates something different:

• For real bodies. Delegates research real positions and UN documents, beginners find sources easily, and the skills carry into school and university.
• For historical and fictional rooms. A historical cabinet rewards research into a real moment, and an invented world rewards quick thinking, because nobody knows it in advance. A good crisis draws experienced delegates to your conference.
• In between. Keep most rooms real, and add one historical or fictional room for experienced delegates.

For a first conference, keep to real bodies. Add one crisis room when you have experienced delegates and a backroom team to write the updates. The case for fictional crisis committees shows what an invented world adds.

Let chairs propose topics, and keep the ones that pass five questions.

Use one topic per committee for one or two days, and two for three days or more. Let chairs propose them, each with a short paragraph on why it works, and check every one against five questions:

1. 1Is it this committee's job? Disarmament belongs in DISEC and health in WHO. Each of the General Assembly's six main committees has its own field.
2. 2Does every country have a position to find? If only three countries care, the rest of the room stays silent.
3. 3Can a resolution do something? “Climate change” is too wide. “Financing early warning systems in small island states” gives delegates something to write.
4. 4Can a beginner find sources? Beginner rooms need recent UN reports and clear blocs; advanced rooms can take a live issue.
5. 5Does it suit your delegates' age? Younger delegates do best with topics they can picture, such as clean water or school access.

Give each room its own topic, and open a committee page, such as the Human Rights Council's, to see what others debate.

Seat the countries the topic depends on, balance the regions, then add small states that give each bloc a voice.

Fill each committee in this order, with its topic in front of you:

1. 1Real members first. Start from a body's fixed membership: the Security Council seats its five permanent members and the ten elected for your debate's year.
2. 2The countries the topic depends on. The permanent members in most security debates, and the states the topic is about, such as the largest emitters in a climate debate.
3. 3Every region. Fill the rest from each UN regional group, using the table below and the list of UN Member States.
4. 4Small states. Add a few small island developing states or least developed countries. They give a quieter delegate a clear position to defend.
5. 5Every bloc. Name the blocs you expect. If one side has a single country, give it a partner.

The popular powers push the Western European and other group a seat or two over its number. Take those seats from the largest groups, and keep every group within two seats of the table.

Seats that are not countries

In a national body such as the Lok Sabha or AIPPM, each seat is a person, such as an MP or a party leader. List each with their party and state, so delegates know whose side they argue.

A press corps holds journalists, not countries: give each an outlet and committees to cover. A crisis cabinet holds characters, each with one line on their powers, and works best at 12 to 18.

The UN has two non-member observer states: the Holy See and the State of Palestine. Let an observer speak and vote on procedure, but not on resolutions.

One row per country, one column per committee: fill it in, count every column, then add it to your conference.

Write 1 for a seat and 2 for a double delegation, and leave the cell blank where a country has no seat. Add a column for each committee, then check that all five regional groups sit in every country room.

In each committee's description, add a line on why its less requested countries matter, such as a small island state that leads a climate debate. That one line turns a quiet seat into a first choice.

Assign most seats as you accept delegates, and decide the few sought-after ones together on a date you publish.

Publish how you allocate before the first application arrives: what you weigh, in which order and how you break ties. Delegates accept a seat they did not ask for when they can see the rule that gave it. Adapt this one:

At in-person conferences on mymun, about seven in ten assigned delegates get their first committee, but only four in ten their exact seat. So place the committee first, and ask for at least three choices.

Matching experience to the seat

A few seats carry the debate, such as a permanent seat on the Security Council or the country a crisis is about. Who gets them follows the order of your rule. That order is your choice: experience first puts strong delegates in the hardest seats, and application date first rewards early applicants.

Schools and delegations

If you take school delegations and individual delegates, use the same rule for both. Give each delegation a share of the sought-after seats in proportion to its size.

The THIMUN model works differently: each school gets a country and sends one delegate to every committee that seats it. With a few visiting schools, give each one a block of countries, and let its teacher or head delegate place the students.

On mymun, delegation leaders do this themselves: you give the delegation its seats, and they place their members.

Late applicants and dropouts

Many delegates apply in the final month, so the seats you keep back fill fast. Keep a few sought-after ones among them, and assign them by the same rule when applications close.

• Dropouts. Refill a seat from your waitlist when the room needs it. An empty permanent seat changes a Security Council; an empty small state in a room of 30 does not.
• The final matrix. Settle it when applications close, about a week before, so operations can make the placards and chairs can study every country in their room.

A few powers draw most first choices, so spread them across rooms and give every quiet seat a reason to want it.

At in-person conferences on mymun, the five permanent members hold one country seat in eight, but draw a quarter of first choices. The United States and France are the most requested of all.

• Seat the popular countries widely. Put the permanent members, and Germany after them, in every committee where they belong.
• Make quiet seats attractive. Give each one its line on why it matters, and feature it when you post your committees.
• Watch demand. As applications arrive, and again after the conference, divide each country's first choices by its seats. Add seats where demand runs high, and close the ones nobody asks for.

Each committee page, such as the Human Rights Council's, shows the countries other conferences seat most and the ones delegates request most.

Your matrix carries every delegate from their application to their seat.

The matrix becomes part of your conference:

• Build it once. Upload the template as a spreadsheet, and every committee and country seat appears in your conference. Then give each committee a level, and add custom seats, such as crisis characters.
• Delegates choose from it. As they apply, they rank committees and countries, or committees only.
• Assign from one list. Each application shows the delegate's preferences and MUN CV, and the assignment email goes out when you confirm.

Once seats are set, run your committees in MUN Command, the best tool for running Model UN debate. Set up each committee with its countries, and invite its chairs. Then the speakers' list, motions and votes run on screen, blocs write drafts in the live document editor, and chairs rate each speech for awards.