Your first Model UN conference: the day, step by step

An opening ceremony, committee sessions with speeches and caucuses, then votes and awards on the last day.

Many conferences run over two or three days; the dates on the conference card tell you how long yours lasts. The first morning opens with a ceremony; then you go to your committee room, where you spend nearly all of the conference. The chairs, usually students a few years older than you, run the room from the front. The last day ends with votes on the draft resolutions and a closing ceremony, where many conferences hand out awards.

Between speeches, many conferences let delegates pass short notes to each other. A note such as “Can we meet at the next unmoderated caucus to work on clean-up funding?” sets up a meeting before everyone stands up. The UN's own Model UN pages explain the structure of the real UN and how its meetings run.

What “present” and “present and voting” mean, and which to give on your first day.

Each session opens with roll call. The chair reads out the countries in alphabetical order; when you hear yours, raise your placard and answer. At many conferences there are two possible answers:

• “Present” means you are in the room and keep the right to abstain when the committee votes on drafts and amendments.
• “Present and voting” means you will vote yes or no on every draft and give up abstaining for the session. At most conferences that use it, you cannot take it back.

Not every conference uses the second answer; your rules of procedure say whether yours does. The rules of procedure guide follows the session on from roll call, with what to say at each step.

Get on the list early and give a one-minute speech with one clear proposal.

After roll call, the chair opens the speakers' list. Raise your placard as soon as it opens: the earlier you are on the list, the sooner you speak, while the room is still listening.

Many conferences give you one minute on the speakers' list; some give two. Write to your conference's limit, read the speech aloud against a timer and cut it until it fits.

1. 1Open with one fact that shows why the topic matters, not with a list of greetings.
2. 2State your country's position in one sentence.
3. 3Propose one concrete idea the committee could write into a resolution.
4. 4End with an invitation: which countries you want to work with, and when.

The UN's advice to delegates is to introduce one idea at a time and to ask, before every statement, what you want it to achieve. So build each speech around one proposal.

Keep your placard up, keep writing, and ask a delegate to yield their time to you.

In a large committee the chair cannot call everyone in every round. Keep your placard up and keep taking notes: the dais notices who keeps trying.

Use the wait. Add your name to the speakers' list for the next round, and when a delegate on the list will not use all their time, ask them in a note to yield it to you.

If you have nothing new to say, stay seated. A speech that repeats the last three uses up your turn and adds nothing. Most of a resolution is written in the unmoderated caucus, not at the microphone, so a delegate who speaks once and drafts well often achieves more than one who speaks every round.

Walk to the countries you share interests with, with one idea for a clause ready.

When the committee votes for an unmoderated caucus, formal debate stops and everyone leaves their seat for the length the motion set, which some rules cap at 20 minutes. Four habits help:

1. 1Know your bloc before you stand up. Look first for the countries that share your region or your interests in the topic.
2. 2Bring one idea for a clause, written as one sentence, so you add something instead of only agreeing.
3. 3Put your name on the paper you want to see debated: as a sponsor if you helped write it, as a signatory if you only want it debated.
4. 4Walk past the other tables before time runs out. Groups split and merge as the caucuses go on.

If a group ignores you, offer to do the work nobody wants: type the draft, check the clause numbers or collect signatories. At the keyboard, you propose the wording the group then edits. The resolution guide explains sponsors and signatories in full.

Ask the chair with a point of parliamentary inquiry; nobody expects you to know every rule.

Sooner or later a delegate says “Motion to divide the question”, and the room votes before you know what it means. Raise your placard and say “Point of parliamentary inquiry”: it asks the chair a question about the rules of procedure. A few conferences, NMUN among them, have no such point; there, ask the dais at the next break.

If you slip up yourself, by speaking out of turn or naming the wrong motion, the chair corrects you and debate carries on. The points and motions guide covers the ones you will hear most.

Split by approach, not into a speaker and a negotiator, and check in at every caucus.

In some committees two delegates represent one country, a double delegation. The point is not to halve the work but to bring two ways of doing diplomacy into the room.

Avoid the easy split where one of you only speaks and the other only negotiates: both of you should do both. Agree before each session who opens on which point, and meet at your seats at the start of every unmoderated caucus to compare what you heard. If your partner goes quiet, give them a job they can finish in one caucus, such as collecting signatories for your draft.

Check the age limit on the conference card and pick a committee marked Beginner.

Some high school conferences take students of 12 or 13. Age limits apply to your age on the conference's first day; each conference card shows its limit, and the application checks it.

If the conference labels its committees, pick one marked Beginner. At high school conferences on mymun, UNEP, UNICEF and SOCHUM most often are, and the Security Council rarely is. Before the conference, ask a teacher or an older club member to run a short mock session with you, one of you playing the chair, so you have answered roll call and given a speech once before the first morning.

Western business attire is the norm, and many conferences also welcome national and religious dress.

Most conferences expect Western business attire: a suit jacket, trousers or a skirt, a collared shirt and smart shoes. Many also welcome national and religious dress, and some ban caps and hats in committee.

If you do not own a suit, read your conference's dress code before you buy one: codes differ, and some accept a dress or a dress sweater in place of a jacket.

Pre-written clauses, plagiarism, AI and awards: each conference sets its own rules.

• Pre-written work. Some conferences ban resolution text written before the conference and can expel a delegate who submits it. Bring research, not drafted clauses.
• Plagiarism. Copying a sample resolution counts, and at some conferences so does reusing your own position paper from an earlier conference.
• AI tools. Some conferences ask you to say in your position paper whether and how you used AI; policies differ, so read yours before you write.
• Awards. Chairs look for delegates who persuade, compromise and draft, not only for those who speak most. Position papers and attendance often count too.

For the position paper itself, the UN's guidance for delegates asks you to open with your country's position, keep to a short policy statement per topic and avoid the first person. If your conference's guide does not answer one of these questions, ask the secretariat before the first day.