Ambassador Guide: Best Delegate Guide For Advanced Delegates
Ambassador Guide: Best Delegate Guide For Advanced Delegates
Ambassador Guide: Best Delegate Guide For Advanced Delegates
Contents
*Click on the tabs to go to each chapter directly
Public Speaking
Caucus Strategies 11
Holistic
Numerical
Negotiation
Taking Action
Member States
meeting to negotiate
policy
Member States
adopting or rejecting
resolutions,
conventions and
treaties.
Implementation
Member States,
the UN, and NGOs
implementing
Resolutions,
Conventions, and
Treaties.
Reporting and
Evaluation
UN Secretariat,
NGOs, and Member
States reporting
on the progress of
different programs
in implementing
solutions.
UN Precedent Sources
Speeches by the UN
and NGOs to the
General Assembly
Resolutions,
Conventions, and
Treaties
Reports of the
Secretary General,
NGOs, and ECOSOC
Government
attendance,
participation, key
events
Votes on Resolutions,
Signature/Ratification
status of Conventions
and Treaties
Government funding
or participating
in UN or NGO
implementation.
Government
domestic actions.
Branding Note
When youre thinking about what kind of research youre going to focus on, think about how
youre going to leverage it in committee. Do you want to come across as the well-researched
legal expert? Spend your time researching past resolution, treaties, and charters to cite in
speeches and resolutions. Want to be the inspirational reformer? Research potential solutions
that the UN hasnt tried yet. Are you going to be a combative delegate? Research speeches
and statements by leaders of other countries that you can bring as ammunition against them.
Topic Background
What is the definition of the topic? Try to get this from UN websites.
Where does the topic take place? Who is involved?
How many people does it affect? Where, and in what ways?
What are the different sub-issues associated with this topic that must be addressed?
What are the most important resolutions and treaties on this topic?
What have the UN and NGOs tried to do about this topic in the past?
Have any major UN Events happened recently? Are any happening soon?
Are there any reports on progress toward addressing this topic?
Country Policy
Possible Solutions
Tip
If youre going to be in a large GA, your Chairs may have over 200 Position Papers to read.
They cant spend more than a few minutes on each resolution. They will look for two main
things: (1) Did you follow the instructions about deadlines, length, formatting, etc., and (2)
Do you offer decent Possible Solutions to the issue? If the answer is no to either of these
questions, your Chairs could use this to disqualify your paper from research award contention
and save themselves the time of actually reviewing the entire paper.
Public Speaking
Public Speaking Structure
One of the easiest way to organize your speeches in Model UN, especially opening speeches,
is to use the following three-part formula:
1. Hook: An engaging way to grab your audiences attention, for example:
A engaging question
An interesting statistic about the issue
A quote from a recognizable international figure about the issue
An anecdote about an individual or community impacted by the issue
2. Point: Your country policy on the topic, and supporting arguments for this policy.
3. Call to Action: Your solutions to the topic that you plan to put into a resolution.
Sight
Eyes: Throughout your speech, you should be making eye contact with your audience. Choose a
few points in the audience and alternate between looking at them so your audience feels engaged.
Feet: If you move around the room too much, or if you rock back and forth, then you may be
distracting your audience. Keep still! You should only move when you need to step toward your
audience for emphasis on a specific point or direct your comments toward a specific section.
Hands: Make sure your hands arent distracting if theyre moving too much, its best to just keep
them at your side. If you want to go a bit more advanced, try either the Palm-Up gesture (First)
or the Fingertip Touch (Second). Never point at your audience (Third) and avoid the Palm-Down
gesture (Fourth).
Sound
Volume: You should be heard, and sound confident throughout the room! Pretend youre speaking to
the delegates in the back row can they hear you properly?
Speed: If you speak too quickly, youll sound like youre nervous to get the words out. While it may be
hard to change the pace that you actually say words, trying adding strategic pauses after sentences or
strong points in your speech. Count to two, and then continue.
Tone: If youre monotone, then you will sound boring to your audience. To create tone, you actually need
to feel some emotion about what youre saying. Basically- dont read it off a script!
Branding Note
Want to deliver your speech with some extra umph to sell your point? If youre angry,
try some of the more aggressive tactics listed above (finger pointing, angry tone, loud
voice). If youre calling for everybody to come together, focus on welcoming elements
of style (open palms, eye contact, slow speaking). Use these skills!
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Caucus Strategies
Moderated Caucus Strategy Framing Debate
Moderated Caucuses are designed to narrow the scope of debate in committee to discuss specific
components of the larger topic. This means two things: 1. Dont be that delegate that moves for a
moderated caucus to further debate- thats not a topic, and your Chair will often frown upon it,
and 2. You can use moderated caucuses to make the committee focus on the sub-topics relating most
directly to your resolution, or to avoid topics your country isnt willing to discuss.
Framing Debate
If youve researched properly, you should have a few solutions related to sub-topics of the issue before
your committee that you hope to champion throughout debate and brand as your solutions. There are
also likely a few sub-topics that you dont want to talk about, either due to lack of research/solutions or
because of the policy of your country. Use moderated caucuses to keep debate in the areas of the topic
that youre strong with, and present your solutions as the main solutions to these sub-issues. During
moderated caucuses, advanced delegates may do something like the following to frame the debate
in a way that is favorable to themselves.
Committee Topic: Climate Change
Moderated Caucus Topic: Desertification
Yemen: It seems like the committee is in agreement that Desertification and Climate
Change Related Natural Disasters are the most critical sub-issues of this topic for our
committee to address. Yemen would like to draw the committees attention to the working
paper Hot as a Sanaa which in detail addresses desertification and natural disasters, and
we encourage the entire committee to come on board with these solutions and commit any
additional ideas you have pertaining to these issues.
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Tip
Having a hard time finding a team? Feel free to engage the shy delegates toward the back of the
room- theyre usually the best team-players in the committee if you can make them feel welcome.
1. Bloc Discovery- During this stage, delegates are running around the room or standing on chairs
yelling to find other delegates for their bloc. However, a strong delegate has already networked before
committee and sent notes to delegates to form their bloc, and can quickly slip away to get to work.
2. Bloc Formation- While blocs are forming, your goal is to solidify your group and get to work.
This means that instead of fighting about differences, the team should start listing everything they can
agree on to plan clauses quickly so theres a document the group can be formed around, and a reason
to stay because theyve contributed their ideas and theyve been accepted by the group.
3. Bloc Management- Figure out what your personal main clause or two will be, and make sure
everybody in the group has a role to move the bloc forward. Some potential roles may include the
following, but roles can rotate throughout the conference:
Writer- The person who is literally writing or typing the resolution for your group.
Contributors- Individuals writing clauses and contributing ideas to the resolution.
Note-takers- Delegates who will go to other groups to see what theyre writing about, what
theyre not writing about (to take advantage of being the only resolution about certain topics),
and what groups could potentially be merged with.
Recruiters- Delegates who will travel around the room to find more contributors, more votes,
or encourage delegates who would otherwise oppose the resolution to abstain.
Defender- The delegate who will fend off any delegates that come to fight with your group,
to prevent the entire group from getting derailed.
4. Bloc Leadership- Here is where you assert yourself as the leader of the group. During debates
between members of the bloc, try to place yourself as the Chair or Mediator of these disputes to
demonstrate authority. Determine a name for your bloc (for example, the Africa bloc, or something more
creative related to the membership of your bloc) and resolution (can be a funny name or something
related to your solutions) to brand it, and then be the first person to openly mention these names in a
speech so the entire committee associates you with your bloc and your resolution.
5. Bloc Defense- Defend your resolution in formal debate, as well as making sure mergers are on your
terms rather than another blocs. During this phase you should actively pursue more votes for your
resolution, and get your resolution as much air-time in front of the committee as possible.
Tip
The Best Delegate brings out the best in other delegates. Dont be aggressive, dont
dominate your group, and dont roll over people. If your bloc likes you, the Chair will
see this and judge accordingly.
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Preambular Paragraphs
Theres actually a very specific structure to the preamble of any resolution. By following this structure
you not only make sure your resolution looks more professional, but it also gives you ideas on more
content you can include to beef up your resolution.
1. Your first preambular paragraph should refer to the UN Charter or specific articles within the Charter.
If you cant find something that works in the Charter, use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
2. Second, refer to past treaties, conventions, or UN resolutions (in that order). As you can see,
your preamble should open with listing the international precedent from most important to least.
3. Third, include general observations about the topic. This is what most MUN resolutions have in their
preamble, and this is where you can identify different sub-topics or share statistics about why this
resolution is important.
4. Lastly, refer to any Reports of the Secretary-General about the issue being discussed.
Operative Paragraphs
As you know, your operative paragraphs are what you use to take action and make recommendations
to Member States. However, the Operative Phrases that you use can make a huge difference in
the resolution keep this in mind while defending your resolution, but also in your critiques of other
resolutions.
1. In order from least strong to most strong common operative phrases, it would be Requests, then
Calls Upon, then Urges, and finally Demands if youre asking Member States to take action.
2. General Assembly resolutions would use Recommends or Invites to ask the Security Council or any
other UN bodies to do something.
3. The second time in a row you use an operative phrase, you should add an Also, for example Also
Requests. The third time, you add a Further, for example Further Requests
4. Your final Operative Paragraph should be a request to the Secretary General to deliver a report on the
issues and solutions included in your resolution if youre determining any UN actions.
If your resolutions require the UN to spend any money, you should talk about how to fund
it. Some examples are through Private Donations, Voluntary Contributions by Member
States (most common), or through the UN General Budget, to be approved by the GA Fifth
Committee. NGOs absolutely cannot fund your solutions. The World Bank can work to fund
solutions in specific Member States or regions, and the IMF can provide loans for countries
if there is an emergency financial situation. However, keep in mind that the UN cant tell either
of these organizations what to do, so these would just be recommendations or requests.
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Precedence of Motions
Precedence describes what motions will be voted on first when there are competing motions.
With most motions, precedence wont make a big difference you will rarely be trying to Open Debate,
Open the Speakers List, Close the Speakers List, or Adjourn while there are other motions to consider.
However, there are two key instances when precedence of motions matters.
1. A Motion to Close Debate will be voted upon before anything except for adjournment. This means
that if you want to move into Voting Procedure and other delegates want to keep discussing a topic,
your Motion to Close Debate will be voted on first!
2, Unmoderated Caucuses are voted on before Moderated Caucuses, and Moderated Caucuses
are voted on based on which motion is for the most time. So, a minute unmoderated will be voted
on before a 5-minute moderated, and an 11 minute moderated will be voted on before a 10 minute
moderated. This can be used to get your motion voted on first (usually the person that moved for a
moderated caucus gets to deliver the first speech).
Rights of Reply
At many conferences, if you feel that you have been personally attacked or your country has been
unfairly insulted in debate, you can send a note to the Dais to request a Right of Reply. A Right of
Reply enables you to deliver a speech on why your country is offended and why the statements are
inaccurate, and can be a great way to show off your speaking ability and procedural knowledge.
Quorum Check
If youre in a Security Council committee, and you want to try to trick your way into avoiding a veto by
a P5 nation, you can try to get the veto power youre worried about to leave the room and then move to
Close Debate. Nobody can enter the room during Voting, so theyll be unable to veto. Note: You cant
do this if they responded Present and Voting, because a vote can only take place with them present.
Motions to comment
If a delegate forgets to yield their time at the end of their speech, you can raise a motion to
comment, to deliver a remark on the speech that was just delivered, no matter where you are on
the Speakers List.
Types of Yields
Though you may be used to saying I yield my time to the Chair, you have two other options you can
yield to another delegate, or yield to questions. Try yielding to questions after you present an especially
innovative idea, or yielding to another delegate if you need somebody to back up your point and know
that theyre on board.
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Research
tinyurl.com/BD-MUNresearch MUN Made Easy: 15 Things Every Delegate Should Have in their Research Binder
tinyurl.com/BD-positionpapers A Formula for the Perfect Position Paper: Solution-Oriented Research
tinyurl.com/5miracostatips Mira Costas Secret to Success in Model UN: 5 Tips on Research and Preparation
Extras
tinyurl.com/bestcommitteeseats Location, Location, Location: How To Find The Best Seat In Your Committee
tinyurl.com/vetopower Room How to Veto the Power Delegate in your Resolution Bloc
tinyurl.com/howtowinbestdelegatepart7 How to Win Best Delegate: Framing
Other UN Resources
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