MUN Directors
1. Preparing the students
There are many ways in which to prepare the students for a Model United Nations Conference. The way in which the students are prepared at the European School Munich is as follows.
Once every week we meet with our students for an hour and a half. In the first meeting it is explained what a resolution is and the way in which a resolution is written. This includes an explanation of perambulatory and operative clauses and the opening phrases, which the students are allowed to use.
The second time the students get to practice a debate. The resolution, which they then work with, is a small and simple resolution on a topic they all know something about.
From then on, the students have to write resolutions themselves in groups. Two or three students are assigned to write a resolution. This resolution is then debated on during the next meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting each students get a self-made placard with the name of a country written on it. The student can use this placard during the debate to indicate to the chair that he or she wants to say something. The chair can either be an experienced MUN student, or a student can be picked from the group. One could allow a different student to be chair each week.
2. Plagiarism
Please inform your students well about plagiarism. One cannot simply take operative clauses from an existing resolution. If it is discovered that one or more operative clauses in a resolution have been copied from an existing (UN) resolution, the resolution will immediately be discarded.
Students can steer clear of plagiarism by reformulating and thereby enforcing existing operative clause.
3. The MUN-Director during the conference
During the conference various tasks have to be performed for which the accompanying teachers are required.
These tasks are amongst others:
- Approval Panel
During the lobbying stage many merged resolutions will have to be scanned for mistakes in both English and content by the Approval Panel. Only when a resolution has been approved, can it be passed on and debated on in its committee. - Screening notes
When the General Assembly is in session, the delegations can communicate with each other through notes. However, communication in the sense of "where shall we meet tonight" or "I like your shirt, do you want to have dinner with me" are not allowed. In order to prevent such notes from being passed on the sender, the MUN-Directors are asked to help screen the notes. A schedule will be made in advance of the conference to ensure that delegates' notes are scrutinised.