Advising a university Model UN team or society: your role, money, training and trips

The student board runs the society, and you hold the jobs only staff can do: signatures, approval, emergencies and the society's memory.

A university Model UN society is a student group that trains its members to debate as UN delegates and takes them to conferences. Its faculty advisor, also called staff contact or faculty coordinator, is the member of staff who supports it.

Many university teams run themselves: only about one university delegation in four on mymun lists a faculty advisor. So at your first meeting, agree with the board who decides what:

Your own part of the job covers six topics:

1. 1Your role with adults. Your university's rules, emergency contacts and the conduct rules you agree with the members.
2. 2Who travels. Help the board choose between a competitive team and an open society before anyone registers.
3. 3Conferences and money. Choosing and registering, paying for trips and how each conference marks delegates.
4. 4Training. Experienced members coach the first-timers, and the work can count for credit.
5. 5The society, year to year. You stay while the boards change.
6. 6The trip. The university travel checklist, from approval to the debrief.

Taking over from another advisor? Meet the board first, ask what it wants from you, and ask for the society's records.

Find out what your university needs for a trip, then agree contacts and conduct with the members themselves.

Most members are adults, so you agree arrangements with them, not with their parents. Your university's rules for student travel set the paperwork, so ask the office that approves trips what it needs. At some universities a student union or a dean of students approves society trips instead.

• Approval. Ask who may sign as the accompanying staff member, how long approval takes and what the office needs.
• Missed classes. Ask how members are excused, such as with duty leave, and send the names early. The conference can give certificates of attendance.
• Emergency contacts. Each member names a contact, who need not be a parent, and any medical needs they want you to know.
• Members under 18. Ask what your university needs for them, such as a parent's consent.
• Conduct. Agree the team's rules with the members, including alcohol, and point them to the conference's code of conduct.
• Free time. Members are adults, so agree how the group reaches each other and when it meets each day.

The trip guide's duty of care and its first steps when something goes wrong still apply. If you are the only staff member, name a student deputy who can lead the group if you must step away.

The board settles the society's model before anyone registers; your part is that its criteria are published first and applied the same way to everyone.

University Model UN runs on two ideas of what a team is for, and members often disagree:

• A competitive team. Tryouts pick the strongest delegates for conferences that give awards. Training is sharper and results can win funding, but beginners rarely travel.
• An open society. Everyone who trains can travel, so beginners and members who cannot pay much stay in. The society wins fewer awards, and some strong members may leave for a competitive team.
• In between. Everyone trains, and each trip has its own selection by criteria published first, with places kept for first-timers.

Board members may want a place themselves, so ask that members who are not candidates run each selection. Offer to hear appeals, and stay out of picking individuals.

The board agrees the model before the year starts and publishes it with the society's other rules. Some societies hold a small internal conference as the selection round. If the student union funds places, ask whether it requires a selection open to every member.

Ask societies that have attended, check the cost, dates and applications, and register the team as one delegation where the conference allows it.

Other societies tell you most about how a conference is run. Then help the board check these points on its page or by email:

• Who runs it. A university society, a student association or a company, what the fee covers and its refund rules.
• The committees. How large they are, and how experienced their chairs are.
• Applications. Whether it registers a society's delegation, takes students who apply on their own, or both, and how many members one university may bring.
• Cost and dates. The fee for each delegate and any delegation fee, and whether the dates clash with exams or a study break.
• Rules and marking. Whether it publishes its rules and award criteria. If not, ask the questions below.
• Level. Whether it is only for university students or also takes school students.

Plan a season, not single trips: a nearby conference for first-timers early in the year, then a larger or foreign one for experienced members. Browse the university conferences, or those in Europe and other continents. Each conference page shows when applications open, and following one brings a notice when they do.

Registering your team on mymun

On mymun, a society registers its team as one delegation. You can register it as faculty advisor, or a student leader can register it as head delegate, wherever the conference offers those roles. Decide who registers before applications open, for example the head delegate, with the treasurer paying from the society's account.

Members who apply on their own

Where a conference takes only individual applications, each member applies, and organizers see each applicant's MUN CV with the conferences they have attended. The list can show the conferences where students can apply on their own right now. The board sets an internal deadline and agrees who asks for which committee, so first-timers do not crowd into one room.

Members also go to conferences alone, outside any trip. Agree with the board when a member may use the university's name, who approves their leave, and whether their awards count for the society.

Price each trip in full, ask funders on their own calendars, and collect members' shares before the society pays anything.

Price a trip per member before anyone is promised a place: the conference fee, travel, rooms and meals. Abroad, add visas and travel insurance.

• Who pays. Societies often combine a grant from the student union, student government or department with a share from each member. Each funder takes requests on its own calendar, often months ahead.
• Members' shares. Collect each member's share, or a deposit, before the society pays the conference. Say when it stops being refundable, and who pays if a member drops out.
• Where the money sits. Society money stays in the society's or the university's account, run by its treasurer, not in yours.
• Members who cannot pay. Ask about your university's hardship fund and each conference's financial aid before you set the share. Some societies keep money aside for travel bursaries.
• Fees. Where a conference takes payments on mymun, each member can pay their own fee, or the society can pay for the group in one checkout.

Read everything the conference publishes, then ask about evidence, marking, chits, position papers and awards before members prepare.

Each conference sets its own rules and award criteria. Its procedure may follow the North American, THIMUN or UN4MUN tradition, or mix them, as the procedure traditions show. Many conferences in South Asia call the dais the Executive Board (EB), and each committee's EB may set some of its own rules.

With the head delegate, read every document the conference publishes, and look up the six rules, such as the rule on AI. Then ask the conference, or each committee's dais, what the documents leave open:

• Evidence. Which sources count as proof of a fact, and must a delegate show the source when asked? Many EBs accept UN and government sources but not Wikipedia.
• Marking. What does the dais mark: research, original arguments, participation, drafting, a consistent position, leadership? Ask for the criteria in writing, not general advice.
• Chits. Do chits, the notes delegates pass to the dais or to each other, count towards marks?
• Position papers. Does a delegate need one to win an award, and by when?
• Awards. Which awards exist, who decides them, and is there a delegation award? If there is, ask how it is judged before members choose committees.

When the answers arrive, read the criteria with your experienced members and offer to mark a practice session against them. Keep first-timers on their own goals. If a conference publishes nothing, practise with the judging rubric; each dais still judges in its own way.

Experienced members run the practice rooms and look after one committee each, with practice debates in MUN Command.

Your experienced members can teach what first-timers need. The session plans fit about 12 students, so a larger team runs two or three rooms at once, as in large groups. With 8 experienced members and 12 first-timers, two experienced members chair rooms of six first-timers, and the other six practise in a third.

• First-timers. They follow the session plans, with experienced members chairing in turn. For practice debates, use a campus question, such as whether the library should open all night.
• Experienced members. They practise harder skills: leading an unmoderated caucus, drafting a bloc's operative paragraphs, answering questions without notes and, in a crisis committee, writing directives.
• One committee each. Each experienced member looks after one committee. They brief its first-timers, check their research and read their drafts, and you read any paper a member sends you.
• Chairs. Experienced members can chair at other conferences. The list shows those taking chair applications, and becoming a chair shows how.
• Writers. Members who would rather write than speak can apply for the press corps, where the conference has one.

Practice debates in MUN Command

Run practice debates in MUN Command, the best tool for chairing a committee, and one that many conferences use. Anyone can set up a committee, and members join from their phones. It makes these easier:

• Debate. A live speakers' list and timers, motions in a queue, and roll call and votes in one tap.
• Drafts. Blocs write together in a live document editor, with no Google Docs or shared folders.
• Feedback. Statistics and the full history of the debate show who spoke, when and in which caucus. Chairs can rate and comment on each speech, so feedback starts from facts.
• At conferences. Where a conference runs it, you follow your countries across every committee, with each member's speeches and motions, and can export them for the debrief.

A course can grade the research, papers and reflection around a conference, while the society stays open to members who take no credit.

Model UN can run as a seminar, an independent study or credit for the travelling team. Ask your department which fits, and how early a new course needs approval.

• What students do. A research memo on their country, a position paper for each topic, practice debates and a written reflection after the conference.
• What you grade. Each piece on its own row of a rubric, as in the class unit's rubric. Never grade the awards, since each dais decides them its own way.
• Credit and the society. Keep training open to members who take no credit, and never make the course the only way onto a travelling team.

Agree with the board which training sessions count as class time, so nobody prepares twice.

The board changes every year, so you are the society's memory: keep its records safe, brief each new board and keep the society registered.

Many societies elect a board each year, such as a president, a head delegate, a training lead, a treasurer and a secretary. A society's constitution, registered with the student union or university, sets the elections and how money is spent.

• Roles. Adapt the club guide's student roles and charter template, with the treasurer paying from the society's account.
• Handover. Keep the society's records in university storage, not a personal account, and pair each leader with a successor, as in handing the club on.
• Recruiting. The board recruits at the start of every year, since this year's first-timers are the board in two years.
• Hosting. A conference the society hosts builds its name and can help fund later trips.

Meet each new board in its first month, and agree the split of who decides what again. Once a year, ask whether the society must register again, often with your signature.

What a university trip adds to the school checklist: approval, leave, money, visas, tickets and the trip's start and end.

Use this list with the trip checklist, and skip that list's points on parents and consent forms unless your university applies them to adults.

Months ahead

Once you are accepted

From the last week to the debrief