How to Run a Model United Nations Conference or Committee

A first-time chair at a 60-person General Assembly called a vote on the agenda. Half the room had no idea what they were voting for. The other half thought the vote was about the speakers' list. The chair lost control in the first ten minutes, and the committee never recovered. That failure was not about knowledge of geopolitics. It was about not knowing which procedural family the conference used, and not having the chair training hours to recover.

The guides in this section give organisers and chairs a practical checklist with timings, not general advice. You are here because you need to do something specific: start a club from nothing, prepare to chair a committee, or write the pre-conference briefing document. Each guide names the procedure family it assumes. THIMUN and Harvard-style conferences require different chair preparation, different study guide depth, and different ratios of participants to chairs. If you are starting a club, the starting-a-club guide covers the registration model, faculty advisor requirements, and circuit integration from zero. If you are preparing to chair, the chairing guide covers chair training hours, rules of procedure, and how to handle a committee size cap that the secretariat will exceed. If you need to write the pre-conference document, the background guide writing guide covers the delegate pack structure, position paper expectations, and how to set the study guide depth for your committee's level.

Running a MUN conference is a logistics and training problem, not a diplomacy problem. Treat it as one.

• Primary Audience: Conference organisers, secretariat members, and committee chairs who need operational checklists, not general advice.
• Core Distinction: THIMUN procedure (consensus-based, single merged resolution, no voting on substantive issues) vs Harvard-style procedure (parliamentary motions, competing resolutions, majority voting).
• Critical Metric: Participant-to-chair ratio: lower is better. A ratio above 40:1 degrades speaking time and feedback quality regardless of chair skill.
• Most Common Failure: Treating MUN as a test of geopolitical knowledge when it is a test of procedure, public speaking, and coalition-building under time pressure.
• Fee Bands (Check Official Sources): School-level conferences and university-level conferences each publish their current fees on their own websites. Ranges shift annually; the conference website is the authority.

If you have never run a committee or organised a conference, the first decision is not about the agenda or the venue. It is about which procedural family your conference will use. That choice determines everything else: the chair training hours required, the delegate pack structure, the awards policy, and the participant-to-chair ratio you can sustain.

Starting A Club From Nothing

The starting-a-club guide walks you through the registration model for your school or university, the faculty advisor relationship, and how to integrate into the conference season. You will need to decide whether your delegation attends THIMUN-affiliated conferences or Harvard-style ones. That decision affects the chair training hours your club must develop internally, because THIMUN's lobbying phase and Harvard's caucus structure demand different preparation. The guide also covers the safeguarding requirements for school-level delegations, which differ by jurisdiction and affect how you recruit and supervise students.

Preparing To Chair A Committee

The chairing guide assumes you have been appointed by a secretariat and need to know what to do between appointment and the first gavel. It covers the rules of procedure for both families, how to manage a committee size cap that may be exceeded, and how to run a procedural freeze recovery. The guide also addresses the participant-to-chair ratio and what it means for your speaking time allocation. A chair with 40 participants and 10 hours of training will run a worse committee than a chair with 60 participants and 30 hours of training, and the guide explains why.

Writing The Background Guide

The background guide writing guide covers the study guide depth your committee needs, how to structure the delegate pack, and what the position paper expectations are. It distinguishes between the pre-conference preparation expectation for THIMUN committees (where lobbying time allocation is high and the resolution is a single merged document) and Harvard-style committees (where multiple resolutions and amendments require more detailed topic briefs). The guide also covers the visa requirements and data protection jurisdiction issues that affect which participants can attend your conference.

The difference between a conference that runs smoothly and one that produces a procedural freeze in every committee is planning. The MUN organiser guide in this section covers the full conference planning timeline, from venue selection to awards ceremony. It assumes you are building a conference from scratch or taking over an existing one.

Conference Budget And Fee Bands

Your conference budget determines every other decision. School-level and university-level conferences each operate within fee bands that shift annually. Check the conference website for the current rate; it is the only authoritative figure. Your budget must account for venue quality, which affects comfort but has no bearing on debate quality. A school classroom can host a good committee if the chair is trained. A convention centre will not save a poorly prepared secretariat.

Registration Model And Committee Size Cap

Decide whether your conference accepts school delegations only or allows individual registration. THIMUN The Hague and HMUN accept school delegations only. NMUN accepts university delegations only. Individual registration lowers the barrier to entry but changes the social dynamic in committee, because participants who arrive alone must find blocs without a school team. Set a committee size cap and enforce it. Real attendance often exceeds advertised caps due to last-minute registrations, and the experience degrades non-linearly beyond about 60 people in a General Assembly. The participant-to-chair ratio should not exceed 40:1 for a first-time chair. A well-trained chair can manage a larger room, but the ratio is a planning tool, not a judgment.

Awards Policy And Circuit Integration

Your awards policy defines what the conference values. Harvard-style conferences award Best Delegate, Outstanding Delegate, Honorable Mention, and Verbal Commendation per committee. THIMUN The Hague gives no individual awards; some THIMUN-affiliated conferences give delegation awards. NMUN awards Outstanding Position Paper, Outstanding Delegation, Distinguished Delegation, and Honorable Mention Delegation. If you want your conference to be taken seriously on the circuit, the awards policy must be transparent and the criteria must be followed in practice, not just published. The gap between stated criteria and actual outcomes is the most common source of dissatisfaction. Experienced participants know that floor presence and chair rapport weigh more than position paper quality, and your secretariat should be honest about that.

Chair Training Hours And Delegate Pack

Invest in chair training hours before the conference. A chair with 10 hours of training is a procedural liability. A chair with 30 hours is a competent procedural manager. The chair training should cover the rules of procedure, crisis update frequency if you run crisis committees, and how to handle a procedural freeze. The delegate pack must include the study guides, rules summaries, and committee assignments. Study guide depth varies from a topic summary to a substantive research brief. Deeper guides reduce research burden but can homogenise committee positions. The guide should state the position paper submission deadline and the expected length: one to two pages per topic for Harvard-style, one page per topic for THIMUN.

Safeguarding, Visa, And Data Protection

Child protection and safeguarding requirements for school-level conferences differ by host country. The UK, EU, and US have distinct regulatory frameworks that affect delegation travel and supervision ratios. Visa requirements for international conferences depend on the participant's nationality and the host country. The major jurisdictions affecting travel are the Schengen Area, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and China. Data protection jurisdiction matters: conferences in GDPR jurisdictions (EU/UK) must handle personal data differently from conferences in non-GDPR jurisdictions. Your secretariat must have a policy on each of these before registration opens.

The chairing guide in this section assumes you have been appointed to run a committee and need to know what to do between appointment and the first gavel. The guide covers both procedural families, because the preparation for a THIMUN committee is different from the preparation for a Harvard-style committee.

Rules Of Procedure: Know Which Family You Are In

If you are chairing a THIMUN committee, the committee will use lobbying-based resolution building. Participants merge their resolutions into a single document. There is no voting on substantive issues. The chair's job is to manage the lobbying phase, ensure everyone has speaking time, and guide the merger process. If you are chairing a Harvard-style committee, the committee will use parliamentary procedure with motions, moderated and unmoderated caucuses, and voting on resolutions and amendments. The chair's job is to manage the speakers' list, recognise speakers for motions, and enforce the rules of procedure. The core procedural difference: THIMUN produces a single consensus document, while Harvard-style produces multiple competing resolutions that are voted on.

Chair Training Hours And Participant-To-Chair Ratio

Before the conference, complete at least 20 hours of chair training. This training should cover the rules of procedure, how to handle a procedural freeze, how to manage a committee size cap that has been exceeded, and how to run a crisis committee if applicable. The participant-to-chair ratio matters: a ratio above 40:1 means you cannot give individual feedback to everyone. At a ratio of 60:1, you are managing the room, not mentoring the participants. Plan your speaking time allocation accordingly. In a Harvard-style committee, a moderated caucus with 30 seconds per speaker in a room of 50 people means 25 minutes of speaking time per hour of debate. The rest is unmoderated caucus.

Crisis Committee: Preparation And Execution

If you are chairing a crisis committee, the preparation is different. Crisis committees are unique to Harvard-style and similar conferences. Participants represent individuals with portfolio powers and issue directives in response to real-time scenario updates. The crisis update frequency matters: too few updates and the committee stagnates; too many without substantive content produces noise. Research the crisis arc you will run and prepare updates that advance the narrative. Participants who research the chair's likely narrative direction perform systematically better than those who treat it as purely reactive. The crisis directive volume should be manageable: process every directive and respond within the same session, or the committee loses engagement.

Position Paper Weight And Award Criteria

In Harvard-style committees, position papers count for a percentage of the award decision. The stated percentage and the chair's actual attention to papers often diverge. Be honest: if you skim papers the night before, say so. If you read every word, say so. The award criteria should be transparent. Speaking frequency and quality, negotiation and bloc leadership, resolution authorship, amendment strategy, and procedural knowledge are the real factors. In THIMUN committees, position papers are judged on research quality and policy specificity. The lobbying phase and merger process determine the outcome, not floor speaking alone.

The background guide writing guide in this section covers how to write the pre-conference briefing document. The quality of your study guide affects the delegate experience more than any other pre-conference document. A poor guide produces participants who rely on it as their only source, producing indistinguishable positions. A good guide provides substantive research that participants can build on.

Study Guide Depth: Topic Summary Or Research Brief

Decide the study guide depth before you write. A topic summary covers the basic issues and UN history. It suits novice participants who need orientation. A substantive research brief provides primary sources, policy debates, and unresolved questions. It suits experienced participants who will write competitive position papers. The depth should match the committee level. A General Assembly at a school-level conference needs a summary. A Security Council at a university-level conference needs a brief. The delegate pack should include the study guide, rules summaries, and committee assignments. State the position paper expectations clearly: one to two pages per topic for Harvard-style, one page per topic for THIMUN, with sections on topic background, past UN action, country policy, and proposed solutions.

Pre-Conference Preparation Expectation

State the hours of expected preparation in the delegate pack. A committee that expects 10 hours of preparation will produce different debate than one that expects 20 hours. The higher the expectation, the more substantive the debate, but the higher the dropout rate among less-committed participants. Set the expectation realistically based on your demographic. A school-level committee with novices should expect five to ten hours. A university-level committee with experienced participants can expect fifteen to twenty hours.

Position Paper Submission And Evaluation

Set a position paper submission deadline two to four weeks before the conference. At some conferences, missing the deadline disqualifies a participant from awards. The evaluation criteria at NMUN are analysis of the issue, country policy, proposed action, writing quality, and format compliance. In practice, chairs at large conferences skim papers the night before or during the first session. Papers are judged on formatting cues rather than substantive content. Be aware of this gap and decide whether your conference will enforce the published criteria or be honest about the real weight.

Attribute	THIMUN The Hague	HMUN (Harvard)	NMUN New York
Procedural Family	THIMUN (consensus-based, no voting on resolutions)	Harvard-style (parliamentary, motions, voting)	NMUN (modified parliamentary, voting on resolutions)
Level	Secondary school (ages 14–18)	Secondary school (ages 13–18)	University (undergraduate and graduate)
Admission	School delegations only	School delegations only	University delegations only
Committee Size (Typical)	30–80 per committee	30–60 per committee	40–100 per committee
Award Type	No individual awards; some delegation awards	Best Delegate, Outstanding, Honorable Mention, Verbal Commendation	Outstanding Position Paper, Outstanding Delegation, Distinguished Delegation, Honorable Mention Delegation
Position Paper Length	1 page per topic	1–2 pages per topic	1–2 pages per topic
Crisis Committees	Not standard	Common (historical, fictional cabinets)	No crisis element in standard committees
Fee Guidance	Check THIMUN website for current rate	Check HMUN website for current rate	Check NMUN website for current rate
Known For	Largest secondary-school MUN; non-adversarial debate	Competitive awards; crisis committees	Largest university-level MUN; diplomacy and cooperation

The conference season follows the academic calendar, with major events clustering in the northern hemisphere winter and spring. THIMUN The Hague runs in January. HMUN runs in February. NMUN New York runs in March and November. This rhythm is stable, but dates change annually. Verify the current year's dates from the conference website.

Circuit integration matters for participants building a competitive record across multiple events. A Best Delegate award at HMUN carries weight at other Harvard-style conferences. A delegation award at THIMUN The Hague is recognised across the THIMUN circuit. The two circuits rarely overlap, and anyone switching between them must learn a new procedural family. Your organiser guide should account for which circuit your conference belongs to and how your awards will be recognised by other conferences.

If you are a faculty advisor managing a school delegation, the conference season determines your travel and budget planning. Visa requirements for international conferences depend on the host country and the traveller's nationality. For a conference in the Schengen Area, travellers from outside the EU may need a visa application submitted three to six months before the conference. The same applies for conferences in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and China. Plan for these timelines. Safeguarding requirements for school-level conferences differ by jurisdiction, and your school's policies may require a specific supervision ratio for international travel.