How to Start a Model United Nations Club at Your School or University

Most new clubs collapse before their first conference because the organisers recruit members before they have a circuit, a faculty advisor, or a budget. Reverse that order. Secure a faculty advisor who understands their role. Confirm a circuit to compete on. Build a first-year budget that covers at least one conference. Everything else, recruitment, training, a constitution, follows from those decisions. If you are starting a club at your school or university, get the advisor first, then pick your circuit, then build the budget. Anything else wastes time.

Pick Your Circuit Before You Recruit

The first decision is which circuit the club will compete on. School-level and university-level circuits have different registration models, conference seasons, and expected delegate competence. School-level conferences such as THIMUN The Hague or HMUN Boston require school delegation registration only. No individual registrations are accepted. University-level conferences such as NMUN New York or WorldMUN also require school delegations but often accept smaller minimum delegation sizes. The season in the northern hemisphere runs from October through April. The highest concentration of major events falls between January and March. A club that starts in September and aims to attend a February conference has roughly sixteen weeks to train. A club that starts in January and targets an April conference has twelve. Plan your first year around the academic calendar and the season, not around enthusiasm.

The faculty advisor is the single most important person in the club's first year. The most common failure mode is advisor overreach. The dossier distinguishes clearly between the advisor and the head delegate. The advisor is the adult staff member who supervises the delegation, handles travel logistics, and enforces safeguarding ratios. The head delegate is the student who leads training, selects participants for committees, and directs strategy at conferences. If the advisor writes position papers, directs in-committee strategy, or selects which students speak during caucuses, the awards reflect the advisor's work, not the students'. This produces a delegation that cannot function without the advisor present and fails when the advisor is absent.

Before the first conference, define the advisor's involvement in writing. The advisor handles budget, travel logistics, conference registration, and school permission forms. The head delegate handles training curriculum, committee assignments, and conference strategy. The advisor does not attend committee sessions. The advisor does not enter the committee room during debate. The advisor's role is to make the conference possible, not to make the delegation win. If the advisor cannot accept that boundary, the club will produce hollow awards and burned-out participants.

You need a faculty advisor who has time, not one who has MUN experience. A teacher who has never seen a Model UN committee but can commit one hour per week to club meetings and one weekend per conference is more valuable than a former participant who is overcommitted and cancels meetings. The advisor's job is administrative, not instructional. The head delegate runs the training.

Look for a teacher in a department with flexible travel budgets. Social studies, history, or student activities offices often have discretionary funds. Avoid advisors who want to rewrite the club's strategy or who insist on attending every committee session. Ask directly: 'Will you write position papers for students?' If the answer is yes, find another advisor. The 2024 THIMUN Foundation policy states that advisors are observers, not participants. Enforcement of non-interference rules is inconsistent across conferences. A clear written agreement between advisor and head delegate prevents the advisor overreach failure mode before it starts.

Recruit for interest in debate and procedure, not for interest in international relations. Most first-time participants join because they want to argue and win, not because they care about the UN system. The thing newcomers most often get wrong is treating MUN as a test of geopolitical knowledge when it is primarily a test of procedure, public speaking, and coalition-building under artificial time pressure. Your recruitment pitch should say that explicitly.

Run a Mock Committee in Week One

Run one open meeting in the first two weeks of the academic term. Demonstrate a mock committee session using Harvard procedure. It is more dynamic and easier to follow than THIMUN procedure for beginners. Show a five-minute moderated caucus on a simple topic such as 'what the school's cafeteria should serve for lunch.' Let attendees vote on a resolution. After the mock, explain that this is what every committee session feels like, and that the club will teach the rules over the first six weeks. Collect email addresses. Do not ask for a commitment at the first meeting.

Filter for Commitment at the Second Meeting

The second meeting is where you explain the conference fee structure and the training commitment. At that point, roughly half the attendees will drop out. That is normal and preferable to taking unprepared participants to a conference.

Minimum viable club size for the first year is six students. That meets the THIMUN minimum of four and allows for two double delegations, the standard format at THIMUN events. For Harvard-style conferences such as HMUN or Yale MUN, two students is sufficient, but six gives you coverage across multiple committees and reduces the risk of a single person's illness cancelling the entire trip.

This timeline maps to the academic calendar and the northern hemisphere season. Adjust start dates if your school runs on a different schedule.

Month	Action	Detail
September Week 1	Secure faculty advisor and register club with school	Submit constitution, advisor name, and minimum member list to student activities office
September Week 2	Recruit members via open meeting and mock committee	Use Harvard procedure for the mock; collect emails; do not ask for fees yet
September Week 3	Select circuit and target conference	Decide school-level or university-level; check conference registration opening dates
September Week 4	Begin training curriculum	First two weeks: procedure drills on THIMUN or Harvard rules depending on circuit choice
October	Conference registration opens for most spring conferences	Register early; priority registration often closes by November for February conferences
October–November	Training: position paper workshop, resolution drafting, caucus practice	Each session covers one skill; run mock committees every two weeks
December	Submit position papers for target conference	Deadline is typically 2–4 weeks before the conference; submit early to avoid disqualification from awards
January	Travel logistics: book transport and accommodation	Confirm advisor-to-delegate ratio meets school safeguarding requirements; book group rates
February	Attend first conference	Debrief after the conference; note what went wrong and revise training for next year
March–April	Optional second conference or intra-school competition	Build experience for second-year delegates who will train next year's cohort

School-level events such as THIMUN The Hague, HMUN Boston, and Yale MUN are for participants aged 14-19. They use either THIMUN procedure or Harvard procedure, and they expect first-timers to arrive knowing the rules. University-level events such as NMUN New York, WorldMUN, and London International MUN are for undergraduate and graduate students. They assume higher baseline competence in procedure, public speaking, and resolution drafting. A first-year club with no experienced members should target a school-level conference. Sending a raw delegation to a university-level event results in procedural freeze: students who cannot advance their objectives during debate and spend hours silent.

THIMUN vs Harvard: The Procedural Divide

The distinction between THIMUN and Harvard procedural families is the fundamental divide in how MUN is practised globally. THIMUN procedure, first used in 1968 in The Hague, uses a lobbying phase where participants merge resolutions before formal debate. The committee votes on a single consensus document. There are no motions for moderated or unmoderated caucus. Harvard procedure, originating from HNMUN founded in 1955, uses a General Speakers List with motions for moderated and unmoderated caucus, multiple competing resolutions, and frequent amendments. Choose based on what your students can learn in the time available. Harvard procedure is more intuitive for beginners because it mirrors parliamentary debate. THIMUN procedure requires students to negotiate mergers, a harder skill to teach in six weeks.

Registration fees for school-level conferences range from roughly $50 to $150 per person, depending on the event and year. University-level conferences range from $100 to $300 per person. These figures are from the 2024-2025 cycle and change annually. The THIMUN Foundation publishes the current fee on their registration page. HMUN publishes its fee schedule on the HNMUN conference materials page. Do not rely on a single source; verify against the event's own website for the year you are attending.

Travel, Accommodation, and Safeguarding

Beyond the registration fee, budget for travel, accommodation, and meals. A school delegation of six students plus one advisor attending a conference in a different city should budget for group transport, shared accommodation, and a per-person meal allowance. The safeguarding ratio for school-level events in the UK and US requires one adult per ten students, but some schools impose stricter ratios. Check your school's policy before booking. If the conference is in a different country, add visa application fees and passport renewal costs. A realistic first-year budget for a six-person delegation attending a domestic school-level conference is $2,000 to $4,000 total, depending on distance and accommodation costs. For an international conference, multiply by two.

The first-year training curriculum must cover four skills: rules of procedure, position paper writing, resolution drafting, and caucus negotiation. Do not teach all four in the first session. Sequence them across six weekly meetings.

Week 1: Rules of Procedure

Teach the motion structure for the procedural family you chose. For Harvard procedure, cover the motions to set the agenda, open the speakers list, and call for moderated and unmoderated caucus. Run a drill where each student must make one correct motion in under thirty seconds. For THIMUN procedure, cover the lobbying phase structure and the clause submission process. The THIMUN Rules of Procedure, latest revision 2017, is the governing document. The HNMUN Rules of Procedure is published annually for each edition. Both are available on their respective foundation websites.

Week 2: Position Paper Workshop

Each student writes a one-page position paper on a simple topic such as climate adaptation. The paper must state the assigned country's specific policy, not summarise the topic. The standard length is one to two pages single-spaced. At HNMUN and NMUN, position papers are required for award eligibility. THIMUN does not require them. Teach the format: committee topic background, national position, past actions, proposed solutions. Submit the paper for feedback within the session.

Week 3: Resolution Drafting

Teach the structure of a working paper and a draft resolution. For Harvard procedure, explain sponsors, signatories, and the voting process. For THIMUN procedure, explain the single-submitter clause system and the amendment types, friendly and unfriendly. Run a mock where students draft a three-clause resolution in thirty minutes.

Weeks 4-6: Mock Committees and Caucus Practice

Run a full mock committee session each week. The first mock should last one hour. The second should last two hours. The third should simulate a full committee session with an unmoderated caucus period. Use the same topic for all three mocks so students can see their progression. After each mock, debrief on what went wrong. The most common failure in the first mock is procedural freeze. The second is bloc isolation: students who do not join a negotiating group during unmoderated caucus and end up excluded from resolution authorship.

A school-level event runs three days, Friday through Sunday. The first day includes a plenary session and the first committee session. The second day has two committee sessions and a social event. The third day has a final committee session and closing ceremonies where awards are announced. University-level events run four days, Wednesday through Saturday, with longer committee sessions and more complex crisis elements.

Set the Right Goal for the First Outing

At the first conference, expect your students to be slower than experienced participants. They will miss procedural opportunities. They will forget to submit position papers on time. They will get lost in the venue. This is normal. The goal of the first conference is not to win awards. The goal is to complete all committee sessions without a procedural freeze, to submit at least one resolution that passes, and to return with a list of what to improve for the next conference. If any student receives a verbal commendation or honourable mention, that is a bonus, not a target.

How Awards Really Work

The awards policy at most school-level events is competitive. THIMUN does not issue individual awards. It is the major exception. At Harvard-style conferences such as HMUN, Yale MUN, and Georgetown NAIMUN, awards are given for best, outstanding, and honourable mention. The stated criteria include diplomacy, negotiation, speaking ability, and resolution contribution, but in practice awards heavily weight floor presence and chair rapport. Coach your students to prioritise speaking time over research quality. That is the honest advice from experienced participants across the circuit.

• Advisor overreach: The advisor writes position papers or directs in-committee strategy. Result: awards reflect the advisor's work, not the students', and the delegation cannot function without the advisor present.
• Conference selection mismatch: Sending first-time participants to a university-level event where the expected competence is higher than their training. Result: procedural freeze and demoralised students who do not return.
• No post-conference debrief: Returning from the first conference and not analysing what went wrong. Result: the same mistakes repeat at the second conference, and the club loses members who see no improvement.
• Over-recruitment: Accepting every interested student without a commitment requirement. Result: a large club where half the members never attend a conference, draining training resources from the committed minority.
• Budget underestimation: Not accounting for travel, accommodation, meals, visa fees, and safeguarding ratio requirements. Result: last-minute fundraising or cancellation of the conference trip.

New clubs recruit members before they have a faculty advisor and a circuit. They run a recruitment event, collect fifty email addresses, and then find that no teacher is willing to advise the club, or that the only conference available in their region uses a procedure family they have not trained for. By the time the advisor is secured, the conference registration deadline has passed. The club spends a year meeting weekly with no conference to attend. By the next year, most members have quit.

Secure the faculty advisor first. Then pick the circuit. Then recruit members who know what they are signing up for. That order is the difference between a club that attends its first conference and one that never gets past the second meeting.