Controlling the Room
A delegate comes to you with an inappropriate note sent to them from another delegate in the committee room
- Remind delegates that notes are a privilege, and should be used strictly for committee-related purposes
- If it continues to be an issue, suspend note passing for the session. If in future sessions, note passing isn't more appropriate, you can suspend it indefinitely
- Encourage delegates who feel uncomfortable or hurt to speak to you so you can support them
- If notes are discriminatory, egregious or a constant issue, escalate to the USG
Your committee is full of beginner delegates and seem unsure about how to open debate.
- Begin the first session by outlining RoP
- Encourage delegates to participate even if they're not sure they're doing things correctly
- Establish the goals of each session
- Smile upon motions
A delegate's nose is bleeding in committee
- Do NOT touch the delegate
- let your USG know
- excuse them to use the bathroom to clean-up
A delegate asks if they can use the bathroom during voting procedure
- Let them, lockdowns are symbolic at NHSMUN
Crisis: You keep getting directives that are inappropriate and go way out of the scope of your committee
- Remind delegates they can only use their portfolio powers and need to be realistic
- If it gets too inappropriate have a committee-wide conversation
- Escalate if needed
The committee next to you has complained that your room is too loud and it is distracting their moderated caucus
- Use an assertive tone and tell them to stop cross-talk
- Ask them to be mindful of the rooms around them
- Suspend notes
- If it gets worse escalate
You notice there are a couple delegates who have not spoken at all but they look like they want to talk and are nervous
- Give them reassurance
- Offer assistance with writing a speech
- Send then positive and encouraging note, and/or encourage them during unmods
The same five delegates in the front of the room raise their placard for every moderated caucus, and few delegates are getting involved otherwise
- When taking speakers, say that you would like to take speakers that haven’t spoken yet/spoken in the session
- Approach shy delegates and encourage them to speak
You are discussing Topic A, and delegates keep asking you when you'll move on to Topic B, even though it's only Committee Session 2.
- Let delegates know that you're making a concerted effort to get both topics discussed to some extent, but that the committee voted to prioritize Topic A, and that means that Topic A will not be rushed just to get to Topic B, and Topic B likely won't be discussed all the way through.
- Delegates often say this because they only prepped the other topic, so recommend that they read the BG in their breaks, and encourage them to speak to this topic even if they didn't prepare for it as much
Large Committees: Note passing is getting way too disruptive. Even with 4 pages, there is too much noise. People are complaining that they are not receiving notes in a timely manner and that they cannot hear the speeches.
- Suspend note passing for the remainder of the committee session
- If this is successful, continue to have note passing suspended
- Recommend an unmoderated caucus if they have urgent things to discuss
The committee is running behind schedule on working papers and you need them to submit them by the end of the committee session
- remind delegates we need working papers done at the end of session so that we can have them printed out for the next session
- Check in with blocs to see how much more time they need for unmoderated caucus work
-manage unmods closely and tell delegates to have WPs done by the end of the committee session
You notice that committee has been repeating the same, or similar, topics for the last 30 minutes
- Bring up the debate map and give suggestions for different topics they could discuss
- Smile upon motions that would debate specific topics
A delegate saying the solution to a problem is by bombing another country.
- Interrupt their speech and tell them to sit down
- Give the committee a reminder on what is respectful and our no tolerance policy
- Tell your USG
You just made an ROP mistake and had a delegate call you out
- Even if you're not sure, don't let the uncertainity show!
- Either apologize and correct the mistake or use god rule, and continue on doing it your way
Medium Committees: Delegates are making mistakes about the topic
- Feel free to pause committee to talk about the topics (you're experts, after all)
-Pull out the debate map and explain
You are running out of time and delegates are consistently motioning for lengthy mods/unmod, even though you need to meet the goals for the session
- Use god rule and rule some motions dilatory, explain why
- Smile upon preferred motions
- Remind delegates of the outcomes of the session
You notice that working papers are extremely similar while rooming in unmods.
- Suspend rules of debate after the unmod has elapsed and talk about the benefits of merging papers.
- Clarify that mergers are not necessary, but are a sign of actual negotiation and collaboration
- Remind delegates we will eventually have a maximum amount of draft resolutions we can have up for voting, and merging is easier in early stages of committee than towards the end of conference.
During an unmod, the delegates feel rushed and the blocs are copying and pasting their docs and calling it a merger
- Don’t force mergers! Encourage them! Tell the delegates you want to see negotiation and collaboration
- Establish what a good merger is
- They should not be copying and pasting, and should critically analyze what they want to retain, which clauses can be combined, etc.
You have finished all of topic B with an hour and a half remaining, and delegates want to do fun mun
- Tell delegates that NHSMUN does not do fun mun.
- Additionally, there is too much remaining time to only do off-task stuff, so you will begin discussing topic A
- If there is 10 minutes left or less, you can start winding down and doing school-friendly activities such as college hotseat
Small Committees: Paper flow in your committee is becoming overwhelming
- Make sure the co-chair is reading crisis updates/notes
- For Crisis: Have an organized system for notes, set directive cap, let delegates know not to submit additional crisis notes until their previous ones were responded to
- Pause note passing for a moment (God Rule!)
- Use informal voting procedure if needed (God Rule!)
In a heated debate during an unmod, one delegate shoves another.
- Do not panic!
- Have the staffer at the dais escalate to their USG
- Have whoever is roaming approach the two delegates to de-escalate the situation (DON'T TOUCH THE DELEGATES)
- Talk to the delegates to prevent them from further shoving before a USG can arrive
30 delegates have lined up for feedback at the end of committee and you have to submit wine lists
- Wine lists are the most important, so make sure to prioritize this!
- Talk to your committee early on to set the tone for committee feedback. We strongly recommend limiting this to a time limit and/or to specific sessions for your convenience. For example, don't give feedback during sessions before short meal breaks, and tell delegates that they can arrive earlier the next session and you can give them feedback
- Tell delegates that you will stay back for an extended period of time to give feedback for all who ask for it at the end of conference
- Tell delegates that you will prioritize delegates who haven't asked for feedback yet or (in large committees) that you will only be giving feedback once per delegate
Delegates are beginning to get rowdy half-way through voting procedure.
- Remind the committee that silence is necessary during voting procedure for the dais to read amendments, DRs, and to be able to count every vote, etc.
- Note that delegates had a break before voting and can still get water or leave the room for the bathroom if necessary.
- Roam
- Escalate if cross-talk continues
You have less than an hour before the end of the final committee session, and still need to vote on DRs, but dels are asking about amendments
- trick question! This is something that should not happen
- you will only be in this case if you mismanage committee or are not chairing effectively (USE THE CHEAT SHEET)
Large Committees: A specific corner of the room continues to play FIFA (EAFC?) on their phones and talk to each other during moderated caucus speeches
- One member of 3-person daises should always be roaming. 2-person daises should have the assistant chair begin roaming
- Roamers should stand next to the disruptive students and make it clear that they are noticing the disruption
- If it continues, roamer should speak to them about being quiet
- A committee wide announcement may also be helpful, emphasizing tech policy and respect towards other speeches
- Escalate if the behavior continues