Delegate Guide: What is Model UN?

Everything a first-time delegate needs: what a Model United Nations actually is, how a committee runs from roll call to voting procedure, and how to prepare so that the room meets you where you are.

Model United Nations is a simulation of the deliberative bodies of the United Nations and other international, national and specialised forums. Each delegate is assigned a portfolio (usually a country, sometimes a political figure, a franchise owner or a team principal) and is expected to argue that portfolio's position, not their own.

A committee is given one or two agendas. Over three days, delegates debate the agenda under a formal set of rules, form negotiating blocs, draft written proposals, amend them, and finally vote. If a document passes, it becomes a resolution.

The point is not to win an argument. It is to build something a divided room can actually agree to.

The shape of a conference

Roll Call

Attendance & quorum

01Roll call: the chair establishes who is present and voting.
02Setting the agenda, where a committee has more than one.
03The General Speakers' List: opening statements of policy.
04Moderated and unmoderated caucus: the substance of debate.
05Working papers, draft resolutions and amendments.
06Voting procedure: the committee decides.

Roll call

The chair reads the roll. A delegate answers “present” or “present and voting”, the latter surrendering the right to abstain on substantive votes. Roll call establishes quorum, the minimum attendance needed for the committee to conduct business.

Setting the agenda

Where a committee carries two agendas, as the UNSC, DISEC and UNODC do at SHILPMUN 2026, the committee first debates and votes on which one to take up first.

The General Speakers' List

The default state of debate. Delegates who wish to speak raise their placard and are added to the list; each speaks for a set time on the agenda broadly. Time not used may be yielded: back to the chair, to questions, or to another delegate.

Moderated caucus

A delegate motions to suspend the speakers' list and debate one narrow sub-topic. The motion must specify a total duration, an individual speaking time and a purpose. It passes by simple majority, and the chair recognises speakers directly. This is where most of the sharp debate happens.

Unmoderated caucus

A suspension of the rules. Delegates leave their seats and negotiate freely. Blocs form here, language gets traded here, and most of the drafting happens here. The motion needs only a total duration.

Working papers & draft resolutions

Blocs turn their agreements into writing. A working paper is the rough proposal; once vetted by the Executive Board it becomes a draft resolution, formally introduced to the floor with named sponsors and signatories.

Amendments

Clauses get added, struck or rewritten. A friendly amendment is accepted by all sponsors and folded in automatically; an unfriendly amendment is debated and voted on separately.

Voting procedure

Debate closes and the committee votes on each draft resolution. Procedural votes cannot be abstained from; substantive votes can. In the Security Council, the five permanent members hold the veto: a single negative vote defeats the draft outright.

Points and motions are the formal language delegates use to speak to the chair. Points ask for something; motions propose that the committee do something.

Points

Point of Personal Privilege: Raised when a delegate's comfort impairs their ability to participate: they cannot hear the speaker, the room is too cold, they need to leave briefly. It is the only point that may interrupt a speaker.
Point of Order: Raised when the rules of procedure are being applied incorrectly. It addresses procedure, never the substance of what a delegate said.
Point of Parliamentary Enquiry: A question to the chair about the rules themselves: what is in order right now, what a motion requires. Never a question to another delegate.
Point of Information: A question put to a speaker who has yielded their time to questions. This is where a well-prepared delegate does real damage.

Motions

Motion to Open Debate: Formally begins the session after roll call.
Motion for a Moderated Caucus: Must state total time, speaking time and purpose. Example: “Motion for a ten-minute moderated caucus with a speaking time of forty-five seconds on the question of enforcement mechanisms.”
Motion for an Unmoderated Caucus: States only the total time. Used for bloc-building and drafting.
Motion to Introduce a Draft Resolution: Brings a vetted document formally to the floor for debate.
Motion to Move to Voting Procedure: Closes debate and puts the drafts before the committee. Usually requires a higher threshold than a simple majority.

Before the conference

Position Paper

A one- to two-page statement of your portfolio's stance on the agenda: the background as your country sees it, its past actions and voting record, and the solutions it will push for. Writing one is the single most effective preparation a delegate can do.

During debate

Working Paper

The first written form of a bloc's proposals. Informal in structure, circulated to test whether the room can live with the ideas before they are locked into resolution language.

The output

Draft Resolution

The formal document a committee votes on. Written as a single long sentence in two parts, with named sponsors (who authored it) and signatories (who want it debated, without necessarily supporting it).

Part one

Preambulatory Clauses

State the context: the treaties, past resolutions and facts the committee is acting on. They open with participles (Recalling, Noting with concern, Deeply disturbed, Bearing in mind) and end with a comma. They describe; they do not act.

Part two

Operative Clauses

State what the committee actually does. Numbered, opening with active verbs (Calls upon, Urges, Establishes, Requests, Decides) and ending with a semicolon (the last one with a full stop). This is where a resolution either has teeth or does not.

Delegate: A participant representing an assigned portfolio in a committee.
Portfolio: The country, individual or organisation a delegate represents. At SHILPMUN 2026 there are 357 of them.
Executive Board / Dais: The chairs and directors who run a committee: they moderate debate, rule on procedure, vet documents and mark delegates.
Secretariat: The team that organises the conference as a whole, headed by the Secretaries-General.
Placard: The card bearing a delegate's portfolio name, raised to be recognised by the chair.
Quorum: The minimum number of delegates who must be present for the committee to conduct business.
Decorum: The standard of conduct expected in committee. The chair calls for it when the room slips.
Bloc: A group of delegates with aligned interests who negotiate and draft together.
Yield: To surrender unused speaking time: to the chair, to questions, or to another delegate.
Sponsors & Signatories: Sponsors author a draft resolution and support it in full. Signatories want it brought to the floor and debated, but are free to vote against it.
Friendly / Unfriendly Amendment: A friendly amendment is accepted by every sponsor and incorporated automatically. An unfriendly amendment is debated and voted on separately.
Veto: The power held by the five permanent members of the Security Council. A single negative vote from a P5 member defeats a substantive draft.
Crisis Committee: A fast-moving format where the situation evolves during the session through crisis updates, and delegates respond in real time through directives rather than long resolutions.

Do not mistake inexperience for inadequacy. The best delegates we saw last year were not always the most practised; they were the most prepared.

The Secretaries-General, SHILPMUN 2026

Which committee should I pick?

Start with a Beginner+ room. At SHILPMUN 2026 that means DISEC, SOCHUM, IPLA or FIA. Large General Assembly committees like DISEC are forgiving of a first-timer: there is more room to find your feet. Small specialised rooms like the UNSC and G20 expect fluency from the first speech.

How do I research my portfolio?

Work outward in three layers. One: the agenda itself: the treaties, the history, the current state of play. Two: your portfolio's specific position: its statements, its voting record, its domestic constraints. Three: the room: who your natural allies are and who will oppose you, and why. The third layer is what separates a good delegate from a well-read one.

What should I actually say in my first speech?

Three things, briefly: what your country believes the problem is, why it believes that, and what it wants the committee to do about it. Do not try to cover the whole agenda; a narrow point argued well is worth more than a broad one asserted. And speak to the room, not at it.

What if I disagree with my own portfolio?

Represent it anyway. That is the exercise. Arguing a position you did not choose is how you learn why people who disagree with you hold the views they hold, and it is marked accordingly. Personal opinion in committee is the fastest way to lose credibility with the Executive Board.

What do I bring?

Your position paper and research in print or on a device, a notepad and pens for note-passing, your school ID, and the dress code for the day: Western Formals on days one and two, Smart Casuals on day three.

Are these the exact rules SHILPMUN uses?

This page describes standard Model UN procedure as a general grounding. The official Rules of Procedure for SHILPMUN 2026, including specific voting thresholds, speaking times, and any committee-specific variations for the Crisis Committee, IPLA and FIA, are published in the delegate handbook, released to registered delegates ahead of the conference. Where the two differ, the handbook governs.

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Inside A Committee