Delegate Working Sessions offer a fantastic new opportunity for students to become comfortable engaging in a committee session before getting to the actual conference. Through these “mock” sessions, they become comfortable with some of the important aspects of committee, and have the opportunity to practice their public speaking and negotiation skills. They are guided by MMUN bureau members who help them progress through the committee session process, pausing to explain what we are doing and why, each step of the way.

The delegates start out during each working session learning to speak before a group by giving short introductions about themselves, and later creating a mini-speech, if they so choose. This “warm-up” process allows students to practice developing their public speaking voices, making it a bit less scary each time they do it.

Discussing topics they know first-hand through life experience also allows them to practice coming up with solutions together. This experience will help them more easily think of solutions for their position papers when they are writing them in class soon afterward! Through this process, they also begin to develop a rapport with global peers that they might work with again during the conference.

Even though they might not be able to create a full resolution within the shorter time frame of the working session, delegates definitely begin to feel the general flow of a committee session and experience the difference between informal and formal consultations as they engage in both. Feeling comfortable to engage and understanding how to be heard are two important goals for these mini-sessions.

We have seen that the delegates develop a strong feel for MMUN’s new Rules of Procedure, as well, which emphasize consensus rather than motions or voting throughout every stage of working paper development. Understanding what consensus means and how it works is key to helping delegates be effective in committee.

Our new “Delegate Working Sessions” are not necessarily a full committee experience from debate to final resolution, but they certainly give students first-hand practice in a simulated session, so that they can develop the skills that will be helpful to them in their actual committee meetings during the conference event. No advance preparation is necessary for any of the three working sessions being offered, although we offer reading material that can be helpful for familiarizing students with the topics beforehand. We hope your students will be able to enrich their MMUN experience by signing up for one or all of the upcoming sessions this school year!

Upcoming Student Working Sessions:

Register now following this link 

Register now following this link