What will a typical day in a committee look like?
Each committee is led by a Chairperson who facilitates the discussion for the committee. The committee will start with the Chairperson taking roll call. Afterward, the committee will vote on which of the assigned topics to discuss first. After the topic is selected, the committee is ready to begin debate on the selected topic.
There are three debate formats. The default debate format is called the Speakers List. This where delegates take turns making speeches in front of the room by the order that they are listed on the Speakers List as selected by the Chair. Speeches are typically around 1 minute or 1 minute and 30 seconds, but the speaking time can be changed by a majority vote from the delegates.
After a certain number of speeches, the delegates may vote to change up the debate format to either Moderated Caucus or Unmoderated Caucus. Moderated Caucus is when the committee decides to focus on a sub-issue and get a back-and-forth debate going. Delegates will raise their placards to be called on to speak, and the Chairperson will call on speakers one-by-one until the Moderated Caucus time has expired.
Unmoderated Caucus is when delegates are free to get up out of their seats and roam around the room to work with other countries with similar policies. The first one or two unmoderated caucuses will be spent finding allies, but afterward most of the unmoderated caucuses are spent writing draft resolutions with your caucus bloc (your group of allies). All delegates are encouraged to be a sponsor — an author — of a draft resolution.
Committee will switch between Speakers List, Moderated Caucus, and Unmoderated Caucus until draft resolutions are complete, merged, and ready to be presented.
Resolutions will be presented either as they are ready or all at once near the end of the conference (sometimes this is called Formal Caucus). Some conferences allow a question-and-answer period after the presentations, and some conferences will also allow time to make mergers or amendments to the resolution.
Finally, all the countries in the committee will vote on whether or not they want a resolution to be passed. Afterward, committee will repeat the same process again for the second topic, or if you do not have a second topic then you are done!
There are three debate formats. The default debate format is called the Speakers List. This where delegates take turns making speeches in front of the room by the order that they are listed on the Speakers List as selected by the Chair. Speeches are typically around 1 minute or 1 minute and 30 seconds, but the speaking time can be changed by a majority vote from the delegates.
After a certain number of speeches, the delegates may vote to change up the debate format to either Moderated Caucus or Unmoderated Caucus. Moderated Caucus is when the committee decides to focus on a sub-issue and get a back-and-forth debate going. Delegates will raise their placards to be called on to speak, and the Chairperson will call on speakers one-by-one until the Moderated Caucus time has expired.
Unmoderated Caucus is when delegates are free to get up out of their seats and roam around the room to work with other countries with similar policies. The first one or two unmoderated caucuses will be spent finding allies, but afterward most of the unmoderated caucuses are spent writing draft resolutions with your caucus bloc (your group of allies). All delegates are encouraged to be a sponsor — an author — of a draft resolution.
Committee will switch between Speakers List, Moderated Caucus, and Unmoderated Caucus until draft resolutions are complete, merged, and ready to be presented.
Resolutions will be presented either as they are ready or all at once near the end of the conference (sometimes this is called Formal Caucus). Some conferences allow a question-and-answer period after the presentations, and some conferences will also allow time to make mergers or amendments to the resolution.
Finally, all the countries in the committee will vote on whether or not they want a resolution to be passed. Afterward, committee will repeat the same process again for the second topic, or if you do not have a second topic then you are done!