You want to know your country’s location, neighbors, population size, type of government, type of economy, trade partners, and the international organizations it’s a part of. Every MUNers go-to source for essential information on their country. If you are in a regional organization like NATO or OAS, then you are still affected by the Charter, particularly Chapter VII on international security and Chapter VIII on regional arrangements.ĥ. If you are in a GA, ECOSOC, or Security Council committee, then the source of your committee’s power is the UN Charter. You want to understand your committee’s mandate (why it was created), powers (what it can do), organization (how it fits into the UN and the larger international community), and membership (who’s in it).Ĥ. The goal of a committee is to pass a resolution, which depends on what a committee can and cannot do. They differ for every conference - not just what the rules are, but how they are applied.ģ. Rules tell you how committee is going operate, and what you can and cannot do. If you’re trying to win an award, then you should know what the conference values and what your chair is looking for.Ģ. Using this framework, there are 15 things every delegate should include in their binders:ġ. Using a framework made it easier to do research because it gave me an idea of what to look for, and I could use it for every conference. In other words, I framed my approach to research. I organized my binders by starting from the “big picture” - conference, committee, and country - then zooming in on the details - topics, policies, and solutions. But be careful – you may not want to communicate this kind of intensity, depending on how you want to be perceived in committee. In addition, bringing a well-organized binder to committee communicates to the chair and other delegates that you mean business. Having your research readily available in committee is very helpful. It’s useful for more than the information it contains.And since I chose to specialize in certain committees, I could easily recycle my research binders and improve on them. Eventually, I would just print everything out first, put together the binder, and then read through it all in one shot. After putting together a few binders, I realized I was turning to the same sources over and over. It ultimately takes more time to read through a random assortment of printed pages than to just organize it in the first place. When you’re reading different websites and books, the important facts are spread out across different sources. Putting together a binder sounds time-consuming, but it takes less time and brain power to learn something that is organized well. I needed to put together a research binder.Īnd many conferences and committees later, I’ve come to appreciate the value of a good, well-organized binder. I needed to do my research to the point that it made me feel comfortable in committee. I just needed a way to research that took as little time as possible to learn just what I needed to know, but to know it thoroughly. I knew that if I was confident in my research, that confidence would come through in speeches and debates. Not doing mine made me feel uncomfortable. And it’s pretty obvious to chairs who has done their research and who has not. I was afraid to suggest an idea because I wasn’t sure if the committee had done it already. I couldn’t speak or debate as freely because I didn’t know the facts. Research was something boring I needed to do before I could do the fun stuff.īut I soon realized this was putting me at a disadvantage. I wrote position papers at the last minute, printed out a bunch of random websites the night before conferences, and read a fraction of it on the bus. When I started doing Model UN, research was a chore. I am talking about putting together a research binder. What am I referring to? I am describing the bane of many a Model UNer. You might even be embarrassed to bring one to committee - maybe you poke fun at others for bringing theirs. It’s confusing to create and cumbersome to carry. You’ve made your own - or, more likely, your advisor told you to make one. You see it everywhere at MUN conferences.