Q: How do I prepare for the conference?
A: Here's one possible set of steps to prepare for the conference. Feel free to adjust it to your needs and experience:
Q: What's a general assembly? What's a crisis committee?
A: The biggest factor in your experience at COMMUN is whether you are in a general assembly or a crisis committee.
General assembly committees are the classic Model UN experience. Delegates represent countries in a specific UN committee (UNHCR, UNSC, WHO, e.g.) discussing present-day issues. Delegates work together to pass resolutions, agreements made between the countries that attempt to address some facet of the topic. General assemblies are designed to be deeply engaging and informative for all experience levels.
Crisis committees are faster paced, can be focused on almost anything, and take place in real time. Crisis committees can take place in the past, present, or even in a fantasy world. Delegates will represent individuals or groups who have a stake in the crisis. Throughout the conference, delegates will use their portfolio powers: the things they can control (e.g. a general may use their army or a scientist may conduct research) to pass private directives: notes to the chair that directly affect the course of the committee. The whole committee may also vote on public directives, which are analogous to the GA's resolutions except that they can have a real-time effect. These effects are reported in crisis updates, made by members of the COMMUN staff working in a backroom, which present new challenges and reports on the crisis. Some crisis committees are joint crisis committees (JCCs), where delegates are split into two rooms, often opposing sides of a conflict (delegates may switch rooms over the course of the conference.)
Q: What do the difficulty levels for each committee mean?
A: Based on advisor feedback, we have decided to implement a new difficulty rating scale to our committees. The ratings (beginner and advanced) are determined by the ease of researching the topics/roles and the expected difficulty of the procedures day-of. The difficulty levels are not barriers to entry: a novice may participate in an advanced committee and a veteran in a beginner. All committees, regardless of difficulty level, welcome questions and will stop to guide delegates through any unclear aspects. Chairs will tailor the pace of their committee to the actual experience of the delegates, not the label attached to the committee.
Example: A historical joint crisis committee based on an obscure event, would likely be categorized as "advanced", whereas a general assembly on a more traditional Model UN topic would likely be "beginner".
Q: What if there's little to no information available on my country/role vis-à-vis the topic.
In any committee, there are bound to be roles with more or less information available on them. In some cases—small countries and obscure persons come to mind—it may be very difficult to find information on the role online, and even harder to find their position on the issues at stake. Don't fret! First, gather any information you do have, from the background guide or the internet. Searching "Role Topic" (e.g. "Kiribati vaccines") can be helpful. Then, extrapolate a position, using what you know about similar parties and thinking critically about how the issue might affect your country/role. Some questions to answer might be:
Q: Does COMMUN have a dress code?
A: COMMUN does not have a formal dress code. In order to facilitate a serious conference environment, we recommend that delegates come dressed in Western business attire. As former Commonwealth teacher Eric Davis once said, "the quality of the conversation is what counts; dress shouldn’t stand in the way of that."
Q: I'm an advisor. How do I best help my students write position papers and prepare?
A: The best way to help your students prepare is to communicate any information found here or elsewhere you believe could be useful to them. Depending on the experience level of your delegates, this could be teaching them how to write a position paper, showing them useful resources, or providing feedback. We ask that advisors do not write students' position papers for them; we want to hear each student's unique voice and viewpoint.
Q: Can I use AI for research?
A: No. COMMUN does not allow the use of generative text for any conference materials, written or spoken. Not only is this text often inaccurate or highly flawed, but we also believe it does little to deepen delegates' understandings of their topics. Commonwealth prides itself on its unique committees and positions, which we find AI programs reduce to boilerplate. If you are stuck and need help researching or writing at any point in the process, since COMMUN is, first and foremost, a learning conference, chairs will be happy to provide substantial assistance and feedback.
Q: How do I submit a position paper?
A: All delegates are expected to submit a two page double-spaced position paper by the date of the conference to be eligible for awards. Optionally, delegates may submit papers two weeks before the conference for a round of feedback. Submissions should be made by emailing the chair of the committee, using the email provided in the background guide.
Q: Where can I ask additional questions?
A: Any questions about a committee may be sent to that committee chair's email, available through the background guide. Any questions about the overall conference may be sent to the Secretariat at secretary-general.commun@commschool.org.
A: Here's one possible set of steps to prepare for the conference. Feel free to adjust it to your needs and experience:
- Read the background guide in its entirety. This is by far the best and fastest way to prepare for your role. Understanding the entire system, the various parties, and your own role will give you a firm grip on the topic. The background guides are designed to provide a synthesis of all essential information. If you don't know what a word means or are confused by a concept, feel free to look it up as you're reading.
- Begin additional research. Start with any links provided in the background guide. Then look at any sources relevant to your specific country/position. The resources page also provides some potentially useful sites. Wikipedia can be a good starting point for some people but be careful not to use it as your only resource
- Write your position paper. Use everything you've learned to come up with a position on the issues and some potential solutions. Then write them down on your position paper document. Our resources contain an example paper if you're not sure how to write one. When you're done, ask for feedback, either from your advisor or your chairs. Then email the chairs with the finalized position paper.
- Familiarize yourself with Parli. Pro. Parli. pro. (parliamentary procedure) is the set of rules followed during a Model UN committee. Depending on your experience, this step may be more or less expansive. Check out some of the many resources on the topic available online. Remember that COMMUN is a teaching conference, so if you have any questions day-of, our chairs will be ready to help out. We've found that even delegates that come in with very little knowledge of procedure get a handle on things quite quickly.
- Final steps. Since COMMUN is a tech-free conference, many delegates choose to print out relevant materials and bring them in a folder to the conference. Spare paper to write notes is also appreciated. Some delegates choose to write a short (30 seconds–1 minute) opening speech ahead of the conference. We strongly discourage pre-writing any other materials, however, since speeches and resolutions/directives should only be created during the conference.
Q: What's a general assembly? What's a crisis committee?
A: The biggest factor in your experience at COMMUN is whether you are in a general assembly or a crisis committee.
General assembly committees are the classic Model UN experience. Delegates represent countries in a specific UN committee (UNHCR, UNSC, WHO, e.g.) discussing present-day issues. Delegates work together to pass resolutions, agreements made between the countries that attempt to address some facet of the topic. General assemblies are designed to be deeply engaging and informative for all experience levels.
Crisis committees are faster paced, can be focused on almost anything, and take place in real time. Crisis committees can take place in the past, present, or even in a fantasy world. Delegates will represent individuals or groups who have a stake in the crisis. Throughout the conference, delegates will use their portfolio powers: the things they can control (e.g. a general may use their army or a scientist may conduct research) to pass private directives: notes to the chair that directly affect the course of the committee. The whole committee may also vote on public directives, which are analogous to the GA's resolutions except that they can have a real-time effect. These effects are reported in crisis updates, made by members of the COMMUN staff working in a backroom, which present new challenges and reports on the crisis. Some crisis committees are joint crisis committees (JCCs), where delegates are split into two rooms, often opposing sides of a conflict (delegates may switch rooms over the course of the conference.)
Q: What do the difficulty levels for each committee mean?
A: Based on advisor feedback, we have decided to implement a new difficulty rating scale to our committees. The ratings (beginner and advanced) are determined by the ease of researching the topics/roles and the expected difficulty of the procedures day-of. The difficulty levels are not barriers to entry: a novice may participate in an advanced committee and a veteran in a beginner. All committees, regardless of difficulty level, welcome questions and will stop to guide delegates through any unclear aspects. Chairs will tailor the pace of their committee to the actual experience of the delegates, not the label attached to the committee.
Example: A historical joint crisis committee based on an obscure event, would likely be categorized as "advanced", whereas a general assembly on a more traditional Model UN topic would likely be "beginner".
Q: What if there's little to no information available on my country/role vis-à-vis the topic.
In any committee, there are bound to be roles with more or less information available on them. In some cases—small countries and obscure persons come to mind—it may be very difficult to find information on the role online, and even harder to find their position on the issues at stake. Don't fret! First, gather any information you do have, from the background guide or the internet. Searching "Role Topic" (e.g. "Kiribati vaccines") can be helpful. Then, extrapolate a position, using what you know about similar parties and thinking critically about how the issue might affect your country/role. Some questions to answer might be:
- Does my role have any stated positions on the topics at hand or related ones?
- What are my historic allies' positions?
- How has my role acted in the past?
- What would be the effects of various proposed solutions on my role? Would they hurt or harm it?
- What "bloc" do I best fit into (e.g. Kiribati might fit into small island nations, or even small nations broadly)? What would my bloc's position be?
- Does my role have something to give, resources or experience, for example? Does my role need something? Maybe some of both.
Q: Does COMMUN have a dress code?
A: COMMUN does not have a formal dress code. In order to facilitate a serious conference environment, we recommend that delegates come dressed in Western business attire. As former Commonwealth teacher Eric Davis once said, "the quality of the conversation is what counts; dress shouldn’t stand in the way of that."
Q: I'm an advisor. How do I best help my students write position papers and prepare?
A: The best way to help your students prepare is to communicate any information found here or elsewhere you believe could be useful to them. Depending on the experience level of your delegates, this could be teaching them how to write a position paper, showing them useful resources, or providing feedback. We ask that advisors do not write students' position papers for them; we want to hear each student's unique voice and viewpoint.
Q: Can I use AI for research?
A: No. COMMUN does not allow the use of generative text for any conference materials, written or spoken. Not only is this text often inaccurate or highly flawed, but we also believe it does little to deepen delegates' understandings of their topics. Commonwealth prides itself on its unique committees and positions, which we find AI programs reduce to boilerplate. If you are stuck and need help researching or writing at any point in the process, since COMMUN is, first and foremost, a learning conference, chairs will be happy to provide substantial assistance and feedback.
Q: How do I submit a position paper?
A: All delegates are expected to submit a two page double-spaced position paper by the date of the conference to be eligible for awards. Optionally, delegates may submit papers two weeks before the conference for a round of feedback. Submissions should be made by emailing the chair of the committee, using the email provided in the background guide.
Q: Where can I ask additional questions?
A: Any questions about a committee may be sent to that committee chair's email, available through the background guide. Any questions about the overall conference may be sent to the Secretariat at secretary-general.commun@commschool.org.
