Best Tips to be a Board Member Written by Gökdeniz Yüksel

Best Tips to be a Board Member Written by Gökdeniz Yüksel

   Best Tips to be a Board Member Written by Gökdeniz Yüksel. Well firstly, I can start off by saying that, if there’s one thing which is harder than being a delegate it would be being a Board Member. Some of you might won’t agree upon this idea but it may be because of the face that you all saw during the conferences. The background and the preparing period to serve as a Board Member is incredibly challenging. If you are going to or willing to take a part as a Chair-Person you have to be ready for conflicts between your friends, works till morning, mental breakdowns, being sickened with Study Guide or sentences like “I won’t attend one more MUN!”…

   But calm down people, I am here to share my observations, experiences, lessons and best tips to be a board member.

 

i.)Being a Rapporteur      

Requirements to be a Rapporteur:

    First prerequisite to take a part as a Rapporteur is having a good relation with computers & technological devices and right after that one more thing that you will be in need of is the perfect attention. As a rapporteur, you have to be qualified enough to understand motions. Sometimes, some committees contains lots of locutions and it will be hard to understand even and even to write. Also you have to get along well with the numbers. Why numbers, right ? Believe me there will be delegates who will raise a motion for 13.47 minutes to get a priority in the voting procedure. Ugh God! I love the ambition of those delegates…

Tips to serve as a Rapporteur

    Tip#1 : If you are going to be a Rapporteur for the first time, you can start by downloading and examining the “wxMUN” or other softwares. Those kind of applications might seem terrifying and confusing but in the blink of an eye you will get used to it.

    Tip#2 : If the committee that you will serve as the Rapporteur, has lots of idioms or locutions in the agenda item, it may be obligating for you to understand the motions. To prevent that you can read the Study Guide of your own committee, while you are reading it creating your own dictionary will help you a lot. Also you can copy that dictionary and bring it into the committee room. So you can take a quick look when you heard a word that you don’t know how to spell.

    Tip#3 : During the sessions there will be delegates willing to speak as soon as possible. So if there will be a delegate who starts to deliver his/her speech while you are setting the motion, do not forget that you have every right to interrupt their speech. Sometimes you might be annoyed but always warn them kindly just like “Delegate of Italy, could wait for me to set the motion?”

    Tip#4: If you want to you, can let the delegates use your computer to play songs or JustDance during the coffee break. That will melt their hearts.

ii.Being a Chair

Requirements to be a Chair

    From point of my view chair is the most entertaining position at the board. I personally like speaking, so basically if you are going to be a chair for the first time be prepared to speak a lot. Actually there will be times that you have to be spoken for minutes without breathing. It could be hard for you to memorize all those sentence patterns of MUN. The perfect chair should lead the committee objectively, be prepared for unexpected actions which will be made by the delegates, move on spontaneously in case of necessity, not hesitate to take actions, trust oneself, be brave and confident.

Tips to serve as a Chair

    Tip#1: In fact this is not a tip, this is an essentiality but it has to be mentioned. First thing that you should do is being fully aware of the agenda item and topics. Yet you should have much more information than the Study Guide, have to get into details as much as possible. Thus, if a delegate shares an information or a statistic which is not mentioned in the Study Guide you have to be informed enough to decide whether it is true or not. That will be beneficial for your evaluation procces for criticizing the delegates which will be getting an award.

    Tip#2: You can download or create a “Chairing Script” to learn and memorize the sentence patterns. Based on my experiences, the best way to memorize all those patterns is having a simulation between your close friends. Approximately 5-6 people will be enough. In those simulations, you should act like it’s the real committee atmosphere, not skip any of the sentence patterns even if it is a simulation. You should bring your Chairing Script to the committee room, it will helps you a lot.

    Tip#3  : There will be words which are hard to pronounce and spell, you should also create your own Committee Dictionary and it should be hand-writing. Otherwise it will be challenging for you to pronounce and sometimes understand the dialogues. You should take your dictionary to anywhere.

    Tip#4  : While you are taking a roll call, you have to say every country name one by one. To simplify these when the countries of your committee have been set, you should take roll calls on your own to get used to the pronounciations of the countries.

    Tip#5 : There will be silly and funny things during the sessions that everybody is going laugh out loud, even you, when that kind of situations have occured let your delegates laugh a bit, then warn them kindly and seriously that laughing is out of order.

    Tip#6 : Do not forget to encourage your delegates every time and don’t hesitate to make mistakes, keep that in mind “every failure is a lesson”. Believe me the first session of the first day you will be in the soup however at the second session you will be thawed and leading the committee like a boss.

iii.Being an Under Secretary-General

   Requirements to be an Under Secretary-General

Two words, hardest position! Believe me being a USG is harder than being a rapporteur + chair. If you want to serve as a USG you have to be creative, guiding and outspoken. Because when you are chair the thing that you are responsible for is giving directions but when you are the USG you should decide which way that your delegates will front to. To exemplify when chair is the arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet and toes of the body which are taking actions, the USG is the brain of the body which is deciding to take what kind of actions. Briefly, you have to be aware of that the committee belongs to you and you are responsible for it. You have to know every single thing !

   Tips to serve as an Under Secretary-General

    Tip#1  : Your main purpose is auditing the committee, chair, rapporteur, course, procedural matters etc. Therefore first thing you must to know is your committees Rules of Procedure. Understanding a rules of procedure of a committee is the hardest thing because you can not be fully aware of how it works until you’ve been in however if you are the USG this is not an option for you. This will be your committee and you have to know the rules of procedure, necessities and every little nuance. As a tip, the best USG position for you, will be serving in a committee that you’ve been a delegate of before or at least similar committees which has the same Rules of Procedure. I am not saying it’s impossible to serve as the USG of a committee that you have never been in before but it will be sweating.

    Tip#2 : If there will be a infringement of Rules of Procedure have been made by delegates, you can interrupt and state that it is out of order because of the procedural matters but if it have been made by the Chair, you should whisper to his/her ear and then he/she should state that he/she have made a mistake and be saying “Chair stands corrected”.

    Tip#3: Always answer your delegates’ questions confidently even you are not fully sure about. Your confidence will gratify and encourage them.

    Tip#4: You have to be patient, supporting, helpful and entertaining during the preparing period. Because there will be moments that you have to face. For an example your chair might wants to quit, everybody starts to think pessimistically, mental breakdowns and etc. At that times it’s your, DGs and SGs job to be a connection point to the whole squad.

FOOTNOTE

 Finally, whatever position you have, delegate, chair, rapporteur, admin etc. the most important rule is having fun and upgrading yourself. As a result, laugh when it is out of order, do mistakes, take lessons, upgrade yourself, cross your border…

Gökdeniz Yüksel

Writer of MUNTURKEY.com

Note: Picture from KAIHLMUN

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