DAYMUNC offers awards to delegates that demonstrate exemplary diplomacy,
negotiation and speaking skills, technical research capabilities,
and facilitate committee. Awards are also presented for the best
position papers submitted prior to the conference. These awards
are for individual delegates only; team awards are not given.
Award Structure:
Each committee will present 1 outstanding delegate award, 1 distinguished
delegate award, and 3 honorable mentions at closing ceremony, as
determined by the individual ratings and deliberations between the
committee director, chair, and rapporteur.
Additionally, each position paper that is submitted prior to DAYMUNC
is reviewed by an independent panel and judged for accuracy of representation,
depth of research, format, and grammar. From each committee, the
panel will present an outstanding position paper award and one distinguished
position paper award. The panel will then award an overall outstanding
postion paper award and an overall distinguished position paper
awards to recognize the best submitted papers for DAYMUNC. Please
see the position paper guides for information on writing and submitting
a position paper for your assigned country.
Committee Award Guidelines
Each of these aspects are important on their own, but an award-winning
delegate will demonstrate them all, without exception, throughout
the entire conference. Not only will the following guidelines assist
you in receiving an award, but it will also facilitate the conference
in a manner that will promote diplomacy and professionalism, skills
that our conference could not function without.These guidelines
incorporate the criteria that staff members look for in an award-winning
delegate:
Diplomacy
An award-winning delegate is always professional in committee and
upholds the highest of diplomatic standards. Role-playing is a crucial
aspect of your position as a delegate at the conference and it is
important that you act in the same manner as a true diplomat of
the United Nations. Diplomats treat each other with respect at all
times, no matter if they agree with their fellow delegate’s
country policy or not. Also, diplomats do not leave smaller countries
out of informal debate. Diplomacy involves working to create a consensus
in committee, which is why this is a crucial aspect of awards considerations.
Negotiation
Working hand-in-hand with diplomacy, negotiation is one of the most
important skills you will bring to the conference. The goal is NOT
to get others to violate their policy and go along with yours, but
rather, for the delegates to come together to find a solution that
the entire committee can agree on. Refusing to work with other states
because they do not subscribe to your policy is counterproductive
to the diplomatic process. Rather than bullying others to agree
to your working paper, a winning delegate will find ways to include
as many countries as possible in on the same solution. Again, respect
and diplomacy play an important role in the negotiation process
and a good delegate will remember that point.
Speaking skills
A good speaker will utilize all of his or her speaker’s time
and place themselves on the speaker’s list frequently. Delegates
should always have something to say on the topic at hand, be it
in favor or against the issue. Delegates should always take their
speeches seriously, as this is the one forum they have to be heard
by the entire committee at once. Laughing, informal language (referring
to delegates as ‘you guys’), and not speaking to the
matter at hand are all examples of poor speaking skills. While the
staff understands that public speaking is not easy (and we’re
all new at one time or another), you will gain the respect of your
dais much quicker if you make an honest effort to make a good speech,
rather than waste your time and the committee’s by not taking
your speaker’s time seriously. Also, impugning the integrity
of another state or another delegate is not professional, nor is
it a demonstration of good speaking skills.
Research
As important as it is for you to write a solid position paper, it
is even more important that you apply that same policy to your work
in committee. You should act out the policy you write, which requires
extensive research on your part. Your pre-conference preparation
will be very evident during the course of the conference and those
delegates that take the time to do the proper research will be the
delegates that most likely take home awards. Believe it or not,
it is very easy for staff to pick out the delegates that do not
prepare for the conference beforehand.
Facilitation of committee
A good delegate will go out of his or her way to ensure that committee
runs as smoothly as possible. While making repetitive, dilatory
motions (i.e. moving to change the speaker’s time over and
over again) will get you attention, it is not the kind of attention
you want. An award-winning delegate will garner support for suspensions,
changing the speaker’s time, or any other committee impeding
motions during informal session. Also, a good delegate will include
as much of the committee as possible in his or her negotiations.
By including as much of the committee as you can, you are building
consensus that will make voting procedures transgress much more
smoothly. Finally, the delegate that works with the dais (instead
of against it) will receive much more positive attention that the
delegate that treats the dais with disrespect or contempt.
