Prior to attending a conference, all delegates undergo between five and seven training sessions. These sessions, held at weekly Model UN meetings, are conducted by the Vice President of Model United Nations and other IAA officers. In them, delegates both new and old are introduced to the fundamentals of MUN, including research, resolution writing, formal debate, caucusing and the rules governing the next conference. Training requires only that members attend the sessions, the IAA leaves homework to the University.
At some point during training, the Vice President of Model UN will post a registration form. This form, posted online, must be completed by all those wishing to attend an upcoming conference. In the form, applicants will first request which country they would like to represent out of a pool that the conference has assigned to the IAA. Next, registrants select which committees they would prefer to serve on. After submitting it, registrants are allowed a brief grace period in which to change or withdraw their application.
After having submitted an application, delegates must still pay whatever fees are necessary in order to be officially registered as part of a team. The fees, which for most conferences range between $30 and $60, help to reduce the financial burden of attending the conference on the club. As a general rule of thumb, for ever $1 a member pays the Association usually chips in $4. If the fee is too burdensome, the IAA does offer need and merit based scholarships which can partially defray or even completely eliminate any fees.
After a delegate's registration form has been processed and their payment received, they are assigned a country to represent and a committee on which to serve. While these assignments are frequently not entirely what applicants originally asked for, IAA staff try to come as close as possible. Although limited exceptions may apply, generally once an assignment has been issued it cannot be changed.
Once the assignment has been confirmed, its time to research. In addition to general meetings, delegates are encouraged to attend the various lectures and Think Tanks hosted by the Services and Events group of the IAA, which are frequently centered around events expected to impact the actual United Nations. Although delegates are encouraged to plumb the depths of Western's library, the team also holds structured research seminars with tips and tricks for getting the most out of a delegates research time.
The final piece of any delegate's pre-conference preparation is the writing of a position paper. The position paper, which serves as a cursory overview of each country's opinions on their committee topics, is one important metric by which Model UN officials judge an indivdual delegates performance. Roughly two pages in length, delegates are expected to hone their points and arguments into concise statements, many of which later go on to form the basis of speeches or even resolutions.
