How does MUN BILBAO work?

MUN Bilbao is for school students, not university students. It is open to Observers who wish to come and watch the conference and find out how MUN works. Observers do need to pay a registration fee of 75 euros.

MUN Bilbao's general theme is the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.

Prior to the conference:

1. A school needs to create groups containing four or five students and these groups are called delegations. Each delegation will represent one member (country) of the United Nations (UN). The students are called delegates, with one delegate being the Ambassador of that country. There is no limit to how many delegations a school can send to the conference.

2. Having formed a delegation, the delegates must look in the Menu under ‘Members’ to see what countries are available. There is a chart which shows which committees each member can sit on and, if necessary, which committees they have to sit on (in bold). To see which topics will be discussed in each committee, please look in the menu under ‘Committees and Topics’. There will be three topics for each committee and two for the Security Council. Please note that if a Security Council country is chosen, the delegation can be formed of six delegates.

3. Each committee will have two students who are responsible for controlling the committee, ensuring all the delegates are following the rules and that the debate flows smoothly. These two students are called Chairs and applications for Committee Chairs are very welcome. For more information on how to chair, please look in the Menu under Preparation/Chairs. Interested students must complete the bottom half of the Delegation registration form which can be found by looking in the Menu under Participate. If a Chair application is rejected, the student will be able to attend the conference as a delegate. Chairs will be responsible for providing Research Reports for the delegates in their committee.

4. Having chosen a member to represent, the delegates now decide which delegate is going to sit on which committee for that member. The delegation can now register for the conference. In the Menu, go to ‘Participate’ and complete a Registration Form for each delegation. One delegate is also the Ambassador of the delegation.

5. Once the delegation’s registration has been accepted, they can now start researching. The delegation first researches the member they are representing, then starts researching the topics they will be debating in their committees. It is important to remember that everything said and written must be from the member’s point of view, not the delegate’s personal point of view. Delegates must read their Chairs´Research reports. For further advice on research, please go to the Menu and look under Preparation/Delegate.

6. Each delegate also has to prepare a Position Paper to be submitted to their committee before the conference. To find out more on how to prepare a Position Paper, please look in the Menu under Preparation/Delegate. If a Position Paper is not submitted, the delegate will not be considered for awards.

7. Having researched the member and the topics of the delegate’s committee, each delegate now chooses at least one of their committee’s topics and prepares a Resolution. It is completely up to the delegate if they wish to write more than one Resolution. To find out more on how to write a Resolution, please look in the Menu under Preparation/Delegate. Each delegate must bring with them paper copies of their resolution to hand out during Lobbying (about 15 copies).

8. The Ambassador of the delegation has to prepare a Speech for the Opening Ceremony. For further advice, please look in the Menu under Preparation/Ambassadors.

9. The delegation also needs to prepare stationary to use for note passing during committees and General Assembly. For further advice on preparing stationary, please go to Preparation/Delegate.

During the conference:

1. On Thursday afternoon, the Ambassador and MUN Advisor must register their arrival and collect their welcome packs. 

2. Buses will take everyone to the Opening Ceremony, to be held in the Paraninfo of Deusto University in Bilbao. The Ceremony will start with Opening speeches which will be followed by Ambassadors’ speeches.

3. Once the ceremony ends, we will attend the Welcome Cocktail, in the same location,  before all the buses take everyone to the hotels.

4. On Friday morning, delegates will start with Lobbying Topic A in their committees. This is an informal session where delegates need to gain support for their resolutions by collecting seven signatures from other delegates in the committee. Please be aware that of the seven signatures, there is a maximum of two signatures from delegates of your school which are permissible. Upon arrival at the Lobbying session, each delegate will be given a Signature sheet by the Chairs. Having gained seven signatures, the delegate takes the resolution and the Signature sheet to the Approval Panel. At the same time, other delegates will be looking for your signature for their resolution. Delegates can only sign two resolutions on the same topic.  

5. If you decide to merge your resolution with other delegates, please note you can only merge with a maximum of two other delegates and you must all be from different schools. If you wish to merge with more than two delegates, the extra delegates must be co-submitters rather than main submitters. If merging, you only require five signatures from other delegates before going to the Approval Panel.

6. The Approval Panel is responsible for checking that each resolution meets the requirements with regards to punctuation, layout, the words used to start clauses and that the resolution reads well. The Approval Panel is not responsible for checking the validity of the content. If a resolution is approved, it is returned to the Chairs of the committee to be debated. If a resolution is rejected, it will be returned to the delegate to be corrected and resubmitted.

7. The second session of Friday morning is when delegates debate Topic A on their committee.

8. After lunch, the afternoon session will comprise of lobbying and debating Topic B in committees. To see more information on the process and rules of debating, please look in the Menu under Preparation/Delegates.

9. There is no social event on Friday evening so you are free to entertain yourselves. 

10. The session on Saturday morning continues with lobbying and debating Topic C in committees.

11. The session on Saturday afternoon will involve debating resolutions on any topic in committees. There is also an optional Mass late afternoon.

12. The main social event of the conference takes place on Saturday evening. It consists of a formal Black Tie event. For more details, please look in the Menu under ‘Social’.

13. On Sunday morning, the General Assembly will take place, which will involve debating one resolution from each committee (excluding the Security Council, the Arctic Council and the Historical Council).

14. This session will be followed by the Closing Ceremony and speeches. Lunch will be provided before departure.

15. For those sitting on the Arctic Council, relevant material explaining how it works will be made available to you before Christmas.