Overview

Each year during the closing ceremonies on Tuesday, Montana Model United Nations Staff announce awards for individual delegates, country delegations, schools, and conference staff. This document lists the awards and enumerates their criteria.

(Revised 26 November 2018)

Position Paper Awards

Awards:

• Honorable Position Paper (top 20%, verbal commendation)
• Distinguished Position Paper (top 10%, certificate)
• Outstanding Position Paper (best 1-2 papers per committee, medal)

To be considered for a position paper award, students must have submitted their position paper to their committee by the deadline.

Winning papers adhere to the formatting instructions, exhibit excellent research and diplomatic writing, and are true to the country’s actual or likely positions.

Delegate Awards

Awards:

• Honorable Delegate (top 20% of delegates in the committee, verbal commendation)
• Distinguished Delegate (top 10%, certificate)
• Outstanding Delegate (top 1-2%, medal)

To be considered for a delegate award, students must have submitted their position paper to their committee by the deadline. This ensures that delegate awards are given to students who both prepare well for the conference and who perform well in committee.

Over the two-day conference, winning delegates earn up to 12 points: one point for attending each of the committee sessions, and one point for each of the 6 sessions in which s/he appears on the committee’s list of active, effective, and diplomatic delegates. Committee performance is judged by committee staff at the end of each of committee session. In identifying the top 10% of delegates in each session, MMUN staff consider the following questions:

• How often did the delegate participate in the formal committee session?
• How knowledgeable was the delegate regarding the rules, the topics, and his or her country?
• Were the delegate’s speeches diplomatic, informative, and to the point?
• How active, constructive, and diplomatic was the delegate in caucuses?
• Did the delegate work with other delegates to write resolutions?
• What was the quality of the resolutions the delegate sponsored and signed?
• Was the delegate effective and diplomatic in negotiation and consensus-building?
• How true was the delegate to his or her country’s position?

To be named an Honorable Delegate, a student needs a minimum of 7 points. This means s/he must attend all 6 of the committee sessions and earn one additional point due to recognition by committee staff for excellent participation in one committee session. However, 7 points are not sufficient to earn an award. Student eligibility for delegate awards also depends on the following:

• Delegates who do not submit position papers are not eligible for awards. It is very important for delegates and advisors to understand the importance of position papers. Every year, some of the students who perform well in committee do not submit position papers. This is very disappointing to the MMUN Staff, who would like to recognize students for their excellent speeches and negotiation skills but are committed to recognizing only students who both prepare well before the conference and perform well in committee. Delegates who do not submit position papers are not just jeopardizing their ability to win awards; they also make it impossible for their country to win a country award and difficult for their school to win a school award.
• Only delegates whose position papers are property formatted, well-researched, and well-written are eligible for the Outstanding Delegate award and the Top 25 Senior award.
• To be recognized by their committee staff, delegates must work with students from other schools.
• Model UN is about international cooperation, so Montana Model UN expects to see and will reward meaningful cooperation across schools. To accomplish this, before the conference each delegate must develop a good understanding of his or her country and its allies. At the conference, each delegate should listen to other delegates' opening speeches about their preferred agenda order and preferred resolution content, introduce him/herself to his/her country's allies and to delegates with similar agenda and resolution preferences, and work with those countries to influence the agenda order and to write meaningful resolutions that their country would actually support.
• It is important for delegates to understand that MMUN staff are observing their contribution to diplomatic debate and international cooperation during both formal committee sessions and caucuses. Undiplomatic comments, excessive note-passing, sending notes that are unrelated to the conference, failure to adhere to the dress code, computer rules, other provisions of the Delegate Conduct Code, submitting resolutions that do not meet the standards of the Resolution Guide, and other forms of undiplomatic behavior make it unlikely that a delegate will be considered for an award.

Top 25 Seniors

This award is given to the top 25 seniors at the conference. To determine which students are seniors, the MMUN staff consult the roster submitted by each school’s advisor. Each Top 25 Senior must submit a properly formatted and well-researched position paper by the deadline, attend every committee session, and participate actively and constructively in formal and informal committee sessions. In determining these awards, we consider all of the criteria above for delegate awards, as well as input from the high school advisors.

Each Top 25 Senior receives a medal at the awards ceremony. In addition, the Top 5 seniors are offered a $1,000 scholarship to attend the University of Montana. Any scholarship turned down by one of the first 5 seniors will be offered to the next senior on the Top 25 list. In recent years, at least half of the Top 25 Seniors have been offered a scholarship.

After the conference, each Top 25 Senior will receive a letter explaining how to apply for the scholarship. It will include the deadline and instructions for:

1. Applying to UM
2. Once accepted to UM, applying for BOTH of the following scholarships:
   • Bess Reed and Dallas J. Reed Memorial Model United Nations Scholarship
   • Minnie Spurgin Fullam Montana Model United Nations Scholarship

Country Awards

Awards:

• Honorable Country Delegations(top 20% of countries represented at the conference; verbal
• commendation)
• Distinguished Country Delegations(top 10% of countries; certificate)
• Outstanding Country Delegations(top 5% of countries; plaque)

Only countries that use at least three of their assigned committee slots, submit all of their position papers by the deadline, and attend all committee sessions are eligible. Winning countries are determined by taking the average number of position paper and delegate awards received by the top three (3) delegates for that country. Ties are broken based on the quality of position papers and Region Night attendance and participation.

School Awards

Awards:

• Honorable Schools(top 30% of schools attending the conference, verbal commendation)
• Distinguished Schools(top 20% of schools, certificate)
• Outstanding Schools(top 10% of schools, plaque)

These awards are given to the schools that show overall preparedness, participation, and excellence at the conference. For each award, there are two categories: small delegation and large delegation. Schools are divided into small and large delegations based on the number of students they bring to the conference.

Winning schools are determined based on the number of position paper and delegate awards received, divided by the number of students from the school. Ties are broken based on the percentage of position papers received by the deadline and whether registration and other forms are submitted on time.

Staff Awards

There are two staff awards:

Chair Award:

• Distinguished Chair (verbal commendation)
• Outstanding Chair (gavel)

These awards are presented the best chairs at the conference, based on delegate and MMUN staff evaluations.