Model United Nations conferences do not each invent their own rules. Most follow a shared style of procedure. A delegate who learns to debate at one conference can then walk into another and recognise what is happening.
THIMUN procedure is one of those styles. A conference affiliated with THIMUN follows it.
THIMUN is The Hague International Model United Nations.
The THIMUN Foundation runs the affiliation programme. A conference applies to the Foundation, is evaluated, and is either affiliated or not. Affiliation is not a label a conference gives itself.
In MEDIMUN, the conference has been THIMUN affiliated since 2011. It is the largest THIMUN affiliated conference in the Mediterranean.
The procedure you learn here is not local. The points and the motions are the same at other THIMUN affiliated conferences. So are the two degrees of amendment, the way the floor is yielded and the way a vote is taken.
That has a practical consequence. Time spent learning the rules properly is time invested in every conference you attend afterwards, not only this one.
Affiliation sets the procedure and a set of minimum requirements. It does not set a conference's dates, its committees, its topics or its deadlines. Read the documents for the conference you are attending for those.
There are seven requirements. All of them apply together. A conference that meets six of them is not eligible.
It enforces the THIMUN Rules of Procedure.
It is a senior school conference. Middle school conferences are not considered.
It has at least 250 participants, from at least 10 different schools.
It lasts at least two days.
The organising school attends one of the THIMUN conferences.
It has been held at least four times already.
It has at least six committees.
If a conference is in its fourth year. It cannot apply. Affiliation can only be applied for from the fifth year onwards.
The Foundation also weighs several things beyond the minimum.
Where the conference is in the world.
How international its participants are.
What it debates.
What language it runs in.
How much of the conference is genuinely run by students.
The seven requirements are a floor, not a scoring system. Meeting most of them is not enough. The things weighed beyond them are judged on top of a conference that already meets all seven.
An application goes in at least ten months before the conference.
The Foundation reviews it. An evaluator is assigned. The conference is visited. The THIMUN Board then decides.
The ten months are counted back from the conference itself. Work backwards from your dates before you plan the application. The review, the evaluation and the visit all have to fit inside that time.
Affiliation is not permanent on its own. An affiliated conference carries five ongoing obligations.
Send an evaluation report on its last conference. That report covers participant numbers,
participating schools, the number of committees, and a general evaluation.
Give written credit to THIMUN in its mailings, its statements to media, and all other
documentation.
Include a link to the THIMUN website on the front page of its own website.
Give full acknowledgement, with the source clearly stated, for the use of any THIMUN materials.
Attend one of the THIMUN conferences at least every second year.
Failing to comply means losing affiliation automatically.
Affiliated conferences are also re-evaluated about every five years, against the same requirements. A conference that has grown smaller, dropped below six committees or stopped enforcing the Rules of Procedure can lose its affiliation at that point.
In MEDIMUN, The English School sends a delegation of its best delegates to THIMUN in The Hague every year, to represent MEDIMUN. The requirement is every second year. MEDIMUN goes every year. See The English School and MEDIMUN.
The requirements are minimums. A conference can sit far above them.
In MEDIMUN, a session involves roughly 400 delegates aged 15 to 19, around 60 school directors, and around 100 students running the conference. There are seven or eight committees. The conference runs for three days, and the third day is a half day. See The conference at a glance.
The language a conference runs in is one of the things the Foundation weighs.
In MEDIMUN, everything at the conference is in English. See Language policy.
MEDIMUN has been running since 2006 and has published its own guidance over the years. Where that older guidance disagrees with current THIMUN practice, THIMUN practice is followed.
Three rules changed this way, and they are the ones a returning chair is most likely to get wrong.
Quorum. The chair may open the meeting and let debate proceed when at least one third of the
delegations are present. A majority of the members must be present for a decision to be taken. The older MEDIMUN rule was two thirds to open. See Quorum.
Amendments of the second degree. They are allowed generally. The older MEDIMUN rule allowed
them only in the Security Council. See Amendment of the second degree.
Follow up points of information. One follow up may be allowed at the chair's discretion. The
older MEDIMUN rule was that there were none at all. See Follow up points.
If you chaired at MEDIMUN before. You may remember a different rule, and you are not misremembering. The rule changed. What is written in this library is what applies now.
If you are unsure. The library is the current text. If something you read elsewhere disagrees with it, the library is what the chairs will apply in the room. Ask the Secretariat if the difference matters to a ruling you have to make.
If a delegate quotes a rule from another conference. It may not match ours. Do not rule on the quotation. Rule on the text in this library, and explain to the house which rule you are applying and why.
Not every Model United Nations conference is part of the THIMUN programme.
In MEDIMUN, a chair must not advertise or suggest any non-THIMUN MUN at any point during the conference.