The first fifteen minutes decide how the committee behaves for the rest of the conference. Have the whole opening planned and rehearsed before anyone walks in.
Check the room. Seating, the projector, the microphone if there is one.
Check you have the delegate list and know which delegations should be in the room.
Agree with your co-chairs who is running the floor first.
Agree the plan for the day and the time of the first break.
In MEDIMUN, the committee state is declared in the MediBook control panel before anything else happens, and stays correct all day. See The chair's committee state.
Welcome the house. Introduce the chairs by name and by role. Say which committee this is and what its topics are.
Keep it short. The house is nervous and is not listening to a long speech.
Roll call is taken at the start of every day, and again after breaks.
Each delegate answers "present" or "present and voting". A delegate who is present and voting may vote for or against, and may not abstain. A delegate marked absent cannot vote at all.
See Roll call and Present and voting.
In MEDIMUN, all roll calls are taken in MediBook. See Chair roll calls.
If a delegate arrives after the roll call. They must tell the chairs. If they do not, ask them for an explanation. Their vote depends on the roll call being correct.
You may open the meeting and let debate proceed once at least one third of the delegations are present. A majority of the members must be present for any decision to be taken.
See Quorum.
If fewer than one third are present. You cannot proceed to debate. Wait, and report the absences.
In MEDIMUN, if delegates are missing under the missing delegate policy, the chair tells the secretariat immediately using the MediBook feature for it. See The missing delegate policy and Chair reporting a problem.
Say these out loud on day one, so you can refer back to them for the rest of the conference.
Delegates address the chair and the house before speaking.
Delegates speak in the third person. "The honourable delegate", not "you".
Placards stay down until the chair asks for them.
Nobody insults any member of the house, any guest, any member of staff or the secretariat.
Eating and drinking during debate is not in order. Water is the exception.
No delegate leaves the room during debate without permission.
A delegate yields the floor when the chair tells them to.
See Parliamentary language and decorum.
Say them once, clearly, at the start. Then enforce them from the first breach. A rule announced and not enforced is worse than a rule never announced.
Some of your house has done this before. Some have not, and the ones who have not will not ask.
Say which points exist, when they may be raised, and that no point may interrupt a speaker except a point of personal privilege about audibility. Say that a delegate must wait to be recognised before stating a point.
See Points overview and Motions overview.
If you are unsure how much to explain. Explain more than you think you need to on day one. It costs ten minutes and saves an hour of misused points.
Tell the house the plan. What comes first, when the first break is, and what you expect from them before then.
If lobbying is next, say how long it runs and what the chairs will be doing during it. See Running lobbying.
Start strict and serious. It is very hard to tighten up later.
Do not begin with jokes or with an apology for the rules. Begin with the rules, calmly and warmly, and then keep to them. See Chairing style.
SCREENSHOT: /medibook/sessions/22/committees/ga1/debate/control - the roll call being taken before debate opens