A conference has two kinds of people in it. The people who attend to debate, and the people who run it. Delegates are the first group. Everyone else is staff.
This page names every role and says what it does. Each one links to a fuller document.
A delegate represents a country in one committee. They research the country, write a position paper, lobby, speak, propose amendments and vote.
A delegate is not staff. A delegate does not run any part of the conference.
See What a delegate does.
In MEDIMUN, delegates are aged 15 to 19 and come to the conference as part of their school's delegation. A student cannot attend on their own.
Chairs run a committee. They open the session, take the roll call, recognise speakers, time speeches, rule on points, decide which amendments are debated, and run the votes.
A committee has more than one chair, and they divide the work between them. One chair runs the debate. One handles logistics, records and messages. One handles amendments. Only one chair speaks to the room at a time.
Chairs are students.
See What is a chair and The chairing team.
In MEDIMUN, chairing is the one role on the organising team open to students from any participating school. About half of the chairs come from other schools. At least one chair in every committee is from The English School.
The Secretariat is the student leadership of the whole conference. They oversee the committees and handle the problems a chair cannot settle alone. A chair who does not know a rule, or who has a plagiarism case in front of them, takes it to the Secretariat.
The Secretariat changes every year, because its members are students.
In MEDIMUN, the Secretariat is made up of the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly, the Deputy Secretary-General and the Deputy President of the General Assembly. See What is the Secretary-General and What is the President of the General Assembly.
Departments run everything that is not debate. Registration, technology, food, press, photography, preparation, resolution editing and funding.
A manager leads a department. They decide what the department does, split the work and answer for it.
A member works in a department. They do the operational work of the conference on the day.
See What is a manager and What is a member.
A Student Officer is a student who runs part of the conference. The Secretariat, the chairs and the department managers are Student Officers.
Members are staff, but they are not Student Officers. They are Administrative Staff.
Delegates are neither.
This distinction is often stated wrongly. A member is not a Student Officer. Being staff and being a Student Officer are two different things. See What is a Student Officer.
Administrative Staff are the people who keep the conference running while it is happening. They handle the rooms, the paperwork, the messages and the logistics.
In MEDIMUN, that work has been split up. Most conferences have one large Administrative Staff group that does everything operational. MEDIMUN has separate departments instead, each with its own specialised role, its own manager and its own members. An Admin Staff department still exists at MEDIMUN, and it works as a traditional administrative staff department. Its only responsibility is in-committee logistics. Everything else that you might expect Admin Staff to cover is another department's job. The departments are Admin Staff, Approval Panel, Food and Catering, Information Technology, Medinews and Social Media, Photography, Preparations, Public Information, and Sales and Funding. See Departments overview.
A school director is the teacher who leads a school's delegation. They apply on the school's behalf. They decide which of their students goes to which committee. They handle what the school owes, and they are responsible for their students while the students are at the conference.
A school director does not debate.
The executive board are the teachers who are responsible for the conference. They carry it across years, because the students running it change every year.
In MEDIMUN, the executive board is made up of Senior Directors and Directors. See The executive board.
In MEDIMUN, the roles run in this order, most senior first. Global Admin. Admin. Senior Director. Director. Secretary-General. President of the General Assembly. Deputy Secretary-General. Deputy President of the General Assembly. Manager. Chair. Member. School Director. Delegate. Senior Directors and Directors are teachers. Everyone from Secretary-General down to Member is a student.
A question about the rules, or about what is happening in your committee. Ask your chair.
A problem your chair cannot settle. Your chair takes it to the Secretariat.
A problem with your school's delegation, your travel, or your place at the conference. Ask your
school director.
A personal or welfare problem. Tell your school director or a member of staff at once.
If you are unsure. Ask your chair first. A chair whose answer is "that is not mine to decide" will take it to the right person for you. That is part of the job.