Lobbying is the most important part of the conference. Good lobbying produces good debate. Poor lobbying produces poor debate, and no amount of skilful chairing later repairs it.
Chairs are active throughout. Lobbying is not a break for the chairs.
Reading every draft in circulation.
Answering questions about format, procedure and mandate.
Mediating between groups that cannot agree.
Checking for plagiarism early.
Making sure every delegate gets to present their ideas before anything is written down.
Making sure one loud delegate does not take over a group.
The last two are the ones that get skipped. A group in which one delegate writes everything produces a resolution the rest of the group cannot defend on the floor.
Do not sit at the front. Walk between the groups. Read over shoulders. Ask a quiet delegate what their country's position is, in front of their group, so the group hears it.
The delegates most in need of a chair during lobbying are the ones who are not asking for one.
Groups merge their drafts into stronger ones. Help them do it without losing the smaller contributions.
Watch for duplicated clauses and for clauses that directly contradict each other in the same resolution. Both are much easier to remove now than to amend on the floor.
See Merging draft resolutions.
If you are unsure whether to push two groups together. Do not force a merge. Two honest resolutions debate better than one resolution that half the room does not believe in.
A resolution written with operative language the committee has no mandate for will attract a motion to refer it to another forum. That is avoidable now.
Rewording during lobbying usually fixes it. "Demands" becomes "Strongly urges the Security Council to demand". See Motion to refer to another forum.
The group chooses the main submitter. It should be a fair choice, made by the group.
Wanting the recognition is not a reason to be main submitter. If one delegate is claiming the role because they want the credit rather than because they wrote and can defend the resolution, say so to the group.
See Main submitter and co-submitters.
In MEDIMUN, a resolution needs 10 co-submitters.
MediBook allows up to 15 co-submitters on one resolution.
Check early. Copying clauses from previous resolutions is not accepted, and rephrasing something found in a book or online is still plagiarism. Common clauses, meaning the standard opening and closing wording, are the exception.
See Plagiarism.
Plagiarism found during lobbying. Tell the main submitter to rewrite it in their own words. If they do not, the resolution is not debated. Prioritise the other resolutions.
Plagiarism found during debate. This is much worse and much slower to handle. Every hour you spend reading drafts during lobbying reduces the chance of it.
Check the shape of every draft while there is still time to fix it.
A resolution needs at least one preambulatory clause and at least one operative clause. Every clause needs a starting phrase and text. A list of sub-clauses needs at least two of them, and the same applies to sub-sub-clauses. One sub-clause on its own is not allowed.
See Resolution format.
In MEDIMUN, resolutions are written in MediBook. A badly formatted resolution cannot be submitted at all. MediBook explains what to fix, and nothing is sent until it is fixed. See Resolutions in MediBook.
In MEDIMUN, all alliances are declared in MediBook, and the chair must enforce this. A group working together without a declared alliance is not something to let run. See Chair alliances.
In MEDIMUN, lobbying starts online before the conference and continues on day one through the call feature in MediBook. See Calls for lobbying.
Read what is already circulating before you arrive. On day one you should already know which alliances exist and which resolutions are close to ready.
In a Security Council, lobbying and merging is where the chair does the most work. Duplicates and directly contradictory clauses are removed here. Veto threats are raised and resolved here, quietly, away from the public debate.
See Security Council procedure and The veto.
SCREENSHOT: /medibook/sessions/22/committees/ga1/debate/control - the alliances and draft resolutions a chair sees during lobbying