A speech is your delegation's turn to be heard. The chair decides who speaks and for how long.
Keep your placard down until the chair asks for speakers. Raise it when the chair asks, and wait to be recognised. Do not start speaking before your name or your country is called.
The main submitter speaks first on their own resolution. Everyone else speaks in the order the chair recognises them.
In MEDIMUN, speeches are timed, declared and yielded in MediBook. Your chair may also accept speech requests through MediBook, which is up to them. See Speeches and yields in MediBook.
SCREENSHOT: /medibook/sessions/22/committees/ga1/debate - the delegate debate view during a speech, showing the speaker and the timer
Address the chair and the house before you begin. Then start the speech itself.
Speak in the third person throughout. Never say "I" and never say "you". Speak of yourself as the delegation and of others as "the honourable delegate" or "fellow delegates".
Keep to one structure. It works for almost every speech.
The problem. One or two sentences on why the committee is discussing this at all.
Your country's position. What your country believes and why. Use one fact you can defend.
What should happen. The action your country wants. If you are speaking on a resolution, say what you support in it or what is wrong with it.
Say less than you think you need to. A short clear speech is better than a long one that runs out of time in the middle of a sentence.
Watch the clock. The chair sets the time for debate and will tell you what you have. See Setting debate time.
When you finish, the chair asks whether you are open to points of information.
If you are, the chair says how many will be taken and asks the house for points. You answer each one.
If you are not, the chair asks you to yield the floor.
You yield the floor to the chair, or to another delegation.
The floor may be passed from one delegation to another only once in a row. You cannot yield a floor that was already yielded to you.
Points of information are still in order after a yield. Both the delegate who yielded and the delegate who received the floor may be asked points.
Everybody in the room was new once, including your chairs.
Write your first sentence out in full and read it. After that, work from notes rather than a script, because a read speech is hard to follow. Speak more slowly than feels natural. Look up between sentences. If you lose your place, stop, find it and carry on. Nobody minds a pause.
If the house cannot hear you. A delegate may raise a point of personal privilege about audibility. It is the only point that is allowed to interrupt a speaker. If one is raised while you are speaking, wait for the chair, then speak louder.
If you are unsure whether to take points of information: take them. Answering a question well shows you know your policy, and it is how the house engages with what you said. If you would rather not, that is your right, and the chair will ask you to yield instead.
Clapping is only in order when a resolution as a whole passes. It is not in order after a speech, after an amendment, or when a resolution fails. Silence after your speech is normal.
Sit down and listen to the next speaker. Points of information you want to ask come from what other people say. See Asking your first point of information.