Transcript MUN Debating

MUN Debating
Ivana Vujeva
Useful Because...
•
•
•
It helps you get your ideas and/or opinions
across
It teaches you to work with many different
types of people
It helps you improve your public speaking
skills— skills that will be useful both in
committee and in the real world.
Public Speaking
Your downfall, or route to success
Delivery
•
•
•
•
•
HOW you say things matters just as much as WHAT
you say, if not more
If you can’t make yourself sound interesting, you can
forget about anyone paying attention.
Remember— your good ideas are wasted if you can’t
get them across effectively!
Think of your speech as a date: you come for the looks,
stay for the substance.
The trick: engage the audience RIGHT AWAY, so that
they stay interested.
Delivery Techniques
•
•
•
•
When giving a speech or asking a question, think about 3 things:
VOLUME, SPEED, and PITCH.
VOLUME: Many times, delegates think they’re being loud enough, even
when they’re not. When in doubt, speak louder.
SPEED: Delegates also tend to speak a lot quicker than they think they
are. There’s nothing wrong with occasionally raising your speed, but
generally, a slow, steady talking pitch is easiest to understand.
PITCH: Don’t be monotonous, as this will make people lose interest in
what you have to say. Try to start off high, then go low as you finish.
What to do with your body
•
•
•
EYES: don’t look at just one person, but rather look around at many
different people. Don’t change too often, but often enough to seem
engaged. Look at many people, one person at a time, instead of giving the
group a blank stare.
HANDS: Europeans beware: less hand action is definitely more. Either
keep them at rest, in the inverted triangle pose, or move them with your
points. If you look like Christ the Redeemer, you’re doing it wrong.
FEET: You are not a motivational speaker, you don’t need to move around
too much. If you can handle it, try moving to a different spot with each point
to keep it fresh, but don’t prance around. It’s unprofessional.
Delivery Cheats
•
•
•
Nervous? Look for any friends you have in committee, and look at them
when you’re talking. It will make you feel more comfortable.
Shake? Hold your binder or speech to the side (imagine cradling a baby in
your arms), as this will stop people from noticing. (Note: this comes into
play when there’s no podium in the room. If there is a podium, grip both
sides and hide tour quaking knees behind it.)
Trip over your words? Don’t repeat yourself unless it was really obvious.
By going on seamlessly, you’re being professional.
The 1-Minute Speech
•
•
•
•
Time constraints happen more often than you think, so knowing how to
give a short speech is key.
Keeping your speech short and sweet will mean people will remember
more of what you said.
Try to focus on only 1 main point. If you need to do two, list them, say
them, and list them again. You may think it’s redundant, but people will
appreciate your organization.
This speech consists of 3 parts: the HOOK, POINT, and CALL TO
ACTION.
1MS: HOOK
•
•
•
Your HOOK is how you draw people’s attention.
A hook can be:
i) a rhetorical question, or several
ii) a greeting in the language of your nation (works for cool accents)
iii) an interesting and appropriate fact
iv) anything that you think will get people’s attention.
Example: Have you ever been lucky enough to have been at the right
place at the right time? I have. Has this perfect timing ever led you to
witness something awesome? It has for me.
1MS: POINT
•
•
•
•
•
Your aim is to be short and sweet, so don’t ramble.
Make 1 strong point instead of many weak ones.
Choose your most important point, or the point that is the most different
from what everyone else is saying.
If you must make 2 points, keep them short, and list them. Also be very
clear when you’re moving on to the next point.
Example: The practice of child soldiers must be banned in all countries,
because it is against the basic human rights to life, liberty, and security of
person. the UN Declaration of Human Rights stands for all people, and
reflects the values of the human race. By violating these rights, we are
denying these children the equal opportunity that would be awarded to
them in other regions, and that is wrong.
1MS: Call to Action
•
•
•
•
The point of your speech is to get your idea out there so that others will
want to work with you
How do you get them to work with you? By calling them to action.
A call to action can be a call to reflect on what you’ve said, an idea in
general, to page you, to approach you during the next unmod, to contact
you about joining a resolution, etc.
Example: If you believe in free healthcare for all, the delegate from Canada
invites you all to send us a page or contact us during the next unmod, so
that we can work together to bring a resolution to the table that offers valid
solutions.
80/20
•
•
The 80/20 phenomenon: shows you to get 80% of the reward from 20% of
the work
The tips I just gave you were about making public speaking easy. Make it
easy for yourself so that you can focus on resolution writing, coming up
with good questions, and build rapport with your fellow delegates.
Moderated Caucuses
Mod vs. Speaker’s List
•
•
•
•
Speaker’s list is all about showing your initial thoughts on the subjects as a
whole.
Moderated caucuses are used to further discussion on a single topic. For
example, if the topic being discussed is Immunization, a topic for a
moderated caucus would be Distribution of Vaccines.
Mods are good because of their non-structure, their tendency to lead
towards unmoderated caucuses
They’re also good for seeing what the general consensus is on a certain
topic
Problems with Mods
•
•
•
•
•
•
The most typical problem with a moderated caucus is that everyone seems
to be saying the same thing.
For most things, many countries agree, so you are going to have a lot of
different people saying the same thing, just so that they can talk.
This gets frustrating and often leads nowhere
people often jump in
non-sequitur
when you’re going with a slightly more informal approach, there will be
problems with people getting sloppy and too casual.
Using a Mod to Your
Advantage
•
•
•
•
•
Because everyone will be saying the same thing, your job is to PUSH
DEBATE FORWARD.
You stand out as a delegate, come across as sophisticated, and will
generate many sighs of appreciation when you try to bring things to a
conclusion
participation is KEY
don’t speak first, but speak early on
speak twice, if you can: once to establish your point, and then later on to
bring discussion forward.
While Caucusing:
•
•
•
•
•
make YOUR point
write down themes that speak often, and make checks beside ones that
are repeated the most often
reframe the themes and present a general argument that synthesizes it all
together
make sure to say that these issues are key issues
look for underlying themes that people are getting at but not actually
saying
Listening
•
•
“power delegates” seem to dominate conversations and not listen to the
conversation because they’re thinking of their own speeches
instead of thinking about what you want to say, what is the committee
trying to say? What are the themes that are appearing again and again?
The Mod Formula
1. I agree/disagree with the previous speaker
(hook)
2. Why? (point)
3. What should be done (instead)? (call to
action)
Bringing Debate Forward
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
everyone is talking, no one is saying anything, that’s when YOU come in
bring things to a conclusion. How?
Take note of common ideas that are being said. Try to pinpoint the main 2
or 3.
Stand up, hopefully for your second speech, and use the following format:
IDENTIFY-> SUMMARIZE-> SYNTHESIZE
Pinpoint the key problems, bring them together, and then suggest a
solution.
Example: The delegate from Iran has noticed that many delegates seem to
be bringing up similar points, which are that we need to come up with a
definition of terrorism, and that we have to respect country sovereignty.
Instead of saying the same thing, let’s try to move into an unmod so that
we can hammer out our issues and bring a resolution to the table.
Unmoderated
Caucuses
a.k.a. Controlled Chaos
Why do we need Unmods?
• converse with other delegates
• cross-debate
• create resolutions
• two ways to caucus: hard currencies and soft
currencies
Hard Currency
-your knowledge of the subject
-when you share your ideas with other
delegates
-you do this when you give your speech, push
forward debate
-try to share your ideas and knowledge to
show that you have hard currency
Soft Currency
-comes in three parts:
1. Intellectual currency: your ability to listen to someone else’s ideas, and
make it better/find common beliefs
2. Resource currency: your ability to put in effort and time i.e. working on
resolutions during speeches
3. Emotional currency: your generosity with others in the group (do you
provide complements, help them out?) It makes you likeable and makes
people want to work with you
Currencies
EVERYONE COMES INTO COMMITTEE
WITH THESE CURRENCIES
HOW DO YOU MAKE THEM WORK FOR
YOU?
Cashing in Emotional Currency
-introducing yourself before committee starts
-passing notes to other delegates
-introducing delegates and following up
-complementing/giving credit to other delegates
-inviting everyone to open the circle and make room for more
-doing these things makes people more likely to like you and want to work with
you
When to use currencies
1.Block Discovery
-in the beginning of committee
-you want to find out who your allies can be in the future
-you should be framing for allies, not rivals
-invite others to join your group, especially novices who can also vote
-be as inclusive as possible out front
-look for the different currencies everyone brings, ask if their currencies are
complementary
-see if your styles work together
-don’t discount quiet people, they may have great resource currency
(con’t)
2.Block Formation
-look for people who are resourceful
-look for different wealths in your block
-ask questions to see who has what to make sure you know who has what
Hard Currencies
-you WANT people to invest in your block.
-if they’ve invested into your block/resolution, they probably won’t leave your
group
-focus first on easy wins, then move on to ideas that have more conflict
-assign different groups to work on similar ideas
-assign yourself a clause that you really care about
-focus on finding the top 4 people in your group, and designate the four main
clauses to these four main people to prevent competition
(con’t)
3.Block Management
-getting everyone on the bus, and on the right seat on the bus
-notice different roles: typer, manager, note-taker, idea generator, etc.
-set your allies
-set a recruiter to get others into your block
-set someone as defines against people who will try to swallow your block
-the leader of the caucus group tends to be the “chair” of the caucus group.
-you WANT to be that chair, which means you have to talk less and listen
more
-try adding on to great ideas to add higher value and then direct conversation
to others
-no one cares about YOUR country policy, so convert POLICIES into
ACTIONS
When writing a resolution
-YOU want to be the FIRST to market. Make sure you get your resolution in
first.
-to do this, you need to divide and conquer.
-you need to communicate often between the co-CEOS
-keep the cooler head, control emotions
-always merge resolutions AFTER resolutions are presented
Negotiation Styles
1.
2.
3.
Compromise (you give in order to get)
Collaborating (better than compromise) involves adding lots of ideas
together, THEN compromising on a few things. (greater profit)
Aversion: Usually not a good idea, but can be useful if you really don’t
want to work with someone, particularly a power delegate
Power Delegates
DUH DUH DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH
HOW TO SPOT ‘EM
-loud
-aggressive
-gavel hunters
-slash resolutions
-dont listen to people
-disinterested in what you have to say
-always the first sponsor
-they try to heard delegates like cattle
-they suck up to the chair
-limit your voice
RULE OF THUMB
***When dealing with a
power delegate, MAKE
SURE you don’t become
one yourself***
HOW TO DEAL WITH ‘EM
-form an opposing block
-send a note to the chair
-call them out on their behaviour
Fight vs. Flight
-fight: be louder, push for your ideas to “beat them”
-flight: make the conscious effort to not work with them