SISMUN 2026 — DELEGATE TRAINING
Session 2: The Deep Dive
Singapore International School Model United Nations · 17th Edition · 8–9 August 2026
Last session: what happens in committee. This session: how to do it well.
Position papers, speeches, lobbying, resolutions, debate, amendments & voting
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
THE MAP
The Flow, One More Time
You know this sequence now. Today we stop at each stage and go deep.
Roll call
→
Opening speeches
→
Lobbying and merging
→
Blocs form
→
Resolutions written
→
Submission and approval
→
Formal debate
→
Points of information
→
Amendments
→
Final vote
→
Next resolution or topic
HOW TODAY WORKS: We follow this exact order. At each stage, you learn the technique that makes you good at it — starting before the conference even begins, with your position paper.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
BEFORE THE CONFERENCE
Turning Research into a Position
In Session 1 you learned how and where to research. Here's what to do with it:
Know your country's red lines, the things it would never accept. That's what protects you in negotiation.
Find the gaps in existing UN action. If several resolutions already failed, your value is understanding why.
Prepare answers to the obvious questions in advance: who enforces, what happens if a state refuses.
List two or three likely allies and one likely opponent before you arrive.
PRO TIP
Condense everything onto one page — position, red lines, allies, three facts with sources. That single page carries you through lobbying.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
BEFORE THE CONFERENCE
The Position Paper
A short written document, prepared before the conference, that sets out your country's stance on the agenda.
It shows the chairs you understand the topic and your country.
It becomes your reference document for the whole conference — your speech and your lobbying both come from it.
It is not your opening speech: the paper is written, detailed and done beforehand; the speech is spoken, short, and a summary of it.
THE STRUCTURE — THREE PARAGRAPHS
1
The issue, and why it matters to your country.
2
Your country's position and what it has already done — votes, treaties, statements.
3
What your country wants this committee to do.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
BEFORE THE CONFERENCE
A Position Paper, Paragraph by Paragraph
ISSUE
"Conflict has cut millions of people off from reliable food supplies. As a major contributor to regional aid operations, [Country] considers humanitarian access a direct national concern."
POSITION AND RECORD
"[Country] voted in favour of previous General Assembly resolutions on humanitarian access, is party to the Geneva Conventions, and has funded food logistics in affected regions since 2019."
PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
"[Country] urges the committee to consider monitored humanitarian corridors coordinated through the relevant UN agencies, provided the sovereignty of affected states is respected."
NOTICE Paragraph 2 is where your research shows — votes, treaties, real actions. And paragraph 3 ends with a condition. Real countries support things conditionally; including yours makes your paper stronger.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
BEFORE THE CONFERENCE
Position Papers: What to Avoid
"I think…" — governments don't speak in first person. Neither does your paper.
Unsupported claims. Every fact should have a source you can name.
Copying the study guide back at the chairs. They wrote it; they'll notice.
Vague lines like "the UN should take action" — they say nothing.
Solutions your country would never actually support.
A complete pre-written resolution. Resolutions get written with your bloc during lobbying, not solo at home.
Formatting, length and submission follow the official SISMUN guidelines — check the conference materials and your committee's instructions for the exact requirements.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
OPENING SPEECHES
The Opening Speech: Structure
Your speech has two audiences: the chairs, and — more importantly — the delegates deciding who to lobby with. A good opening speech makes the right countries come find you. The structure that works, in about a minute:
1
PROBLEM
The issue, framed the way your country sees it.
2
POSITION
Your country's stance in one plain sentence a listener could repeat.
3
PROPOSAL
One or two specific directions for action.
"The international community must act." — distinguishes you from nobody.
"Monitored aid corridors through the relevant UN agency." — gives allies something to work with. Specific beats grand.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
OPENING SPEECHES
Delivery: Weak vs Strong
WEAK
"Honourable President. Food insecurity is a very big problem. Millions are hungry and something must urgently be done. Our country thinks the UN should take strong action and all countries should work together. Thank you."
STRONG
"Honourable President, distinguished delegates. Conflict has cut millions off from food — not because food is unavailable, but because access is denied. [Country] believes humanitarian access is non-negotiable. We propose monitored humanitarian corridors and pooled regional funding for food logistics, and we invite delegations who share these priorities to work with us in lobbying."
WHY IT WINS It frames the problem with an insight, states a position you can repeat, proposes two specific things, and openly invites allies. The weak one isn't shorter — it's emptier.
DELIVERY Slow down on purpose, look up from your notes for the key lines, and finish on your proposal so that's what people remember. End early rather than get cut off.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
LOBBYING & BLOCS
Lobbying: How to Actually Do It
Lobbying is where the resolutions get built. Do it deliberately, not by drifting. Openers — notice each one is a question about them:
"What's your delegation's main position on the agenda?"
"Which solutions is your delegation prioritising?"
"We seem aligned on funding — could we work together?"
"We've drafted a clause on humanitarian access. Would you review it?"
That last one is the strongest move in the room: bring written text. People engage with a real clause far more than with an opinion, and asking for their review makes them co-owners of it.
Avoid: opening with "want to join my bloc?", talking only to friends, and ignoring quieter delegations — they hold real votes, and most people overlook them.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
LOBBYING & BLOCS
Negotiating Without Breaking Policy
Compromise is the skill. Abandoning your policy to seem agreeable is not.
State your price: "We can support this clause if the wording changes from 'demands' to 'encourages'." In resolution language, verb strength is negotiable substance.
Offer a substitute, never a flat no: "We can't back sanctions — but we could support independent monitoring with annual reporting."
Separate the goal from the mechanism. Two countries can want the same outcome and disagree only on how. Most real agreement lives in that gap.
Ask what's blocking them: "What concern prevents your delegation from supporting this?" Most objections are specific and fixable — once you know what they are.
Their mechanism
Your mechanism
SAME GOAL
↓
Agreement lives in the overlap.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
LOBBYING & BLOCS
Blocs: Build, Don't Just Join
A bloc is a coalition of overlap — not a team that agrees on everything.
The most effective blocs are often issue-specific : countries with nothing else in common who all care about one thing. Spot the bloc others haven't noticed and you create a coalition instead of joining one.
Expect to agree on some clauses and clash on others. That's normal diplomacy, not a problem.
If a draft drifts away from your policy, leave politely and keep the relationship — you may need those votes at the final count.
Don't fight over who gets to be main submitter. The delegate who wrote the clauses that matter is remembered either way.
OVERLAP
Partial agreement is the normal case.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
RESOLUTIONS
What a Resolution Is, Properly
The resolution is your committee's entire output. Everything else — research, speeches, lobbying — exists to make this one document better.
The heading names the committee, the agenda, the main submitter and the co-submitters.
The main submitter leads the draft. Co-submitters support it being debated — which doesn't bind them to every clause. The President confirms the exact rule in your committee.
If you've heard "sponsors and signatories" at other conferences, that's a different system. Here, it's submitter language.
Below the heading come two kinds of clauses — and the difference between them is the next two slides.
HEADING
Committee · Agenda · Main submitter · Co-submitters
PREAMBULATORY CLAUSES
Recalling… Deeply concerned… — the why, never numbered
OPERATIVE CLAUSES
1. Calls upon… 2. Recommends… — the numbered actions
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
RESOLUTIONS
Preambulatory Clauses: The Why
Preambulatory clauses give the background and justification — why action is needed.
They cover previous UN action, relevant treaties, legal principles, and the concerns behind the resolution.
They are never numbered, and they never contain actions.
Recalling…
Recognising…
Deeply concerned…
Guided by…
Noting with concern…
Reaffirming…
"Recalling previous General Assembly resolutions on humanitarian access, and deeply concerned by the continued denial of aid to affected populations,"
Don't treat them as decoration. Chairs read them — a resolution with weak preambulatory clauses looks like one written without research, because it is.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
RESOLUTIONS
Operative Clauses: The What
Operative clauses are the resolution — the numbered actions the committee proposes. Each one starts with a present-tense verb:
Calls upon…
Encourages…
Recommends…
Requests…
Urges…
Establishes…
Invites…
Supports…
The verb sets the strength — and remember from lobbying, that strength is negotiable. Swapping "demands" for "encourages" can win votes without losing the action.
Match your verbs to your committee's power. A General Assembly-style committee cannot "authorise" military force or binding sanctions — that's Security Council power, and chairs check drafts for exactly this.
SC, HSC and ICC may follow additional rules — defer to the official SISMUN Rules of Procedure and the President.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
RESOLUTIONS
A Clause That Survives Scrutiny
WHO DOES WHAT
—
HOW
—
FUNDED BY WHOM
—
UNDER WHOSE AUTHORITY
—
MONITORED HOW
WEAK"Calls upon countries to help refugees." Who — countries, meaning nobody. Does what — help, meaning nothing. Funding, monitoring — silence. It's a sentiment with a verb.
STRONG
WHAT CHANGED A named actor, a real agency, specified contributions, a location, and concrete deliverables. Roughly the same length — a completely different document.
PRO TIP
If you can't answer a point of information about your own clause, you didn't write it well enough — or you copied it.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
"Calls upon willing Member States, in coordination with UNHCR, to increase voluntary financial and logistical contributions to reception centres in affected border regions, including support for shelter, registration, healthcare and food distribution."
RESOLUTIONS
Resolution Mistakes That Sink Drafts
Vague promises with no actor or mechanism.
Enforcement nobody can actually enforce, or powers handed to bodies that don't have them.
Inventing new organisations with no funding or purpose.
Clauses that repeat each other, or forests of sub-clauses nobody can follow.
Solutions that contradict your own country's policy.
Clauses copied from the internet that fall apart under one question.
None of these get past good chairs — and all of them get exposed in debate. Write clauses you can defend.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
FORMAL DEBATE
How Formal Debate Runs
Once a resolution is submitted and approved, the committee debates it — and the debate has a rhythm:
Speeches for and against
→
Points of information
→
Amendments, one at a time
→
Resolution as amended
→
Final vote
↺ each amendment loops back to the resolution as amended
Speaking times and the exact format are set and announced by the President.
Your job during debate isn't just your own speeches — it's listening . The delegates who ask sharp questions and time their amendments well are the ones who actually shaped the final document.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
FORMAL DEBATE
Points of Information: Asking Sharp Ones
A well-aimed point of information can do more damage than a whole speech.
Aim at the weak spot:Could the delegate clarify which UN body would be responsible for implementing this mechanism?. PRO TIP
One clean question the speaker actually has to answer. Not three stacked together, not a speech with a question mark on the end.
Use it to expose a gap in their proposal — not to sneak in your own point.
"Could the delegate clarify who would fund and staff the monitoring body they propose?"
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
FORMAL DEBATE
Points of Information: Answering Under Pressure
Getting questioned is not an attack — it's the test your preparation was for.
Open with "the delegation thanks the delegate for the question." It's polite, and it legitimately buys you two seconds to think.
Answer the question that was asked, briefly. A rambling answer looks worse than a short honest one.
If you don't know, don't invent. "The delegation will follow up on the specific figure" is a professional answer; a made-up number that gets challenged is a disaster.
Stay calm and stay in policy.
A composed answer to a hostile question wins the room every time.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
AMENDMENTS & VOTING
Amendments: How They Work
An amendment changes a draft resolution — adding, striking, or rewording part of it.
Propose
→
Debate
→
Vote
→
Resolution as amended
Each amendment is debated and voted on individually. Then the committee returns to the resolution as amended.
How amendments are submitted and timed is the President's call — watch how it's done in your committee's first debate and you'll have it.
One warning: amendments modify, they don't relaunch. Rewriting an entire resolution clause by clause through amendments is exhausting and reads as hostile. If you oppose the whole document, speak against it and vote no.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
AMENDMENTS & VOTING
Amendments as Strategy
Amendments aren't just tidying — they're one of your sharpest tools.
If a single clause blocks your country from supporting an otherwise good resolution, the professional move is an amendment, not a "no" vote. Fix the clause, keep the resolution.
Use amendments to pull a draft closer to your policy without sinking it.
Amend when the document is worth saving. Vote against when it isn't. Knowing which situation you're in is the judgment call — and it comes from knowing your red lines.
FIXABLE CLAUSE→ amend
WHOLE DOCUMENT AGAINST POLICY→ vote no
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
AMENDMENTS & VOTING
Voting Properly
Vote your country's policy. Not your bloc's instructions, not loyalty to a draft you helped write.
That has a real consequence: if amendments turned your own resolution into something your country opposes, you vote against your own resolution . It genuinely happens.
Listen to the final amended version before deciding — it may not be the document that was submitted.
Abstention rules vary by vote type and committee; the Security Council has veto rules of its own. Take the President's instruction in the moment rather than assuming.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
DIPLOMATIC CONDUCT
Diplomatic Conduct: How You Sound
Everything you say lands better in the right register.
Always through the President; always "the delegation of…", never "you".
Precise beats loud. A calm, specific sentence carries more weight than a raised voice.
Praise before you push. Keep doors open instead of slamming them shut.
Keep the same tone in lobbying as in debate. Informal setting, same professionalism — chairs and delegates notice who switches off the diplomacy when the President isn't watching.
"The delegation appreciates the intention behind this proposal; however…"
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
DIPLOMATIC CONDUCT
Diplomatic Conduct: Disagreement and Pressure
Disagree with proposals, never with people. "The delegation cannot support this mechanism" — not "you're wrong".
If another delegate gets aggressive, don't match the energy. A calm delegation always looks stronger than a loud one — and the rest of the room is watching how you handle it.
Work with the delegates being talked over. That's usually most of the room, and they vote.
If your country is attacked directly, respond to the argument through the President and move on. Genuine misconduct is the Executive Board's job to handle, not yours.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
EVALUATION
How You're Actually Assessed
The official evaluation criteria come from SISMUN — check the conference materials and your study guide for the exact standards. But the pattern chairs reward is consistent everywhere:
Accuracy to your country's policy, held under pressure.
Useful contribution — clauses written, compromises brokered, sharp questions — over raw speaking time.
Diplomacy: moving the committee forward rather than dominating it.
Preparation that shows in the detail of what you say.
Nobody wins recognition for talking the most. Play to be the delegate the committee can't run smoothly without — recognition follows that.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
EVALUATION
Using the Study Guide Properly
Your study guide is the chairs telling you what they think matters. Read it that way.
Read it fully, early — it's your map of the agenda and the baseline everyone in the room shares.
Then research beyond it. The guide is the starting line, not the finish. Quoting it back at the chairs who wrote it is not research.
Note the questions it raises and the sub-topics it emphasises — those are strong hints about where debate will go and what your resolution should address.
If the guide includes position or paper requirements, follow them exactly. Format instructions are not suggestions.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
PREPARATION
Mistakes Even Good Delegates Make
Talking often but saying little.
Chasing the main-submitter title instead of writing content that matters.
Proposing outside the committee's mandate.
Abandoning policy to win a single moment in debate.
Ignoring quiet delegations who hold real votes.
Reading speeches word-for-word, head down.
None of these are fatal. Noticing them mid-conference and adjusting is exactly what strong delegates do.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
PREPARATION
Your Pre-Conference Checklist
Before 8 August, have these done:
✓
One-page country profile: position, red lines, likely allies, three facts with sources.
✓
Position paper written to the official format, submitted on time.
✓
Opening speech drafted and timed — rehearsed out loud once.
✓
Two or three clause ideas you can bring to lobbying.
✓
The awkward questions answered in advance: who pays, who enforces, what if a state refuses.
Do these five things and you walk in ahead of most of the room — not because you're louder, but because you're ready.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
RECAP
The Whole Journey, One Slide
Research
→
Position paper
→
Opening speech
→
Lobbying
→
Bloc
→
Clauses
→
Debate
→
Points of information
→
Amendments
→
Vote your policy
→
Stay active to the end
Every step on this line now has technique behind it. The delegates who matter on day two are the ones still contributing after the first resolution passes.
Preparation shows. Lack of preparation shows more.
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2
Questions
Ask about anything — position papers, speeches, lobbying tactics, resolutions, tricky committee situations.
The sharpest questions in this room tend to come from the delegates who do best in that one.
SISMUN 2026 · 8–9 AUGUST · SEE YOU THERE
SISMUN 2026 · Delegate Training · Session 2