Model UN

About the Club

Model UN meets every Monday from 1:15 – 2:00 PM on CCPA’s campus.

The club is open to 9th -12th grade students from The Cottonwood School. Our club meets once a week at the CCPA campus in El Dorado Hills. The club is open to students of the Cottonwood School in grades 9-12. Our objective is preparing to attend Model UN Conferences: formal simulations where students act as delegates to the UN. The preparation process includes researching your assigned country and topic, preparing and delivering opening speeches, researching and writing position papers, and practicing skills of public speaking, debate, and resolution-making. In addition to attending conferences, we have a lot of fun and make friendships along the way!

model un student holding a folder that says new zealand

2025-2026 Model United Nations Conference Schedule

(Subject to change)

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About the Advisor

Hi, I’m Ms. Douglas!

I’m in my 4th year of being both the MUN club advisor and the history teacher at CCPA. I graduated from UC Davis with a BA in History and an MA in Education. I’m also working on an MA in History at Sac State.

Because of all this, I really enjoy spending the year helping students learn about different times and places, and accompanying students to UC Davis for their culminating conference.

Past Conferences

2025-2026 Conferences

Best Delegate: Information Integrity and State-Sponsored Disinformation Campaigns in the Digital Age

Where: CCPA

When: October 11, 2025

Outstanding Delegate: Cate R.

Best Delegate: Reconstruction, Governance, and Justice in a Post-Regime Syria

Where: CCPA

When: December 6, 2025

Best Delegate: Ava H.

Outstanding Delegate: Cate R.

Where: UC Berkeley

When: March 6 – 8, 2026

Description: Hosted by UC Berkeley students for high school delegations across California.

Where: UC Davis

When: May 2-3, 2026

Description: Hosted by UC Davis students for high school delegations across California.

2024-2025 Conferences

Best Delegate: Space-Based Commerce Regulation

When: December 7, 2024

Honorable Mention: Ella C.

Best Delegate: Upholding the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas

When: February 22, 2025

Outstanding Delegate: Sarah S.

Honorable Mention: Cordelia E.

Honorable Mention: Cate R.

Best Delegate: Combating Organized Crime

When: March 22, 2025

Outstanding Delegate: Cordelia E.

Outstanding Delegate: Sarah S.

Honorable Mention: Ava H.

Honorable Mention: Cate R.

DMUNC XXII

When: May 3-4, 2025 Outstanding Delegate: Cordelia E.

Verbal Commendation: Sarah S.

Resources

Country Research

Here are some suggestions on how to conduct effective counrtry research:

Follow the “How To” guide below.
Complete the “Country Research” doc from Ms. Douglas.
Start with the CIA World Factbook for statistics and a general overview of your country.
Use real Policy Speeches. These are a great way to find specific examples of your country’s position on an issue. Search for your country on the UN’s Record Website. You can also search for other speeches and documents on the UN’s Digital Library.
Check the U.S. Department of State‘s report on human rights in your country.
Follow current events in your country. Try articles from news outlets in your country that can be translated into English.
Look up your country’s Permanent Mission to the UN. You can contact them to ask questions or request a statement on an issue.

Conference Binders

When we attend a conference, each student will need a conference binder. Here’s what to include:

Your position papers and opening speeches
Your committee’s background guide
Your country’s page from the CIA Factbook
Wikipedia pages on your country and topics
The latest news articles on your country and topics
Resolutions, treaties, and conventions related to your topics
Speeches and press releases that your country’s government has issued regarding your topic
Blank lined paper, your notes, and ideas for possible solutions.

Opening Speech

Your opening speech is given at the beginning of committee session. You typically begin with a quote, statistics, or facts about your topic. Then, you go on to describe your country’s policy on the topic and your solutions. Below is an outline for an opening speech with examples for each piece of the outline:

Begin by thanking the Chair and then cite a statistic, quote, or story about the topic in order to engage the audience.
Example: “Thank you, Distinguished Chair.The government of [country] feels very strongly about the topic of ‘universal primary education.’ As Maria Montessori once said, ‘Averting war is the work of politicians, but establishing peace is the work of education.’ And right now, the international community is failing : to establish peace. Millions of children around the world lack access to primary education, and at our current pace, we will fail to achieve Sustainable Development Goal number 4 – quality and inclusive education by 2030.” (30 seconds)
Continue by describing how the topic affects your country.
Example: “The government of [country] has made great strides to improve access to education, but the people of [country] still have a national literacy rate of 50%, and it is even lower in impoverished rural areas.” (IO seconds)
Conclude by stating your country’s solutions to the topic.
Example: “The government of [country] policy is that more resources should be devoted to implementing national education programs in developing countries. [Country name] proposes holding a summit on Universal Primary Education before the end of next year as a call to arms for the international community to raise more funds to address this pressing problem. Thank you.” (20 seconds)

Background Guides

What follows is a suggested way to set up your background guide for the background research on your country for the conference. This information will be helpful for you when we are participating in the conference.

MAIN SECTIONS:

Introduction to the topic: This section contains an opening statement so everyone can begin on firm footing when understanding the topic as a whole.
Background: This section contains the history anf past actions of the topic.
Current Challenges: This section discusses the current state of this topic and the current, most pressing issues.
Solutions: This section is focused on developing global solutions to address the topic.
UN Resolutions: This section references the actual past UN resolutions that address the topic.

ELEMENTS:

Guiding Questions: These are meant to inspire investigation into each section of the background guide.
Key Terms: These are key ideas or concepts that the delegates need to understand.
Country Focus: These questions help guide delegates to understand their country’s specific position on this topic.
Resources: This is a place to begin for building the background guide. Background guides only use resources gathersed from the United Nations. This will keep all the information in sync with the perspective of the international community through the lens of the United Nations itself. This is where you can put supplementary resources to continue their exploration of the the topics.

Position Paper

What Is a Position Paper?

A position paper is a short, well-researched document that you write before the conference to explain your assigned country’s perspective on the topics your committee will discuss. Think of it as your country’s official statement—your chance to show what you know and set the stage for your performance in committee.

Why Are Position Papers Important?

Organize Your Research: Writing a position paper helps you pull together all your research and clarify your country’s views.
Guide Your Debate: Your paper acts as a roadmap during committee sessions, helping you stay on message and respond confidently to other delegates.
Showcase Your Preparation: Submitting a strong position paper proves you’re ready to participate, negotiate, and draft resolutions.
Helps Write Your Opening Speech: The opening speech is an important part of the MUN conference. Writing a good position paper helps to inform and create a good opening speech for the conference.
Draft Paragraphs for Resolutions: The position paper also plays a part in helping to draft the paragraphs that will be a part of your resolutions.

What Goes Into a Position Paper?

Most conferences ask for position papers to be about 1–2 pages per topic. While each event may have its own requirements, here’s a general outline you can follow:

Introduction: Briefly introduce the topic and explain why it matters to your country.
Background: Give some context. What’s the history behind this issue? Why is it important internationally?
Country’s Position: Clearly state your country’s stance. What has your country said or done about this issue in the past? What are its main concerns or goals
Past International Action: Mention relevant treaties, UN resolutions, or international efforts your country has supported or opposed.
Proposed Solutions: Offer realistic ideas for what the committee or the UN should do next—solutions that fit your country’s interests.
Supporting Evidence: Back up your points with facts, quotes, or references to international law.

Tips for Writing

Write from your country’s perspective, not your own.
Be clear, concise, and persuasive.
Check your conference’s guidelines for formatting and submission deadlines.

A position paper is a concise document in which a delegate, representing a country or observer, outlines their assigned nation’s official stance on the topics to be discussed in their committee. It paper is typically written and submitted before the conference begins.

Resolutions

Understanding Resolutions in Model United Nations

A resolution is the final product of your hard work in a Model United Nations (MUN) committee. It’s a formal document that presents the solutions your committee has developed to address the issue at hand. In MUN, writing, debating, and passing resolutions is how we simulate the real work of the United Nations. The evolution of a resolution is as follows:

A resolution is a working paper when it is a set of ideas/rough draft.
The working paper becomes a draft resolution once it has been submitted, approved by the Chair, and presented to the committee.
A draft resolution becomes a resolution once it has been voted on and passess.

Why Are Resolutions Important?

They Propose Solutions: Resolutions outline what actions the UN or member states should take to solve the problem you’re discussing.
They Guide Debate: The content of a resolution shapes the flow of debate, amendments, and voting in committee sessions.
They Show Consensus: A passed resolution represents the collective agreement and compromise reached by delegates.

What Does a Resolution Look Like?

A resolution is divided into three main parts:

Header
Includes the committee name, the topic, the list of sponsors (main authors), and signatories (delegates who support discussing the resolution).
Preambulatory Clauses
These clasuses set the scene by explaining the background of the issue, referencing previous UN actions, and stating why the issue is important.
Each clause begins with a preambulatory phrase (like “Recognizing,” “Alarmed by,” or “Recalling”) and ends with a comma.
Operative Clauses
These are the heart of the resolution, spelling out the specific actions or recommendations your committee wants to make.
Each clause starts with an action word (such as “Encourages,” “Requests,” or “Decides”) and ends with a semicolon, except for the last one, which ends with a period.