Awards & Certificates
Certificate of Participation
You will receive a certificate of participation for attending the MUN as a delegate — only if you attend a minimum percentage of council sessions. Usually, this percentage is 80%, but different MUNs have different quotas.
If you do not submit your position paper, or submit a plagiarised position paper, you may not be liable for a certificate of participation.
Awards
Delegates who perform well during the conference get awards.
Uh-oh.
Awards are given out to delegates who perform well during council sessions.
There are typically four paper awards in debate councils. Paper awards are official awards, and you will get a certificate for the award.
- Best Delegate
- Outstanding Delegate
- Honourable Mention
- Best Position Paper
Most councils will also verbally commend delegates who performed well but fell short of qualifying for a paper award.
Let’s not talk too much about awards. It’s not meant to be that deep, and if you start chasing awards, you may diminish your excitement and fun doing MUNs. Genuinely, no one really cares about your awards outside the MUN circuit — your future university admissions officer will literally ignore your “Best Delegate” (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating) and look for more credible… credentials. Perhaps you could spin your “Best Delegate” into some story for the admissions guy, but you could do that with any accolade, really. What’s more important is that you’ve been to MUNs — that would show that you have an interest in global affairs. But don’t take it from me, I’m just a random person they found on the street (who’s they?).
The way I see it, awards are the primary reason why MUNs can get furiously toxic. An obsessive pursuit of awards can severely diminish the amount of enjoyment you get from spending three to four days in Western Business Attire pretending to be important with other people your age.
Determining awards
Fine, you want to know what goes into getting an award. As long as you promise me that the award is not the primary reason that you’re joining any MUN.
From experience, how awards are determined is highly dependent on the competency of the Dais. In general, more well-known MUNs with more established standard procedures would have a more consistent system to give out awards to delegates. On the flip side, some MUNs are more haphazard in their award-giving, where chairs may not need to strongly justify their decisions.
In any case, the following are qualitative aspects that the Dais looks out for when considering a delegate for any paper award.
1. Stance
This is likely the most important factor that the chairs will take into account when determining who gets an award.
The delegate most suited for an award is one that:
- Showcases a strong understanding of their stance,
- Presents strong arguments that support their stance,
- Presents strong counterarguments against delegates with opposing stances, and
- Does not undertake any action or deliver any statement that breaks their stance.
In the Special Defence Dialogue (SDD) council of YMAX 2025, the delegation of China was extremely captivating and eloquent in their speech and arguments. All the delegates had predicted that they would receive the Best Delegate award.
You might think that I’m about to say that they constantly broke their stance, and therefore they did not get the award. However, this is far from the case. The delegation of China were extremely strong in their understanding of their stance, and consistently pushed for ideas and solutions that supported their stance.
Except one slip of the tongue.
One. Uno. 一个。Satu.
During the press conference, one of the delegates of China had mistakenly referred to the military junta of Myanmar as “terrorists”. This is not something China would do, and the delegate probably did not think much about their phrasing.
This alone was sufficient grounds, according to the Dais, to void their eligibility for paper awards. Their reasoning was as such — the international consequences of a representative of China calling the junta of Myanmar “terrorists” would be catastrophic.
On one hand, I get it. If this had happened in real life, I think the relations between those two countries might be in jeopardy. On the other hand, however, I don’t think it was a fair analysis. In real life, the representative would immediately be faced with public backlash and then be given the opportunity to issue an apology. In this case, the delegate did not even know their mistake until after the conference, when the Dais was giving out feedback.
In any case, this situation showed me two things:
- YMAX takes their awards very seriously.
- A single slip-up is sufficient grounds, especially for advanced councils like SDD and UNSC, to void a delegate from paper awards.
2. Impact on council direction
No chair in the Dais can predict how the debate will go. How the debate flows is completely up to the delegates present in the council.
The delegate most suited for an award is one that:
- Leads the council in debate,
- Commands other delegates effectively (e.g. leading a bloc), and
- Takes the initiative to steer the direction of debate through effective speeches and raised motions.
3. Council presence
You know what’s a fool-proof way to avoid breaking your stance? By not participating in the debate. Obviously, this is not the play.
The delegate most suited for an award is one that:
- Has consistent and meaningful presence during moderated and unmoderated debate, through:
- The amount of time spent on the floor, and
- Captivating delivery in speeches during moderated debate and discussions during unmoderated debate.
4. Professionalism and diplomacy
At the end of the day, actual delegates are diplomatic towards each other, no matter how different their stances can be.
The delegate most suited for an award is one that:
- Shows basic respect to fellow delegates during and outside debate,
- Shows respect when presenting counterarguments against delegates with opposing views,
- Uses diplomatic language in conversations and discussions,
- Shows genuine motivation and interest in participating in the debate, and
- Is a nice person overall.
Chairs may not be actively looking out for delegates’ attitudes, but one’s attitude very much has a psychological impact on anyone’s impressions of them. No one is going to give an award to a jackass, no matter how good of a delegate you are.
During SDYC 2023, I was one of the delegates of Denmark, which, at the time, was not a member of the UNSC. As such, I was considered an observer delegate.
During one of the Arria-formula meetings (a mechanic unique to UNSC — private meetings between delegates overseen by a chair), a few of us were having rather heated discussions about the Arctic. It was extremely obvious that the delegate of France did not respect me because of my observer status, and he would constantly talk over me or interrupt me.
At one point, he said:
France: Shut up, you’re an observer delegate. You have no powers.
What would you even say to someone like that? I just replied:
Denmark (Observer): Bro, that’s not very diplomatic of you. We are official representatives of our countries, and I don’t think the French government would be happy with your conduct here. You wouldn’t want to risk any tensions between France and Denmark, all because of you, right?
Okay, in hindsight, that was all yap and no action. But what could I do? At least I made myself clear…
Delegates that try to talk over others are colloquially known as power dels, and I really don’t like power dels.