Model UN awards
explained.

Model UN awards are given per committee by the chairs, usually on a ladder of Best Delegate, Outstanding Delegate and Honourable Mention, with a separate Best Position Paper for written work. They reward sustained diplomatic performance across the whole conference, not a single memorable speech.

What are the standard Model UN awards?

Most conferences use a three-rung ladder in each committee: Best Delegate at the top, Outstanding Delegate second, and Honourable Mention third. Many add a fourth rung, Verbal Commendation, which is announced in the room but not always certificated, and almost all give a separate Best Position Paper award for the written submission.

The names vary: some conferences say Distinguished Delegate instead of Outstanding, and a few use Gold, Silver and Bronze. The structure underneath is the same: one winner, a small second tier, a slightly larger third tier, and one prize for writing.

The Model UN gavel is the physical form of Best Delegate at many conferences. The winner receives a small wooden gavel, which is why experienced delegates talk about “gavelling” a committee. Larger committees sometimes give two Best Delegate awards; smaller ones may give one Outstanding and one Honourable Mention only.

How is Best Delegate chosen?

Best Delegate is chosen by the chairs of the committee, who keep notes on every delegate through every session and then confer at the end of the final session. There is no vote among delegates, and at reputable conferences the secretariat does not overrule the dais.

In practice the chair and vice-chairs each keep a running sheet. After each session they mark who spoke, who moved the room in caucus, who wrote which clauses, and who held a bloc together when it was under pressure. By the final session there are usually three or four candidates, and the conversation on the dais is about which of them shaped the outcome most.

Two things decide close cases: trajectory, since a delegate who was quiet on day one and indispensable by the final vote often beats one who peaked early, and the resolution itself. Chairs ask whose ideas are in the operative clauses that passed, and whose name the other delegates mention when they explain how the draft came together.

What does a Model UN awards rubric score?

A MUN awards rubric, whether written down or carried in the chair’s head, scores the same six areas: position paper, speeches, caucus leadership, drafting, diplomacy and procedure. Conferences weight them differently, but a delegate who is weak in two of the six will rarely finish first.

• Position paper. Accuracy of policy, quality of evidence, and whether the proposals in the paper reappear in the delegate’s work in committee. Read the position paper guide for the structure chairs expect.
• Speeches. Clarity, relevance to the debate as it stands, and whether each speech moves the room rather than repeating the country’s general position. Our opening speech template covers the first one.
• Caucus leadership. Who convenes the working group, who keeps it on task, who notices when a delegation is drifting away and brings it back. The lobbying and caucusing module is the practical version.
• Drafting. Who actually writes the clauses, who merges competing drafts without losing sponsors, and whether the final language is precise enough to survive amendment. See the draft resolution guide.
• Diplomacy. Staying in character, treating opponents with respect, conceding gracefully, and building a coalition wider than your natural allies.
• Procedure. Using points and motions to serve the debate rather than to perform expertise. A well-timed motion to move into an unmoderated caucus counts; a motion raised to show off does not.

Notice what is missing: volume, number of speeches, and the size of the country you represent. None of them appear on any rubric we know of, and none of them should.

What are the Best Position Paper criteria?

Best Position Paper goes to the submission that states the country’s policy accurately, supports it with primary sources, analyses the topic rather than summarising it, and ends with proposals specific enough to become operative clauses. It is judged before the conference opens, so it is the one award that does not depend on how the committee goes.

Chairs read every paper in the room in a short window, which shapes what wins. A paper that is one page over the limit, wrongly formatted, or missing the required sections is usually set aside before quality is considered. After that, the papers that stand out are the ones that cite named resolutions and national statements rather than encyclopaedias, and that make the delegate’s eventual resolution predictable.

Why are Model UN awards given per committee?

Awards are given per committee because only the chairs of that room watched every session, and performance in one committee cannot be compared fairly with performance in another. A Security Council of fifteen and a General Assembly committee of two hundred are different sports.

The consequence is that every committee has its own Best Delegate, whatever its size. A small chamber is not a lesser award. In fact, small committees are often judged more closely, because the chair can observe every delegate in every caucus rather than sampling the loudest corner of a large hall.

Common myths about Model UN awards

Most myths about Model UN awards come from watching who was noticed rather than who was rewarded. Three of them do real damage to new delegates.

Myth one: the loudest delegate wins

Speaking often is not the same as being effective. Chairs notice when a delegate takes the floor with nothing new to add, and repeated speeches that do not move the debate can lower a score rather than raise it. The delegates who win are usually the ones other delegates go to during unmoderated caucus.

Myth two: P5 countries win

Representing a permanent member of the Security Council gives you more material and more leverage, but also more scrutiny. The chair knows exactly what that country’s policy is and will notice every departure from it. Small states win regularly, particularly when they broker the compromise that the large delegations could not reach on their own.

Myth three: you need to sponsor the winning resolution

Sponsoring the resolution that passes helps, but chairs look at contribution rather than the names on the front page. A delegate who wrote the two clauses that unlocked the merger, then let others take the sponsorship to keep the coalition intact, has often done more than the first sponsor.

How to be award-competitive without being award-obsessed

The most reliable way to win recognition is to stop optimising for it and start optimising for the room: know your policy, be useful in caucus, write clauses that survive, and treat every delegate as a potential co-sponsor. Chairs reward the delegate the committee could not have done without.

1. Prepare deeper than the topic guide. Read your country’s actual statements and voting record, not only the topic guide.
2. Write the position paper you intend to act on. If your proposals are specific, your first caucus already has an agenda.
3. Convene rather than dominate. Be the delegate who suggests the working group meet in the corner by the window, and who keeps a list of who wants what.
4. Draft early and share credit. A clause with five sponsors and your fingerprints on it is worth more than a clause with your name and no votes.
5. Stay in character under pressure. The moment a merger collapses is when chairs learn the most about you.
6. Let the award be the by-product. Delegates who visibly chase the gavel make the room smaller; delegates who make the room work tend to be handed it.

Award-obsession also has a cost that has nothing to do with chairs: delegates who treat committee as a race stop listening, and listening is the skill Model UN exists to teach. Our essay on whether Model UN is worth it explains why that matters more than the gavel.

How awards work at The Global 60

At The Global 60, awards are judged per chamber by the chairs, on the standard ladder, and no tier or payment has any bearing on them. Youth Impacts presents The Global 60 in New York City on Thursday 22 – Sunday 25 April 2027, with sixty delegates debating in three small chambers of approximately twenty delegates each rather than one large assembly.

Each chamber gives four academic awards: Best Delegate, Outstanding Delegate, Honourable Mention and Best Position Paper. Because a chamber has about twenty delegates and three committee sessions before the Global Plenary, the chair and dais see every delegate in every caucus; nobody is judged from a sample. High-school and university delegates share the chambers, and awards are separated between the two tracks where necessary.

Across the whole cohort, five Global 60 recognitions are read at the Saturday gala: Outstanding Diplomacy, Coalition Builder, The Voice, Emerging Global Leader, and The Global 60 Award. These recognise qualities that a committee ladder does not always capture, such as the delegate who held a coalition together or the one whose speech changed how the room understood the question.

One rule is worth stating plainly because it matters to parents as much as delegates. The academic programme is identical on every tier, and no tier affects country assignment, speaking time, committee role, awards or recognition. A delegate on the $2,999 Delegate tier and a delegate on the Excellency tier sit in the same chamber, are judged by the same chairs, and are scored on the same sheet. The full picture of how the chambers run is on The Assembly page, and the recognitions are read at the Saturday gala.

Where to go next

If you want to earn recognition rather than hope for it, start with the free Youth Impacts training curriculum, particularly the modules on position papers, caucusing and the path to Best Delegate. To see how a small-chamber conference judges and recognises delegates, read about The Assembly and how admission to The Global 60 works.

Frequently asked questions.

Youth Impacts is a Model United Nations organisation. Its flagship New York experience is The Global 60: sixty delegates, three small chambers, 22 – 25 April 2027, admission by application and interview. Youth Impacts Model United Nations (YIMUN) has run since 2025. Questions: info@youthimpacts.com. Published 19 September 2026.