Conference Management

• definitely enforce Admin training on a stricter basis; less than half the admins were trained by the day of the conference, so training should come earlier, so that extra sessions can be added for those who forgot to attend
• Emphasize shift timings (not sure how we could emphasize attendance even more, but considering admins still went AWOL I guess specific timings weren’t clear)
• Enforce Student officer debrief and admin debrief at the end of first day, even if its a first day conference. This can achieve effects including but not limited to:
  • boosting the morale of participants, encourage them and tell them to do better. Letting them voice their opinion also gives them some outlets for venting, even if all the changes cannot be made, at least they feel heard and have released negative energy
  • understanding the situation from different perspectives (e.g. we didn’t know about wifi issues as we were ISB students, or we didn’t know how certain aspects of the conference affected student officers in general)
  • MAKING SURE THE ADMIN DONT GO MISSING THE NEXT DAY
• Never, ever, ever, ever, print lanyards on just hard card paper. You have to put them in those plastic film things. Even if its a 2 day conference, the paper with holes punched in them will not last 10 minutes with Middle Schoolers who like to play with ID tags.
• You can never, ever, ever, ever, have enough note paper. Always print more than you think you need, then double the amount. Don’t put the year number on there, so you can give it to the big BEIMUN or pass it down next year. (and chances are, you probably will run out anyways…delegates devour notepaper)
• it’s fine to chair and host, as long as you make it clear and get preparation done properly.
• Make sure to communicate more with directors, or ask Mr. McNeice to do so, this will be more helpful in comms with chairs etc
• having conference on PTC is great for setup etc, also make sure all team members are largely present (Mumu went for basketball for a bit, but she told us beforehand and we had Lucas and Kanglee holding down fort)

Notes to future BEIMUN JR Planning

• Take out student officer lanyards, do not mix them in with schools, and remember to make Director lanyards
• be more organized and create checklists for everything. The day of plan that was made is good though (e.g. when awards a due, when setup is done etc)
• PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN AND MAKE LISTS, excel is your new best friend. It’s really helpful to get everything written down so you can systematically tick them off…I promise……also…take meeting minutes, they’re a good way to keep people accountable.
• don’t put years on things, so they can be reused. e.g. on placards, put “BEIMUN JR” not “BEIMUN JR II”

• do something about the admins!!!
• You must come early on the first day of the conference or come before that day (preferably both). First, you have to sort out everything that comes out from the basement including placards, papers, etc. Count the placards twice and print out extra copies (ideally you are doing this when copy center is open). Then, you must also make goodie bags (don’t leave this to admin) and put them into corresponding stacks for each committee. You also have to place the placards on the tables (in ALPHABETICAL ORDER, Lucas) and Goodie bags
• If you are going tech free, ask Mr. McNeice to go to the supply center, get pens and pencils for each committee and scrap paper
• role delegation is so important, both for conference prep and on that day…especially on that day…
• HUGE TIP (inspired by WAB chairs) – bring clothes to change into. Esp on first day, you will spend the first few hours running around. Even a person like me, who doesn’t usually sweat, was sweating by the time it was lunch and had blisters on both my feet. Lesson is? Bring casual clothes to wear (e.g. quick dry shirt), running shoes/comfortable shoes with nice, soft, soles, and change into your clothes after lunch or after bulk of setup is done
• make sure you know if copy center is open or not on days of conference
• also, sometimes you just gotta make decisions. If team members aren’t responding, even in person, and it’s not a huge thing (e.g. just deciding theme), mention teachers in the teams chat and just be more decisive. We really didn’t need to create a lot of drama over selecting a good theme, as it really was tangential to the stuff that we needed to get done, such as student officer applications, lanyard creation, etc.

I will leave to you…

• many excel sheets you can create copies of to do conference work
• copies of our meeting minutes
• canva copies of our award certificates, lanyards, placards, and notepaper
• a note that Mr. McNeice and Ms. Amira are lifesavers for conference planning. Even if you’ve planned other events before (e.g. STUCO events) its drastically different from planning BEIMUN JR. Mr. McNeice helped with a lot of logistics, such as sodexo setup, booking food (which was pretty good), and he’ll help do things like book 1218 for your headquarters (which although I’ve been in STUCO for 6 years and planned many events, did not think of). Ms. Amira knows all about the “big BEIMUN” and helped with guest speakers, goodie bags, and general reminders