Position Descriptions (Substantive)

Prior MUN staff experience - in a committee staff role - is required to serve as a Director at NWMUN. Usually, due to staff retention, individuals new to staff at NWMUN are not hired as Director in their first year on staff. New staff are regularly hired as Assistant Director.

Committee Director: The Director is the main facilitator of the procedure and substantive discussions within their committee. They are responsible for authoring the majority of the Committee Background Guide; the portions the Director is responsible for are at least one topic summary (on each topic the committee will be discussing) and the introductory letter, introducing themselves, the Assistant Director and the conference to delegates.

At the conference, the Director is primarily responsible for editing working papers as delegates submit them to the dais, and eventually approving them and giving them a document code, making them a draft resolution. The Director is also responsible for ensuring the substantive quality of the committee, which includes working with the Simulations Team to assist delegates in representing a policy as similar to their countries’ true policy as possible. Finally, the Director is responsible for mentoring their Assistant Director, to help ensure their growth as a staffer and preparation for future years as a member of the NWMUN Staff.

Committee Assistant Director: These positions serve as the Procedural Officer of their Committee. They are responsible for authoring one of the topics of the Background Guide. At the conference, the Assistant Director chairs many of the meetings, and are responsible for ensuring the procedural integrity of the proceedings. The Assistant Director leads the committee without directing them, and are responsible for the integrity of the process, rather than the quality of the outcome, of the committee.

The following positions are not always filled at NWMUN-Portland. They are always filled at NWMUN-Seattle, and we are working

Director of Special Simulations: The Director of Special Simulations is responsible for organizing any extra-topical simulations such as crisis situations during the conference. Prior to the conference, the Director of Special Simulations will plan simulations and recruit a simulations team to help in the execution of the crisis situation during the conference, including researching regions and/or issues, drafting documents, and delivering news to committees.

News Director: The News Director’s job is to find relevant news information and distribute it to the delegates during the course of the conference. The News Director will be a part of the simulation, presenting crisis committees with information to help them get a broader knowledge of the crisis situation as it happens. The News Director will also be responsible for creating press releases for (and from) the delegates. 

Special Adviser: Special Advisers serve as "Special Rapporteurs", "Special Advisers," "Special Envoys," or other members of the UN Secretariat focusing on one or more themes that are relevant to the committee that they are assigned to. They are a member of the committee staff for purposes of pre-conference planning, assisting in overall committee preparations. At the conference, Special Advisers brief their committees as needed on relevant substantive issues from the perspective of the Secretariat, and are available to answer questions about prior UN action on a topic, statistics and figures, and hypothetical implementation of proposals made by the delegates during the course of the conference.