Welcome to MUN Conference Logistics!
Come here for all the basic information you will want to know about MUN! Learn about the history of the activity, reasons for why you should do it and tips for leading a MUN Club at your school!
MUN Club Logistics
There are many great MUN conferences here in the Bay Area, such as BMUN (at Berkeley), DMUNC (at Davis) and GMUNC (at Gunn), but there are also many other prestigious conferences that aren't within driving distance. For example, there is Bruin MUN (down in LA), University of Chicago MUN (in Chicago), or NAIMUN (sponsored by Georgetown University in DC). For many of these conferences, you will have to fly there, book hotels and do other logistics things so the purpose of this blog is to teach you how to do it in the most efficient way possible.
The way you do things greatly varies for public schools and private schools, because in public schools, you may have to go through the school district and there is a lot of paperwork on that side. There may also be set policies on what clubs can have (some cannot have credit cards), so this means sometimes you will have to use the district's credit card if you are booking something. I can tell you from my own experience that most of the payment you will do involves checks, as they are the most convenient when collecting and paying for things. The payment that you collect from delegates and use to pay for bus, hotel and conference fees will all be in the form of checks. However, sometimes, it is necessary that you book and pay with credit card, so in this case, just reimburse the district or whoever owns the credit card.
The way you do things greatly varies for public schools and private schools, because in public schools, you may have to go through the school district and there is a lot of paperwork on that side. There may also be set policies on what clubs can have (some cannot have credit cards), so this means sometimes you will have to use the district's credit card if you are booking something. I can tell you from my own experience that most of the payment you will do involves checks, as they are the most convenient when collecting and paying for things. The payment that you collect from delegates and use to pay for bus, hotel and conference fees will all be in the form of checks. However, sometimes, it is necessary that you book and pay with credit card, so in this case, just reimburse the district or whoever owns the credit card.
First Priority
Your very first priority when handling the logistics for the conference is to contact the people in charge of it and note your interest. Sometimes, an email will be sent out and if you wish to attend, you should reply with the name of your school and the approximate number of delegates you wish to bring. You will have to provide a head count later on, as you approach the conference, so an invoice can be generated. However, for more prestigious or lengthily conferences, they will normally have an interest form on their website. Once you fill this out, an invoice will be sent to you through email or other methods. It is important that you pay for the conference as soon as possible so that you can get the good committee assignments earlier and have more time for research.
Second Priority
The second thing that you should do when doing the logistics for a conference is to figure out the hotel. This should usually be done at least 2-3 months in advance as if it is a big conference, the hotels close to the conference location tend to get booked quickly, so unless you want to have to walk 40 minutes in heels and loafers, book in advance. Normally, hotels need a credit card to hold a reservation and since our club doesn't have a credit card, we communicate with our school district and the hotel through email to book the rooms. Alternatively, you could borrow someone's card (but make sure the card isn't charged any money) and pay with alternative methods later. Also, remember to look at the hotel's policy for cancellation and other things to make sure that if any changes are made or unexpected things come up, you can deal with them before certain deadlines.
Third Priority
The final thing that you have to organize is the transportation to the conference. From the hotel to the conference, you would normally just walk. However, sometimes, you need to organize parent driving groups for nearby conferences, book buses, or even contact airlines for group reservations. Regarding parent driving groups, normally, a school or district would require a parent to fill out some forms in order to be an "eligible driver". It's important that you try to get all your members to have their parents fill out this form so you don't need to book an expensive bus for nearby conferences. Parents may not always want to volunteer, but what our club does is we have a policy of "if someone cannot go, nobody goes", so parents have an incentive to volunteer so their child can go to the conference. For booking buses, you would normally check with your school or district to see if they have a list of approved buses that you can contact for school trips and such. This is very helpful as occasionally, your school might have some discounts with some bus companies that allow you to lower the cost of traveling to the conference as a whole. Furthermore, you don't want to be travelling on a bus from a company that your school hasn't approved. Finally, when contacting airlines, you would normally have to fill out a form on their website regarding group reservations and wait for them to get back to you. Its always wise to use multiple airlines for two main reasons; first of all, you can use competitor quotes to lower the price (basically you submit the price of your competitor and they give you a lower price for the flight). I normally subtract around 50-100 dollars from the lowest competitor price to submit as there is no harm with trying to get a better deal. Second of all, most airlines, especially intercontinental have limited planes, and as a result, limited flights. Thus, looking at multiple airlines can help you get a sense of what travel times are best for your group.