Model United Nations
Regional Conferences

Middle & Elementary School Divisions Homepage

New for the 2025-26 Academic Year!

Intro to Model UN
Intro to Model UN

Model UN Regional Conferences Overview

Beginning with the 2025-26 competition season, International Academic Competitions is pleased to announce that it will be conducting a series of Model UN Regional Conferences across the USA for students in grades 4-8! These will be held from January-April at approximately 6-10 sites. In future academic years, we anticipate the number of regional conferences will grow substantially. Please explore this page to read about the structure and format of our Model UN Regional Conferences. If you are potentially interested in holding a conference at your school, please contact our Model UN Program Coordinator, Ms. Audra Dankwardt, at audra@iacompetitions.com

  • Eligibility: Any students in Grades 4-8. Students do not need to be competing as part of an organized school group (i.e. parents and guardians may register their child(ren) independently). Homeschooled students are thus certainly also welcome to take part. Note that certain conferences may be limited to students at a particular school; if this is the case, it will be indicated on the list of conferences and the registration form.
  • Competitors:  Students in Grades 4-8. At IAC Model UN Regional Conferences, students must compete independently (teams of 2 or more students are not permitted).
  • Age Divisions: To the best extent possible, we will separate students by grade. In particular, we anticipate at a minimum there being separate committee rooms at each conference for students in grades 7-8 and grades 4-6. Please note however that students in grades 4-5 will likely compete together at most or all conferences, including at the National Championships.

  • Inquiries: Please contact IAC’s Model UN Coordinator, Ms. Audra Dankwardt at audra@iacompetitions.com

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Intro to Model UN

Competition Format

Model United Nations is a simulation of the United Nations or other international bodies where students represent a country or play the role of a decision maker in a committee. IAC is organizing Regional Conferences throughout the USA from January-April. Registration for all scheduled conferences will open in October 2025.
At each Regional Conference, a Standard Committee and a Crisis Committee will be held with the Standard Committee taking place in the morning and the Crisis Committee taking place in the afternoon.

Part
1

Standard Committee

All students will begin the day by taking part in the Standard Committee. This committee will be structured as an Administrative and Budgetary Committee of the UN General Assembly which is tasked with the topic of exploring ways of Reforming the United Nations Security Council. This topic is well-placed to allow students to not only learn about the United Nations itself, but also to provide an introduction to geopolitics. Why would certain countries prefer the Security Council to be structured in a certain way? Why might the UN Security Council be in need of reform? Which countries benefit from the status quo, and which countries would likely prefer to see changes? A background guide will be provided.

Students will debate this topic using basic parliamentary procedure and then aim to craft and draft resolutions. We will provide instructional materials to students in advance of each conference regarding how exactly these elements of the committee will work. Please also see the Preparation Resources and the Background Guide linked below on this page.

Committees will be limited to no more than 30 delegates; countries will be assigned randomly. Registration will close approximately 3 weeks prior to each conference, and on the day following the close of registration, country assignments, which will be assigned by our staff, will be sent out. The Standard Committee will last for 3.5 hours. The last 15 minutes of this will be given over to voting procedure on resolutions, though in certain cases, committee chairs may entertain an earlier voting session. If a resolution is then passed, debate may shift towards dealing with the consequences of the adopted resolution.
Awards will be given out for performance for each committee room separately (e.g. if there are two 8th grade rooms, separate awards will be given out for each room). Additionally, awards at all Regional Conferences will be given out for both the Standard Committee and the Crisis Committee separately. Each conference thus presents two sets of awards (and thus two chances to qualify for the National Championships). There will not be an overall conference champion or set of rankings. Approximately the top 40% of delegates in each committee room will win awards. The top delegate will win the Best Delegate award (which, per Model UN tradition takes the form of a gavel). Other delegates win awards for Outstanding Delegate (up to two of these), Distinguished Delegate (up to 4 of these) and Honorable Mention (up to 5 of these).

Note that while awards will be given out within the committee room as a whole, if there are students in younger grades competing together with older students, then approximately 40% of these students will likewise receive a grade-level commendation (which is also an official award that can qualify students for the National Championships).

Part
2

Crisis Committee

a “Crisis Committee.” Crisis committees function differently from Standard Committees and are an integral part of Model United Nations. In a crisis committee, a hypothetical scenario (often taking current world events as a starting point, including at our Regional conferences) is postulated. Students (who are given a new country assignment) then need to react and problem solve among each other. Depending on their decisions, conference staff will then provide updates, and then students need to deliberate and make further decisions. Crisis committees are dynamic, entertaining (look out for appearances by conference staff in costume!), and lots of fun for competing students. At the Regional Conference, the time allotted for the Crisis Committee is 2 hours.

Typically, no advance information is provided in advance to students (the emphasis is on collaboration in committee, not prior knowledge or preparation). However, we will note that at our Regional Conferences for the 2025-26 competition year, the crisis will have a geostrategic dimension with the potential for great power military conflict. So be forewarned, delegates, the fate of the world is in your hands!

Bonus
Stage

Lunchtime Qualifying Exams & Buzzer Quiz Demonstration

During the middle part of the lunch break, conference staff will administer the In-Person Qualifying Exams (IRQEs) for the National History Bee, National Geography Bee, and/or National Science Bee. The In-Person Qualifying Exams are free of charge and consist of 30 multiple choice questions per subject. Students who score 15 questions correct or higher then qualify for the Regional Tournaments of these competitions, over 150 of which will be held in-person and online during the 2025-26 academic year. In order to qualify for these three competitions at the National Championships, it is necessary to compete first and qualify at the Regional Tournament level. 

Students may also elect to take any of the National Qualifying Exams (NQEs). These cost $20 each, have 35 questions (with each correct answer worth 2 points; a perfect score is 70), and are offered as the qualifying stage for six separate competitions held at the IAC Middle and Elementary School National Championships:

On the NQEs, students who score 50 or higher, or above the National Median Scores on these exams (if that is lower than 50) for their respective age division qualify for the National Championships of these. The National Championships of all 6 of these competitions feature a buzzer-based quiz tournament format. Students who qualify for these events at the National Championships can participate in both them and the Model UN National Championships. Students may sign up for up to 4 exams at lunchtime; these can be any combination of IRQE and NQE exams.

During the latter part of the lunch break, conference staff will also demonstrate how buzzer-based quiz tournaments work with a demonstration for students. A sample of history, geography, and science-themed questions will be played. This will help familiarize students with the format used both at Regional Tournaments of the National History, Geography, and Science Bees, as well as the format used at the National Championships of the six competitions for which the National Qualifying Exams are offered.

Costs & Registration

Costs

The cost to take part in a Regional Conference is $95 per student. If a student takes part solely in the Standard Committee or the Crisis Committee, the cost is $75 per student.

Registration

Registration is done through a dedicated website, which will be linked here by the end of September 2025. Note that payment is expected at the time of registration if parents are signing up their child. If a school is paying for multiple students, please select that option on the registration form; payment may then be done at a later date, though all payments are due at least one week in advance of each Regional Conference.

Host a Conference

International Academic Competitions is actively seeking host schools for Regional Model UN Conferences! 

If you are interested in bringing a Regional Model UN Conference to your school, we would be happy to work with you to make this work. For a conference that is open to students from other schools, we require access to a minimum of six classrooms (though it is possible that fewer will be needed) on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday between January 24 and April 19. For a conference that is open solely to students from your own school, school days within that same window are also possible. Please see our standard conference schedule here. This can be adjusted up to 30 minutes earlier or 60 minutes later depending on your preference. The schedule can also be adjusted to fit the length of a standard school day at your school.

Each host school must commit to having a minimum of 15 students take part; this is both to ensure a critical mass of students for a worthwhile conference, and also to ensure that costs will be covered (particularly for travel for IAC-provided Conference Staff). Students from the host schools compete for a discounted rate of $75 per student, or $60 if taking part in just one of the two committees.

If you are interested in finding out more about hosting, please contact our Model UN Coordinator, Ms. Audra Dankwardt at audra@iacompetitions.com 

Preparation Resources

Background Guides

A background guide for the Standard Committee topic (Reforming the UN Security Council) will be provided by the time registration opens in October.

Best Delegate

Bestdelegate.com provides a good overview of Model UN along with other resources on their website.

University of Chicago Model UN

The University of Chicago Model UN website has an introduction to parliamentary procedure.

Model UN Conferences

A list of other Model UN conferences; we encourage you to compete as often as possible to gain experience and confidence.

United Nations Association of Greater Boston

The United Nations Association of Greater Boston also maintains a helpful website with information on Model UN. This is of particular interest to students in New England.

Rules & FAQs

A rules summary, including a guide to parliamentary procedure will be posted by the time that registration opens for the scheduled conferences.

No, but they are encouraged to do so. Both the standard and crisis committees provide a chance for students to learn collaboratively, practice debate and public speaking skills, and engage with international relations in a dynamic way.

No, unfortunately not. We anticipate that in future years we will be expanding our Regional Conferences so that this will be possible.

Approximately 6-10. The first date is projected to be a January 10, 2026 conference in Houston. Other tournaments will likely take place in New Jersey, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Virginia, Illinois, and Georgia, though certain other states may also host conferences. Much of this depends on where we find interested host schools. However, for the 2025-26 academic year, we are more focused on running quality conferences. We expect to spend significantly more energy building out a network of conferences nationwide in subsequent years.

No, this is not necessary. Students can qualify by winning an award at any Model UN conference and providing proof of their award to IAC.

Registration will open in November 2025 and will close on Monday, May 4, 2026. Students are encouraged to register earlier, however country assignments for the committees at the National Championships will not be revealed until May 5.

2030 students attended the 2025 IAC Middle & Elementary School National Championships. Nearly all of these students came primarily to compete in the National History Bee, National Geography Bee, and/or National Science Bee. Approximately 140 of these students also took part in the Intro to Model UN sessions (which IAC began running in 2024). 

We expect 2800-3500 students will attend the 2026 IAC National Championships, particularly as we have greatly increased the scale of our outreach efforts. We expect 200-400 to take part in the inaugural Model UN National Championships as well.

Please note that the Model UN National Championships are designed so that it is possible to take part in both the Model UN National Championships and the National Championships of any of the three bees listed above. Students who wish to take part in MUN Nationals and any of the other bees must leave two preliminary blocks (A, B, C or D) for each of the History, Geography and Science Bees free of conflicting events per the schedule here.

Results

Conference results will be posted here beginning in January 2026.