An award you can actually put on a CV.

Fewer than most conferences give, on purpose.

The one award above the rest

The Salt Award

One per committee, when it is earned. It goes to the delegate who changed their position on the record and defended the change with better reasoning than they used to hold the old one.

Every conference in this country rewards the delegate who never moves. That is not diplomacy, that is stamina. The hardest thing to do in a committee room is to say out loud that the argument in front of you is better than the one you walked in with, and then take the floor and explain why. That is the entire point of the exercise and almost nobody scores it.

Chairs nominate, the Secretariat decides. You cannot plan for it and you cannot perform it. You have to actually play it out.

Every committee

Three awards a room.

Not eight, not twelve, not a certificate for everyone who turned up.

UNHRC, UNCSW, UNODC

Best Delegate
High Commendation
Special Mention

Lok Sabha

Best Parliamentarian
High Commendation
Special Mention

AIPPM

Best Representative
High Commendation
Special Mention

International Press

Best Photographer
Best Journalist

Sometimes an award waits for the right year. If a chair feels the room did not quite get there, that award simply is not given this time. It applies to Best Delegate as much as to Special Mention, and it is decided committee by committee.

We know that sounds strict. It is the kindest thing we can do for the people who do win one. An award that everybody gets is a participation certificate wearing a nicer name, and we would rather hand you something that means something when you put it on a CV.

How we mark

Substance over volume.

A delegate who has read the convention, understands the mechanism and can write the clause the room ends up voting on will always place above one who spoke beautifully and said nothing.

Chairs mark research, procedure, negotiation and drafting. Volume is not a criterion. Filling the speakers list with confident noise is not a criterion. Where two delegates are close, the one who moved the committee forward wins.

Every score sheet is published seven days after the conference closes, so you can see exactly how that judgement was made.

Applications for the Executive Board are open.

If you would withhold an award rather than hand one out to keep the room happy, we want to hear from you.

Apply as Executive Board