YALE MODEL GOVERNMENT

EUROPE 2014
RULES
OF
PROCEDURE

Flow of Committee
YMGE runs differently than other conferences. We have three distinct types of
committees, each with their own rules and regulations: National Cabinets, European
Union Councils of Ministers, Parliaments, and Specialized Committees. Delegates who
begin in national councils will play the part of ministers in their nations bureaucracy,
tackling issues endemic to each nation. When a crisis breaks out, these delegates will
switch committees, moving from National Cabinets to Councils of Ministers. Delegates
in specialized committees will remain in them for the duration of the conference, but will
respond to the unfolding crisis and use it to inform the resolutions they are writing.
Roll Call: At the beginning of the first session and every subsequent session, the dais will
begin by taking roll call. Roll call requires the dais to call each delegate by name;
delegates will respond when their name is called, and the dais will mark them as present
or absent accordingly. Roll call is used to determine the initial quorum for the committee
session.
Setting the Agenda: Committees that have one topic will not have to set an agenda.
Committees that have two topics will discuss both topics before the end of the
conference, and the Committee Director shall use his or her judgment to decide which
topic the committee debates first. While the topic of discussion is ultimately decided by
the Committee Director, the Committee Director has the option of letting the committee
decide which topic they would like to cover first. To do this, the Committee Director
may select up to six delegates to speak on which topic they favor. At the end of this
process, the topic is decided by a simple majority vote.
Structured Debate: Once the agenda has been set, delegates will begin debating the
substance of the agenda and adopting actions to solve the problems at hand. The
proceedings of a session depend on the committee each delegate is in. Councils and
cabinets will operate in a continuous moderated caucus, which means that the chair will
individually choose delegates to give brief comments on what the committee is
discussing. Specialized committees will run off of a formal speakers list, with longer
speeches and chances for delegates to comment on the speeches made. Interspersed
throughout normal committee proceedings will also be crisis updates, which the
committee must incorporate in its debate and in response to which the committee will
pass directives. Specialized committees will work to draft a resolution in tandem with
their response to the crisis.

Policy Memos
All delegates at YMGE are highly encouraged to write a Policy Memo before arriving at
the first session of committee. Policy Memos are one page, single-spaced documents that
give a brief background on the committees topic, a short summary of prior action taken,
and a few well-developed ideas for a solution to the issue at hand. The best Policy
Memos take the ideas developed by the chair in their topic guide and use them to build a
comprehensive package of solutions for the topic. Committee Directors are more

interested in seeing delegates analytical ability than their ability to summarize, so the
background sections should be kept brief. Memos that are submitted to the Registration
Portal by November 13, 2014 will receive feedback and suggestions from Committee
Directors before the conference. Delegates will find this feedback helpful in preparing
for the conference. Otherwise, Position Memos will be collected on the day of the
conference.
National Cabinets and Councils of Ministers: A policy memo should only be written for
the National Cabinet you will be in. Council of Ministers do not require a policy memo
because the Councils do not have predetermined topics.
Parliaments and Specialized Committees: One policy memo should be written for each
topic discussed by Parliaments and Specialized Committeestwo in total. Please note
that no Policy Memo is required for the Brussels Press Corps.
Format
Delegates should format their policy memos in whatever manner they feel best
communicates their position and their understanding of the topic. Below is one potential
format that delegates may find effective:
- Introduction: Raise the key issues at stake in this discussion and the questions that must
be answered. Implicitly answer the question, Why should we care about this topic?
- Topic History: A short history of the current problem's development.
- Past Measures: A short summary of past measures that your committee or other
organizations have adopted to solve these problems.
- Evaluation of Past Measures: a longer section that discusses what worked or what didn't
work about measures that have been tried in the past.
- Proposed Solutions: a longer section in which the delegate proposes one or two
solutions and states why those solutions would be effective.
Resources and Ideas for Further Research:
There are a vast number of resources available on the internet that can help you in writing
your policy memo. Here are some of our favorite sources that helped us with our YMGE
research:
News and Opinion Sites
www.economist.com
www.foreignaffairs.com
www.ft.com
Think Tanks and Policy Papers
http://guides.library.harvard.edu/hks/think_tank_search a custom search engine that
looks through major policy thinktanks.
http://www.eu.thinktankdirectory.org/ a directory of EU-specific thinktanks.
http://www.epc.eu/

http://www.cer.org.uk/
Official EU Sites
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/
http://ec.europa.eu/
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/

Committee-Specific Protocol
The flow of parliamentary debate is different for National Cabinets, Councils of
Ministers, Parliaments, and Specialized Committees. This section outlines the important
points of distinction between each committee, as well as what pieces of legislation they
are expected to pass.
National Cabinets: Delegates will arrive at the conference with a draft resolution on the
issue that is discussed in their cabinet-specific topic guides. The conference will begin
with a lobbying period, where delegates work to find similarities in their drafts and merge
them into a cohesive resolution. This process is largely unmoderated, but the chair will
help delegates find plausible solutions and compromises on important issues. The
lobbying process will be covered in more detail later in this guide.
Cabinets will not meet when the crisis occurs, so delegates have a short amount of time to
merge their ideas together and create one or two comprehensive resolutions. Debate will
mainly take place through moderated caucuses, when delegates give short comments on
the issues on the floor.
Councils: At YMGE, EU Councils of Ministers do not have a predetermined topic.
Instead, they exist to debate and respond to the crisis that develops during the
conference. Delegates from National Cabinets will meet with their counterparts from
other nations governments (e.g. the German Minister of Tourism, instead of meeting
with the German Cabinet, will meet with the Council of Tourism Ministers from other
Member States). Debate will mostly take place through moderated caucuses, where
delegates will discuss the best way to respond to the crisis at hand. Councils mainly take
action through directives, which are orders to the bureaucracies of each ministers
respective government. Directives can be public or private. Public directives are voted
on by the entire committee, and, once passed, are immediately enacted. Private directives
are sent to the chair of the committee, and contain unilateral actions made by individual
ministers. Councils may also pass resolutionslaws that are binding to specific
countries in the European Union. After a Council passes a resolution, the Committee
Director will inform the committee if the European Parliament has voted to pass their
draft resolution into law.
Councils may also vote to summon individual ministers or representatives of countries
from other committees to explain their policy to the council, at the discretion of the chair.

Specialized Committees and Parliaments: Specialized Committees and Parliaments

will begin with the Committee Director choosing the topic of discussion. He or she may
choose to delegate this task to the committee. Unlike delegates in National Cabinets,
delegates in Specialized Committees and Parliaments should not write a draft resolution
to bring to committee. Instead, delegates will work to draft a law from the ground up,
building compromise as the committee comes to a consensus.
These committees will likely pass short resolutions in response to the crisis. They may
also write directives to Councils of Ministers asking for a specific action to be taken or a
draft resolution to be written on a specific topic. Finally, these committees also have the
power to summon individual ministers or representatives of countries to explain their
policy or course of action to the committee as a whole.
Here is a visualization of the flow of each type of committee at the conference:

Lobbying Period
Please note that only National Cabinets will have a Lobbying Period. This section does
not apply to Councils of Ministers, Parliaments, or Specialized Committees.
Lobbying allows delegates to forward their position on a topic and merge clauses into
cohesive resolutions. Below are the rules and procedures for maximizing productivity
during lobbying period.
Before the Conference: Delegates should come to their first committee session with
draft resolutions already written. These resolutions should be from each ministers or
ministrys point of view and should aim to address all aspects of the topic. Pre-writing
draft resolutions allows delegates to both research the topic from their perspective
extensively and save time writing once lobbying period begins. These draft resolutions
should be printed and brought to the conference as both a hard copy and on a USB flash
drive. Lastly, delegates should prepare a 60-90 second speech outlining the delegates
view on the topic and their opinions in terms of solutions.
At the Start of Lobbying Period: Once lobbying period begins, Committee Directors
will introduce themselves and review the structure of the conference. Once that ends,
delegates will give the mandatory opening speeches that they prepared before the
conference. Committee Directors will call on all delegates in round-robin format to
present their speeches; other delegates are advised to take notes on opening speeches, as
they will provide helpful information going into lobbying.
Once Lobbying Begins: After all delegates give their opening speeches, the lobbying
period will officially begin. Lobbying period works like a long unmoderated caucus
where delegates will discuss the draft clauses that they prepared before the conference.
During lobbying, delegates should try to form blocs that share the same ideas in order to
merge and adapt their clauses. Delegates should also go around and talk to other groups
in order to get a better understanding of what everybody in the room thinks regarding the
topic. During lobbying period, delegates should submit clauses and ideas to the chair for
review. Chairs will give delegates feedback, which they will use to fine-tune their
clauses. Once, lobbying period ends, delegates should have several well-planned out and
edited resolutions to be debated during the next session.

Directives
Public Directives
Public directives are action- or policy-oriented documents enacted by committees.
Directives are legally binding upon their members and utilize the powers of the
committee in which the delegates are operating. They each require the signatures of at
least of the delegates in the committee as sponsors to be considered a valid public
directive, unless otherwise specified by the dais. No specific format, style or length is
required for public directives, so long as they are clear in meaning and intent regarding
the proposed action by the committee; however, especially for lengthier directives,

traditional resolution format (consisting of preambulatory and operative clauses) is

acceptable.
Once the dais has received a public directive, that directive must be formally introduced
by a motion from one of the sponsors (see below for such motions). After such a motion,
the dais will read the text of the directive aloud to the committee to introduce the
directive. Since directives tend to be divisive documents, a motion to introduce a public
directive is usually followed by a motion for a formal caucus (see below for such
motions) to discuss the content of the directive. If passed, the directive immediately acts
upon the committee with binding force. If the directive instructs specific ministers to take
specific actions, they must do so. Any proposal for the committee to unilaterally use its
powers must come in the form of a public directive.
During crisis situations, there is often not enough time to pass a formal resolution.
Instead, directives are used to respond and react to the crisis in real time. Every
committee can pass a directive during times of crisis, but they are most commonly used
by EU Councils of Ministers.
Private Directives
Private directives are actions that individual committee members adopt using strictly their
own authority as a result of the positions of power that they hold. For an individual
delegate to enact a private directive, no support from any other delegates in the
committee is required; other delegates do not need to be aware that the private directive is
even submitted. All private directives must be submitted in written form to the dais.
Private directives are adopted at the discretion of the dias, who will announce your
actions to the committee if your directive is accepted. If the directive is not enacted, the
delegate will also receive a note explaining why the desired actions could not be carried
out.

Resolutions
Resolution is a broad term that covers all binding pieces of legislation produced by a
committee at YMGE. The ultimate goal of each non-European Council committee at
YMGE is to produce one or more resolutions addressing the problem at hand, since they
are the legal tools through which policy change is implemented. In the real European
Union, external directives set long-term goals for member states (often without any guide
for implementation), while regulations become immediately enforceable as law in all
member states once passed. At YMGE, to simplify the process, we will refer to all
legislation written by committees as resolutions, and resolutions written in European
Union committees need not be separated into external directives and regulations.
Our goal for the conference is to have all National Cabinets, Parliaments, and Specialized
Committees debate and attempt to pass at least one resolution. In National Cabinets, the
process will be expedited through the lobbying period at the start of the session. During
the crisis, EU Councils of Ministers will mainly use directives to respond to the crisis.
These directives are only legally binding for the members of that committee. In the

event more drastic action needs to be taken, EU councils may work to write a short
resolution to pass a law that affects the entire European Union.
To introduce a resolution onto the floor of a committee, it must be sponsored by no less
than of the total number of members. Sponsorship means simply that you agree with
the contents of the document and would like to see it passed. At any time after a
resolution is submitted to the dais, delegates may motion for a formal caucus of set
length. If the motion passes, at least of the sponsors of the resolution (but no more
than four total delegates) present it to the committee. These representatives should be
decided before the motion is made. In these presentations, resolutions should be
summarized, not read. The remainder of the time in the caucus will be spent on a
question and answer session regarding the resolution. The dais will call on delegates to
ask questions of the sponsors, who then have a chance to respond. Follow-up questions
and cross-examination may take place at the discretion of the chair. If resolutions are
revised following the caucus, one sponsor briefly discusses the changes to the resolution
when it is re-submitted for voting.
Following the formal introduction of all resolutions on the floor, delegates may motion to
vote on all resolutions. Resolutions pass by a simple majority. Resolutions that fail may
be amended by the committee at the discretion of the chair. The amendment process is
very similar to the resolution process; amendments are submitted and discussed through a
formal caucus, then voted on by the committee as a whole. If an amendment to the failed
resolution passes, it is then re-voted on as an amended resolution. If multiple
amendments are passed, the amended resolutions are each voted on as separate entities.
Heres a visualization of the process through which committees can take action:

Important Terms and Concepts

Dais: The Dais is the group of people who moderate the committee and maintain ultimate
control over direction and procedure. At YMGE, this is usually the Director and the
Assistant Director of each committee.
Quorum: Quorum for each session is calculated as the total number of delegates present
for each session. Quorum is formally counted with a roll call of delegates by the dais at
the start of each committee session. If a delegate is not present during roll call, he must
approach the dais or write the dais a note to inform them of his arrival; once doing so,
that delegate is added to the quorum number for that committee.
Speakers List: The Speakers List is the list that the dais makes that denotes the order of
speakers in Parliaments and Specialized Committees. Normally, unless a motion is
adopted that temporarily changes committee proceedings, committee consists of
delegates giving successive speeches in an order delineated by the Speakers List. The
dais calls upon delegates to add their names to the Speakers List at its discretion.
Generally, the dais will ask all delegates wishing to speak to raise their placards in
between speeches, and will then add a number of the delegates with placards raised to the
Speakers List.

Lobbying: Applies only to National Cabinets. Each delegate is expected to arrive at

committee with a draft resolution already prepared. The first session of committee will
focus on delegates outlining their proposed legislation and working to merge draft
resolutions together. The lobbying process is described more thoroughly later in this
document.
Moderated Caucus: Described more thoroughly in the Points and Motions section
below, a moderated caucus is a series of short comments given on a particular topic. This
is the default format for debate in Councils and Cabinets, and may be motioned for in
Parliaments and Specialized committees. In a moderated caucus, the chair calls on
individual delegates who wish to speak, rather than following a list of speakers. In
parliaments and specialized committees, debate reverts to the Speakers List once the
time allotted for the caucus is exhausted.
Unmoderated Caucus: Described more thoroughly in the Points and Motions section
below, an unmoderated caucus, if approved, suspends committee rules on Decorum and
allows delegates to act and communicate as they please for the duration of the caucus.
During an unmoderated caucus, delegates get up from their seats, talk to each other in
groups, gain consensus among their bloc members, and strategize with regards to future
proceedings. Delegates may also feel free to informally approach the dais to speak with
the dais members during this time.

Points and Motions

Any delegate may offer a point or motion at any point in the committee when another
delegate does not have the floor. In between speeches, the dais will frequently ask
explicitly for points or motions. The acceptance of all points, motions or directives is
conditional entirely upon the dais discretion. The dais retains the right to rule any points,
motions, or directives dilatory. All points and motions should address the dais; a
delegate may not respond to another delegates point or motion unless asked to do so by
the Committee Director.
Points
Points encompass all requests a delegate might have for the dais to take an action that
enhances the formal proceedings of debate. Points never require the consent of the
committee in any form, but rather are granted at the discretion of the dais.
Point of Order: Raised when a delegate believes the dais to have acted contrary to the
official Rules and Procedures of YMGE. For example, a Point of Order would be
appropriate when a delegate believes that the dais has required an amount other than a
simple majority of the quorum to pass a motion that requires a simple majority.
Point of Parliamentary Inquiry: Raised when a delegate has a question about
parliamentary procedure or the formal proceedings of the committee. For example, a
Point of Parliamentary Inquiry could be to ask how to introduce a directive once a group
of delegates have worked on a document during an unmoderated caucus.

Point of Information: Raised when a delegate has a question about the substance of
debate or facts about the world. Frequently, Points of Information will be redirected by
the dais to another delegate to answer the substantive question fully.
Point of Personal Privilege: Raised when a delegate wishes to make a request with
regards to his comfort or other personal needs, not intrinsic to the formal proceedings of
the committee. For example, a Point of Personal Privilege would be appropriate when a
delegate wishes to request the temperature of the committee room be adjusted, to leave
for the bathroom. These may also be used to interrupt another speaker if that speaker is
speaking too softly or too fast.
Motions
Motions encompass all proposals to change the structural flow of debate or to implement
any formal mechanism of debate proceedings essentially, a delegate makes a motion
when he wants to make some change with how formal debate is running, within the
framework of the Rules and Procedures. Motions almost always require the consent of
the rest of the committee in some capacity.
Motion to Set the Agenda: Simple majority; only for parliaments and specialized
committees. The chair may unilaterally set the agenda. If he or she does not, this motion
is used to choose a topic upon which future committee discussion is based. To propose
this motion, delegates must indicate which topic the would like to set the agenda to; for
example, a delegate wishing to set the agenda to Topic A will propose a Motion to Set
the Agenda to Topic A.. If a Motion to Set the Agenda to a particular topic fails, then the
other topic not proposed is automatically adopted by the committee.
Motion to Open the Speakers List: Simple majority, only for parliaments and
specialized committees. Formally allows the dais to accept delegates wishing to speak to
the floor to discuss substance matters of the debate surrounding the topic on the agenda,
in accordance with the workings of a Speakers List as described above. A delegate
proposing this motion can specify a specific duration time for speeches to be accepted
onto the speakers list. The default time is one minute. This motion is in order after the
agenda has been set.
Motion to Close the Speakers List: Two-thirds majority; prevents the addition of any
more countries to the Speakers List. Once the current list is exhausted, delegates may
motion to open another Speakers List.
Motion to Change the Speaking Time: Simple majority; changes the length of duration
of speeches on the Speakers List or during a Moderated Caucus. Must be proposed with
the new speaking time that the proposing delegate wishes to adopt.
Motion to Move Into Moderated Caucus: Simple majority, only for parliaments and
specialized committees. All moderated caucus proposals require a topic of debate, a total
time for the caucus, and the time of each speech in the caucus, by which the total time
must be evenly divisible. Moderated caucuses enable the committee to temporarily pause
the Speakers List for a limited time. The first speech in a moderated caucus will always
go to the delegate who proposed the caucus; subsequently, the dais will call on a new
speaker at the end of each speech.
Motion to Extend a Moderated Caucus: Simple majority. Extends the moderated
caucus that has just elapsed. The individual speaking time adopted in the moderated

caucus that just elapsed cannot be changed. The period for which the caucus is extended
cannot exceed the period that the caucus has already been in action for (for instance, if a
ten-minute caucus with one-minute individual speaking time elapses and a delegate
motions for an extension, the extension can only be of up to ten minutes and individual
delegates must continue making one-minute speeches).
Motion to Move to Unmoderated Caucus: Simple majority; temporarily suspends the
rules of formal debate and allows delegates to conduct themselves outside the bounds of
those formal rules for a limited amount of time. The duration of time for the unmoderated
caucus must be specified. However, it is not necessary to specify any topic for an
unmoderated caucus. Unmoderated caucuses will be used extensively during lobbying
period (see below).
Motion for a Question and Answer Session: Simple majority; suspends the rules of
debate and allows the committee to question a member or members of the committee
(specified when the caucus is proposed) on legislation or policy issues. The caucus goes
on for a length of time determined when the caucus is proposed. The chair moderates the
discussion and calls on delegates to ask questions. The chair may at any time rule
questions dilatory if they are inappropriate, irrelevant or delegates fail to frame them in
the format of a question. This motion may also be used to question expert witnesses or
members of other committees.
Motion to Introduce a Public Directive: Immediately passes upon proposal; formally
introduces a previously submitted public directive by calling for the text to be read
allowed to the committee. Voting may occur immediately after introduction or at a later
time, as dictated by the appropriate motions. Often after a directive is introduced, a
formal caucus is proposed to discuss the content of the directive before moving to voting.
Motion to Move to Formal Caucus: Immediately passes upon proposal, which is only
in order after introduction of public directive; a formal caucus begins with at least of
the sponsors of a directive (albeit no more than four delegates) moving to the front of the
committee and giving a short presentation on the directive. This should be heavily
summarized, not a reading out of the directive. After this presentation concludes, the
caucus will proceed as a question and answer session.
Motion to Vote on a Public Directive: Simple majority; enters voting procedure on a
directive, whereby all delegate vote yea or nay or abstain from voting. Directives
pass with a simple majority of the voting quorum, which is the number of delegates
present in the room at the time. For instance, if the committee has 28 delegates but only
24 are present, then the number of delegates that must vote yea to pass the directive is 13,
not 15.
Motion to Close Session: Two-thirds majority; this motion is passed at the end of the
very last committee session, to bring the activities of the said committee to a close for
that particular conference.

Yields
This section applies to Parliaments and Specialized Committees operating off of the
Speakers' List. If there is time remaining on the clock after a delegate gives a speech, the
delegate must yield his or her remaining time in one of four ways:

Yield to the Chair: This is the default yield for delegates. A speaker who yields to the
chair allows the chair to reassume the remaining speaking time, and the dais shall
proceed to call upon the next speaker in the Speakers List.
Yield to a Delegate: This yield allows another delegate, specified by the speaker, to
come up to speak for the remainder of the original speakers speaking time. A delegate
who is given speaking time in this manner has no ability to yield time that he fails to use;
the dais will automatically assume all remaining time.
Yield to Questions: This yield can be used by a delegate to invite questions from other
delegates. After such a yield is made, the dais will request that delegates wishing to ask
questions raise their placards. The dais will then call upon no more than two delegates to
ask questions. The speaker will cease answering questions once the time that he had
remaining before the yield has expired. Only the time that the speaker spends answering
questionsnot the questioners time asking questionsshall be subtracted from the
remaining time. The dais shall, however, cut delegates off if they are too lengthy in
asking their questions, or do not frame their statements in the form of a question.
Enforced Yield to Questions: This yield is not made by a delegate, but by a chair
instead. If time is yielded to the chair, the chair may, by their discretion, allow a
maximum of two questions from the other delegates in the committee. The delegate will
utilize their remaining time to answer these questions, which are asked one at a time. This
essentially serves as identical to the Yield to Questions, but is enforced by a chair instead.
Yield to Comments: This yield allows delegates to rise to give speeches after the
original speaker has finished. After such a yield is made, the dais will request that
delegates wishing to comment on a speech raise their placards. The dais will then call
upon no more than two delegates to speak in succession; the speech of any individual
delegate shall not exceed 20 seconds.
Enforced Yield to Comments: This works exactly like a yield to comments, except it is
enforced by the chair. If a delegate yields their time to the chair, the chair may allow a
maximum of two comments of up to 20 seconds each from the delegates of the
committee.

Important Elements of Committee Decorum

The dais is present to facilitate delegates autonomy in committee, though the dais does
have the ultimate decision-making authority in committee. In committee, the dais is
present to facilitate debate and to allow delegates to act with more expediency. This
means that the dais wants delegates to have the freedom to debate as they wish; however,
the dais members have the final say in how debate in committee flows on both
substantive and procedural matters. Thus, the dais resolves any disputes in committee,
and the dais interpretation of Rules of Procedure is the ultimate interpretation adhered to
in committee. The dais is also free to some degree to modify these Rules of Procedure
within a particular committee, should doing so allow debate to flow more efficiently.
Delegates shall be respectful and exhibit decorum during formal debate. During
speeches, delegates shall listen attentively to the speakers. Any communication must be
made only by passing notes. Delegates shall also be respectful of the dais and listen to the
instructions that the dais provides. If the dais feels that delegates are behaving such that
debate is disrupted, the dais shall call for decorum and instruct delegates to cease

disruptive behavior. If such behavior persists, the YMGE Secretariat may be informed
and the delegate(s) in question may be removed from the conference.
Delegates shall treat all other delegates respectfully for the duration of the conference.
YMGE prides itself on providing a positive and educational experience for all delegates,
and we want all delegates to feel comfortable at all points of the conference, inside and
outside of committee simulation. Thus, disrespectful behavior that make participants at
YMGE feel uncomfortable, victimized, or treated with inequity will not be tolerated.