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Procedures and Rules

General Comments

The North-South Conference has been convened under the auspices of the Council of Ministers and the Parliament of the Eutropian Federation and the African Union.

All Conference activities are to take place in an atmosphere of courtesy and mutual respect. Simulation participants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with conventional polite, diplomatic forms of address and with the types of document they will be preparing.

The obligation to maintain an atmosphere of courtesy and mutual respect extends to the use of the Moodle software. Inappropriate use of the Moodle conferencing software, e.g. hacking into the system or logging on to the system using another person's login and password is not acceptable and may lead to sanctions being imposed on the individual(s) or team(s) involved.

Language

At all times, the language of this simulation is English (this includes communications within individual groups and "back channel" conversations during teleconferences).

Communication in Moodle

While much of the work of the Conference will presumably take place in the Moodle environment, face-to-face discussions within and between teams are also permitted.

Each individual team should agree on an internal communication plan to keep everyone fully informed. For example, one group might agree that those who attend teleconferences are responsible for keeping those teammates who cannot attend informed of the progress of the negotiations by sending them a summary of the conference "highlights." Another group might expect each member to read the logs of the conferences s/he cannot attend. Journalists in the simulation frequently publish useful summaries of the important points discussed in teleconferences. Whatever system your team decides to use, the point is: keep informed and help your teammates stay informed as well.

Every effort should be made to ensure that at least two members of each team attends each of the plenary sessions. Ideally, two or three members should attend each teleconference and share the work of reading, formulating requests for clarification, and typing statements and responses to questions; this allows participants to have a less stressful and more effective

Important: Make sure that someone in your group checks the Message Centre for messages at least three times a day (morning, noon, & evening) and informs the others in the group any time there are messages that need answering. This includes the days when teleconferences take place. When you receive a message, you are responsible for immediately sending a brief message acknowledging that the message has arrived and indicating how soon the writer can expect to receive a more detailed response from your team. All messages deserve a carefully considered response within 24 hours.

Message Centre

To make locating messages on specific topics easier, subject lines in Message Centre messages should clearly identify the topic or topics they discuss. For example, if the topic is "textbooks in the local language ," the subject line should indicate this. Do not expect your readers to be clairvoyant!

Mission Statements should have the words "Mission Statement" in the subject line. Messages to the Conference President concerning administrative, organizational or technical matters should have "Administrative Question (or "Administrative Problem", or "Administrative Help Needed") " in the subject line.

“Statements” in teleconferences

Statements made in Moodle teleconferences are identified by the team's name and are time-stamped, but unfortunately, are not numbered. To make it easier to follow the discussion, delegates are requested to follow these procedures:

• refer explicitly to the message being responded to, including both a short form of the team's name and enough context so others will know what you are talking about: "Re: Water Watch, 12:32: Could you explain how the UV purifier works?" or "Re: Water watch, 12:32: Why is it necessary to test the water so often?"
• keep off-topic discussions and internal team discussions out of the conference. If necessary (e.g., if the members attending the conference are not sitting together), open a second browser window or tab and use the "Internal chat" to talk with other members of your own team. Moodle does not support "whispers" or genuine "back-channel" communication. (Be aware that messages sent by clicking on a "smiley-face" will go to an individual and may not even be noticed or read during the teleconference. Additionally, they appear to interfere with the server's ability to deal with other communications without delays.)
• if a participant accidentally makes a private statement in the plenum, do not draw attention to it by commenting on it; doing so simply adds to the confusion.

Teleconference agendas

Participants may propose items for the agenda of a plenary teleconference by sending a message to the convener (e.g. the President of the North-South Conference, or the Chair of a working session) at least 24 hours before the session is scheduled to take place. Those doing so will then be invited to make a brief statement to open the discussion of that topic and explain their position. Following opening statements, the President, Chair or other moderator may invite specific responses, or open the topic for contributions from any attendee. Whenever possible, responses should be on the topic under discussion, but participants should also be aware that technical difficulties sometimes prevent a response from appearing at the precise place in the discussion where it would make the most sense. In such cases, tolerance and flexibility are called for.

Rules of Conduct

All participants in an IDEELS conference are expected to maintain an appropriately formal register and a courteous, diplomatic tone. Flaming and emoticons are entirely inappropriate in teleconferences, in the Message Center, and in the Documents area. In addition, words written entirely in capital letters are likely to be understood as shouting and are therefore also inappropriate.  

Appropriate Language

The language of the conference is English, the register formal, and the tone polite. Members of non-governmental organizations will maintain a courteous tone, and journalists a respectful tone, if they expect to be taken seriously.

Rude language is not tolerated, and excessively informal language during the teleconferences is discouraged as being highly unrealistic.

Language and conduct can be somewhat less formal during the working groups sessions and when members of a single group are communicating with each other, but here, too, language that is relatively formal and diplomatic can make it easier to achieve the team's aims. and is always to be preferred when communicating with other teams and with people one does not know.

Sanctions 

Failure to observe these rules may result in censure by the Conference Chair or, in persistent or extreme cases, exclusion of an individual or an entire delegation from the remainder of the simulation.

Questions regarding these procedures and rules should be directed to jsuther@uni-bremen.de.

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