Crisis Director

In Model UN, a Crisis Director (often abbreviated CD) is the senior staff member responsible for the overall arc and execution of a crisis committee. While the chair manages debate in the committee room, the Crisis Director runs the backroom: the team of staffers who respond to delegates' private notes (often called crisis notes or directives), play non-present characters, and push the simulation forward through periodic crisis updates.

The role typically involves several months of pre-conference preparation:

• Writing the background guide or crisis arc, including a timeline of planned events.
• Designing character portfolios so each delegate has distinct powers, resources, and incentives.
• Recruiting and training Assistant Crisis Directors (ACDs) and backroom staffers.
• Anticipating likely delegate actions and preparing contingency updates.

During the conference, the CD decides how to react when delegates attempt actions through personal directives — assassinations, troop movements, propaganda campaigns, corporate takeovers — adjudicating plausibility and consequences. They also deliver dramatic in-room updates, sometimes in costume or via staged "press conferences," to escalate stakes and force delegates to respond.

Crisis Directors are common at North American collegiate conferences such as HNMUN, WorldMUN, NCSC, ChoMUN, and PMUNC, as well as many high-school circuits. At larger conferences the CD may oversee multiple committees in a joint crisis (JCC) or crisis simulation, coordinating shared world-state across rooms.

A strong CD balances narrative ambition with fairness: rewarding creative, well-researched directives without letting any single delegate monopolize the plot. Because crisis committees lack the formal rules-of-procedure constraints of General Assembly simulations, the CD's judgment effectively defines the committee's reality, making the role one of the most demanding staff positions on the MUN circuit.