Crisis committees are an excellent way for delegates to practice critical thinking under pressure. They require quicker thinking and faster-paced decision-making than a General Assembly committee. There are several types of crisis committees, and in my last blog I wrote about my thoughts on Ad Hoc crisis committees compared to regular ones. But what about joint crisis committees?

Regular crisis committees function based on the committee's decisions as well as some pre-planned crises. When crisis staff at a JAMUN conference run a crisis committee, a great deal of behind-the-scenes work goes into it. Specifically, we plan for many of the possible decisions the committee might make. Of course, sometimes our plan doesn't work out, since delegates can always pass directives we didn't anticipate. In those cases, we have to improvise. Still, the plan we create beforehand is extremely helpful for guiding the crisis updates that occur throughout the conference. As you can tell, crisis committees are fast-paced not only for the delegates but also for the crisis staff.

Joint crisis committees are a specific kind of crisis in which two separate committees with different delegates exist in the same “universe.” For example, at our upcoming JAMUN III conference, we will be hosting a joint crisis committee with both a Bolshevik cabinet and a Russian cabinet set during the Russian Revolution. The directives each committee writes and passes will directly affect both their own group and the other committee. This makes crisis updates even more unpredictable and stressful for delegates and crisis staff alike. Joint crisis committees can often be more exciting for delegates because they know their decisions will affect others—even delegates they haven't met yet. The unpredictability challenges participants to think outside the box and work toward success in their personal goals as their portfolio power.

The two types of committees present similar challenges and can appear very much like a regular crisis committee from the front room. Psychologically, however, the idea of another group of delegates simultaneously making decisions that affect your committee—and vice versa—can make a joint crisis committee especially exciting and engaging.