With one simple phrase, representatives from several different countries scatter and huddle in smaller groups to discuss a nuclear resolution that will bring the world’s nuclear arms race to a halt.

“We are now in formal session” said the dais.

Trying to keep the world safe from nuclear destruction may strike some as a heavy burden, but it’s only one of the many topics tackled every semester by the ISU Model United Nations club. The team will travel to Chicago on Friday for a competition, playing the roles of delegates from Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

“Basically, the Model U.N. is a lot like mock trial,” said club president Zach Paskiet. “It’s like a mock trial for the United Nations.”

Paskiet said he’s been involved with the club since his freshman year when he stumbled upon its table at ClubFest.

Since he joined, he said, Iowa State’s Model United Nations club has increased in size and popularity. Although the group takes only 30 members to conferences, he said, the club now has about 60 declared members.

“When we go to a conference we’re assigned a country, and we have to basically research everything about that country,” he said.

The teams then split up into two-person committees, he said, each assigned a different issue they then research, debate and try to pass a resolution upon. To keep the simulation as close to the real thing, the Model United Nations often uses topics that reflect what is going on in the world.

“These are real issues — the different committees get different topics,” he said. “This year, committee three could be non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, [and] committee one could be dealing with fresh water.”

Another way the Model United Nations keeps its club meetings and conferences true to the United Nations is by adapting a similar version of the U.N. parliamentary procedure that dictates how the delegations address the floor.

“It’s the U.N. parliamentary procedure, but we can’t do it verbatim because we have four days to do what they do in a year,” he said.

To make sure the club is ready for conferences, it meets weekly to hold mock U.N. sessions in which the club’s members take on the roles of several different countries, with Paskiet acting as dais — the committee leader who facilitates discussion and enforces meeting rules — and debate issues it might encounter during a conference.

In past years, the ISU Model United Nations club has attended one conference a year, and, in more recent years, it has been able to make it to two conferences. Members even been able to take some awards home with them, including the “best delegation” award in Chicago last year.

As the club begins to gear up for the upcoming conference, it remains to be seen how well it will fare, but one thing is for sure — there will be plenty to debate.