In the run-up to the conference, the main responsibility of the chair is the authoring of a document which frames the debate and educates all delegates on the relevant facets of the topics they will be debating. As we went through in the introduction to this series, a large portion of the conference’s success depends on you, the Chair. Writing the guide is a noble and intellectual task, which directly influences the quality of debate. The real-world version of you (the secretaries in any committee, who are the real UN Secretariat) are charged with fact-finding and running the numbers on any ideas the committee has. Likewise, staffers at diplomatic missions, political staff in congress/parliaments have to write up policy briefs that are analogous to the task at hand: This Guide might be the first publically available document with your name on it (a publication, so to speak), and is a semi-professional level of work (definitely more important than your essay, maybe not your thesis), it really is important to get it right: You don’t want them seeing a plagiarised sparknote-fest ten years down the line. A well-written study guide is a successful primer on an important issue in international affairs, worth more than every position paper ever written.

Here’s a few tips for writing the best guide you can:

1) Remember what its for: The point of writing the guide is maximizing the quality of debate. For a Guide to achieve this, the delegates have to actually read it. We’ve all been delegates here, and we’ve all been bricked by a 72-page Guide in the past. As brevity is the soul of wit, a Guide needs some semblance of readability. Pictures, graphs and other illustrations are a great way of keeping your delegate from dozing off while reading your work. This is MUN, you can throw in a youtube video (remember to cite) if you think it will get your point across. The advice that goes for general essay-writing goes for this too: Don’t go off topic, keep it clean and make sure there’s a point to every paragraph (and if there isn’t, delete it). You’ll be able to tell which delegate didn’t read the guide, and no matter how good the guide is, some of your delegates will inevitably fail to read it. Make sure it’s their loss.

2) Do the work for your delegates: There is a notional topic about a complicated issue requiring international multilateral coordination. There will be treaties, declarations and statutes establishing how to deal with them. They are far too much to expect your average delegate to read. Don’t lazily hyperlink to the United Nations Convention on the law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and expect your entire committee to plow through 200-odd pages of dense legalese to find out that 200 nautical miles is the extent of the Exclusive Economic Zone: That’s your job. Provide your delegates with a fact-sheet, a glossary of terms, an executive summary of these. Familiarity with Primary documents (eg. UN Charter) is an important aspect of mastering delegacy, and as a chair, you need to be better than your Best Delegate. The same goes for any other issues: the history of violence between Hutus and Tutsis? Show them the nooks and Crannies. Balfour Declaration? Explain the context. Specificationss of a Nimitz-Class Aircraft Supercarrier? Cakewalk.

3) Frame the debate: This may be the most important aspect of the study guide, as well as the easiest tell for which delegates actually read the Guide. It’s hilarious when you correct a position paper that completely missed the point of the topic, less so when its your fault because you were unclear about the relevant backstory and which direction the debate should head in. This is the only place where a Chair can be less-than-neutral: You get to take the UN’s side. Past resolutions (not forgetting to summarize what they actually did), current lines of action already put in place (and how they could be made better). Again, research is the basis for this all, but your own analysis can indeed help with teasing out an effective resolution from the committee you lead.

4) Make it publishable: At this point in the editing process you need to think “This document will be freely downloadable for months”. Make sure it doesn’t embarrass you. To a certain extent, you have been selected for publishing, the only difference is you haven’t written it yet. Whatever your topic, make sure that it could hold its own against published materials on the subject. Google Scholar is your friend here: There’s all kinds of IR and PoliSci journals that will have dealt with the topic. With contentious issues like LGBT rights or Israel/Palestine, neutrality is your friend. You will find a delegate who holds strong views one way or the other. Now remember they are paying to attend your committee. Neutrality. Stick to it. The last thing to remember, at the risk of repeating myself, is that there are (very) well-paid professionals in the offices of Congressmen, MPs, Senators, MEPs, Ambassadors and Presidents whose job is to prepare documents like this one  in the exact way (in some cases even the same topic) as you are. If  it ever was your time to shine, this is it.

5) Conclude with a reminder: It is easy to forget, as a delegate, what it is you’re supposed to be doing, especially after reading a dizzyingly-long study guide about some arcane issue in a far-flung place you hadn’t heard of. I’ve found my conclusions to be relatively similar despite differing topics: What is the position you have to represent? What actions are you taking/can you take? Who’s your rival? Why? All of these questions should be asked in some way, before reminding your delegates that their job is to write a resolution together, that politics is the art of the possible, and that they should read the further reading list attached below. You did cite everything, didn’t you?

Next up: Grading position papers

This recap is provided by Nick Stratton, the Secretary General of the 40th Session of the Great Lakes International Model United Nations Conference. 

The Great Lakes Invitational Conference Association held the 40th annual Great Lakes Invitational Model United Nations (GLIMUN) in Kalamazoo, Michigan on December 4-7, 2013.  The conference’s opening session featured David Anderson, the Deputy Mayor of Kalamazoo, Michigan as he welcomed us back to his city, where GLIMUN has been held for the last six years.  Mr. Anderson shared a personal connection with the United Nations—his daughter works with the World Health Organization.  Four nations gave rousing opening speeches to the crowd of nearly 300 delegates, which set a high standard for the four days of debate that followed.

Students spent Wednesday evening through Friday afternoon working in six committees (three each from the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council).  This year’s committees were Disarmament and International Security, Special Political, Social Cultural and Humanitarian, Human Rights, Development, and Environment.  Unlike most Model UN conferences, delegates’ work did not end with the passage of resolutions in committee.  From Friday afternoon through Saturday, delegates convened in plenary sessions to again debate and amend the resolutions that had passed in committee.  In addition, GLIMUN 2013 featured an active Security Council that included a midnight call to reconvene in order to respond to a crisis.

While delegates remained focused on the topics at hand for most of the conference (which ranged from Preservation of Endangered Languages to Militarization of the Internet), GLIMUN included chances to kick back and have fun as well.  Students enjoyed evening activities that included a game night and the always-popular delegate dance.

This year’s conference included thirteen schools from Michigan, Indiana, and even Mexico City. As GLIMUN 2013 came to a close, the Secretary-General’s speech called participants to keep looking toward the future with a spirit of unity, dedication, and commitment. GLIMUN’s 40th anniversary was a huge success and we look forward to the next 40 years.

The Great Lakes Invitational Conference Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to peace through understanding.  Its all-volunteer staff includes many people who have more than ten years of experience running Model UN conferences, which is key to guaranteeing a consistently high quality experience for delegates and advisors.  For more information, visit www.glica.org.

This is the first in a series of three articles spotlighting the Yale Model United Nations conference to show the new, innovative ways in which leading conference organizers are changing and developing Model UN. These series all aim to ask: what kind of takeaways can we learn from these big conferences so that readers can learn, expand and improve their own conferences? This “behind-the-scenes” look at YMUN XL aims to show what it’s like to run a conference that showcases offerings beyond that of the typical committee experience, and is working to improve and innovate in the world of Model UN. 

This article, written by Brady Currey of the YMUN XL team, focuses on how YMUN is working to develop global citizenship in its delegates, through initiatives like guest speakers, novel debate topics, and the Global Exchange program. 

Delegates raise their placards in one of the committees at YMUN XXXIX.

In just over a month, nearly 1400 delegates will descend on the city of New Haven to participate in YMUN XL.  Only a small fraction will leave with formal recognition of their work in or out of committee.  But a piece of paper isn’t the point of attending a conference like YMUN.  The true goal of a conference – something we on the secretariat continuously aspire to achieve – is to provide a chance for delegates to learn about they relate to the community and world around them.  Global citizenship begins with self-knowledge.

This vision drives the theme for this year’s conference: Think Globally, Act Locally.  When we think about Model UN conferences, we often only focus on the committee room.  Isolated in hotels or classrooms, we operate in terms of clinical policy and politics, divorced from the emotional realities of the issues we debate.  But topics like gender equality or water management are just as pressing in the towns and cities where we hold our conferences as they are on the international scale we lift them to.

This renewed emphasis on the community outside of the conference is part of what makes this year’s YMUN so special.  Besides dramatically expanding our conference to offer seven new committees dedicated entirely to regional issues around the world, we’re incorporating high-profile guest speakers in all of our committees to help relate the topic at hand to the challenges we face in our daily lives.  Some committees will even get the chance to hear from people who have first-hand experience with the parallels between their topics and the social justice challenges facing the city of New Haven.

We’re doing all this because YMUN is, at its core, an educational conference.  This year, we’re tweaking our committee lineup to create a more engaging and compelling YMUN for delegates of all experience levels and interests.  We’ve created three small, application-only committees to provide a top-tier competitive experience while rolling out enhanced delegate training materials and a training committee only for new delegates.  And for truly passionate delegates, we’ve provided the opportunity to discuss the underpinnings of global citizenship with some of Yale’s most distinguished professors with the creation of our new Global Exchange program.  We’ve also streamlined the delegate experience with a new emphasis on technology, creating a delegate portal to allow delegates and chairs to collaborate before the conference.  We’re also rolling out an iOS app to give advisors and delegates the tools to stay completely up to date with all things YMUN.  These enhancements – both minor and major – allow us to offer the experience of attending a conference to a much wider range of students while sharpening our educational focus.

So as we count down the days until opening ceremonies, we on the secretariat are incredibly excited to welcome you, both to YMUN XL and to the city of New Haven.  Rather than simply providing a simulation, we want this year’s YMUN to showcase the reality of the social problems still lingering in our communities and the influence global issues have on the choices we make in our daily lives.  And we know that everyone is going to leave the conference with something truly worthwhile.

YMUN XL takes place from January 23rd to 26th, 2014. For more information, visit their website.

All pictures are from the YMUN Facebook Page.

With the height of the Model UN Season taking place in the fall, there’s a fair amount of room to pick and choose from available conferences in the spring. When deciding which conferences to attend, head delegates usually take into consideration size, location, and expert-level, but other than that, most conferences have a pretty standard structure. As part of a movement to encourage the continued evolution of Model UN as a “smart sport”, I was able to sit down with the Chairman of PicSim, Sukrit Puri, to give readers a reason to try something new to the old game we all love. Aside from taking place in the beautiful, historical town of Princeton, this conference offers a one of a kind experience, thriving social events, and phenomenal eating choices, Hoagie Haven anyone? Keep reading to find out more about PicSim and how you can register!

LS: PICSim is known for having a unique structure, from what I understand it’s kind of one large joint-crisis committee. Can you tell me  a little more about it?

SP: Moving from the High School circuit to the College level MUN circuit, there is a very noticeable shift in focus from larger GA committees to more action oriented crisis committees. A problem that arises with crisis committees is that they often tend to operate in a vacuum: it’s just a game the room plays with the Crisis Director. Joint Crisis Committees seek to offer a more realistic scenario, with one room’s actions informing the other room’s reactions. But still, we weren’t satisfied. PICSim was built on the philosophy of realism: we want to provide the most realistic committee experience, from the content to the other players in the universe. And so 11 years ago, Princeton Interactive Crisis Simulation was born; a twelve-way joint crisis committee, where each committee assumes the role of the Executive branch of a country, with delegates’ taking on the portfolios of members in their country’s government.

The idea is to plunge delegates into topics of domestic and multinational concerns, contextualized with bilateralism and multilateralism. If a country makes a policy decisions, it must know that its neighbors, allies, and enemies are watching.

To facilitate the complex network of multilateralism, we have a phenomenal MasterMind Team, which sits in the “War Room.” We have the MasterMind along with his Deputy MasterMinds, whose task is to oversee the crisis team dedicated to each country, and to develop a thematic progression of the crisis as the conference progresses. The MMTeam is additionally responsible for responding to individual delegates’ portfolio powers, providing content through engaging multimedia formats, and organizing summits or clandestine meetings between members from different countries.

Finally, to synchronize all content across the 12 committees, we make use of our homegrown multimedia system known as the Global News Network, the GNR. The GNR remains projected on the screen in every committee, and refreshes constantly as news updates alert the universe of the happenings. Using this technology, each committee can know what every other country is facing, and how they are reacting.

PICSim is a highly complex conference, with many moving parts, but it runs like clockwork. Content is beautifully unpredictable — as decided by the delegates themselves — and the MasterMind team can sometimes only watch as a 12-Way Game Theory experiment unfolds, much to the delight of the Economic Department, conveniently located next door to where PICSim is hosted, in the magnificent Woodrow Wilson School’s Robertson Hall!

LS: Very interesting, well we certainly can’t deny it’s complex! What are the committee sizes like? Is the conference run more like a large crisis or a smaller General Assembly?

SP: PICSim is structured as a 12-way joint crisis conference, with each PICSim focusing on a region of the world. We’ve previously done North Africa, Latin America, and most recently, Western Europe.
Each committee is about 12 people strong, plus the Chair who acts as the president or prime minister, depending on the nature of the respective executive branch. We feel it’s small enough to allow for meaningful discussion, and large enough to bring in varied points of views.
Of course, we don’t always restrict the committees to being countries. We have included the European Commission, for instance, as well. And this year, well, we have two secret committees only to be revealed later …

LS: From what I see, the conference topic this year is the Black Sea (in addition to those two secret committees, which I’m sure our readers are dying to hear more about). What are some of the ways you’ll be breaking down into committees and how will you emphasize the need to work in tandem with all the committees?

SP: We’ve chosen to focus on the other side of Europe this year, on the area surrounding the Black Sea. We’re calling it “Black Ops: Black Sea.” We’ve brought in a MasterMind Team uniquely qualified to bringing genuine insight into the region. Our MasterMind (MM), Tucker Jones, and one of the Deputy MMs, Jacob Sackett-Sanders, participated in Princeton’s Bridge Year program, where they lived in Serbia for a year. Our second DMM is Melike Tokatlioglu, who hails from Turkey.

The MM Team has broken down the set of countries into blocs, like the Caucuses, and the Balkans, etc. While each country has a dedicated crisis team for domestic issues, the DMMs will ensure bilateral and multilateral cooperation and dialogue between countries within these geographic blocs. Crises will also develop multinationally, and so we can expect cooperation and communication between committees to grow organically.

LS: How large is the conference?

SP: PiCSim is a relatively small conference, with anywhere between 120 and 160 students in attendance over the past few years. But we have attracted brilliant delegates from around the world. In the past, we’ve hosted delegations from India, Pakistan, Venezuela, Australia, just to name a few, along with strong domestic teams like West Point and University of Pennsylvania. Judging by registration numbers for PICSim 2014, this year already promises to bring in delegates from many places. Considering that Model UN is but a format for delegates to engage with international issues, we take pride in knowing that our diverse conference participation allows genuine international and cultural engagement outside committee too.

LS: Is there anything in specific  you would like potential delegates to know?

SP: 11 years ago, Princeton’s International Relations Council reflected on the College MUN circuit, and audaciously proposed a conference format so unique, and yet so wonderfully compelling, steeped in the promise of bringing the most real experience to a Model UN conference. PICSim enters its 11th year this year, and with the many changes that have been effected over the years, we are positive that this conference will be one to remember!

On the social front, we welcome delegates to Princeton’s unique Eating Clubs. What are they? Even we don’t know. But we’re going to take delegates, there in any case! As a teaser: think Black Ops. Think Black Sea. Deductive reasoning should conclude … Black Lights.

LS: The secret committees and potential black light party definitely got my attention! How and when would I register if I wanted to attend? 

SP: Registration for PICSim closes on the 17th of January (we extended it)! The conference takes place entirely on Princeton University campus, in the rooms of Robertson Hall, which houses Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (affectionately, Woody Woo).

Our pricing is extremely competitive, and we have a discount special for delegates who wish to stay at the Nassau Inn, conveniently located right outside campus.

The actual conference will take place from February 20-23, 2014.

More information is available on our website: http://irc.princeton.edu/picsim/
PICSim’s Charge d’Affairs, Nathan Eckstein, is reachable at picsim@nullprinceton.edu.

This is going to be a fantastic conference, and we urge delegates to register as soon as possible!

The YMUN team’s Holiday photo.

The second article in the YMUN Featured Series, this post – written by Director General of Administration Alessandra Powell – discusses the innovative strategies and ideas YMUN is using to expand its conference and bring the best possible experience to its delegates. Ranging from a new iPhone app to a partnership with Kiva Microcredit, YMUN is pioneering new business strategies for conferences, while still ensuring that the satisfaction of its delegates remains its primary goal. 

This year YMUN has set a new bar for business and administration in areas ranging from nearly quadrupling financial aid to new tech innovations that will make YMUN XL bigger and better than ever. YMUN has pioneered an iPhone app available in the App store that has many uses ranging from allowing advisors to track payment progress to providing restaurant recommendations to sending push notifications when rooming changes occur. YMUN’s Breaking Boundaries Award, and our increased budget for individual financial aid have enabled more students than ever to attend YMUN regardless of cost. Undersecretary-General of Domestic Delegations Hannah Gonzales and her Assistant-Secretary General, Angelo Pis-Dudot, have piloted our financial aid efforts, reaching out to target schools across the country and providing them with tailored preparation help and guidance as they plan and train for committee. YMUN strives to bring together the best delegates from top delegations around the world, and our efforts at expanding financial aid are perhaps are largest step this year in that direction.

In that vein, our Outreach Team, comprised of Undersecretary-General Clarey Zhu and Assistant Secretary Generals Linda Oh and Adam Gerard, has nearly tripled our presence in social media, gotten press coverage around the world, and secured more sponsorships than ever before. After identifying where YMUN’s presence was weakest, the Outreach Team targeted these areas, yielding YMUN’s most international conference in history. Furthermore, the amount of sponsorship funding that has been secured in 2014 yielded a whopping 2,500% increase. This funding has been used to allow for our expansion in financial aid, and to increase the quality of Yale Day.

The Conference team has put together a phenomenal set of opportunities for delegates to experience Yale. Ranging from lunch with Yale faculty to a micro-credit bazaar, this year’s delegate activities are all woven together by our theme this year: Think Globally, Act Locally. Under-Secretary General Christina Wong and Assistant Secretary Generals Hannah Sampson, Caroline Posner and Nicole Ng have put together a schedule that hopes to engage and inspire delegates outside of the committee room.

Assistant Secretary General of Administration, Sejal Vallabh, has been piloting our partnership with Kiva Microcredit. YMUN will be donating 5-10% of it’s profit this year to Kiva, and delegates will also be encouraged to participate through candy sales and more during the conference. Kiva is a well known and respected non-profit that has given out nearly $500 million in microfinance loans since its 2005 date of inception. Kiva distributes loans (with a nearly 99% repayment rate) to various entrepreneurs. YMUN’s project is unique in that each committee will be paired with a different project to create as personal an experience for the delegates as possible.

We can’t wait to see you at YMUN XL, and hope that you leave our conference with many new friends, knowledge gained, and a renewed sense of wonder at what you can do in this world. YMUN is focused on inspiring delegates and we hope that through our social projects and unique opportunities, we can empower our YMUN XL delegates to return home with a renewed sense of community spirit. YMUN doesn’t begin or end with the sound of a gavel, its impact will continue through the delegates it inspires.

In the third and final instalment of our YMUN featured series, Justin Schuster, the Director General of Committees for YMUN XL, talks about how YMUN is making strides in improving the committee experience for delegates. From staffers who truly know what they’re doing to a new type of committee, YMUN is employing a number of strategies to ensure that delegates attend a conference that is both educational and fun. 

In just one week, over 1,500 delegates will be descending upon Yale’s campus from five continents, dozens of states and scores of high schools worldwide. As the grounds of these hallowed halls ready for their inundation of debate – from talks of sub-Saharan poverty alleviation to the fate of the Euro, communist conspiracies to constitutional quandaries – the nearly 200 member staff of the 40^th annual Yale Model United Nations conference are finalizing their preparations.

After four days of rigorous debate, coalition building and resolution writing, a few exceptional delegates will depart with awards. But at its very essence, YMUN stands for far more than gavels and certificates. YMUN is proud to deliver not just a debate conference but a holistic educational experience.

Hand-selected from a pool of talented Yalies, the committee directors for YMUN’s 25 committees are experts in their respective topics and are prepared to share their field research and background knowledge with delegates. Directors who will be leading the World Health Organization committee will be coming straight from WHO headquarters in Geneva. The leader of the World Economic Forum will be coming just following her work at Davos. After field research took him to the Spratley Islands, one of YMUN’s directors will be leading the International Maritime Organization.

Staffers preparing for the conference at YMUN Prep Day.

It is YMUN’s philosophy that directors should be more than just moderators; they should be educators who are set to empower and inspire the delegates in their respective committees. As such, delegates will have the chance to learn not just through their committee preparations but also directly from some of the leading student experts in their respective fields.

Beyond expert committee directors, YMUN will be welcoming world-renowned professionals to the vast majority of its committees. From the CEO of Doctors without Borders to representatives from the United Nations and from experts on Israeli foreign policy to United States Ambassadors, these leaders in their respective fields will be sharing not only their professional and academic experience but also their stories about careers in international politics. This is an exciting innovation that is offered by few if any college conferences at such a level.

In its fortieth iteration, YMUN is in a state of refining and innovating its conference.

Refining – YMUN is improving its technological capabilities from a new iOS app to in-committee crisis videos.  YMUN is also proud to field its second batch of award winners from the conference’s second annual essay contest on the theme of “think globally, act locally.”

Innovation – YMUN is inaugurating a brand new type of committee – Regional Bodies, which span the entire globe (Arab League, European Union, Organization of American States) and the annals of regional history (Nuremberg Trials, Commission on the Status of Kashmir 1947 and Antebellum Congress).

YMUN is much more than just your run-of-the-mill Model United Nations conference, it is an educational experience and our attempt introduce over 1,500 future leaders of the world to the vast world of international politics.

For God, for country and for Yale,

- The Secretariat of Yale Model United Nations XL

GCIMUN Staff at UN Headquarters

UNA-USA is recruiting for staff for its flagship Global Classrooms conferences in New York City. The high school level Global Classrooms International Model United Nations (GCIMUN) conference will take place from May 13-18 and the middle school level Global Classrooms Middle School Model United Nations (MSMUN) conference will take place from March 27-29. Hotel accommodations and a limited flight reimbursement are covered for GCIMUN staff.

Applications for either conference are due January 27, 2014 and the link can be found here: http://www.unausa.org/global-classrooms-model-un/model-un-conferences/conference-staffing.

Global Classrooms is an initiative of UNA-USA to bring Model UN to communities that have traditionally been underrepresented in the activity. Staffing the Global Classrooms conferences is a good way to give back your Model UN experience and meet some of the best and brightest Model UN staffers at the college level. Global Classrooms conferences are also held nationwide (and around the world) — check out the UNA-USA Global Classrooms website for more details.

This is an guest article written by Rory P. Mondshein from the Bard College.

If your college is anything like Bard, Model UN is not a popular club on campus. In fact, I’ve heard people say that Model UN is “too establishmentarian,” or “ too blasé” for them to be part of it. Last year, Bard Model UN was on the verge of collapse due to a lack of interest in the program. While I was recruiting people, I noticed that there were a lot of misconceptions about Model UN, like that it is mainly for Political Science majors and that it is not relevant to liberal arts schools, which may have contributed to the lack of interest in the program. Thus, I feel obligated to clear up these misconceptions, and explain the areas where a liberal arts education can come in handy in Model U.N. 

Delegates at Bard College, a small liberal arts school in upstate New York, use their
liberal arts education to deconstruct crises in their North Korea: 2040 simulation.

1.  Deconstructing the Problem

A liberal arts education teaches you how to think about the world by asking questions. In liberal arts colleges, students are emboldened to challenge and question conventional practices. Students are encouraged to look at the world — not only as it is, but why it is this way it is, and see the world as it can be. In Model UN, we also discuss the current state of affairs, and hypothesize how we can make it better; however, we don’t always focus on why we are facing these problems in the first place, and that is where we can and should use the liberal arts approach. By using the liberal arts approach, we study the different variables, and their relationships in order to see the problem in a different way.

Here is the liberal arts problem solving formula in a nutshell: think about the problem in terms of a dependent variable, use the different disciplines as independent variables, and just play with different bivariate and multivariate analyses. The possibilities are endless: you can look at a problem through a sociological perspective, study the ways that different social groups interact with one another, and see how that creates certain political conditions; you can use cinema verité as a metaphor for understanding the macro and micro level aspects to the problem; you can use that Sex, Power, and Politics class to do a gendered reading of the problem — it’s amazing how much you can use your diverse background to understand the problem in a different way.

 2.  Articulation

If you’re in a liberal arts college like mine, you’ve probably had at least one socratic seminar with about eight people in it, and deconstructed a text until you were blue in the face. In fact, you probably had a long debate over the author’s purpose, or even the implications of a particular punctuation mark against a self-proclaimed bibliophile. Yeah, it’s a pretty standard experience for liberal arts students. However, it is very valuable  and germane to Model UN because, while you were debating Marcel Proust’s excessive colon usage in Remembrance of Things Past against a “prodigious Proustophile,” you structured your argument to incorporate a hook, point, and an action.

The Hook, Point, Action (HPA) structure also applies to arguments in Model UN: delegates use a hook to get the audience’s attention (and wake up the sleeping delegate in the back); they make a point to contribute to the debate; and use actions to explain what they want others to do about it. If you can do it in the classroom, then you can surely do it in Model UN because it is just the same formula in a different context.

 3.  Developing and Writing Solutions

The liberal arts education manifests itself in Model UN in the areas of problem solving and resolution writing. In the liberal arts, we spend a lot of time deconstructing problems (see point one), and even more time doing close readings and analysis to understand why things are the way they are. We look at sentence structure, punctuation, and more to see how each element contributes to to the big picture, which can be extremely helpful for delegates: not only can delegates improve their writing, but they can also understand the implications of it.

Sure, it may seem pedantic to focus on every single word or punctuation mark, but, honestly, it is important. If you are a delegate to the United Nations, you are responsible for developing comprehensive solutions to real problems, and solidify it in the form of resolutions. In other words, you’re responsible for creating an all-encompassing document that nations will sign, and respect for years to come; however, what will that document mean in the future? Words change over time, and, consequently, our relationship to these words change.  to the point where today’s resolutions may mean something different many years from now. Take the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), for example, and the ways different nations have reacted to it: some nations, like the United States, believe that it limits nuclear weapons; others, like Iran, believe that the NPT allows them to mass produce weapons. The NPT is just one example of the many issues nations have with the ambiguity latent in resolutions and treaties, which nations are expected to abide by regardless of whether or not it is clear.

Use the skills you gained in LIT 101 to make your resolutions as clear as possible: focus on that one word and ask what its implications are; and ask how that comma contributes to or changes the meaning of the sentence. comma and what that comma will mean many years from now. After all, you’re writing resolutions that will last in perpetuity, so do a close reading and ask yourself how future generations will view it — and watch out for that Oxford comma.

Take the knowledge you gained in “Introduction to Philosophy,” and debate the structure of the resolution. Ask yourselves: is it better to strictly define your clauses to make them clear; or should they be ambiguous so they can last in perpetuity? Think about examples of countries that have debated over their legal structures, and you can really delve deep into some of today’s biggest issues.

From there, you can study the history of the problem and how the media has framed it, and see how that has affected public opinion — or anything, really.  Once you have the ability to connect ideas, the possibilities are endless. Maybe you’ll develop some crazy ideas, like True Life: Al-Shabaab to bring business to Somalia based off an economics class you took, or Big Brother: Dictators Edition to get rogue leaders to admit to war crimes on camera after watching reality television for too long, or something even more out of the box. The point is, you can use your liberal arts education to make these endless connections to really get a well-rounded view of the problem, and, more importantly, the different ways you can solve it.

However, while liberal arts students do this on a daily basis, you don’t need to be a liberal arts student to think like a liberal arts student; you just need to connect ideas and variables to paint a better picture of the current climate, and the real problems so that you can work towards ameliorating/resolving it.

All in all…

Model U.N. is all about developing comprehensive solutions to today’s most pressing problems, and the liberal arts approach just gives delegates a different way of understanding the problems, which can be extremely advantageous in a world plagued by problems and very few solutions.

Here at Best Delegate, our goal is to be the number one resource in Model UN knowledge for students and teachers. In order to help high schools and universities build up their own teams, we’re getting personal with a few teams on the circuit to see how they’ve found their edge in the competition.

Over the past three years, University of Florida has gone from snagging a few awards at more local conferences to winning delegation awards at top conferences. Head delegates Chris Joyce, Troy Robinson, Aaron Kalafarski, Sarah Huestis, and Fred Kolb attribute their success to the ability to compete on the circuit, a large and eager underclassmen base, and a bit of #GatorNation ingenuity.

University of Florida delegates pose for a goofy picture at RTCMUNC

University of Florida is not the first team to compete in both the National and World divisions, but they are one of the first to excel and have an exceptional presence on both. How do they do it? They separate the circuits, assigning them different purposes.

“We view the National Circuit as the ideal area to hone and mold delegate assembly skills; as the National Circuit places a greater emphasis on delegate education and overall delegation performance. We utilize National Circuit conferences to develop our delegates skills for the World Circuit, which seems more and more to rely on crisis-style committees,” said Robinson

This “divide and conquer” strategy helps the team get the most out of MUN and improves focus in committee itself. Most delegates who compete or have competed in both general assemblies and crisis committees know that each requires separate training and mindset. As well, instead of using World division conferences for training, this allows UF to send new delegates to master the National Circuit before jumping into the World Division.

Training is an integral part of UF Model UN’s overall strategy, especially considering their large base of underclassmen. As mentioned, the head delegates send most of them to conferences on the National circuit. This past year, UF sent 45 delegates to the Regional Training Conference in Tallahassee with over half new to MUN. Gradually, they bring more and more younger delegates to World division conferences like CMUNNY and UPMUNC. Their hard work paid off this fall with a Best Small Delegation at CMUNNY and five awards at UPMUNC, with two of the awards given to underclassmen.

University of Florida’s team at CMUNNY with their Best Small Delegation and individual awards

Head delegate Chris Joyce highlights the main reason for this philosophy. “We believe the key to having a successful competitive program over the long term is to make sure you have able delegates to replace your veterans. Our goal is to make sure that when people like Troy Robinson, Fred Kolb, and Aaron Kalafarski graduate over the next two years we can just reload and continue performing at a high level on the circuit,” said Joyce.

Finally, it is impossible to truly excel on the circuit without an edge. A number of teams have proper training programs, strategies, and underclassmen; however, it is hard to match UF’s level of creativity. On and off the circuits, chairing or competing, University of Florida’s ingenuity permeates into all of their activities.

This year’s bold endeavor is a twenty-four hour crisis simulation at the third annual Florida Crisis Simulation from February 21-23, 2014. The committee, cleverly named “24”, will test delegates’ limits by operating entirely in real time. Paul Ryiz, one of UF’s most experienced directors will serve as crisis director for this application-only committee.

But Joyce said the most important way to showcase their individuality is by improving committee, whether competing or directing. Joyce said, “the best compliment that I can receive about one of my team members is that they made a committee experience better for the other delegates in their room.”

Landing comfortably in the top 20 this fall, it is clear UF’s strategy has paid off. In one year, they climbed nearly ten places, starting at #25 in Fall 2012 and finishing Fall 2013 at #16. Where to next? Robinson cites a more aggressive Spring 2014 schedule with more World division conferences including ChoMUN, MCMUN, and VICS.

If we can learn anything from University of Florida’s top-ranked team, creativity and playing to your team’s skills can never go amiss.

Apply for the Best Delegate Diplomacy Fellowship!

The Diplomacy Fellowship is a paid seven-week summer fellowship for top university graduates or students with significant Model UN achievements, leadership experience, and interest in educating the next generation of student leaders. Diplomacy Fellows will be trained to teach high school students, middle school students, or educators during the Best Delegate Model UN Summer Programs held in university campuses throughout North America.

The fellowship term is from June 17 – August 2, 2014. Diplomacy Fellows must be available during the entire fellowship term. All Diplomacy Fellows will start in Washington DC for training and to teach the first residential summer program. Afterward, Diplomacy Fellows will be assigned to travel in small teams to teach at residential or commuter programs held in different cities throughout North America. The Diplomacy Fellowship will offer a stipend and will cover travel costs, accommodations, and some meals throughout the fellowship period.

Applications are due January 31, 2014! Learn more about the Diplomacy Fellowship and the application process here!

Unmoderated Caucuses, especially in the initial stages of committee, can be a chaotic affair at best. With so many delegates moving from bloc to bloc trying to determine which to join, the major challenge that this part of committee presents is not only establishing yourself as a leader, but building a level of unity within your group early on that will retain delegates and prevent them from dispersing to other groups, allowing you to build a bloc that is strong in both numbers and group dynamics.

Define the Group

The foundation of unity is group identity. For this reason, the most successful blocs with high delegate retention are the ones that define themselves early on in the committee. When everybody in your bloc is on the same page about what they stand for, it will be a more straightforward resolution writing process. It will also allow you, as the bloc’s chair, to avoid being pulled away from the group by questions from other blocs, because even the least engaged delegates on the edges of your group will be able to explain briefly what the resolution is about.

Giving the group a goal to work toward or something to call themselves  that is more specific than the goal or name of the committee will make delegates feel like they as individuals stand for something and cumulatively have both significance and power. And you, as the one who stated the definition, will be in a position to shape the direction of the bloc that will be difficult for other delegates to match.

Another great application for a group definition is avoiding the messy, semi-diplomatic power struggle over what your resolution will be called. Instead of arguing over whether it is the “Australia Resolution” or the “Luxembourg Resolution” you can simply call it by its definition.

Coming up with your definition

Your group’s definition shouldn’t be too narrow or you run the risk of excluding delegates with different opinions, but it should also be more specific than the committee topic or a derivative of it, as this will set your team apart from the rest of committee. Here are a few strategies that you can use independently or in tandem to define the group.

• The Sub-Issue Strategy- A simple way to define your group is to identify a sub-issue of the topic that your group feels is particularly important and use this emphasis to clearly explain how your group differs from others. For example, your group may feel that prevention should be the main focus of successful resolutions. Your bloc’s identity, then, should be the prevention resolution.
• The Marketing Point Strategy- If your group cannot unify under a single facet of the issue, then look for a unique solution or a point your group is addressing that other resolutions do not. For example, in a committee on climate change, most blocs will focus on revising the Kyoto Protocols or regulating international commerce to increase accountability. Your group can still address these points, but your major one that your group identifies under can be something more unique, such as soot reduction, which is a simple way to make commercial emissions much cleaner. This is also where acronyms can be handy, though they are employed most effectively when the group as a whole decides on them.
• The Goal Identification Strategy- When there are no clear marketing points and the resolution doesn’t have a firm base in any sub-issues, you can still define the group by sitting down and simply running through the resolution’s goals. It can be as simple as gathering a few of your bloc’s major ideas and synthesizing them into an agenda. You don’t even have to be covert about what you are doing. Simply say “from what you all have been saying, it seems like this resolution’s goals are____. Its primary goal is_____” By doing this, you are verbally giving the paper shape and creating a structure into which your bloc members can fit their relevant ideas.

One Step Further: Define Individuals in Your Group

Everybody who is working in a group wants to have their contributions recognized. Unfortunately, resolution blocs are not always conducive to sharing credit and recognizing contributions. If you want your blocs to truly respect you as a leader and really follow you in committee, rather than simply tolerating you, then you’re going to have to build a group that values every member. Once your bloc knows what the whole is working toward, you can begin giving individual delegates definitions that recognize what they have contributed. Maybe they are the author of your microfinance clause, or maybe they wrote your preambulatory clauses. It can be as simple as an idea they felt strongly about, or a role they have played, but always remember this definition when you refer to them. When you speak to the group, make sure you mention other people’s contributions with their country names, and you will notice a major difference in the way your group regards you.

This accomplishes two goals for you. For one thing, delegates know that you appreciate their work and recognize them for it. It helps delegates understand what exactly their contribution was. Many delegates simply contribute ideas without claiming them as their own, so recognizing them helps them remember that they are a valued part of the group. Defining the members of your bloc will also help the bloc as a whole understand who deserves to be a primary sponsor. When everybody is aware of what everybody else has contributed, then nobody will wonder what a person did to become a primary sponsor, which reduces resentment and discontent.

The McMUN 2014 Secretariat with Ambassador Rishchynski

Last weekend, the 25th anniversary of McMUN, the biggest conference north of the border, hit Montreal for four days of intense debate through adventurous and challenging committees that, as per McMUN tradition, pushed the boundaries of committee expectations.

The conference opened with a keynote speech from Canada’s ambassador to the UN Guillermo E. Rishchynski who spoke of the lasting importance of the UN as a vessel geared “not to take us to heaven, but to save us from hell.”

With the drop of the gavel from Secretary General Abdaal Mazhar Shafi, McMUN was officially underway. While many of the delegates headed to their first committee session, those participating in the three General Assemblies had the chance to attend McMUN’s Global Leadership Forum which featured six of speakers including the first Canadian astronaut and Liberal Party of Canada House Leader Dr. Marc Garneau.

The Global Leadership Forum, which sought to inspire delegates to pursue their positive actions in committee outside of it as well, was but one of McMUN’s initiatives to incite change as the conference raised over $2500 for charity:water, a non-profit aimed at bringing clean water to people in developing nations.

As for the committees themselves and McMUN’s history of creating unique and exciting discussion, 2014 certainly did not disappoint.

McMUN 2014

In the General Assemblies, the UNTC discussed relevant and pressing topics such as Palestinian and Kurdish statehood, passing resolutions on both. The UNTC also spent a large amount of time debating similar issues of statehood, but under fictional circumstances, a hypothetical secessionist state in Northern Nigeria, in order to better understand the issue without the burden of geopolitical precedence.

As for the ECOSOCs, one of McMUNs flagship committees, the World Water Forum 2039, was quickly revealed to be a hidden crisis and delegates were tasked with resolving a global water shortage under intense time pressure.

McMUN 2014 played host to its first ever joint Specialized Agency which saw the Dubai committee overcome Guangzhou in their bids for the 2020 World Fair.

In perhaps McMUNs strongest committee type the crisis, the first ever McMUN quad-joint committee pitted the three rival factions of the filipino People Power Revolution of 1986 against each other with constant intervention from the UN Security Council.

The DEFCON Countdown committee used technology to enhance debate as North Korea and China fought South Korea and the United States through a real-time simulation that used a shared digital map.

While maintaining a consistently high level of debate, McMUN is also well-known on the collegiate circuit for its social events and Friday’s pub crawl attracted nothing short of 1000 delegates. Those who braved the cold spent the evening experiencing all of Montreal’s downtown bar scene before ending the night at Jet Club.

Perhaps the most well-known event on the entire collegiate circuit, McParté, saw its fiercest manifestation yet as local Montreal DJs created an atmosphere unlike any other for some near 1500 delegates and staff in what was the fitting celebration of a great weekend.  

As the conference came to a close, McMUN saw many delegations claim awards from the weekends, but it was Georgetown and West Point who left the bitter north as Best Large Delegation and Best Small Delegation respectively.

McParté 2014

All photos courtesy of McMUN 2014

This week we’re highlighting another university team, United States Military Academy at West Point. As a consistent top ten team (scoring sixth on the North American rankings this fall), West Point is always a force to be reckoned with at conferences. Students and teachers hoping to emulate this success may be surprised that the team owes its wins to individual preparation, its try-out process, and experiences outside of the classroom.

So much Model UN literature focuses on subtle tips and tricks when speaking or negotiating, but a delegate’s performance is dependent entirely on preparation. West Point delegates typically conduct their own research beforehand without much preparation as a team and may consult professors as needed.

Brandon Moore, West Point’s Head Delegate, said, “The West Point Model UN team doesn’t conduct any formal training prior to a conference. We have a short meeting where we discuss each cadet’s committee and/or crisis position, but that’s typically the full extent of it. Preparation is entirely the prerogative of the individual team members.”

Besides each individual delegate’s hard work and skill, Moore attributes his delegates’ high success rate to their competitive try-out system. The West Point Model UN team holds try-outs with a written application, interviews with veteran members, and, finally, a general assembly and crisis simulation where veteran members can assess potential team members’ performances. Between 120 and 150 West Point students from all years are interested each fall, with roughly 4 to 6 new team members actually chosen.

Moore said, “Even though we’re logistically limited to a smaller team, it also allows us to ensure that our members can attend as many conferences as possible each semester.”

West Point compliments its competitive try-outs with a competitive conference schedule for the year. They attend and win delegation awards at top domestic and international conference including Oxford International Model UN (OxIMUN), University of Pennsylvania Model UN Conference (UPMUNC), McMUN (hosted by McGill University), Harvard National Model UN (HNMUN), and WorldMUN.

This season, the team has won Best Small Delegation at OxIMUN, UPMUNC, and, most recently, at McMUN this past weekend. The team is excited to attend the conferences mentioned in their typical spring line-up but also to add University of California, Berkeley’s Model UN (UCBMUN).

West Point attends Oxford International Model UN and wins Best Small Delegation

Finally, delegates from West Point typically field questions from peers on how their military background helps performance. Their answers do not necessarily include specialized knowledge from classes but rather confidence and the ability to act in high-stress situations.

On how these skills translate to committee, Moore explained, “Whether it comes to hastily assembling a voting bloc for during a GA or devising a political maneuver in a crisis, these experiences are often beneficial on the circuit.”

Award-winning team member, Pat Beauregard hard at work in a crisis simulation

Although the team is a powerhouse on the circuit, the team is known for having fun in and out of committee, which, at the end day, is the most important part of Model UN.

Moore said, “Our first priority is to have a great time on the circuit with our fellow college students, while always working to build strong civilian-military relationships for the future.”

For students and teachers building competitive high school and university teams, paying special attention to delegate selection and ensuring individual preparation are key takeaways from West Point’s top-ranked team.

From January 31 to February 1, Huntington Beach High School hosted its 11th session of Surf City Model UN. Nearly 900 participants from West Coast high school delegations were in attendance, debating topics such as maritime security and the crisis in the Central African Republic.

Delegates vote in favor of a motion

The number of delegates attending Surf City MUN has increased from 700 to nearly 900 in the past three years, an aspect which can be mainly attributed to the quality of debate and preparedness of the staff and committee chairs. Under Secretary-General Paige Petrashko states that HBHSMUN trains their chairs to be “not only diligent, but also attentive during committee”. In turn, the conference attracts highly advanced delegates.

Colombia (Mira Costa) and Portugal (Edison) use the online resolution database to type up their working paper in UNHRC

Other than the competitive nature of the conference, two notable features were the integration of technology in committee and the conference’s philanthropy. Starting in last year’s conference, Surf City utilized an online resolution database and DaisLINK, an online program for Advisors to track their delegates’ progress in committee. “We are more technological than ever,” says Secretary-General Melanie Lin, “It’s helpful for the delegates and stimulates research and resolution writing.” DaisLINK, in particular, is a program unique to Surf City and allows Advisors to conveniently oversee how well their delegates are doing during committee.

One of ECOSOC’s topics was restoring the economy in the Philippines

Surf City XI hosted a joint fundraiser with HBHS’s Humanitarian Club to provide food aid to those in Syria and the Philippines. As Under Secretary-General Kevin Cruze mentions, “When [our MUN program] hosts a conference, we partner with our school’s charitable organizations to give back.” The conference cause was relevant to current events and issues discussed in committee—the Security Council addressed the Syrian Crisis, while WHO and ECOSOC had topics pertaining to the typhoon in the Philippines. Delegates raised $1,200 in support of the causes, with 1^st DISEC and Historical Security Council raising the most for large and small committees, respectively.

Surf City MUN offered 22 General Assembly, ECOSOC, Regional and Specialized committees. Below are some highlights from these committees and the conference in general.

Delegates representing Germany (Santa Margarita) make a speech in Historical Security Council

Delegates in Ad Hoc on Terrorism vote on a moderated caucus

Sophomores of HBHSMUN competed in Surf City in order to get more experience in advanced committees

World Economic Forum Dias

The United Kingdom (Cerritos) leads an unmoderated caucus in General Assembly

Delegates in the EU finalize their working paper on human trafficking

Lunchtime for delegates in GA committees

Argentina (Huntington Beach), Ireland (Gahr), and Gabon (Cerritos) caucus in UN Women

Delegates working on resolutions during break time

Secretary-General Melanie Lin (center) and Under Secretary-Generals Kevin Cruze (left) and Paige Petrashko (right)

Russian Federation (PV Peninsula) during moderated caucus in Security Council

3rd SCH Dais

Venezula (Edison), Guatemala (Edison), and China (Santa Margarita) present a resolution on environmental refugees in UNHCR

China (Santa Margarita) speaks about a loan proposal in World Bank

Closing Ceremonies

Mira Costa High School won one of the two Best Large Delegation awards

Delegation Awards:
Best Large Delegation: Santa Margarita HS and Mira Costa HS
Best Small Delegation: Gahr HS and Irvine HS

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The Surf City XI album in its entirety can be viewed here!

Moderator from
Mexican Presidential
Cabinet

This year, MUNterrey Jr. High School and Middle School edition took place the 23^rd through 25^th of January on the “Garza Laguera” campus of ITESM High School. During these three days, delegates shared their points of view and broadened their perspectives regarding worldwide issues and policies that would lead them to find peaceful and viable solutions. After a year’s worth of planning, the whole team, Secretariat and Staff was thrilled to receive over 300 delegates from different parts of the region.  The following recap expects to share the excitement and personal satisfaction felt by both delegates and MUNterrey team.

Committees

This edition of MUNterrey consisted of three different types of committees, developed with the aspiration of intellectually stimulating their participants in mind. The three different sections were identified as: General Assemblies, Crisis Committees, and Court Committees, each one concerning worldwide topics in both English and Spanish.

General Assemblies

This year, the GAs were categorized into five different sections featuring states from Africa, the Western Hemisphere, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. These five committees gathered during the last session in order to share and discuss the solutions that had been achieved, allowing other committees and countries to voice their opinions regarding diverse topics. The simulation focused on producing solutions to combat violence related to organized crime. The Spanish language committees such as PNUD (Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo, or United Nations Development Program) and CDSI (Comision de Desarme y Seguridad Internacional, or Disarmament and Security Commission) discussed the different factors that affect our global community.

An aptly decorated room!

Crisis Committee

Special branches such as the Security Council require a completely different protocol regarding the decisions that can be taken as well as the type of procedure that is followed during the debate. Even if it may seem quite similar, the crisis committees are designed to challenge those who seek topics that require hard work and in-depth knowledge. Delegates are often taken by surprise with different ‘Breaking News’ or ‘Official’ documents that alter the flow of the debate, challenging them to make quick decisions and renegotiate amongst each other regardless of the issue. These ‘time bombs’ follow patterns like those used by famous corporations such as the BBC and CNN, as well as official government agencies.

This year, the simulation consisted of two Security Council committees, one in English and the other one in Spanish. In addition to this, MUNterrey offered a new committee based on Interpol, an idea which dared upcoming delegates to participate in unique roles. Also singular to MUNterrey were the Presidential Cabinets, featuring one for Mexico and another for the USA. In these types of committees delegates are encouraged to think in a much different manner; their decision-making does not only concern their own country but also could have a greater global impact. Aside from this, it gives them a perspective of what actually may happen inside the presidential cabinet their country when they make policy decisions.

Court

Court committees present a unique opportunity to delegates who want to interact in different ways, and learn other decision-making processes. There are various things to consider when going into committees such as the International Criminal Court. Firstly, your role as a country or part of the country does not remain the same. Delegates are referred to as judges who take part of a trial, while witnesses are brought in and evidence is presented. It is up to the “Judges” to decide whether they charge the incriminated person guilty or innocent, based on the different evidence and case. Courts test the delegates’ knowledge of international law and how it is applied to international cases.

Delegates at work

Guest Speaker

MUNterrey 2014 had the pleasure to receive Manuel Clouthier, a former congressmen and a current political activist. Mr. Clouthier gave different reasons as to why politics is viewed in a negative manner by Mexican society; however he later incited delegates, advisors, and staff members to become better citizens and participants in the nation by actively partaking in Mexican politics and making the right choices day by day. The conference concluded with part of the audience sharing their point of view, as Mexicans and part of the community. They shared their opinions on how to become a better citizen as well as a better member of the Mexican community on a national scale.

The whole Senior Staff and their corresponding members find themselves overjoyed with the preparations for the High School edition which will take place in ITESM High School Campus Santa Catarina, Monterrey, Mexico on April 3rd.

The MUNterrey team

The North American Invitational Model United Nations Conference, hosted by Georgetown University, will take place in Washington, DC from February 13th-16th, 2014.

After fifty years of excellence, the North American Invitational Model United Nations continues to set the standard for MUN conferences nationwide. Founded in 1963, an era when John F. Kennedy was president and the Cold War was dominant, NAIMUN celebrated its 50^th anniversary last year. At the beginning of conference planning in April, Executive Director Sarah Pemberton and Secretary-General Pavan Rajgopal sat down with stakeholders from past NAIMUN conferences to decide on a vision for the conference that incorporated NAIMUN’s storied history and the trends of the contemporary MUN circuit. They noted a growing disconnect between the educational values that drove Model UN and growing competitiveness of the high school circuit. Increasingly, awards have become the focus of committees rather than a reward for strong performance, encouraging unethical behavior and undermining the spirit of cooperation and diplomacy upon which MUN is based.

At NAIMUN LI, Sarah and Pavan hope to reconnect Model UN to its educational values and real-world relevance. For some delegates, NAIMUN is considered the “high school championship” on the Model United Nations circuit. For top delegates, NAIMUN certainly will not disappoint, with 38 innovative and rigorous simulations based on historical and contemporary scenarios. However, for many others, NAIMUN is merely a way to improve important professional skills like public speaking and negotiation, and to make new friends with delegates from around the world. At the conference, we hope to provide all delegates with the support they need.

Three Features

To cover the ways in which NAIMUN is trying to maintain its standard of excellence on the Model UN circuit, we will be bringing to you a number of articles that highlight key changes at NAMIUN this year.

1. The first will talk about the substantive aspects of the conference.
2. The second will discuss NAIMUN’s programming and philanthropic initiatives.
3. The third will discuss the ways in which NAIMUN approaches staff and delegate training.

All of these articles will seek to shed light on how NAIMUN – one of the largest Model UN conferences in North America – innovates and adapts to the changing nature of the Model UN circuit.

We hope you enjoy this featured series and we look forward to seeing all of you at NAIMUN this year!

In-Depth Liveblogging

Best Delegate will also be covering the actual conference in-depth. Kevin will be there with another Best Delegate staffer to cover all aspects of the conference. Look out for us at NAIMUN and check out our coverage on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!

We hope you enjoy this featured series and we look forward to seeing all of you there!

Over 3,000 high school delegates from 36 countries attended the 61st session of the Harvard Model United Nations Conference (HMUN) at the Sheraton Boston Hotel from January 30 to February 2, 2014. Secretary-General Samuel Leiter and the HMUN Secretariat led a staff of over 200 Harvard undergraduate students to organize this year’s HMUN, which is one of the world’s largest and most international MUN conferences.

I asked Samuel what he and his staff wanted delegates to take away from the conference after it’s over. He told me that one of the big reasons schools choose to attend HMUN is because of how international the conference is and how that allows students to appreciate perspectives much different from their own.

HMUN is well-known for its large General Assembly committees. In addition to traditional simulations of DISEC, ECOFIN, SPECPOL, SOCHUM, and LEGAL, the GA committees included a Special Summit on the Millennium Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Agenda, a High-Level Meeting on Arab States, and a historical simulation of the 1789 National Constituent Assembly of France.

HMUN also simulated several crisis committees. The Security Council discussed the Situation in Afghanistan while the 1994 Historical Security Council discussed the Situation in Rwanda. HMUN featured simulations both ancient and hypothetical, from the 323 BCE Babylon committee to an emergency meeting of the “RSA” taking place in a world where all electronics have stopped working. The 1982 Falklands War Joint Cabinet Crisis also included a Spanish-language Argentinian cabinet.

In addition to Model UN committees, HMUN featured additional educational programming and guest speakers. Polaris Project CEO Bradley Myles delivered a keynote address at opening ceremonies that asked delegates what made them outraged, and he shared his story of fighting against human trafficking and achieving a world without slavery. Each committee engaged in a friendly fundraising competition throughout the conference, which raised over $13,000.

HMUN also organized a speakers panel of Harvard alumni speaking about “life after HMUN.” The conference also featured programming for advisors including guest speakers Abigail Kelble, who spoke about the Millennium Campus Network and her work promoting the MDGs among college students, and Irene Sharo, who spoke about her experiences with entrepreneurship in education. And several advisors held a discussion panel on the challenges and rewards of preparing students for HMUN, and advice for fellow advisors.

HMUN is one of the most competitive high school-level MUN conferences in the world, with delegates researching and preparing months in advance, and working at all hours throughout the conference to draft and submit resolutions.

At closing ceremonies, the awards were announced, and they went to…

• Best Large Delegation: The Dalton School (New York)
• Outstanding Large Delegation: University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (Illinois)
• Best Small Delegation: Granby High School (Virginia)
• Best International Delegation: The Lyceum School (Pakistan)

Congratulations to all delegates, advisors, and staff on a successful conference! And special thanks to Sam and Miranda for having me visit!

Check out our pictures of HMUN 2014 on Facebook!

The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) 2014 was impressive this year with over 2900 students and 369 directors from 190 schools representing 98 nationalities descending upon the World Forum Theater in The Hague, Netherlands for the annual conference hosted by the THIMUN Foundation.

Opening Ceremony of THIMUN Hague 2014

The theme for this year’s conference focused on the positive transformation of Africa. The Opening Ceremony was led by President of the General Assembly Michael Carden (American School of Paris) who called this year’s conference officially into order. Keynote speakers included a professor who spoke about Africa’s current and future rise as well as the Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013. Secretary-General Sarah Gharib (American School of The Hague) quoted Nelson Mandela in her remarks and mentioned the importance of finding solutions in Africa from her perspective as someone of Egyptian descent. The official charity benefited the UN Commissioner on Refugees in the Central African Republic.

Chairs from around the world smile for the camera

The conference is amazing in that it is one of the most professionally-organized Model UN conferences in the world, yet it is all led by high school students who serve as student officers and chairs. Delegates spent the week lobbying, going through the approval panel, presenting and discussing resolutions during closed and open debate, raising points of information, amending resolutions, and ultimately voting on the ones to be re-presented by the main submitters and recommended for adoption at Plenary. Photos of delegates in action are here! Delegates also enjoyed their time exploring (and partying) around The Hague, and several groups also toured Amsterdam. And of course, there was the delegate dance.

Awesome chairs of the Disarmament Commission

Lobbying in session

THIMUN O-MUN (Online MUN)

Chairs enjoying their time at THIMUN

THIMUN is also a time when the THIMUN Foundation provides an update to the directors about the progress that is being made throughout the organization and for these leaders in the Model UN community to connect. Here are several updates to show how the THIMUN Foundation continues to be a world leader in spreading Model UN:

1. Launch of THIMUN Uruguay. THIMUN-affiliated conferences have existed in Latin America, but THIMUN will now be launching its flagship Latin America conference in Uruguay starting in August 2014. In addition to Uruguay, THIMUN now has conferences in The Hague, Qatar, and Singapore, through Online MUN (O-MUN), and of course its network of affiliated conferences. THIMUN Hague continues to set global standards, THIMUN Singapore is coming up to its first decade, THIMUN Qatar is flourishing and the conference actually took place the same weekend (we liveblogged both), and THIMUN O-MUN has been providing unprecedented access to Model UN for youth worldwide — and the program expanding to French and Arabic soon.

A team from Argentina at THIMUN Hague 2014. THIMUN Foundation will be launching THIMUN Uruguay in August 2014.

2. Online Resolution Management. THIMUN does a great job of implementing custom technology to make the online resolution management and approval panel process easier. Directors (teachers) volunteer to help edit the resolutions in the approval panel which allows them to be actively engaged during the conference. THIMUN Board Co-Chair Fran Laughlin, and over 180 resolutions were edited in the approval panel this year — that is a very impressive number!

Directors helped manage over 180 resolutions in the Approval Panel!

3.  NGOs received voting rights. For the first time in THIMUN history, delegates representing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) now have voting rights when it comes to voting for resolutions. Although this is not an accurate simulation of real life, it has educational value in getting those delegates more involved and in return elevating the status and work of different NGOs around the world that play major roles supporting the UN’s work.

Delegates voting. NGOs can now vote on resolutions at THIMUN.

4. Ties to real world conferences. Although Model UN worldwide has expanded beyond simulating strictly the United Nations, THIMUN continues to simulate conferences that exist in real life in nature as opposed to the trend in North America to simulate crisis and fantasy committees. For example, it simulated the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) which will be held in real life in The Hague in March 2014, and the Dutch Foreign Office was consulted to ensure accurate simulation. The Hague International Conference on African Development (THICAD) simulated its counterpart in Tokyo, TICAD. And OPCW was not only invited to speak during Opening Ceremony but also had a booth to educate participants about their work.

A delegate learns about the work of OPCW, the recipient of the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize

5. Launch of European version of The Olive Branch. Best Delegate was invited to garner feedback from Directors about launching an European version of The Olive Branch Model UN Newsletter. The current editions are published through a partnership with THIMUN Qatar and THIMUN O-MUN and have been highly successful in sharing regional Model UN news, conference information, and advice for delegates and directors. Directors not only expressed interest in launching an European version, but one for the Africa continent and one in the French language as well. Keep checking Best Delegate later this month for more information about the European version of The Olive Branch — we’ll definitely be recruiting for writers!

After the conference, delegates universally experienced a common syndrome called Post-THIMUN Depression (PTD). Fortunately, they can re-live their memories through the Best Delegate Facebook photo album, MUNITY Online, and through the unofficial THIMUN 2014 Facebook group.

Special thanks to the THIMUN Foundation Board for having me visit. Best Delegate is very proud to have been able to visit THIMUN Hague, THIMUN Singapore, and THIMUN Qatar this school year!

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Students in a committee at Rutgers Model Congress 2013

Article submitted by Richard Trent, Executive Director of Rutgers Model Congress 2014

Rutgers Model Congress is a four-day simulation of Congress for high school students run by the Institute for Domestic and International Affairs Rutgers student chapter, the organization that is also responsible for running the Rutgers Model United Nations conference (RUMUN) as well as the Philadelphia Model United Nations conference (PhilMUN). The conference will be held from April 3rd to 6th, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey. While Model UN conferences focus on international issues, Model Congress deals only with domestic issues and as a result allows for topics that are more specific and allows students to create laws, with students drafting “bills” in place of the traditional Model UN “resolutions”.

At RMC, students will notice that all of the topics are related through a central theme. The theme of RMC 2014 is “Justice and Diversity in American Society”. Through programs, laws, and regulations, the government is involved in issues of fairness. The government is engaged in everything ranging from collecting taxes to managing transportation infrastructure, to providing health insurance. Diversity does not only mean racial diversity, but also concerns religion, socio-economic status, gender, employment, geography, and many other factors.

With an increasingly diverse population, the government must ensure that laws and policies do not affect certain groups disproportionately. Often times there is no one straightforward one size fits all kind of policy solution, and the differences must be taken into account. At RMC this year, students will debate in order to determine what is just and create policies that follow that principle.

RMC, like many of the other Rutgers’ IDIA conferences, is focused on educating delegates by encouraging students to interpret and analyze politics and global issues while developing their communicative and interpersonal skills. Smaller committee sizes, trained Directors, and the presence of a specialized team to implement the theme are a few of the ways RMC will use to make this conference experience educational for students.

For more information, contact the RMC Executive Director Richard Trent at: Richard.Trent@nullidia.net or visit the RMC 2014 website at: http://modelun.com/rutgersmodelcongress/

This Recap was shared by Adam Gerard ASG of Outreach at YMUN XL

YMUN XL had another successful year last week, and as the conference came to a close, over 1,600 delegates from around the world returned to their hometowns with a renewed sense of responsibility, empowerment, and optimism about our future. The weekend started off with Mr. Richard Goldstone, the former prosector for the ICC and a current leader in international law, speaking to delegates about the important duty they had to fix the most pressing problems facing the world. Directly after his speech, the students went directly to facing simulations of the very problems Goldstone discussed.

In addition, students in nearly every committee at YMUN were treated to amazing speakers relevant to the topic. For example, the World Economic Forum Committee hosted Erich Clementi, the Senior Vice President of IBM Global Technology Services and the World Health Organization Committee spoke to leaders in global medicine access.

A new and exciting facet of the YMUN this year was the addition of a Regional Bodies set of committees. These Regional Bodies included groups such as the Antebellum Congress, the Arab League, and the Nuremberg Trials 1945 Ad-Hoc Committee. We continued to update and revise the committee experience in other committees as well. For example, in one committee Roma Eterna, delegates simulate crisis battles through a video game computer simulation, adding an entire extra layer to the crisis experience.

However, YMUN XL went beyond the committee room. Events hosted with support of the Yale administration, faculty and student body gave YMUN XL delegates unprecedented access to life on Yale’s campus and the academic vitality one can find here. Students exchanged ideas with prestigious professors, were entertained by some of Yale’s most popular performance groups, and all got a taste of the campus via committee session held in classrooms.

We congratulate the Buckingham Browne and Nichols School (Best New Delegation), the Collegiate School (Outstanding Small Delegation), New Canaan High School (Outstanding Large Delegation), Elmont Memorial High School (Best Small Delegation) and The Hotchkiss School (Best Large Delegation). However, we know all schools benefited from their YMUN XL experience and we look forward to seeing them again next year.

“It was amazing to see students from around the world interact with each other to tackle complex and difficult topics in unique ways. It was equally inspiring to see the support the YMUN XL Secretariat received from the Yale student body, faculty, and administration. These two powerful forces, acting together, guaranteed a rewarding weekend for all those involved.” said Adam Gerard, the ASG of Outreach at YMUN XL.

Attached are some photos from the conference: