What is it?
MUN (Model United Nations) is a simulation of the UN (United Nations) in which student delegates meet in conferences around the world to discuss, debate and form resolutions to various problems in the world that are happening right now. These problems are divided into different categories of debate (Committee Rooms). Every delegate in the conference is given a country to represent and participates in the committee room that he or she has chosen. In these rooms delegates will debate topics related to the room they are in. Delegates will choose which room they would like to participate in based on the topic of debate they are interested in. The object of every room in the conference is to form resolutions that solve the issues at hand. These resolutions will be debated on and then either passed or failed; more on that later. A student can also become a chair, a president, admin, or other position in a conference, but many of these positions require some experience. Essentially the goal of any MUN conference is to give students the opportunity to debate, dress, and act just like delegates of the actual United Nations. This aspect of MUN means that before participating in an MUN conference Students must prepare weeks before the conference if they are to feel comfortable and succeed in the conference.
Preparations:
Before any MUN conference, a good delegate will prepare for weeks before the conference. It is of course all up to the delegate (or the delegate’s teacher) how much work will be done. In the end though, the most prepared delegate is the most successful. What is involved in preparing for a conference? Well there are many things to be done. A delegate should first research as much as they can about the country they have been given and then start to complete written work they will need for the conference (the work that is needed for a conference varies with different conferences). The basic works needed include policy statements, (statements summarizing the counties’ views on the debate) an opening speech which will inform the delegates committee room on the main points the delegate would like to focus on in the debate, and resolutions which are written by the delegate in the perspective of his or her country that attempt to resolve the issues at hand. Once all of these are completed and polished, a delegate is ready to participate in the conference.
Committee Rooms:
In all MUN conferences there are a number of committee rooms a delegate can choose from. These include The Security Council which tackles issues having to do with the security of countries and dealing with any threats to the state of security of the world, ECOSOC (Economy/Society), which debates any issues that have an effect on the economy and/or society, Human Rights, which debates issues of human rights around the world, and the General Assembly, which debates general issues that are not specific to any other room. The Committee rooms stated above are not the only rooms in the conference but are some of the main ones. Every conference has its own unique committee rooms.
The Conference:
Every MUN conference will have a different agenda but all will include the following: an opening ceremony, time for merging resolutions, debate time, voting time and a closing ceremony. The opening and closing ceremonies are mainly there to celebrate the conference but also to inform delegates of what will be happening in the conference and what the goals of the conference are. After opening ceremony delegates will need to go to their committee rooms at which they will do their opening speeches and meet the chairs of their committees (Chairs are the people who are in charge of the committee rooms and will control the debate). After opening speeches the chair will allow the delegates to merge resolutions (this means that delegates will meet with each other, polish resolutions, sign on to resolutions, and some will become main submitters of a resolution). After merging resolutions each delegate will be signed on to at least one resolution for each topic of debate. Main submitters of a resolution are those who wrote most of the resolution and who will be the first to speak about it. After merging, the chairs will open debate time and allow the delegates to debate one resolution at a time. In some conferences delegates will be forced to speak at least once but in others the delegate has the choice. After each resolution is debated the chair will allow delegates to vote for or against it and will then move on to the next resolution. It takes a few days to debate all the resolutions but this is the basic order of events in Committee rooms. When all resolutions have been debated the committee room will close and the delegates participate in the final event: The closing ceremony. This is always carried out in different ways so I won’t talk about it but after the closing ceremony, the conference is officially over.
My Experience and a few tips:
I have participated in some MUN conferences including one in South Africa and one in Qatar. Before my first conference, I was full of worries about the conference. I was afraid I would be called on unprepared among many other things. However after my first conference I was reluctant to leave the conference. It is a great experience and there are many things to take away from it. I would recommend MUN to anyone interested in debate (it’s also great for college resumes). I feel that if a delegate is active in debate, gives many fruitful ideas, and is friendly, then that delegate has had a successful conference. If there is one tip that I think is most important it is to speak as soon as you can in the debate. If you speak early (even if you don’t think what you’re saying is great) then you won’t have to worry about being picked on by the chairs and getting caught unprepared (as I once was). Apart from that, there is nothing to worry about and in fact you will find yourself wanting to do it again. Good luck!