Unmoderated Comment Caucus - Model UN After College

BestDelegate.com wants to hear from you!

• For those of you who have graduated from college, are you still involved with Model UN? If so, in what capacity?
  
  
• For those of you still in school - high school, college, etc - do you see yourself being involved with MUN in the future?

Here at BestDelegate.com, we all recently graduated from college and have been in the workforce for over a year. Once in awhile, we'll volunteer to staff Model UN conferences, post some tips on working a committee, or even plan Model UN websites for a living.

Do Model UNers ever really leave Model UN or do they just take an extended break?

Model UN Calendars - who has them?

Long, long, ago, when the BestDelegate.com writers were still competing in high school, UNA-USA's Education Department used to collect MUN conference information and created an annual publication detailing all conference information. In its heyday, the publication contained all the necessary contact information for 200+ MUN conferences. It was an invaluable resource for faculty advisors and MUN teams planning their travels.

Today, a simple google search on MUN calendar reveals a handful of websites that are trying to consolidate the Model UN database. Surprisingly, the best databases out there don't even show up as a top hit.

UNA-USA's Model UN Calendar - www.unausa.org/muncalendar
Earlier this year, UNA-USA launched its newly designed website, complete with new features being slowly rolled out. As a part of this transition, the Education Department and Web Managers designed a brand new calendar database. Prior to transition, the old MUN calendar had not been updated in years (it still had Commission on Human Rights as a committee option, eek!). Today, the calendar has been recently launched, but still lacks the same amount of entries as years past. Perhaps by the end of the year, the calendar will once again have 200+ conferences.

Global Model UN's Database - www.un.org/gmun
The UN's Department of Public Information is hosting its first annual Global Model UN Conference in Geneva, Switzerland this year. Last year, the UN Education-Outreach department took on the rather ambitious goal of gathering the contact information for ALL Model UN conferences around the world. Looking at the database, you'll find local high school conferences listed with the large international conferences. Unfortunately, the GMUN website does not provide contact information for any of the conferences. Perhaps the contact information will be released at GMUN 2009?

MUNmate.com
I actually found this while doing MUN research. This is the only Model UN website devoted to a database of conferences. Unfortunately, there's far too few conferences.

WorldMUN 2009
WorldMUN's website doesn't actually link to any conferences, but a post from of the organizers claims that they were going to post the MUN database online.

In the next couple of weeks we will gather the data of different MUN's around the world. This way we will be able to inform all our visitors about the possibilities of participating in other MUN's. Why? Because students might want to practice in other MUN's to prepare for WorldMUN or just like to participate in a MUN. WorldMUN is still a couple of months away (it takes place in March 2009).

If you are organizing a MUN, you can let us know by sending an email to board@worldmun2009.org

Please indicate when and where your MUN takes place, whether you have a website for your MUN and how many students you expect. We will then contact you.

At the end we will be able to create a MUN calendar, and we will put it on our website.

Where do you go for Model UN conference information? Do databases like these even help or is it easier to just do an online search for conferences?

How to Combine Resolutions in Thirty Minutes or Less

This post was actually written by Ryan Villanueva for the UNA-USA MUN Chronicle.

How to Combine Resolutions in Thirty Minutes or Less

It’s coming down to the wire. The unmoderated caucus is complete chaos as delegates scramble to combine their resolutions. The chair is banging the gavel frantically, demanding drafts within the hour so that the committee has time to vote before closing ceremonies. You’re standing between two caucus blocs with two competing resolutions in hand, surrounded by delegates screaming suggestions at you on what operative clauses to cut and what to add, all of them telling you what to do. What do you do?

This is a common situation at many MUN conferences and they almost always end badly. But here’s a couple tips to help you through the best of a bad situation.

1. First, realize that the resolution will not be ideal. If you’re under pressure to finish a resolution, you won’t have time to iron out all the details. You have to work with what you have and just get something finished. You also need to manage other delegates’ expectations accordingly. The final document might not make everyone happy, but they can be satisfied with the result by realizing that it is a compromise between everyone’s ideas.

2. Take 5 minutes to figure out a structure to the new resolution. Your topic can be broken down into various issues and a given operative clause most likely addresses one issue. When combining resolutions, you can group together the operative clauses that address the same issue. This makes it easier to see what clauses are similar and can be combined, or what clauses have irreconcilable differences and can be deleted. (Go toBestDelegate.com and read my various posts on “Framing”) At the same time, assign one person the task of separately combining perambulatory clauses.

3. Now that you have a new resolution structure, take 10 minutes to go through each operative clause in the two (or more) resolutions and assign them to various sections of the new resolution. Now you have a complete draft that everyone can discuss.

4. With the new draft in hand and everyone around you, take 15 minutes to read through the clauses in front of everyone. Quickly read through the shorter and least controversial clauses and focus more time on the bigger and more controversial ones. And by focus more time, I mean whittling down troublesome clauses into language that everyone can agree on. This is no longer the time to come up with new ideas; you just need to get it done. This will undoubtedly weaken certain ideas, but that is the nature of compromise and the ever present dilemma of the United Nations.

5. Take 5 more minutes to make minor changes, correct grammar, and make sure people understand the gist of the new draft. Then submit your resolution to the chair!

I hope that these tips helps, but the biggest determinant of success behind combining resolutions is whether the two resolutions are truly similar and if the blocs can work together. If there are too many controversial ideas and irreconcilable differences, then the two resolutions should not be combined in the first place.