One of the best ways to handle a power delegate during an unmoderated caucus is to diplomatically "moderate" the unmoderated caucus bloc and force the power delegate to listen rather than speak. Assuming that you have established yourself as the respectful and respected caucus bloc leader and are able to empower the rest of the bloc to participate with you, this technique may force the power delegate to seek another caucus bloc because he/she might not be able to dominate the discussion and take leadership in the resolution-writing process.
However, the power delegate may decide to join the caucus bloc that you are leading anyway and become a sponsor. This can become a problem if the power delegate continually attempts to assert control of the bloc and ownership of the resolution; the power delegate wants to be seen as the leader of the bloc. What often transpires next is that after some back-and-forth debate over wording between you and the power delegate in order to exercise ownership over different clauses, the bloc will generally come to an agreement on a draft resolution and submit it. Then, in order to gain additional ownership of the draft resolution, the power delegate will insert a bunch of operatives that he/she had been withholding or had overheard in committee, and having been exhausted from the debate earlier or believing that these amendments will gain votes, the rest of the bloc will just go along with it and sign onto them as friendly amendments. The bloc (and you) will increasingly lose control as your agreement becomes more of a formality than a negotiation in the power delegate's rise in ownership of the draft resolution.
The best delegate though, knows how to turn a rule into a strategy. The rule is, in order for an amendment to be considered friendly, all sponsors must agree. Conversely (and this is often left unexplained), it also means that if any one sponsor disagrees, the amendment becomes unfriendly and is subject to voting by the committee, which is a situation the power delegate would rather not face due to the potential for rejection. Therefore, at any point, you can disagree and essentially veto the power delegate from asserting control over your draft resolution. If your disagreement is considerate to your loyal bloc allies and principled (on policy), you will have striped the power delegate of his/her source of power, the agreeing but exhausted group of sponsors.
This technique can be especially devasting to a power delegate who is trying to push you or an ally off formal caucus representation. Power delegates from opposing blocs may decide to merge resolutions to not only make it seem as if they were strong negotiators who could command a majority vote to pass resolutions, but to also push off the weaker formal caucus members (assuming only a limited number of sponsors can present during formal caucus) and prevent them from gaining ownership, visibility, and perhaps points. In fact, if your caucus bloc is small and contains a power delegate, it will most likely be "swallowed" by the bigger bloc when the two draft resolutions merge; the bigger bloc will insist that they deserve a higher proportion of representation leaving your original bloc with only one representative... yes the power delegate who the other bloc believes is your bloc's leader.
But a merger is essentially a gigantic amendment to the draft resolution, so in order for draft resolutions to be merged, all sponsors on both sides must agree. Again, this is where you can decide to disagree, effectively vetoing the merger. This sends a message to the supposed power brokers that any decisions to merge will have to go through you. Be persistent and do not fold under peer pressure, assuming again that your disagreement is considerate to your loyal bloc allies and principled (on policy). Your loyal bloc allies will see right through the power delegates' attempt to use the bloc for his/her own gain and will respect you for standing up to him/her.
One word of caution though: make sure you understand the conference's philosophy. A Model UN conference that favors principled negotiation will most likely have chairs that look down upon this strategy because they would rather see a delegate navigate the compromise process and merge his/her resolutions rather than respect that delegate for leading a particular bloc or authoring many good ideas. In other words, saying "no" to a seemingly agreeable idea is seen as undiplomatic, whereas in other conferences, saying "no" is a strategy and a leader's right. (You can tell if a conference philosophy is the latter when multiple blocs have essentially the same ideas and decide to pass each others' resolutions rather than merge).
Vetoing a power delegate's amendment or desire to complete a backdoor merge is a very simple technique, but I rarely see delegates using it. As a sponsor, you always have the right to say "no" to changes and additions to a resolution that you helped author. Don't allow the power delegate to take that authorship away from you.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Model UN Community News
BestDelegate.com will periodically feature news and highlights of Model UN programs and conferences. We hope that this not only helps bring better recognition of a program's or conference's accomplishments but to also better connect the Model UN community.
Here are some links to interesting stories from the past few weeks:
Baylor University wins Best Delegation at the American Model United Nations Conference in Chicago
A Montessori school in Maryland starts a Model UN program for elementary school students
William & Mary is successful in hosting their 22nd annual WMHSMUN Conference
The Model UN program at Whitman College gains momentum and recognition
The United Nations Association of Serbia announced that it will be hosting its annual Belgrade International Model United Nations Conference from March 5-8, 2009
Of course, many of these news items above make for interesting discussion topics and potential future posts:
> I've known that Baylor is a strong Model UN program on the college circuit since they've won delegation awards at the UC Berkeley Conference as well. What makes the Baylor team successful?
> My friend Sarah works at the United Nations Association of the USA and points out that Model UN is growing rapidly at the middle school level. But what do you think about doing Model UN at the elementary school level? What are the positive and negative long-term ramifications of someone starting Model UN at a very young age?
> Whitman College was able to market the momentum and recognition that its Model UN program is gaining. If your club is not as established, marketing can go a long way in helping your program gain school/district funding as well as support from the administration. How can your program better market itself to its 'investors' that could in turn make the program even more successful and marketable?
Here are some links to interesting stories from the past few weeks:
Baylor University wins Best Delegation at the American Model United Nations Conference in Chicago
A Montessori school in Maryland starts a Model UN program for elementary school students
William & Mary is successful in hosting their 22nd annual WMHSMUN Conference
The Model UN program at Whitman College gains momentum and recognition
The United Nations Association of Serbia announced that it will be hosting its annual Belgrade International Model United Nations Conference from March 5-8, 2009
Of course, many of these news items above make for interesting discussion topics and potential future posts:
> I've known that Baylor is a strong Model UN program on the college circuit since they've won delegation awards at the UC Berkeley Conference as well. What makes the Baylor team successful?
> My friend Sarah works at the United Nations Association of the USA and points out that Model UN is growing rapidly at the middle school level. But what do you think about doing Model UN at the elementary school level? What are the positive and negative long-term ramifications of someone starting Model UN at a very young age?
> Whitman College was able to market the momentum and recognition that its Model UN program is gaining. If your club is not as established, marketing can go a long way in helping your program gain school/district funding as well as support from the administration. How can your program better market itself to its 'investors' that could in turn make the program even more successful and marketable?
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Niche Conferences and Their Benefits to Delegates
Model United Nations conferences traditionally feature a balanced lineup of General Assembly, ECOSOC, Specialized, and Crisis committees. One would notice that at the college level though that there are many well-attended conferences that have committee lineups that look nothing at all like the traditional conference lineup. Instead, these conferences focus on creative committees, specialized committees, and crisis simulation, with the committees generally being small in size. Examples of such lineups can be found at conferences hosted by:
Yale: SCSY
Georgetown: NCSC
University of Chicago: ChoMUN
UCLA: LAMUNC
University of Virginia: VICS
Princeton: PicSIM
Columbia: CMMUNY
These conferences can be referred to as niche conferences. But why are niche conferences more prevalent in the college circuit than they are in the high school circuit? This post will explore three reasons from a delegate’s perspective, and a future second post will offer explanations as to why the niche committee lineup is a smart choice for certain conference organizers.
From a delegate’s perspective, these are college students majoring in international relations, political science, or other relevant majors, or at least have a strong interest in international affairs. Furthermore, most have developed their leadership, negotiation, public speaking, and debate skills at the high school level either from Model UN, speech and debate, Mock Trial, JSA, leadership, or other related activities. College delegates therefore desire a more quick and intense debate where they can challenge each other’s knowledge and viewpoints as well as sharpen their delegate skills, and smaller or crisis-oriented committees can provide that. Veteran delegates who seek a refreshing Model UN experience will also find this in creative and crisis-oriented committees.
College delegates also realize the networking potential of Model UN; many of these like-minded individuals will enter similar career fields: law, international relations, government, business, non-profit, etc. Networking (a topic that will be explored in a future blog post) is much easier to do in smaller committees. One of the biggest differences between college and high school Model UN is that college delegates, who may be participating in smaller-sized committees, usually introduce themselves with the country they are representing and with their name, whereas in high school using your personal name is often discouraged. At the very least, college students are also mature enough to establish friendships or even long-distance romantic relationships with delegates from other schools. My personal example of the networking benefits of Model UN is this summer when I backpacked Western Europe with three friends who I met from three different Model UN programs and visited friends in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Singapore who I also met through Model UN. Never would I have imagined visiting Bosnia if it weren’t for Model UN!
Finally, many college Model UN delegates are career-oriented and will find committees that match their career interests very appealing. United Nations diplomats are not the only people who influence foreign policy these days, and diplomacy is not the only career field that requires Model UN skills. A presidential cabinet, a corporate board of directors or a sporting organization can influence world issues too, and corresponding simulations such as Barack Obama’s Cabinet, Google Management Team, and International Olympic Committee provide experience and insight into these diverse players. Experience in such committees can even provide a resume boost; I know one Model UN friend who had to do research on Google’s policies and partially attributes that experience to her being hired by Google.
Niche conferences are beneficial for delegates who have advanced knowledge and skills, are able to take advantage of the smaller size for networking (although you should be networking to some extent regardless of the size of your committee), and can participate in committees that match their career interests. These committees are actually very fun and I would highly encourage experienced delegates, particularly those at the college level, to try them once they have some traditional Model UN experience under the belt.
Yale: SCSY
Georgetown: NCSC
University of Chicago: ChoMUN
UCLA: LAMUNC
University of Virginia: VICS
Princeton: PicSIM
Columbia: CMMUNY
These conferences can be referred to as niche conferences. But why are niche conferences more prevalent in the college circuit than they are in the high school circuit? This post will explore three reasons from a delegate’s perspective, and a future second post will offer explanations as to why the niche committee lineup is a smart choice for certain conference organizers.
From a delegate’s perspective, these are college students majoring in international relations, political science, or other relevant majors, or at least have a strong interest in international affairs. Furthermore, most have developed their leadership, negotiation, public speaking, and debate skills at the high school level either from Model UN, speech and debate, Mock Trial, JSA, leadership, or other related activities. College delegates therefore desire a more quick and intense debate where they can challenge each other’s knowledge and viewpoints as well as sharpen their delegate skills, and smaller or crisis-oriented committees can provide that. Veteran delegates who seek a refreshing Model UN experience will also find this in creative and crisis-oriented committees.
College delegates also realize the networking potential of Model UN; many of these like-minded individuals will enter similar career fields: law, international relations, government, business, non-profit, etc. Networking (a topic that will be explored in a future blog post) is much easier to do in smaller committees. One of the biggest differences between college and high school Model UN is that college delegates, who may be participating in smaller-sized committees, usually introduce themselves with the country they are representing and with their name, whereas in high school using your personal name is often discouraged. At the very least, college students are also mature enough to establish friendships or even long-distance romantic relationships with delegates from other schools. My personal example of the networking benefits of Model UN is this summer when I backpacked Western Europe with three friends who I met from three different Model UN programs and visited friends in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Singapore who I also met through Model UN. Never would I have imagined visiting Bosnia if it weren’t for Model UN!
Finally, many college Model UN delegates are career-oriented and will find committees that match their career interests very appealing. United Nations diplomats are not the only people who influence foreign policy these days, and diplomacy is not the only career field that requires Model UN skills. A presidential cabinet, a corporate board of directors or a sporting organization can influence world issues too, and corresponding simulations such as Barack Obama’s Cabinet, Google Management Team, and International Olympic Committee provide experience and insight into these diverse players. Experience in such committees can even provide a resume boost; I know one Model UN friend who had to do research on Google’s policies and partially attributes that experience to her being hired by Google.
Niche conferences are beneficial for delegates who have advanced knowledge and skills, are able to take advantage of the smaller size for networking (although you should be networking to some extent regardless of the size of your committee), and can participate in committees that match their career interests. These committees are actually very fun and I would highly encourage experienced delegates, particularly those at the college level, to try them once they have some traditional Model UN experience under the belt.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Introducing: Mr. Secretary-General of the Model United Nations!
Allow me to introduce a new writer to BestDelegate.com: Mr. "Secretary-General of the Model United Nations" himself, Kevin Felix Chan!
It would be one thing to list off Kevin's lengthy MUN resume: running his high school MUN conference, leading the UCLA MUN team as Head Delegate, and introducing his real-life counterpart at the United Nations General Assembly Hall as Secretary-General of UNA-USA MUN 2008. (Oh, the irony!)
But more important to me is that I've known KFC since we both started doing MUN in Orange County over eight years ago. Whether debating him in caucus during our high school days or serving under him as part of the UNA-USA MUN staff, it's always been a pleasure working with him, and I likewise look forward to working with him here. I like to think that our friendship is a testament to the kind of bond that can be formed through MUN, and through this website the kind of which we can foster for others.
KFC joins BestDelegate.com as a permanent writer, focusing on conference organizing and the West Coast circuit. I look forward to reading his articles, and I hope you will, too!
And by the way, I wasn't kidding when I called him Mr. "Secretary-General of the Model United Nations;" that's what the real Secretary-General calls him! (at minute 0:58 below, or go here)
It would be one thing to list off Kevin's lengthy MUN resume: running his high school MUN conference, leading the UCLA MUN team as Head Delegate, and introducing his real-life counterpart at the United Nations General Assembly Hall as Secretary-General of UNA-USA MUN 2008. (Oh, the irony!)But more important to me is that I've known KFC since we both started doing MUN in Orange County over eight years ago. Whether debating him in caucus during our high school days or serving under him as part of the UNA-USA MUN staff, it's always been a pleasure working with him, and I likewise look forward to working with him here. I like to think that our friendship is a testament to the kind of bond that can be formed through MUN, and through this website the kind of which we can foster for others.
KFC joins BestDelegate.com as a permanent writer, focusing on conference organizing and the West Coast circuit. I look forward to reading his articles, and I hope you will, too!
And by the way, I wasn't kidding when I called him Mr. "Secretary-General of the Model United Nations;" that's what the real Secretary-General calls him! (at minute 0:58 below, or go here)
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