Aravalli Model United Nations

And a somewhat guide of how to be a better MUNNER. (Not sure if that is a real word).

(Note: This MUN conference was actually in the end of September)

An MUN conference. Yay!

Just after our exams, we were expected to go on MUN conference. After ICSE exams………Yay!

Aravalli MUN was hosted by the Sri Ram School in Delhi between 25-27 September. It was in HMUN procedure and had several different committees. I wanted to do something different than just go in a GA committee and opted for the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). And, my luck was unbelievable, I got El Salvador with the agenda, ‘The Latin American Drug Crisis’. Yay!

With only one week to prepare and Junior DAIMUN to attend, this was going to be exciting. A crucial part of this process was getting the binder ready, and which in my opinion is one of the most important parts of preparing. The binder includes information about your country and how they are affected. To formulate ideas is comparatively simpler and some what effective, but what crowns your argument is using details about your own country to kind of push the message. And I did it. Yay!

After boarding the flight to Delhi and complaining about the GST on our McDonalds, the fun began. By fun, I mean the effort needed to squeeze my laptop into the seat to type my position paper. After twisting and turning and looking at the judging faces of my co-passengers, I was able to type some part of my really important position paper. My suggestion is, take care of your position papers. They will not only help you win awards, they help your chairs to understand your stance, ideas and the amount of effort you put into research. You can also use these in General Speech’s (The GSL ‘General Speakers List).  These speeches really help your committee understand you and what you bring to the table. Make sure you keep them simple but detailed. There will be several of these speeches and I suggest you don’t get all your ideas out in the first one. Or maybe do it. Either way.

Then comes your caucus’, which are extremely important. Actually, everything is important. Whatever.  The first one is the moderated caucus (MC) which is formal debate. You can introduce a topic under moderated caucus, which is on the spot. For example, a MC related to our topic was ‘Legalization of Drugs in Latin American Countries’. So, it’s a topic within the main agenda. The second caucus is the unmoderated caucus which is informal debate. It is when you lobby, or talk to people. It can take form of a lunch or tea break. You can discuss resolutions, get signatories and eat. I suggest you keep MC topics ready so you can talk more.

And finally, there is the crisis. You cannot physically prepare for a crisis but they test your decision-making skills as well as the way you handle the situation. Our crisis was that a gang in Mexico had attacked three cities and created many refugees. Donald Trump’s was not allowing the refugees in and proclaimed a shoot on sight order. It was really funny when a group of delegates proposed to have people dress up as gang members and go in.

But the main thing is just have fun. Don’t worry about awards all the time. But do focus and give your best.