Model United Nations

[aurora_borealis]

I signed up for a one credit Political Science class this semester for the Model United Nations. Has anyone here been involved in M.U.N. in high school or college and have any tips for gathering information and the on the debating of the issues?

[lauralaylin]

In high school we had a class for seniors that was a lot like Model UN all the time (it was a big thing for us, we even had a Model UN at our school that people would travel to get to). The students were supposed to contact the actual contries that they were representing in order to get information. I don't know where they got the addresses though, but they got a lot of info from that. Maybe contacting the embassies would work too? Good luck!

[Peaches-n-Cream]

I was on the debating team and we competed in Model U.N.s and Model Congresses. I suggest that you contact the Guinea ambassador to the actual United Nations. They ought to have someone who can help you. I was fortunate that I live in NYC and have access to the UN here so it wasn't that difficult for me. You can also contact their embassy in Washington, D.C. Good luck! I found the experience to be both educational and fun.

[hopefulgreek]

actually, I did Model UN my freshman year in high school. We got passed very exciting all the way! It was at a big convection with schools from around the state. Very good time! I'd love to do it again in college

[phisigduchesscv]

I loved Model UN!!! I participated in Westmun (see WestMUN.org) for 3 years and then was on the Secretariat the following year. The first year I won an Outstanding Delegate Award and my final year my team (the Republic of Korea) won the Outstanding Delegation Award. I would still do it now as a graduate student if I couldn't find more time in my schedule to do it.

Biggest suggestions are to constantly search internet news databases to see what's going on with the issues you're committee is covering. One key thing about News articles, check out other nations newspaper articles about a topic so you get a broader overview. For instance if you speak another language check newspapers from countries speaking that language (ie French Le Monde, spanish newspapers etc). This definitely gives you a non-American perspective of how the rest of the world perceives events.

Next is to read up as much about Guinea (one of CSUDH teams is Guinea this year) and who their allies are. Check out the CIA World Factbook website on the CIA website. It gives great information about all the countries of the world. Who their allies are, who their major trading partners are, etc. Definitely contact the embassy if at all possible.

Go to the United Nations website and do searches on your subject and see how Guinea has voted in the past. If they always vote yes on something you don't want to say no when you are "representing" them at MUN. You should constantly be checking the UN website and the website for what committee your in (ie ECOSOC, UNHCR, WHO, etc.)

You should always be keeping yourself up to date on what is going on in the world. Even during the MUN conference. When I was the Cuban representative to the 6th committee it was at the time the Gramm-Rudman act was in the news. I made sure I was reading up everyday on what Cuba was saying and what the US was saying. I feel it definitely helped me to win Outstand Delegate because I was able to refer to current events as they happened not just historical information.

Print out all your research, keep it in a notebook, and bring it with you to the conference. You will be refering back to your notes constantly when you're going up to speak.

Hope some of this helped. Have fun.

Carolyn

[Dorkarella]

I Love MUN too! I actually work for the American Model United Nations Conference in Chicago! I love it...so much fun!!

ok I am done!