MY-MUNOFS IX 2018 - Day 3, part II & Day 4

Saturday, March 3 & Sunday, March 4, 2018

During MY-MUNOFS IX, I was assigned to the delegation of UK in General Assembly One. During debate, our four main issues were: peaceful settlement of the South China Sea Dispute, limiting nuclear weapons to only 100 for each recognized "nuclear nation" (China, the US, Russia, France, and the UK) by 2025, ensuring that refugee children receive the full benefits of the UN Rights of the Child proclamation, and the creation of a convention to prevent the use of hacking or cyber-warfare. 

Although being selected to speak by the chairs is highly competitive, I did manage to contribute a substantial number of speeches, points of information, and amendments. Getting amendments passed is very challenging, as each comes up for debate and a vote among the entire committee, but of the six I submitted, one did finally pass. Despite this, writing speeches and amendments is surprisingly fun. Most delegates in my committee take MUN's protocols seriously, and were extremely professional and polite. Although there were some who were particularly obnoxious and annoying, none of them purposefully wanted to humiliate other delegates. Our debate process has been fruitful and productive, with all of the currently presented resolutions being passed already. I personally find creating amendments really fun and satisfying if they are good enough to be passed by the house. Several things I learned were that delegates were allowed to interrupt the house with points of personal privilege, and that non-parliamentary behaviour can result in the revoking of a delegate’s speech, as experienced by the delegate of the USA, who was being disruptive. At first, I was nervous that delegates might be more interested in simply proving other delegates wrong than in really addressing the issues. However, there were no such delegates in my committee. Tomorrow, I look forward to debating the 4 other resolutions, since we only got through 2 today. So far, it has been an enjoyable and educational conference experience, and I had many more opportunities this time to speak during debates. 

MUN is important to me because it not only builds your public speaking skills, but also leadership skills and confidence. It raises awareness on the real-world issues of today, and encourages delegates to think critically, diplomatically, and logically to solve them. It is highly unlikely that you’ll end the conference without making a few new friends, since most delegates are mature, professional, and polite. A few years in MUN will make you a great public speaker and leader in no time, so colleges like to see it on applications. MUN trips and conferences also give you a chance to travel with students and adults other than your parents, which give you a chance to be more independent and be responsible for some of your own decisions. All of these reasons are why I will continue to participate in MUN for as long as I can. 
~Jaden Soh, 7

During MY-MUNOFS IX, I was in Environment I, representing the United Kingdom. This meant that I was the UK’s voice, and that every action I made was supposed to attempt to benefit the UK. I had been dreading this conference for a long time because I was afraid of being judged by other delegates, and I worried there might not be foods available that I could eat or would like. Luckily, neither was true! Everyone was nice and very polite and well-mannered, and they offered frequent snacks and lunch. Some things I learned were that chairs actually weren’t that uptight and can be very understanding and knowledgeable, despite the intimidating image that they sometimes project. During this conference, I got to meet many new people, and I had a chance to learn about many current world issues I was not previously aware of. I feel like my IQ actually got higher! On the last day, I’m looking forward to concluding the debate with my new-found friends, as well as making my own speech about my topic. I had a lot of fun on this trip, and will always treasure these memories.
~Maleeha Keswani, 7

During MY-MUNOFS IX, I was assigned as a delegate of the United Kingdom in the Environment II committee. During debate, our issues were banning all illegal animal trade, reducing CO2, reducing the amount of fossil fuels being used, and gradually lowering the amount of non-biodegradable materials being used. I made 2 Points of Information, and submitted one amendment to a resolution. I learned about how we merge ideas and how to utilize note cards more effectively. MUN is important to me because it is one of the times I can talk about politics and other things that I have less opportunity to talk about in normal life. I found that everyone had different policies for their different countries. My personal accomplishment was that I made an amendment and I did a speech in front of other delegates in my committee. I was also excited about traveling without my parents, since it is my first time.

~Kevin (Kyunghyuk) Lee

This has been such a great conference, and I have been so impressed with all of our students! They have demonstrated patience, positive attitudes, enthusiasm, and have really challenged themselves to make the most of this experience. I was very pleased to see that all of them made an effort to speak and be fully engaged with their committees, and it is incredible to see them grow so much in just 3 short days! I had a wonderful time, and am extremely proud of our delegates. I am so lucky to have such great kids to work with, and I love watching them grow into young leaders. Looking forward to MYMUN XV!
~Ms J

MY-MUNOFS IX 2018 - Day 3, part I

Saturday, March 3, 2018

My name is Han Joo, and I am representing the United Kingdom in the Security Council, along with my good friend, Julius. The Security Council discusses topics such as, "Immediate Response to Cyber Attacks", and the "Authorization of the Investigation of Chemical Weapons in Syria". One thing that happened during the debate today was that there were so many questions to the Chair, who moderates the whole discussion, (these are also known as POIs, or Points of Information, and are basically an opportunity for a delegate to speak to the Chair or another delegate, generally to ask a question or request). I don’t know if the other delegates were not used to the system of the Security Council, but there were a lot of POIs! Something I found really interesting were the P5 Caucuses. A P5 Caucus is a private discussion between the five permanent voting members of the Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They were more intense than any other discussions we had - so intense that chairs had to moderate the private discussion. Just taking the time to sit quietly and observe the debate was very exciting as well. That is something I am very looking forward for tomorrow - more intense debates! In addition, I learned about Security Council procedure, which turns out to be a little different than General Assembly (another important committee) procedure. One main difference is that the Security Council uses ‘clause by clause’ debate (debating one solution at a time), and General Assembly uses ‘resolution as a whole’ debate (debating all the solutions at once). This is my second MY-MUNOFS in middle school so far, and everything has been great; people at the conference are kind, and this is great for developing our MUN skills for other upcoming conferences, such as MYMUN. MUN helped me grow my confidence in public speaking, as well as communicating and negotiating with others to reach an agreement.
~Han Joo Kim, 8

Together with my partner, Han Joo, I represented the United Kingdom in the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council's mission is to maintain international peace and security. Today we talked about solutions for world problems, like “Authorization for an investigation of chemical weapons in Syria” and “Immediate response to cyber attacks”. One accomplishment I achieved today, was asking a point of information (POI). My goal was to ask multiple POIs, but unfortunately, I did not get recognized by the chair as many times as I hoped, or my POI was answered by another delegate before I got the opportunity to state it. We had some very experienced people in my committee, which led to some heated debate, and was very fun to watch. One interesting and fun thing that I experienced today was "veto power". Being one of the P5 nations (the five permanent voting nations in the Security Council, and the only ones who have veto power) made voting ‘for’ and ‘against’ a lot harder, as you do not want to use veto power all the time, hence we ‘abstained’ from voting most of the time. Multiple times during debate we had what is called the “P5 caucus” , which is basically a meeting for only the P5 nations. During these meetings, we discussed how we were going to vote and what our stance on the issue was. One thing I learned today was that you have to be careful when you make your speech, as other delegates can easily turn something against you. One thing I especially was nervous about was making my opening speech, as it was in front of a lot of people. When I walked up to the podium and got ready to speak, I was both scared and nervous, but when I first got to talk my nervous started to relax and I felt confident again. One thing I’m really excited about for tomorrow is debating the resolution I created with my fellow delegates. So far, my experience has been great. I have gained a lot of new friends (Instagram followers) and gotten a better understanding of MUN procedure. MUN is important for me because it helps me to gain better public-speaking skills, confidence, learn how to negotiate to find agreements that benefit all sides, and of course, getting better at debating!
~Julius Lehmann

Hi, my name is Autumn Lourdes Gilmore. I am in grade 6, which means that this is my first conference. This conference is in Singapore, at the school Overseas Family School (OFS).  I am in the committee for UNICEF, which stands for United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. In this committee, we are talking about 4 topics, which are: reducing child labor, preventing the spread of cholera, ending the practice of underage marriage, and measures to advance educational opportunity and access for children with disabilities. If you don’t know what cholera is, it is a disease that can be passed on to other people or communities by the water they drink, often from rivers. Here is a video about cholera if you would like to know more about it. 

I have had several accomplishments, but my main accomplishments were on the first day of debate, where I did 2 speeches on my first day! Overall, the conference was good because it helped me improve things that I wasn’t sure about; even if I was bad at first, after 1 speech I started improving my speaking skills. I got better and better after each time I spoke up to make a speech or POI, which means "Point of Information". MUN is important to me because it helps me overcome challenges such as speaking in front of a bunch of people or delegates. Another reason why MUN is important to me is because you will get to see other delegates perspectives or opinions about different problems in the world. I am going to leave you with a quote by John F. Kennedy, which states, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future”
~Autumn Gilmore, 6

MY-MUNOFS is a 3-day conference that took place at Overseas Family School in Singapore. When on the bus to take us from the hotel to the conference, I took deep breaths and told myself to stay calm. Once I got off the bus, I was nervous and sweaty. I had already gone to the workshop and the meet and greet the previous day, so I already knew most of the people who were in my committee, ECOSOC II (Economic & Social Council, 2nd Committee). I was representing the United Kingdom, which meant I was going to debate in the UK’s stance on a variety of world issues. After I found the room, my committee would debate in, I took a seat and the chairs did a roll call. Now it would soon be time to do our opening speeches! An opening speech is like a short speech (about 1 minute long) that basically introduces yourself, the issues you are focusing on and your country’s stance. Speaking order was alphabetical, so I was the third to the last delegate to give a speech. MORAL OF THIS STORY: Being last just makes you nervous until the end. Next time, if possible, just get it over with! The opening speeches went well, and afterward we started the lobbying process in order to merge and create resolutions to the issues we would be debating. I was paired with two 8th graders and two 9th graders. After working on the resolution for a little more than an hour, we had a break and came back. After finishing with lunch and coming back to finish the resolution, we were finally going to start debating. Our first debate was on the issue of fishing quotas. During this debate, I made two points of information (POIs) and an amendment that passed! After this we had another break, and then we started our second debate on the topic of women's rights. As this was not my main topic, I only managed two get three points of information out. Overall, the meeting was fun and definitely was a great learning experience. 

~Leon Ritz, 6

MY-MUNOFS IX (March 1-4, 2018) - Days 1 & 2

On Thursday, 1 March, we left school around 13:15, and headed off to KLIA2. We arrived in good time, and made it through security with plenty of time to grab some lunch or a snack, which was a good thing, because we got a bit held up with taking-off! 

We made our way to our gate and boarded smoothly, but it soon became clear that we weren't taking off on time. Security personnel came onto the flight and explained that there had been a woman who had checked luggage on the plane, but now didn't want to board, though we do not know why she did not want to board. It is probable she was simply a nervous flyer. Security needed to make sure all the luggage on board matched the passengers - a routine safety procedure that, of course, we are glad that they take. They were taking it VERY seriously on this day, and that may also have been due to the PM being in town. They left, but soon returned and did a more thorough inspection to ensure that each bag had an owner. They left again, but before long they returned a third time, and asked everyone to take all their belongings and disembark the plane, which we did. This time they inspected the entire plane, and then we boarded again. 

Unfortunately, this meant that we had missed our turn on the runway, so we had to wait for another opening. After sitting on the tarmac for a bit longer, we finally took off at 19:10 (our original take off had been 16:50). However, the students were all very patient and took this in stride, and the flight was pretty short and uneventful. Upon arriving in Singapore, we were met by our bus and taken to our hotel, the YWCA Canning Fort Lodge. We dropped off our luggage, and dashed to a nearby mall for some dinner. It was quite late, and most places were closing, so we made do with some Burger King for our first night. Finally, we got back to our rooms, and everyone showered and relaxed before bed.

On Friday morning, we enjoyed our one opportunity to sleep in a bit, as we did not have to be at the conference until around 13:00. Students had the full morning to work on some homework and practice their opening speeches, and all of them were pretty diligent about this, heading down to the lobby so they could work together on some sofas and use the stronger internet connection. Mr Godfrey and Ms J picked up some lunch for everyone, and then we waited for our bus to the conference. There was a slight misunderstanding with bus timings, so we were picked up a bit late, but soon arrived at the Overseas Family School. Our students were all very smartly-dressed and headed off to their committee workshops looking like old pros, despite this being the first conference for 4 of our 7 delegates. 

Everyone had a good day in their workshops, learning some of the finer points of committee etiquette and debate procedure. Many of them thought the skill-building workshops had been very helpful, felt more prepared, less nervous, and ready to jump in the following day. Everyone was pretty tired, so we went back to the hotel and changed clothes so we could head out to dinner. Following dinner, students went to their rooms to prepare for the early start the next morning.

This morning, Saturday, students all arrived downstairs and ready for the bus, looking refreshed, dapper, and ready for action. They headed off to their committees ready to give their opening speeches. Mr Godfrey and Ms J will be heading around to various committees throughout today to try to catch them in action.

At the morning break, we met up with everyone to check in. Maleeha said she was relieved to have done her opening speech, and felt it went well. Kevin felt he'd rushed his a bit, but learned a lot, and will be much calmer the next time. They all headed back to their committees to continue lobbying and working toward submitting resolutions to the various world issues of focus.

Just some reminders, you can find any contact information for us on our MY-MUNOFS itinerary.

More to come!
~Ms J & Mr Godfrey