I’m thinking of starting a Model UN club but I don’t really know what it’s about or what meetings are typically like and if it’s structured or unstructured. I wanted to start it because my JSA club is extremely conservative (which turns off a lot of liberal students, which are the majority of my school’s student body) and typically only debates issues in the US. I would like my Model UN to be a place where both conservatives and liberals can meet and discuss and exchange ideas, instead of being solely one or the other. I also really want to focus more on international relations and issues spanning more than one country to expand my worldview and perspective and learn more about issues on a global scale.
Also, how much would starting a Model UN club cost? Are there membership fees, and how much are conventions?
I’m also really intrigued by the idea of representing different countries at Model UN conferences and hearing other “countries’” perspectives. It would be really cool to compete and win awards, whereas in JSA, there aren’t really any competitions whatsoever.
Being a conservative or a liberal is not going to matter in Model UN. In fact, it’s more about issues in other countries and have nothing to do with the U.S. unless you are assigned it. I do warn you, if you are doing this to gain a broader worldview and do a discussion based club, MUN is not the place for that. It’s more about working to compete at the conventions and pitch your ideas. I do agree, I think JSA is probably more bipartisan rather than a collective whole. The thing that sucks about MUN is that they never listen, because countries don’t want to help other countries unless it benefits them.
@bopper Lol thanks but I was trying to see through other people’s perspectives and learn through their experiences rather than searching it up on the web (which I actually did before asking this question on CC).
@ab2002 That’s great!! I don’t like how people get worked over political opinions and things like that, so it would be nice for Model UN to devoid of that. What do you mean by “they never listen”? Do people just not listen at debates?
I’m not really sure what you mean by “a place where both conservatives and liberals can meet and discuss and exchange ideas, instead of being solely one or the other.” Like @ab2002 said, YOUR political views don’t matter, you are the country you’ve been assigned. Model UN is basically role-playing as a country in the context of a given topic…It’s not geared toward discussion so much as accurately representing your assigned country’s viewpoints.
JSA and Model UN are not one and the same. I think you should do more research about Model UN, since these questions could easily be answered by viewing the links @bopper posted.
I think a “club” for MUN might be a little weak in the competition world. I say this not as a slam to you, because I think your initiative is great. My son has participated with his school for the last 3 years. At his school, it is a “gifted” activity. To some degree the kids work alone or in teams developing their position for the given topics on the given country. His school does meets at what’s called a DS (directed studies), once a week around lunch time. When they go to competition, it’s a struggle. They are competing against teams that have it as a class. Teams that practice 5 days a week. It’s kind of disheartening. Just wanted to let you know what you might be going up against, depending on how it is approached in your region of the country. I think your first step would to be to enlist a teacher that will sponsor the activity. To be competitive you will need more than a “club” atmosphere.
As others have said, it’s generally about foreign positions, and they can be odd topics. There is also YIG. Youth in Government is more of a debatable position often dealing with local or state government. It’s kind of interesting in that each person identifies a local/state law that they think should be changed, and they present that position in a paper - identifying how and why it should be changed, what it should be and support of that position. It does go through a mock senate and congress and get debated in a bipartisan way. Of course this meets your political debate purpose, but not the worldly one.
Just some things to consider. Perhaps you should find a local school that has a MUN program and go shadow it. Of course you are either early or late depending on your perspective. Here, the conference is right at Thanksgiving. I’m not sure if that’s the case everywhere. My son’s school starts as soon as school starts in the fall. I’m thinking that they get their country assignment in the Sept-Oct. timeframe. It’s assigned, not selected.
By the way, once you are experienced in MUN, you can work on the MUN committee as things like reporters, tech crew, etc. There are roles that you can apply for and fill for the organization. My son did that this year, his last year, he did tech crew and they have a mock emergency in the middle of the night, all the students stay at a hotel. I think he liked participating, but not the research of the countries as much. He really liked doing tech this year.
