MUN - Student diplomats giving the UN a run for its working papers.

There has been recent buzz circulating about students being put on the United Nations band wagon in the form of MUN (Model United Nations). Enthusiastic students from all over the world get to speak out and make descisions in what is a model diplomat forum. The MUN craze has managed to take off with great success, especially this year with one conference almost every two months, with March bringing it all to an end.

The most successful one so far has been the UBCMUN that rounded up many university and college students in the heart of downtown Vancouver. Some of the top issues being addressed at this years MUN conferences are: The humanitarian crisis in Africa, the nuclear weapon issue in Iran an Korea, the AIDS/HIV issue and many others. People hear about these "Model United Nations", but no one really knows what the conferences are all about.

A MUN works in the same way as real UN meetings. Delegates can voice their nations opinion through motions, working papers, debates, caucusus and must refer their statements in third person when speaking, since they are presenting their countries stance on issues, not their own. Each delegate represents their own country, and thus only researches their countrie's position on the agenda topics along with backup general knowledge. There is no pressure for each delegate to speak all the time, but it is encouraged to voice your nation's positions because descisions made should correlated with everyone, not just the superpower nations that typically lead the heated debates. In a MUN, the "chair" controls the debates, accepting or rejecting motions, workin papers and controling order in the room. A MUN is a pricy and long conference that will sometimes charge delagates 200 dollars for 4 days, but its life changing. The prices range from DOUGIMUN/SFUMUN charging $65, CAHSMUN around $175 and UBCMUN costing $64.

For someone going into a MUN as a delegate with an open-mind and the motivation to work hard, will experience the whole entire process of how world leaders at the UN make global descisions. One has to put time into researching in order to represent their country's stance strongly in the debates. It's definitly not an easy thing to be a delagate but it gives one a chance to really impress the chair, meet world leaders, make friends and practice their diplomacy skills. Most importantly it lets one know if they want to go into diplomacy, international affairs or political science. Over the past 3 years schools have been pushing the idea of students and adults participating in MUNs. Since the conferences are non-profit they require the support of many people ranging from university porfessors to any average canadian who wants to learn and help out in organizing the conferences. There are more then six MUNs a year in Vancouver, but the biggest ones are UBCMUN, CAHSMUN, DOUGIMUN, and VMUN, along with SFUMUN FACEBOOK PICTURES recently joining the list.

On another note another organization by the name of UNAC (United Association in Canada) held a news worthy debate conference last year in June called "Youth of Today City of Tomorrow " where I represented Russia and regret not bringing along a bottle of vodka and banging my shoe against the table just like our hero Khrushchev! Oh well, maybe next year! The conference was broadcasted on CTV news back in June and this year the event is going to take place outside of Canada.