Albany delegates head to Stanford

Brazil motions to open the agenda with the SMUNC 2006.

On Friday, November 10, I, along with nine other members from the Albany Model United Nations Club and our coach Mr. James, traveled to Stanford University to participate in this year’s Stanford Model United Nation Conference, the SMUNC 2006.

Having very recently joined the club, I didn’t quite know what I was getting into, but I was excited nonetheless. Fortunately for me, I wasn’t the only one new to the process. Our ten-member delegation contained only three MUN veterans, Erik Bernhardt, Maurice Catlett, and Tyler Zupan. The rest of us, Turtle Alvarado, Anthony Bermudez, Jake Delbridge, Chris Gallegos, Brian Kim, Maclen Zilber, and myself, had never attended a MUN conference before.

We represented several countries including Brazil, Colombia, Estonia, Nigeria, and John Prescott (not a country, but represented in the Special Session of the British Cabinet), and were members of various mock-UN committees. I was part of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) representing Brazil with Zupan, who represented Colombia.

I spent the better part of the weekend—fifteen hours over three days—debating transnational organized crime and cocaine production in the Andean region. Sessions oscillated between heated debate and tedious speeches only made to stall for time.

The main purpose of MUN is to model the decision-making process of the United Nations. Before the conference, each delegate is assigned a country and notified of the topics to be discussed, and research both before the conference. By the end of a session, the committee drafts, votes on, and adopts a few resolutions, which are plans of action or recommendations made by the committee. In order to get to that point, the committee debates the topic for hours on end through speeches, comments, questions, note-passing, and plain old chatting with other delegates. Alliances form, resolutions are drafted, positions are attacked, emotions run high, and the chairs, our moderators, are ever reluctant to let us into un-moderated caucus (time when delegates are allowed to converse freely and draft resolutions). It’s an exciting process, especially if you enjoy talking and proving your point, like I do.

There were dull moments, such as when the speakers got repetitive and told us over and over again is that we need to work together if we are to achieve a viable and effective solution, or when certain jokers on the committee decided that roll-call voting was in order, effectively quadrupling the time needed for a yes/no procedure (in roll-call voting, the chair calls upon each delegate to hear their yes or no vote on a resolution).

On the whole, I enjoyed myself immensely at SMUNC. Contrary to popular belief, debate is not just about reckless argument and stating your opinion as loud as possible. It takes a lot of finesse and diplomacy to pull opinions to your side, which often involves dealing with a lot of difficult personalities. By all regards, it’s a challenge, but a challenge that’s dynamic, exciting, and a lot of fun.

For Albany’s first appearance at this conference, our delegation performed impressively. Four of our members, Erik Bernhardt, Maurice Catlett, Maclen Zilber and I, earned “honorable mention” status from our committees. Better yet, the Albany delegation was ranked as one of the top two small delegations (under fifteen members), an award that takes into account the efforts of all members on the squad.

The AMUN plans on sending a 20 to 30 member delegation to the Berkeley MUN conference this coming March, at which we will be representing Japan. Want to join MUN? Interested in discussing current events? Stop by Fridays at lunch in room 18.

Motion to end this article.

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