Tips for preparing for your first MUN conference

In my previous post, I have been sharing with you guys my experience with Model UN, and from then, certainly a lot of you guys are very interested in participating in this extracurricular activity, right? Well, I heard it, you guys! Therefore, in this post, I would like to share with you some tips in order for you guys to survive Model United Nations conferences, which will heavily focus on your first conference!

The first part in order to prepare for any Model United Nations conferences is, basically, to prepare the materials. Certainly you can’t just go to a conference without any background knowledge on the topic, especially when a Model United Nations conference focuses on a certain topic, and that you will be assigned either a country or a figure (for crisis councils). I will focus on the General Assembly here, since people who go to their first Model United Nations conference tend to go to the council of the General Assembly rather than crisis councils (which may be too overwhelming for newcomers). First of all, you must research the problem - what is the issue, what are the causes of this issue, what are the consequences, what are the challenges in addressing the problems, as well as possible solutions that you make up (you can research online for existing solutions). There isn’t really a template for Model United Nations preparation, but basically, research as much information as possible.

The next thing you must put great emphasis on is on researching your country. Chances are your allocated may not always be the good guys, but can actually be the one who is creating this issue - this is exactly the same issue that I faced when going to my 2nd Model United Nations conference, which is UNISMUN (United Nations International School Model United Nation). Then, the problem was something about the refugee, and only after I researched about my country did I realize that my allocated country of Myanmar was the bad guy and creating refugees! But basically, what I mean from here is that you must realize what stance is your country on, as well as countries that are on your side or having the same perspective on the main issue of the Model United Nations conference. For example, you are the delegate of the People’s Republic of China, so in a lot of topics you can not just talk with the delegate of the United States that easily and friendly - you must be strategic in your choices of siding with other countries. Oh, and for a bonus tip, figure out what problems are going on in the country, and prepare to “protect” your country’s stance in case other countries are calling out your country as being a bad guy. I know that your personal perspective on a particular problem may be different from the opinion of your allocated country, but remember that in the Model United Nations conference, you can not just use your opinion when being a delegate of a country - the perspectives can easily contradict with one another!

So that’s the first part - now comes the actual good part: going to your first Model United Nations conference. First of all, buy yourself a cool suit - it may look a bit cringe for a high schooler to put on clothing made for adults, but at the end of the day, it still looks cool! There are a lot of places that sell suits (even personalized ones) with different price points, so depending on the budget you are willing to pay, you have a lot of choices, basically. The next part is to figure out a way to get to the venue of that Model United Nations conference - assuming that you have paid the fee to go to that conference. Typically I like to go to Model United Nations conferences that are around my city (Hanoi), but there are a lot of conferences that are in other cities or even abroad. Please make sure that you figure out a way to get there safely, because typically you will go there by yourself, and it can get pretty scary when you’re traveling to a new place.

So, before we actually talk about how to survive your first Model United Nations conference, let’s talk about what to do the day before the event. Well, let me tell you something: even though it’s only 2 or 3 days, it will be so draining - please, please, please, have a good night's sleep! Sleeping is of course very important - by having adequate rest, you can be emotionally prepared for the upcoming few days, especially when you are going to talk a lot and write a lot. Don’t worry too much about final preparations for your first Model United Nations conference - in the actual conference you are going to have to improvise a lot as well as talking and asking about things that are not actually in your preparation list, so you are not going to need that preparation guide that insanely much, anyways.

In the next post, we are actually going to dive into the main part of a Model United Nations conference: surviving the days of the events. Be ready, guys!