Gallery of the Wednesday
The Road to Becoming a Better MUN Director
Written by: Ella Hirmasto
Edited by: Priyanka Krishna
Often, when we think about the THIMUN Singapore conference we think about how much the delegates are learning, how much the delegates are improving and what new skills the delegates are developing. You may wonder what your teachers all do whilst you’re busy at debate. Surely there’s nothing for them to learn? This might be exactly what you’d think before you walk into the Best Delegate Workshop, which was hosted by Kevin Felix Chan.
Chan is the co-founder of Best Delegate, a Model United Nations (MUN) organisation that helps students and schools effectively run MUN conferences. Chan has extensive MUN experience ranging from high school clubs, college clubs, to even serving as a secretary-general at a MUN conference at the United Nations headquarters. To Chan, the Best Delegate Workshops are extremely beneficial, as ”a lot of directors have no MUN experience themselves and they need to understand the fundamentals of MUN”. Chan hopes to explain a wide range of topics, including the flow of debate, research, resolution writing, and where to start researching. Once these many concepts are explained directors are able to “support their students more,” elaborated Chan.
To see the impact of these workshops on the directors, I decided to talk to Yin Meng (MUN Director, Harrow Int. School Hong Kong), who confirmed to have learnt quite a lot as a result of the workshop. Meng highlighted the importance of research before attending a conference and now knows how to “support students to complete thorough research”. One of the research techniques introduced was MUN speeches, programmes, events, agreements, and reports (SPEAR). This MUN SPEAR suggests appropriate starting points for researching a country’s stance on a chosen issue.
The implementation of simple strategies such as SPEAR will ensure that directors fully prepare delegates before they attend conferences, which will highly improve their MUN experience.
Work on the Approval Panel
Written by: Isabella Wood
Edited by: Hyoree Kim
Photographs by: Dorian Chen
The room is filled with vibrant energy, as MUN directors and delegates from various schools gather together to discuss resolutions.
The approval panel is where resolutions are taken from a collaboration of ideas and clauses to a resolution ready for an upcoming debate. Delegates work within their respective schools on resolutions and then bring them together with like-minded delegates to form one or two resolutions from the bunch. They wait in anticipation, and their sighs of relief fill the air when their resolution is approved. Working at the approval panel is a collaborative effort, where the process is overlooked by Frances Laughlin, the Co-Chair of the THIMUN Foundation.
Laughlin works very closely with the approval panel staff. She describes her role as a “[supervisor] of what goes in and what comes out.” Resolutions are approved not only by the supervisors but are also aided by computers. The approval panel utilises a system specially developed by Jochen Vermeulen for THIMUN in The Hague. The programme is designed to streamline the justification and formatting of the resolution. On the other hand, MUN directors look at the resolution after it has gone through the electronic system with a delegate. They have to ensure that they only edit grammatical errors and not the content. This process enables MUN directors to look thoroughly through the resolution with the main submitter, and ask any questions or ask the delegate to elaborate on clauses. Once everything in a resolution has been approved, it is printed off and taken back to the chairs of the delegate’s committee. The work completed in the approval panel is hectic but is all worth the end result of an engaging resolution. It’s a hard afternoon of work in the approval panel, with the beginning of debates in sight!
Are You Ready to Dance?
Written by: Priyanka Krishna
Edited by: Aastha Gokani
Are you ready for the gala night? After three days of constant debating and lobbying, the Dinner and Dance Night coming up on Thursday offers a great opportunity for participants to relax. Participants indulge in the great ambience, flashing lights, an extensive display of delicacies, and bottomless drinks as they dance the night away. This year, with around 950 participants from around the world, many returning participants and first-timers are excited about the upcoming event.
Cheryl Lim (Ambassador of Benin of GA3, Australian International School of Malaysia), attends her third THIMUN Singapore conference this year and has high expectations for this event. “I look forward to the dancing where the delegates manage to let loose… as opposed to how stringent and work-oriented they are during the conference,” said Cheryl Lim. She further elaborated that, “everyone is equal [unlike during debates], and [most importantly], they are all having fun”. Similarly, Ahaan Bhansali (Ambassador of New Zealand of GA1, Dhirubhai Ambani International School), and Niel Biji Samuel (Ambassador of Afghanistan of GA1, Birla Public School) both look forward to the dance, as they await their first-ever THIMUN Singapore Dinner and Dance night. Particularly, Bhansali looks forward to Samuel’s great Salsa dancing during the event. Samuel jokingly added, “We think the food will be pretty good, but we won’t be eating it because we will be doing salsa”. Anagha Chakravarti (Ambassador of Indonesia of GA4, International School of Manila), believes that “the best part [of the night] is the dancing, and the socialising”, and she looks forward to “having fun meeting [with friends], after long hours of debate”. On the other hand, Jiale Lim (Delegate of Germany of GA4, Australian International School of Malaysia), is highly excited for the choice of music this year, as he is hopeful that his song suggestion (a particular instrumental rap by a member of the black-eyed peas) will be accepted.
Whilst Jiale Lim greatly looks forward to the music choices, many delegates do not. In fact, Cheryl Lim stated, “I think the huge issue with the Dinner and Dance is the ambience and the song choices”. Similarly, Chakravarti agreed that there are many outdated songs, despite admitting that the music was quite diverse. However, Chakravarti does hope for Old Town Road to be played this year. Jiale Lim also expressed his hope for change, as he said, “I hope to see the food change, to include more pickup locations, as the lines were long [last year]”.
In any case, the Dinner and Dance night provides a great outlet for them to enjoy themselves outside of the restless week of the conference. As, Bhansali and Samuel stated, “We are looking forward [to the night], and we hope to have fun!”
The Stress Room
Written by: Jade Henry
Edited by: Hyoree Kim
Photographs by: Zara Yap
The press room is filled with budding, young, digital journalists, responsible for catching the juiciest gossip of THIMUN and finding scoops to write about. They are also responsible for the newspapers released every day, a result of the intricate process in the press room.
MUNITY EAST is split into six different groups: reporters, text editors, photographers, layout designers, artists, and most importantly, the Editors-in-Chief.
The first of the group, the reporters, produce eloquently written articles. Despite the time crunch, reporters can be seen conducting interviews all over campus. When Isabella Wood (Reporter, Australian International School of Malaysia) was asked about the best aspects of being a reporter, she said that it was ”being able to work with everyone despite being seated at different tables.” On the other hand, she mentioned that the hard part of being a reporter was “making interviewing questions on the spot and trying to find [the interviewees] again.”
Then come the text editors. They read and correct all the reporters’ articles while also writing their own articles. Aastha Gokani (Text editor, Lycée Français de Singapour) explained that the best part of being an editor was that they get to “explore everyone’s articles and ideas to have a look at different points of views.” Since they are going under the same process as the reporters along with all the editing going on, it is very stressful. In support of this, Gokani says that “it is hard to finish writing [her] articles while also editing everything.”
The photographers are always moving around trying to capture the perfect moment and angle of the participants in heated debate. The best part of being a photographer for Zara Yap (photographer, Australian International School Malaysia) is capturing that “one moment in time where you can get that exact and perfect shot.” However, Jerry Lin (Pacific American School) stated that being a photographer entails “standing in front of everyone [and] holding a camera”, which at times is “very awkward.”
The artwork and layout team have to fit everyone’s articles, ideas, and photos on one or two pages. Jessie Liao (Pacific American School) thoroughly enjoys the process of making layout designs, as she gets to “practice [her] skills through the MUN” and “work with other people.” But for Ishwarya Devi Krishna, being on the layout team also means “waiting for an article with a computer that glitches and sitting around.”
Our editors in chief (EIC) have one of the most stressful jobs keeping everyone on track and making sure that deadlines are met. Ray Chen (Pacific American School) believes that the best part as the EIC is when “you get the final product of day and a tangible product of our hard work” that highlights the day. “Trying to meet all the deadlines” is tough but “important because they make sure we get back in time to the hotel.”
The videographers also create a new vision of the whole THIMUN experience, putting all of our hard work into a physical product for all to view. For Nicolas Paccaud (Brillantmont International School), the most rewarding part of being a videographer is having multiple functions, having “All of journalism combined” and for Tijn van den Dikkenberg (Green School) it’s “The freedom [they have], having something physical to show without having to write.” The hardest part is that “There’s a lot of work and editing takes a long time but overall, it’s very positive.”
Summarizing the press room overall, you build very deep connections with your teammates and use your skills to improve as a journalist.
