Reflection 16: Memorable experience!

      I have to say, our previous MUN experiences have inspired us to host an MUN ourselves. I still remember how thankful we were for the the opportunity given to us to showcase our talents of debating in a diplomatic manner which we otherwise would have never realized. At this point, giving the same opportunity to a whole new community of students makes me feel something beyond just contentment. 
      Articulating words is an important skill. But doing the same in the a competent atmosphere is quite challenging. This skill along with 'listening' cannot be taught overnight, but can be triggered through such debates. In fact, these skills do not just help in MUNing, but play an important role in life. In today's world, standing up for ones self and communicating effectively still stands difficult for today's generation, but definitely not for MUNers. From this idea came our vision statement: "Bringing together motivated and talented individuals from every nook of the region,who aspire about our future and recognize their power to shape it, to exhibit MUNing at its best." 
    The learning outcomes from this experience are commendable. From participating in an MUN, I, indeed, learned to speak confidently without any inhibitions and also to research effectively. However, from hosting one, I learned to organize and also be balanced. 'How balanced?', you may ask. Well, the preparation for SIMUN was during the time of our semester exams. Most of us had to skip classes and also finish some of the work at home. Unfortunately, we didn't have a choice to skip academics during that period. That is when I was bound to plan appropriately and allocate some time for my homework and exam preparation along with SIMUN work. 
     SIMUN will always be a memorable event for me because it taught me not just more about MUNing, but also about myself. Since we had some or the other issue at times, I realized how much I could manage and how much I could not. For instance, adding the names of the winners on the pre designed certificates an hour before the closing ceremony got me tensed and nervous. At that instant, I learned that I wasn't able to handle the situation well. However, with peer support, I could finish it within time and submit them. Furthermore, I definitely did strengthen the skills of both working individually and with my team! 

Journal 16.5: The grand event!

The conference

Representing India’s culture, we commenced with a classical dance performed by a group of The IPS officer’s speech enlightened the opening ceremony, after which, in a new fashion, the entire secretariat declared the committee sessions open together. Additionally, we had the director of Notthingam universtity come over to give a talk about their university which helped a lot of high school students who are looking forward to go abroad for further education. Generally, the Secretary general does this honor in every MUN conference. This is one way SIMUN stands different! Soon, the delegates were assembled in their committee rooms to begin their first session. There were no major issues in the agenda of the committee sessions. They went steady and smooth till the end. However, on the first day we figured that some students were given two allotments and few country allotments were assigned to two delegates. At the spot, another director and I decided give those delegates extra time to prepare and a silent role in the first session to just observe the way the committee proceeds. My major role during the conference was to monitor all the committees consistently to ensure there are no issues during the sessions, being the director of committees. The volunteers from DP year 1 in the organizing committee helped me monitor the delegates and stood through every single session to help out in passing chits from delegates to the chair person. In brief, they helped me do my job much more efficiently. 

Socials

DJ Prince – An excellent DJ who ensured to include almost all the trending songs in his playlist with breathtaking additions.

Beatboxer: Arjun – His sensational talent was so inspiring to watch on stage! He seemed like he has so many instruments in his mouth!

Playback singer: Abhay Jothputkar – One of his famous super hits ‘Halena’ from the Tamil film : 'Irumugan' gave a unique essence to the event and all of us went on stage to dance while he sang!

Deeksha Rajesh: Senior DP student – who is a student at A.R Rahman’s school of music gave a stunning performance, accompanied by Manov, one of our advisers in SIMUN who played the guitar.

Journal 16.4: Creating sensation

We even had to skip a few classes to get time to sit together as a team and sort out those traditional issues that always pop up when all 7 minds think differently.  Of course, we always had the wise mind – our president who cleared the strains constantly. For instance, one of the major issues was that 2 people started making the country allotments for the delegates and we finally ended up in a mess and had to do it all over again. Skipping lunch and sleep became part of a daily routine under this pressure. However, one of the fun things that happened this month was ‘Drenched in Red’. It was an open challenge initiated by the SIMUN team for people to send pictures of anything in red that implied meaning. The sole purpose of this challenge was to bring people together. It’s seemed like an opportunity to bring everybody in unity, despite their differences. This in turn created a hype for SIMUN itself. Also, we had a skype call with the TIPS Karur campus students to clear their doubts regarding the committee sessions and conference details.

Journal 16.3: Only more work, yet more fun

 Making the ID cards for all delegates and inviting schools over the phone took a tremendous amount of time each day. We had to decide the colour of the ties and design the format of the tags.

Today was a big day for the SIMUN team since we went to the police department to invite the IPS officer to be our chief guest of the opening ceremony.

One of my favourite segments of this journey was meeting the Erode TIPS campus students in their school to give them an introductory session of MUNing. Teaching them the basics of an MUN taught me how much I know. Furthermore, the questions they asked helped us share our knowledge that we’ve gained from our previous MUNs. Beyond the crux of the session, what mattered was how we bonded instantly with all students from 6^th grade to 11^th grade.

Journal 16.2 : Working further

This month was filled with most of the preparatory work including giving all delegates their countries in each committee according to their experience levels. For instance, students who have more than 2 MUN experiences were given countries that have critical stances in the committee so that they can handle the situation diplomatically. However, the freshers with other countries stand an equal chance of winning the debate as well. After all, it depends on how you can defend your points in the dias regardless of how tedious the situation grows. We also decided the menu for the 4 day program with a variety of cuisines. Fortunately, the canteen at our school agreed to make most of the dishes we asked for.  The tremendous support from the school made the organization much easier for us. Jhansi ma’am, the hostel coordinator took the responsibility of allotting rooms for all the students who opted to stay at school. Also, Mr. Devadunai, the safety officer ensured that all the transport facilities were arranged for the students of Coimbatore. Our Deputy Director General took care of inviting the singer – Abhay Jothputkar, and the DJ for the evening events of the conference.

Journal 16.1 : New beginning

It’s high time we start getting our hands on work, into this project to begin SIMUN – South Indian Model United Nations, an MUN that will bring in talents in students across India and those from other countries as well! I have participated in a couple of MUNs and also trained students for MUNs, but this is the very first time I’m part of the directors team as the Director of Committees, in hosting a MUN at our school! My team and I, we’ve put down our ideas into agendas and have started our registrations. With tons of support from the president of SIMUN – Mr. Rolf Swaminathan, we were able to step into this challenging project.  

The tech people of our team took care of the construction of our official website: www.simunglobal.org

In the past few months, we first figured out a name for our MUN and a logo, and created a rough list of the events and committees. In fact, we allotted the positions of the vice chairs to our friends who attended the MUNs with us. The president and our IB DP coordinator helped us find experienced people for the chair person in each committee.