COMUN DELEGATE WORK SHOP 2019
On Saturday the 7th of December, the COMUN society came together at OSC for a delegate work shop. The purpose of this workshop was to inform the novice delegates about the procedure of the conferences. Since this is my first year doing COMUN I had to attended this workshop , the workshop consisted of the basics that we needed to know as we progressed through COMUN.
The chairs first went over the attire that we needed to wear for the practice debates on the 18th of January and then the 1st and 29th of February, the attire for the practice debates was set to smart casual. However for the final conference in March we need to be dressed in fully formal wear. After we went over the attire that was required we then went over motions and how/when to use them, such as motion to move into role call and motion to adapt agendas (these are all motions which are needed at the start of conference.
After we were informed about motions we were then taken through what points were in a debate. In the debate there are various points that can be brought up however perhaps the most important or the most used point are referred to as points of information (POI’s). Points of information are what you ask after another delegate has spoken or issued their statement, POI’s are used to ask questions to the opposing delegate that can potentially show holes in their statement. After we went over the points that be brought up in debate we then went over research, and how critical it is. We learned how through research we learn more about the United Nations system, and overall general information on the UN.
After we went over research we then went over the different speeches, an example of this would be the speakers list. The speakers list is the central aspect or the core for what you’re going to carry out as a delegate. In short it is a summary of your country’s foreign policy. In addition to the speakers list we went over the moderated caucus (MOD’s). A moderated caucus is a topic that is written by the delegates and then chosen by the chairs to discuss in the debate. Then to finish off with speeches we learned about Foreign Policy Statements (FPS).
The last thing that we were told about were the different committees. The reason that these were really important was because it helps us decide on what committee we are going to chose for the final conference and the practice debates. The committee that we are able to chose from are ECOSOC, ICJ, UNSC, IPC, UNEP, GA 1, and GA 3. I selected to IPC which stands for the International Press Committee, the focus of the committee is on journalism. We write articles and editorials on the topics that are brought up on conference by the various other committees. The reason that I selected the IPC is because I enjoy writing and feel that this committee will be a could opportunity to further my writing skill.
Learning Outcomes
The connection that the delegate workshop has with the CAS learning outcomes is to ‘identify own strengths’. The reason for this is because identified that one of my strengths was writing, and having the ability to chose the right committee that writes articles which can help me build up on my current skills. The next learning outcome that relates to CAS is ‘demonstrating engagement with issue’s of global importance’. The reason for this is that issue’s of global importance are constantly brought up in COMUN an example of these can be Brexit, global warming, and political issues. Overall this workshop was extremely useful and insightful for me, it was very helpful and the notes that we took are sure to help us throughout the year.