Fountainhead School Model United Nations ( FSMUN )is an annual event that takes place in our school where students from across the state come as delegates of different countries in different committees of the United Nations and represent their nation in order to express their views on the given agendas.
MUNs are an amazing platform for students to build networks and enrich their personal engagement skills. Recognising the importance of interdependence in this global world where our lives, our communities and the nations of the world, are constantly impacted by proceedings on major global platforms such as the UN, our MUN aims to enrich the youth of our state by providing a stage that promotes intellectual and substantial debate. Along with the development of public speaking skills, we also look forward to the amelioration of awareness about issues of global significance in our peers.
I was given the title of Deputy Secretary-General, and therefore the burdens of multiple responsibilities came upon me such as:
- Arranging Transport for all and Accommodation for delegates who are from another city and for the Executive Board Members.
- Food ( Breakfast, Lunch and High Tea for 2 days and Dinner for one night at School )
- Logistics ( On day help inside every committee )
- Ceremonies ( Opening and Closing Ceremony as well as the Social evening on Day 1 )
- Registrations and Administration inclusive of Finance ( Getting delegates registered, collecting their registration fees and sending them allocation )
- Design ( Invites, Country Flags, and Placards, Decoration for the Ceremonies )
- Photography of the event at all times
- Designating Venue for the event ( For the Committee, Food and for Ceremonies
- Advertisement and Marketing ( Sponsorship from different vendors and companies in the city and Active updates on Social media )
- Resource and Crisis Management ( Printing and Stationary for delegates and on day crisis management )
Following is the link to the Event Manual: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jz4lQPRD7IPYDsbpS0BEEt7P6o_WuoHQrGAP-e8U2nk/edit?ts=5b6171ec
Throughout the course of this event, I accomplished the following goals:
- Identifying my own strengths and weaknesses
I never faced challenges when it came to working with others and working on time with my work, throughout the event whatever work that was assigned to me, I made sure that I completed it on time and to the best of my abilities, although the issues that I had faced was with the organization of the work that I did, which always pulled down the standard and quality of the work that I did, I had potential to do better but that was one weakness that would hamper my quality of work.
2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills
A MUN is not complete without its challenges, and we faced many, we had begun with a zero balance budget and had to work our way hard and fast in order to make the event a success. During the day of the event was when the real challenges came forward, whether it was the arrival of delegates to the venue of the event or whether it was the delay in timings of the schedule of the event, each and everything had to be taken into consideration. We could not afford to make any mistakes and we had to struggle in the beginning, although eventually, we were able to bring everything on track and the event played off smoothly.
3. Initiate and plan a CAS experience
Planning was an essential part of FSMUN and I had to make sure I kept track of each and every step that I took in 5 months in order to make sure I could reflect back and see if I had missed out on something, this was also so that I could keep a sort of journal of what we were doing. This was done by making planned calendar invites for all our meetings with fixed agendas noted down and discussed and implemented. Moreover everything was noted down in an event manual that any of our supervisors could refer to at any time to make sure that they were up to date with everything that was going on in the organization of the event, this was really useful as it can also turn into a guide for future organizers of FSMUN to refer to in order to make the event a hit.
4. Commitment to and perseverance
Commitment was something that was demanded at whole from our members and organizing team at all times as this wasn’t an event where slacking off could be done. During the selection process of the organizing committee, we had interviewed our candidates in order to make sure we could find out whether they were capable or not, and this led to the formation of a very hard working and proactive organizing committee.
5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively
The core committee consisted of four members including me who were in control of the entire event and responsible for its workings, I had to make sure that I kept any and every personal grudge aside in order to work with maximum efficiency for the event, although the core committee consisted of close friends of mine so I did not find any issues in working with them or putting my ideas across. moreover working in a collaboration helps to get multiple perspectives on an issue and helps us to solve it much quicker and much more efficiently.
Overall during the course of this five-month journey, I had experiences that are worth remembering for the longest time and I hope that I am privileged to work in a similar event again and be able to excel in this field further.
