My school has been organizing Model United Nations and was named the event as Fountainhead Model United Nations (FSMUN). Model United Nations is an academic simulation of the United Nations where participates play the role of delegates from different countries and attempt to solve real-world issues with the policies and perspectives of their assigned country. Participates from various schools and cities participated in the debate. The school Fountainhead organizes many such events where participants get the chance to build their personal profile and enhance different skills like public speaking and learning self-management etc and FSMUN is a sheer example. For the academic year 2017, FSMUN was organized on 25th and 26th November.
I with other fellow partner were the organizing committee heads and had several responsibilities. Like coordinating with the logistics team, ordering resources for decoration purposes, assigning jobs to other people in organizing committee, making the delegate kits etc.
We were responsible for making the event successful by giving it our best with this spirit and determination during the event, I came across many learning outcomes:
LO 1: Identifying my own strengths and develop areas for growth
Throughout the process, I got to identify my new strengths which includes leadership and the will to help people to accomplish the task each individual was assigned to. I believe that being a leader is always better than being a boss, mutually dividing work rather than giving orders helped me a lot in this case. Still keeping that in mind that people needed someone to assign them tasks I had to act like a head sometimes.
We had to divide other objectives and we decided this by looking at the interest of other organizing committee members. We were needed to instruct them tasks and also let them express their way of doing it, if it was more efficient we would implement it throughout the event. This insight helped us a lot when we were discussing how to decorate the photo booth. Everyone gave their own ideas and the best one was finalized.
Due to the continuous interaction needed, I could overcome one of my weaknesses which were communicating in a team. In this process I was able to eliminate my weakness and was comfortable working with a team, this helped us to make decisions more quickly without any conflicts.
LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
One of biggest challenges we faced was on the day of the event when we were decorating the venue for socials. We had to design a Photo Booth and earlier we had ordered fairy lights for that but at the end moment, they stopped working. So being the heads, one of us quickly went to buy new ones and till then rest of started making the other one without using the lights. We successfully managed to decorate the photo booth, not only one but we came up with two of them. This task required a lot of spontaneity and creativity which helped me to develop these skills. I was really happy with the outcome and team effort.
LO 3: Initiate and plan a CAS experience.
Being the Organizing head of such a big event of almost 100 active participants was a huge task to accomplish. This required a lot of planning from the start till the end. It all started on the first day when the selection procedure was announced, from that point in time my initial planning started. All the participants individually had to answer some of the questions asked by the coordinators. I had an early idea that these questions would relate to contingency planning and what I think of being a leader, before the interview I had planned my responses and the same questions were asked in the interview just with a situation connected to it. Because of my early planning and dedication, I was selected as the organizing committee head and from the day of my selection, I was expected to plan several meetings in order to discuss the requirements of the event, to divide work accordingly and to keep a check on the activities, these responsibilities helped us to shape the event.
We were the ones expected to decorate everything and get everything at its place before the delegates enter their committees, because of this we had to do stay backs, come early to school as well as come to school on Saturdays, during this time firstly we planned how to decorate everything and later worked on them to give the best experience possible. Apart from that the days of the event also required a lot of planning to be done as each committee required a logistic who would pass the cheats and help them with any managerial issue they face, this being a very boring task none of us were ready to opt for this and hence on the day of event we came up with an idea of fixing the time each one of us had to be a logistic in a committee, we made a timetable considering the favorable timings for each individual and followed it till the end. Such equal efforts and time investment helped FSMUN to be the best FSMUN in its history.
LO 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
This event required a lot of people’s effort behind it. To make it successful, we had to show a lot of commitment like coming early to school and giving a lot of time and efforts. As being one of the organizing committee head, I had to ensure that all the work is done within the deadline and had to report it to the higher authority. In our free slots, we ordered resources so that in the morning we could start with our work. On the day of the event, we had to run here and there and solve all the problems of the delegates so that they don’t feel uncomfortable. Also at the end moment, we were required to be in logistics for some time and we did that also. It was a very tiring task, however, due to my commitment from the start, I had to do all possible things required.
LO 5: Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively
As a team, we were very happy with the final outcome of our days and days of efforts. Our hard work was paid off when we got amazing feedbacks from delegates as well as teachers. It was a large team that I had to manage so at times it was difficult to work together because some people had contrasting perspectives on some points but as a majority, we used to explain the person and reach to a consensus which was in favor of all. It was very important to work together as a team to make this event a hit because it required a lot of ideas, creativity and hard work which wouldn’t have been possible without a team. Collaboratively we had to do each task with patience and determination to reach our goal. After the task was over I understood that each and every person’s contribution was so important.
Overall, this was a good learning experience and I got a chance to work with an amazing team. I was really happy to see FSMUN cross the mark of 90 delegates, which is the highest to date in our school. These things make all the efforts paid off. I hope the skills I have developed or used will further help me to excel.
This was a great CAS experience to be considered as it left me with a lot to learn and helped me explore my own self.
