TISBMUN 2020 - 10 years of MUN

This year TISBMUN celebrates its 10-year anniversary, and this year, due to the ongoing pandemic, TISB’s Model United Nations Conferences are being held online. New for this year is that there are two TISBMUN conferences: one for Junior students and one for Senior students. The TISBMUN Junior Conference was held for Grade 6-8 students on 31 October and 1 November and proved to be the largest junior online MUN Conference in India, with a wide participation from schools and students in different countries. We got in touch with the Secretary-General and TISB MUN Prefect, Grade 12 student Soorya, to learn more about MUN and the results of the TISBMUN Junior Conference.

MUN allows people of diverse backgrounds to network and work together to tackle increasingly complex global issues that are pertinent at the moment – Soorya, Grade 12.

TISB’s first ever MUN Junior conference is now over, the results are in and certificates have been handed out. The conference was the largest online Junior MUN in India; attracting a total of 382 Grade 6-8 Delegates from 34 participating schools located in Bangalore, Mumbai, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, Kozhikode, Trivandrum, Delhi and Shanghai. Financially the TISB MUN junior was also a great success, as the revenues from the first event covered the costs for both the Conferences. All the proceeds from the TISBMUN conferences are re-invested in future MUN events and the surplus goes to charity.

The participants at the event were divided into six committees: WHO (World Health Organisation), SOCHUM (UN Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee), COPOUS (UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space), Press Corps, Percy Jackson and Harry Potter – working on and debating issues including the quality of healthcare in prisons, the issue of forced labour, combatting hatred and discrimination and ensuring the safety of all magical beings.

MUN is an activity for students who are interested in learning more about how the United Nations works and operates and worldwide, hundreds of thousands of students take part annually. Several of today’s leaders in law, government, business, and the arts have participated in MUN events as students including Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary General.

What has made MUN such a popular event for students to take part in? “MUN is a great resume building activity, that aims to provide students with the tools to develop their leadership, public speaking and communication skills” says Soorya. He also explains that it is a fun and productive place where students can make new friends, in an environment that does not require traditional academic knowledge.

Due to the current global pandemic, this year students came together online via Microsoft Teams. The new format of the Conferences required the team behind the success to do a lot of planning and to come up with new and creative solutions, such as an effective system for sending out email invites and updates, and setting up an entirely online registration system for the event. Of course, a new context and new systems do not always come without behind-the-scenes obstacles and hiccoughs. Soorya says: “We had a couple of issues with email addresses and certificates, but they were smoothed out by the Core Team. We learnt how to better organise ourselves, use Mail Merge, and even deal with unforeseen circumstances in a calm and professional manner.”

Next up for the TISBMUN team is the Senior Conference for Grades 9 - 12 students from all over India as well as other countries around the world. Soorya believes that the lessons learnt from the TISBMUN Junior Conference will help to better the Senior Conference, and that the success and learnings from both the events may inspire and build on the future of TISBMUN. “The legacy of two Conferences and the press release ‘Legatus’ will hopefully be carried on by the next MUN Prefects”, says Soorya.

To learn more about the completed Junior Conference, visit the TISBMUN Junior website and read more about the upcoming senior event at TISB Model United Nations

Click here to watch the closing ceremony of the TISBMUN Junior Conference on the TISB YouTube channel, where you will also find more MUN and other videos.