If you’re reading this article, at some stage or another in your child’s Model UN journey you’ve found yourself wondering: how can I get more involved in MUN as a parent? While many extracurricular activities have seemingly straightforward ways to support your child’s team – bringing oranges or snacks after a sports game, volunteering as a referee or coach, fundraising through bake sales or sponsorships, as just a few examples – with Model UN, it might seem a little more complicated to get involved. Continue reading to have your question answered – we’ve found 5 easy ways for you to support your child’s MUN journey and get involved with Model UN as a parent!
1. Learn More About MUN – Get Involved as Your Child Prepares for Conferences!
The easiest way to get started in supporting your child’s Model UN journey is by learning more about MUN! If you never participated in MUN or aren’t sure where to start, have no fear – there are a ton of helpful parent resources to get you acquainted with your child’s favorite extracurricular activity. You can begin by watching a short introductory video to MUN, reading up on 26 key parent terms to know, or checking out tailored parent guides designed to make MUN easy & accessible.
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics of Model UN, you can get involved by helping your child prepare for upcoming conferences! You can support them in their research process as they learn more about a new country and topic, and offer to look over their position paper if one is required by the conference. You can also help your child feel more confident by listening as they practice their opening speech – practice makes perfect, and your child will always appreciate the extra feedback! Another key part of preparing for a MUN committee is brainstorming possible solutions, and you can serve as a sounding board for your child’s potential ideas and encourage them to come up with creative proposals. On the day of the conference, support your child with a motivational pep talk, final outfit check, tech check in the case of a virtual conference, and wishing them luck as they step into the shoes of global leadership to save the world alongside their peers!
2. Discuss the News & Current Events with Your Child!
Many of today’s Model UN committees focus on topics drawn straight from today’s news headlines and current international events. For your child’s next conference, they may find themselves preparing to debate topics including Universal Access to Education, the Situation in Yemen, Water Rights, or Climate Change, all of which are linked to what’s going on across the world today! By helping your child keep up with the news and discussing current events with them as they unfold, you can help them have a well-rounded understanding of some of these topics before they begin their research. Take the topic of Climate Change, as an example. The recent COP26 UN Climate Change Conference brought together key stakeholders including global leaders, diplomats, scientists, lobbyists, and activists to discuss and debate enhanced commitments toward mitigating climate change. As it unfolded, COP26 topped most major news sources & headlines and there were a number of ways to engage live with the international event – a great opportunity to boost your child’s general knowledge of the topic of climate change! Through helping your child to engage with international news stories as they unfold and discussing them diplomatically with your family, you’ll be able to get more involved with and support your child’s MUN journey!
Looking for suggestions for news sources to check out & share with your child? We recommend starting with the New York Times‘ Weekly News Quiz!
3. Help Your Child Prepare For & Run for Leadership Positions!
Model UN offers a ton of opportunities for your child to take on leadership roles and positions throughout their high school journey, and you can get involved by helping to support their candidacy! Within their school’s club, leadership positions may include treasurer, rapporteur/secretary, head delegate/head of training, vice president, and president. Beyond club leadership positions, if your child’s school hosts their own conference, they may also have the opportunity to gain leadership through chairing positions or through secretariat positions, including as Under Secretary-General or Secretary-General!
Club Leadership Positions: If your child is running for a club leadership position, you can get involved by helping them prepare for their election! You can help your child reflect on how their MUN experience thus far has prepared them for the role or on how other skills they have make them the perfect candidate – get involved by helping your child spotlight their strengths. If they’re working on writing an election speech, creating campaign materials such as slogans or posters, or trying to brainstorm ways to gather support from their peers, feel free to ask how you can help them succeed, including in ways as simple as listening to their candidacy speech!
Conference Leadership/Secretariat Positions: If your child is looking toward conference leadership or secretariat positions, there are also a number of ways that you can support them! Positions such as the Secretary-General of their school’s conference will require strong leadership abilities and dedication to taking on a voluntary extra workload including managing other students and designing high-level logistic and substantive elements. You can help your child as they build these skills along their Model UN journey and highlight them to their peers and their faculty advisor!
4. Offer to Chaperone Your Child’s MUN Team or Take Your Child to Conferences!
If your child’s Model UN team is planning on attending in-person conferences this year, you can get involved by seeing if there are chaperone opportunities available! Your child’s teachers may need help planning transportation and/or logistics for travel to and from local conferences, as well as additional support while at the conference itself. Attending MUN Conferences alongside your child’s team is an incredibly rewarding opportunity, and you may even get to watch your child and their peers in action by observing their committees! Beyond local conferences, if your child’s team is hoping to attend weekend-long travel conferences, you can check to see if they need additional support.
If your child’s school doesn’t have a Model UN team, however your child is still interested in attending an in-person conference, you can get involved by registering your child as an independent delegate and accompanying them! Most conferences will allow your child to register without being a part of a team at their school as long as a parent joins them, and by serving as your child’s MUN advisor for the day or weekend, you can also learn more about their experience firsthand!
5. Support Your Child’s Team / School’s MUN Conference!
As a parent, you can always get more involved with MUN by asking your child’s faculty advisor what materials their team might need this year! For their club, they may want to run simulations or activities that would be enhanced with flags or props – if you have any DIY skills, this is a great time to bring those to the table!
In the case your child’s school is hoping to host their own MUN conference, they may want to do some fundraising to support the event’s success! You can consider supporting their efforts through hosting a bake sale, or helping your child’s team to think of other creative ways to raise additional funding. Fundraising events typically require additional hands, so this is a great time for parental involvement in MUN activities. Looking toward the conference itself, you can continue to support your child’s efforts through volunteering to help with conference set-up, helping out throughout the conference, and working with the team to ensure they have all of the materials they may need to bring the United Nations to their school!
