This is a guest post from Nick Harris, the MUN Director at the Korea International School, Jeju Campus.
On February 6th, 2020, we had to make the difficult decision to push back GECMUN6, a conference we had spent a year preparing for, from February of 2020 to September of 2020. This meant that the seniors involved with GECMUN6 were going to miss out on the conference.
We still wanted to have some type of conference in the spring as a MUN club and decided that we would have an internal conference at school in mid-April. Under the assumption that the COVID-19 would have passed by then (this was before Italy, before New York, before Iran). Little did we know then that school would be canceled from February 16th through what could potentially be the rest of the year.
From around late-March, it was becoming clear that we were not returning to school any time soon. COVID-19 was increasing its worldwide presence as it was ravaging through the east coast of the United States. The Korean government had announced that public schools would be taught online from mid-April until further notice. It was around this period that we began to investigate alternative possibilities for our conference. We had heard of “online MUN” before, but had no experience participating in such conferences, let alone hosting one. We conducted some research, and through reputable websites such as “Best Delegate”, we were able to gain some tips and know-how in regards to hosting an online conference. We decided that going online was possible, and moved forward with the idea of our first “Online Conference”.
On April 11th, we hosted our first “Online MUN Conference,” KISJMUN I. The conference was 1-day long, and its participants were members of our middle and high school MUN clubs.
As anticipated, the conference had its fair shares of challenges as well as successes. I hope by sharing this experience, it might help other MUN teams who are considering holding practice sessions or conferences via Zoom.
Challenges
Internet Connectivity: Despite living in the nation with the best internet in the world (South Korea), we still faced internet lag in all committees. This was not a major issue during times of moderated caucus (when all mics are muted except the speaker’s) but it hindered fruitful discussion when all mics were unmuted for an unmoderated session.
Chair-to-Chair Communication: This was difficult because, in a person-to-person committee, chairs are a safe distance from delegates to speak quietly to one another about their chairing duties. However, in the case of an online committee, chairs had to message each other via chat while they were also busy chairing, forcing them to multi-task when communicating with one another.
Delegate Attention: Since the delegates were in their own homes, and on the other side of a screen, attention felt difficult to maintain. It was unclear at times if the delegates were truly “present” and were paying attention to whoever was speaking or if they were just watching something else on their computer screens.
The Limitation of Zoom Breakout Rooms: Although the feature of “breakout rooms” was highly useful for allowing delegates to speak to each other in smaller groups, the issue of monitoring each breakout room persisted. Since there were more breakout rooms than chairs, there were always certain rooms which were left unsupervised. In a traditional MUN setting, this type of situation would never happen.
Successes
Streamlined Directives and Resolutions: Due to the online platform, delegates were able to collaborate quickly and succinctly when it came to resolutions– especially for crisis committees. We were able to streamline the process by coding a bot to uniformly format and compile multiple Google Documents into a single location.
Efficiency and Freedom of Time: By using the online platform, it allowed students and faculty to maximize their time. In a standard 1-day practice conference, students would have spent 30-minutes just traveling to school and back, 60-minutes for lunchtime at the cafeteria, 10-15 minutes waiting for the opening conference, and another 10-15 minutes waiting for the closing ceremony. By attending on an online conference, it saved everyone at least 1-2 hours of the day, and it allowed for unique flexibility such as students having the option to eat what they wanted for lunch and snack in the afternoon on their own accord, as opposed to following a rigid in-person schedule which would have specified a time for the afternoon tea break. Myself as an adviser, I only needed about 15-minutes for lunch, so I was able to go on a quick 25 minute run during lunch, come home, take a shower, and still make it in time for the afternoon sessions from 1 PM. This would have been unfathomable at a traditional MUN conference.
Better Than No Conference: Although I’m not sure if this would qualify as a “success,” several students mentioned how they were grateful that we had an option to pursue an online MUN session. This especially resonated true to me because as the soccer coach, I saw my entire squad miss out on a 3-month soccer season due to COVID-19 and have witnessed other activities such as the spring musical and prom get canceled. In that sense, as MUNers, students were quite fortunate that despite virtual learning, they were able to participate in a MUN conference of some sort during this time of quarantine.
Cost: Although it costed our delegates about $10 USD to be part of the conference (to cover for pens, notepads, and awards), these orders were made prior to us knowing we were hosting it online. If we had known we were hosting it online, the most it would have cost per delegate would have been about $4 USD. There has always been an economic divide when it comes to MUN: it’s not a cheap activity, with most conferences our team has attended often costing more than $100 USD per student, and that’s only for the conference. Many times, teams have to travel to the destination as well as pay for hotels. So it is not uncommon for MUN delegates to spend $400-500 USD to attend a domestic conference and over $1000 to attend an international one. An increase in online conferences worldwide would help tear down this economic barrier and make MUN a much more inclusive activity, accessible to students regardless of their socio-economic background or location.
How to Improve on our Online MUN Conferences
Setting up a Secretariat/Chairs HQ
Aforementioned, communication between chairs (and at times between chairs and Secretariat) was an issue. To remedy this issue, chairs could try to find a physical HQ where they could meet up in person.
Multiple Devices
For the chairs who found the conference less strenuous, they all had one thing in common: they had at least two devices in addition to their cell phone. By having three devices, they were more apt at dealing with network issues, as well as being able to multi-task even when on the “share screen” mode for Zoom, which would normally render one to not able to work on other items simultaneously since their screen is being shared with everyone else in the Zoom group.
Pre-Recorded Opening and Closing Videos
Even with our small group of fewer than 85 people, the closing ceremony became quite hectic as some students left their mics on when they should’ve been turned off, and the handoff from chair to chair in regards to speaking was not always the smoothest and made the closing ceremonies look unnecessarily sloppy. Instead, if we were to do it again, I would recommend that the chairs create quick 2-minute videos on their own, and they send those to the secretariat to play at the closing ceremony. This way, they have leeway to re-record, and it makes the transition from one committee to another during award ceremonies far more efficient.
Moving Forward
Will Online Conferences Gain Popularity?
Given the current circumstances, I would assume more schools and conferences would be willing to give online MUN a chance, whether by choice or because there are no other viable options. I imagine some schools might go on to retain this format, and therefore, we would see a general rise in numbers of online conferences.
Can Online MUN Replace Traditional MUN Committees?
It appears that the online format is, in fact, a viable replacement to the traditional format. If you had said that to me 4 months ago, I would have thought you were kidding. But now that the student survey results are back from chairs and delegates, it appears that the younger generation feels less of a stigma towards the shift from in-person to virtual activities. It may be that “Generation-Z” is more comfortable being in front of their computers than millennials, and a surprising 60%+ of our students at KISJMUN (our club is about 80 students in size) responded to my questionnaire indicating that they would not mind the online format in replacement of the traditional format of MUN. I cannot see in the long run the traditional format of MUN going away, but in the same way that remote working will most likely continue to increase even after COVID-19 passes, we may see a rise in online MUN worldwide in the coming years.
Announcing: No Borders Model United Nations (NBMUN)
They will be hosting a new online conference, No Borders Model United Nations, on September 12-13.
Learn more: www.nobordersmun.com
