All we do is win win win no matter what!

Hello blog, it's been a while it seems. This past weekend I was in Montreal for McGill model UN 2011. It was one of the best conferences I've been too, but it seems each one I go to gets better. I was in an NHL committee and got to hang out with some awesome people who love hockey too. The best is that I got to role play as a hockey player, and I even said "We can't let to owners fuck with us!" during committee session lol. Plus I told Sean Avery to suck it and many other fun comments were made by me and other players throughout the weekend. I also did a lot of drinking with my delegation and the final party was really well done by the McMUN staff. They flew in this famous DJ who everyone was pretty excited about. I wish every day was like a model UN conference, but I would probably not survive. We wake up early, go to bed late, eat whatever we can find, drink whatever we can find, party hard, debate hard, and become like a family. That's what I love the most, that I barely know most of the people I went with from my school, but we become like a family throughout the weekend. These kids are really amazing too, the most intelligent and motivated people I know. I know many of them will be future leaders.

But the UN fun isn't over. I have the highschool conference my UN club is hosting next week and I'm moderating one of the crisis committees (these are always so much fun). Then at the end of reading week I have the university level conference the other model UN group runs, and I will be directing a committe for it. Anyway, I feel like talking about what it takes to be in model UN and maybe explain it a little...

1) Each school sends a delegation to a conference that another school runs, and you want your school to win the most awards. Usually West Point, George Washington and Yale clean house at awards ceremonies since they send the biggest delegations (40+ students usually) and there is some bias involved with these schools too. But U of T did win four awards at McMUN!

2) There are many committees at each conference, and you're assigned a position in one committee...I got to be the player rep from the Leafs in the NHLPA at McMUN. So basically you can have fun with this depending on the country or character. If you're the USA, be an asshole. If you're Russia, be an asshole with an accent. If you're an African country, create an African bloc with other African countries. You don't have to be a good actor, but it helps and makes it more fun. I know I sort of become a different person when I'm in character, plus I become more intense and talkative.

3) You have to be assertive but likeable. I know a few people who can be total aggressive assholes but they can get away with it somehow. However, you need to get people to like you and you need to be approachable because if you want your resolution to pass you need people to sponsor it and then vote for it. It's all about negotiating, being charasmatic and even being a good liar in some siutations. You want to get your resolution out there first, so be aggressive.

4) In crisis committees it's different. You don't write resolutions but rather directives or press releases. These don't need sponsors but they do need to be voted on if they're not just from you alone. Everything happens a lot faster and the crisis staff release crisis after crisis almost every 15 minutes. So you have to act quickly. These can be really fun though.

5) You have to be in constant contact with others in your committee, especially your allies and bloc. We usually send notes, but the NHL committee was done through instant chat and email which was amazing. It's important to know where everyone stands, who agrees with you, and whose minds you can change.


Alright, so those are a few main points about model UN. It's a lot of fun but it isn't for everyone. It takes practice and there are many rules involved. But it's become so innate to me now I can just go into committee and do my thing lol. I'm pretty run down now from McMUN and from going to my two classes in the cold yesterday. I have a head cold now and my throat kinda hurts. Tomorrow is supposed to be a huge snow storm, so we'll see how that goes. Leafs play tonight too!

ps. I'm still pissed at the kid who was playing the Leafs owner Larry Tanenbaum, because there's no way he'd vote in favour of a team coming to Toronto! He should have taken it as an opporunity to be an asshole and step up his game...he so went against his foreign policy lol.

+ Lorelie