Welcome!

Dear Delegates,

I am greatly honored to serve as the Secretary-General for Rothesay Netherwood School’s fifth annual Gordon Fairweather Model United Nations Conference. I hope, with the help of everyone involved in this event, especially our experienced chairs, our pages, and you, the delegates, to build on last year's success and make this conference the best one yet. We have prepared a number of interesting committees, the most ever for this event. On behalf of this year’s secretariat, I am excited to welcome you to GFMUN 2024!

More than ever, our world yearns for leadership, altruism, collaboration, and empathy. Inequality is plaguing our global society; starvation and homelessness are prevalent in even the most developed parts of our planet; armed conflicts arise across the globe; the institutions of our democracies are crumbling; and climate change poses a looming existential threat to humanity, that, if we cannot solve, will spell the end of our times. As huge as they may be, these issues are not unsolvable. Our technology and culture, combined with the elements of humanitarianism, strong leadership, and an altruistic willingness to collaborate with all people around the globe would show us the way to a new, better world. The key is already in our hands; the question is whether or not we would use it properly. The failure of the current system and the inability of humanity to progress means we, as the youth of the world, have to take responsibility for the world and achieve what others previously could not: collaboration and mutual understanding. This is the goal and the central theme of GFMUN: teaching and encouraging the youth to work hard to collaborate and bring about progress. Together, we, the youth, will refuse the status quo. We will refuse to be told that this is the only way, that it cannot get better. Together, we can change the world.

GFMUN is offering various committees this year. Our ECOSOC, UNEP, and Security Council committees are designed to deliver an authentic UN experience, while we also run specialized committees: crisis simulations, in which decisions made by delegates throughout the committee will have an impact on the remainder of the session, and historical committees, which allow in-depth exploration of events in the past with the benefit of hindsight. Each committee is thoroughly researched and carefully crafted for the best authenticity and experience. We sincerely hope that you will enjoy this year's GFMUN. On this note, I must encourage your enthusiastic participation. Each and every one of you, no matter your level of experience, has something valuable to contribute. Your engagement is the key to an amazing conference.

Lastly, I want to extend my thanks to everyone who makes this event possible: to the staff and students of Rothesay Netherwood who give their space and time for us to hold this conference, to our pages and others who help with logistics, to our experienced chairs, to the members of the Secretariat, Pavel MacKenzie, Alex Zhang, and Alexander Ma, to Richard Su, last year’s Secretary-General and a dearest friend and mentor, and to Mr. Charles McEvoy, the school’s Forensics coach, who proves invaluable year after year in helping us put on this conference. Finally, of course, I thank you, the delegates, the reason this event exists. Together, we can do great things, and one day, I believe that we will look back from a better world and see how far we’ve come.

Thank you for your time,

Best regards,

Secretary-General

GFMUN 2024