Message from the President

To all, greetings!

Looking back over the past four years, I have seen enormous changes in model UN programs in our neck of the woods, all for the better. We've seen an increase in the number of programs offered by schools both public and private, and as a result, we've seen an increase in the number of students who want to take advantage of opportunities provided not only by undergraduate level high school conferences, but also the single day Saturday conferences available on the calendar. We've also seen an increase in the number of those Saturday conferences, and even if schools find the calendar of conference prevents them from hosting a large-scale event, we are seeing schools offer small "mini-conferences" that give their students the opportunity to experience running a conference.

As our Saturday conferences have evolved, we have seen the interaction among faculty moderators lead to improvements in how we handle the issue of awards, and how we handle the development of students as both delegates and committee chairs. We have also seen a greater commitment on the part of the students to handle the organization and administration of their own school’s programs, providing faculty moderators with a great deal of support in their efforts to provide students with the opportunity to participate in model UN. As this trend continues, student leadership within model UN programs is improving to the benefit of everyone involved.

That leadership has helped define the kind of topics we see at our Saturday conferences. Right now, the trend is towards a diverse offering of topics it wide range of areas from current events in international relations, domestic politics, and to history and society. With this broad range of topics, students are discovering that conferences will offer topics that have a great deal of intrinsic interest in, providing a great deal of inspiration to do more preparation for debate. Conferences which tie committees together under a general theme are still proving successful, and they, like every conference, have become part of the full picture of a model U.N. year for students and faculty alike.

As we go forward this year, I believe we certainly want to develop and support all of these trends. I believe we also want to continue supporting each other when it comes to working with undergraduate level conferences, something that we are starting to do. We also want to support each other with information about how our programs are run and supported by our schools, so we can help each other deal with the challenges that we share.

I will certainly do my best to support these endeavors, and any other initiatives that she was faculty moderators believe are important for us to address. We are evolving into a very interesting association where the simple act of communication by email can help us address problems, workout challenges and keep us all informed.

This new website will hopefully enhance that process. One of the more unique aspects of the website is under Resources for Faculty Moderators in the section called Common Practices and Reports from the Field. As I visit model UN programs and conferences, I will be reporting what I found that can help Faculty moderators build their programs.

To all, I wish you the best of luck this year, hoping that all of your programs can take that one step in growth they can make a difference in the model UN experience for both students, faculty moderators, and their schools.

All the best,

Don Franke

President,NEMUNMA