Twelve MUNers headed off to Wycombe Abbey last weekend for a US-style Model UN conference. We had representation in all four areas of the conference: ECOSOC, Security Council, US Senate and also a new venture, for us, the Arctic Council. In a very competitive conference we held our own, having an impact in all of the simulations. Our main two assigned countries were Russian Federation and China – which can make things challenging when trying to reach a reasonable consensus with other countries! Equally though, our additional delegates of Norway and Greenpeace in ECOSOC had to work hard to be recognised in a large forum, when not all topics seemed particularly relevant. In the US Senate simulation we had two US senators, one Democrat and one Republican. They had to vie with a large number of older and more experienced delegates, as well as enduring a near one-hour filibuster on Saturday.
We missed out on a couple of awards, but the Highly Commended Delegation award in ECOSOC went to China. Inexplicably, Russian Federation in Arctic Council failed to pick up an award and in Security Council even though our China delegates wrote 90 per cent of the resolution which was passed, they too were overlooked. A huge well done to everyone who took part. A very successful conference since we were using a less familiar MUN format. Everyone rose to the challenge and gained much from the experience.