MUN Opening Ceremonies

© by Mike Keenan

This is a difficult issue. On one hand, conference organizers have worked long and hard and reasonably wish to formally welcome the participating delegates. On the other, it is imperative to get the conference underway without undue delay.

Conference size is one dynamic that should dictate the procedure that is taken. Often, at large MUN conferences such as Harvard or The Hague, there are thousands of delegates. A long, tedious opening ceremony, however well intentioned, with students talking, milling about, restlessly preoccupied with their opening speeches and such, is counter-productive to the desired intent.

I have attended Harvard's December MUN for more than a dozen years. I remember only one occasion when there was rapt attention and complete silence from the huge audience. At that particular time, an AP (Associated Press) wartime correspondent delivered the opening address. With a quiet voice that sometimes emotionally broke during recollections, he vividly described a brutal conflict during which he desperately had tried to save a young man's life. He was forced to drive this seriously wounded person to the hospital, through enemy lines. The victim had been shot in the head, and the correspondent captured the horrible immediacy of the situation with graphic details. Suddenly, in mere moments, future delegate committee debate had become much more meaningful and focussed.

That should be a prime focus for opening ceremonies. Make the debate realistic and experiential. Help the delegates to delve deeper into the actual portrayal of foreign countries. Unfortunately, succeeding Harvard events didn't repeat this kind of dramatic introduction, favouring safer speeches that were less emotional and interesting. Eventually, I permitted delegates the option to skip the opening ceremonies. It had become a photo op and a waste of delegate time.

Thus, conference organizers are presented with a dilemma. There are some creative options, and I'm sure that balance will eventually be obtained. One method to deal with the issue would be to have committee chairs provide a short address to smaller groups. Another would have the Secretary-General make a short speech in each committee. Another would be to employ the closing ceremonies for the more formal speeches. In short, delegates want to get into the debate. Whatever is said, beyond a brief welcome, should set the actual tone for debate.

I recently witnessed an excellent opening MUN ceremony in Bath, England. Throughout the entire ceremony, over 500 delegates sat quietly and carefully listened. The two key speeches, back-to-back, were delivered by the Secretary General and an adult guest from the University of Belfast in Ireland. Each speech complimented the other and provided a sense of immediacy, a true springboard for debate for the assembled delegates.

Secretary-General, Jake Eliot of host school, Kingswood, delivered the first address. The following is his slightly abridged text:


"Honourable Chairs, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the tenth Bath Schools' Model United Nations conference. You are most welcome at Kingswood this weekend and we hope you will enjoy the conference and fully exploit all the opportunities open to you.

The first conference was, relatively speaking, quite primitive. However, since that time, a few thousand students have taken part in our program over the years, with many having built on this experience to go on to other conferences, and in some cases, careers, with a direct link to issues which have been debated. Ten years on, we are particularly pleased that, in the spirit of the UN, this has become a truly international event.

Before this opening address turns into thinly disguised trip down memory lane, let me say, that to all intents and purposes, any sense of an anniversary conference is superfluous because, really what makes MUN conferences so valuable is their relevance to today.

In effect, of course MUN is a role-play, and is atypical in the normal course of our educational program. It is widely held that our generation is not interested or engaged in what we might call political matters or international affairs. Certainly, much of the media coverage of these events tends to be presented in a sketchy, even disjointed fashion. Given the given the pressures of a news agenda is increasingly difficult for us to acquire a knowledge and interest in what is going on outside our immediate environment. Editorial discretion does sometimes mean that we are left in the dark. The latest twist in the colourful life of Posh (Spice) is, perhaps, always likely to receive more coverage than the humanitarian disaster in Sierra Leone, the plight of Children in conflict situations or the effects of the Economic sanctions on Iraq.

We should not need reminding that the issues we are debating this weekend are real. One needs only to look to the current crisis in Mozambique. There has been a great deal of coverage of events there in the past seven days. One of those journalists wrote the following after he joined a helicopter mission to pluck survivors from the floods.

"Even from the air, the sight of a whole town underwater is almost impossible to describe. The eye struggles to make sense of it. The first impression is of driftwood littering a pond. It is only a moment later that it becomes clear that the debris is actually the tops of houses and huts, that entire families are sitting on roofs. On a narrow strip of dry land, cut from all sides by murky water, bewildered children squatted before a line of villagers who had spent a day and a night waiting to be rescued. Next to the helicopter's landing spot, a stick jutted out into freshly dug earth, where Flora Ngomane's baby had been buried the previous day. She had also lost a seven-year-old child when the Limpopo River's floodwaters submerged the village of Lionde.

The joy of the survivors mixed with the despair of those who could not find relatives. A woman carrying an infant on her back staggered out of the South African helicopter and gave a long inconsolable wail. She had lost one of her three children in the village of Guija. Pilots have said they have seen many corpses in the water, but it is impossible to tell how many have died."

Woven into this horrifying story line are remarkable stories of human bravery and endurance, born out of the desperate situation. South African pilots and rescuers say they have seen five children perched carefully on top of the roof of a small submerged car, staying perfectly still for fear of falling for hours on end.

One woman, utterly isolated on a tiny patch of raised ground, seeing the last helicopter flight before nightfall realized that she would not be rescued that day, possibly never rescued at all. Her one last maternal act was to fling her small child into the hovering helicopter she could not reach herself; knowing that, even if she did survive the night ahead her child might not.

Another story, another human experience. A woman rescued on Wednesday, who, heavily pregnant, had given birth while perched in a tree. Her survival, and that of her child is, perhaps, a metaphor for indomitable human spirit.

As the delegation of Mozambique at this conference probably realizes, their assignment carries with it additional responsibilities this weekend.

There may well be, after all, a larger case of cause and effect at work here. If we, as individuals, are ignorant about an international issue, then we are unlikely to make an effort to help. Likewise therefore, making a difference must primarily involve a degree of awareness. Awareness comes first, then the action. Perhaps the biggest challenge we face then, is not what we do at this conference, but what we use our experience to go on to do after it.

But I believe, fellow MUN'ers, that our presence here today shows that we are not apathetic, that we do want to know more, and, above all, that we will be heard."



Jake Eliot will be attending Oxford University next September. It is obvious that he is someone who is capable of making a difference, someone like many others of those gathered there that day in his generation that surely will be heard.

Rev. Henry Keys from Belfast University in Ireland followed Jake Eliot and immediately allowed that he was just a little terrified at the prospect of speaking to a group that was so politically aware and intelligent. He further explained that he had heard another speaker address a group and describe to them three methods of learning.

The first method, customarily employed by professors, is that of the lecture wherein the professor empties his brain of pearls of wisdom and the students blindly copy them down dutifully into their notebooks with neither professor nor student having the burden to think hard in the process. This technique has a 20% retention rate.

The second method, employed frequently in the school classroom, is the reflective technique wherein students are actually encouraged to ask a few questions. This alone doubles the retention rate to 40%.

Finally, the third method is kinesthetic, what others and I would describe as learning by doing. This is the best way to learn anything as it involves active participation and, accordingly, a retention rate of 80%.

Rev. Keys explained that that was precisely what a Model United Nations conference was all about, the progressive act of kinesthetic learning. He encouraged the students to throw themselves into the debate, to actually learn by doing.

This opening ceremony was an excellent example of how to set an appropriate tone for the delegates. It briefly welcomed them, acknowledged their political awareness and encouraged them to make the conference a realistic experience. This would enable them to actually learn stronger skills and develop richer appreciation, which would inevitably enable them to better contribute to society.

The crowd of approximately 500 students appreciably applauded both speakers. Delegates from Ireland, Canada, the United States, France and Germany were now prepared to more fully enter into debate. Thanks to Steve Pagan and Morag Lemmy, conference coordinators, for an excellent MUN opening ceremony.



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