Model United Nations at the University of Alabama

 by Maria Rodriguez; Rosati-Kain, 2003

I learned tons of things when I go on trips like this. Most of them have nothing to do with parliamentary procedure or the UN charter. The actual conference was a very good experience for me. I went to MUNUC last year, and I didn't have to participate in my committee. There were over 100 people there, and so many of them were so hard at work with the one problem that took us all of our sessions to resolve, it was just better for me, the one with few ideas and little input, to just sit back, let them write a resolution, and then be active only in voting on it. There were about 10 people in my committee at ALMUN. It would have been very notable if I didn't participate. The first problem I ran into was the fact that I didn't read any of my material. LOL, stupid as it sounds, I didn't think it would be important. That was dumb. I participated a little with the debate of the first topic, which was whether or not Taiwan should be given a position in the UN. We ended up deciding to give it an observer status in EcoSoc. That subject took a lot of time, and it tried people's patience because everyone was so hard at work, and everyone cared and had an opinion. It was very different from my MUNUC experience. People in Chicago were there to hook up with people, not to debate world issues. People in ALMUN were there cuz they wanted to be. Everyone was so intelligent, and they were very reasonable. China has a what? A personal problem. Debate and all that jazz in my committee were wonderful, and out chair rocked the party that rocked the house. We managed to have fun and get a lot done, as well. I think, as far as things outside of my committee, which was General Assembly Plenary (I was Bangladesh), things were shabby. The schedule had constant changes to it, so I never really knew what was going on and when I has to be where. There were complaints from people in other committees that the guy running the whole deal was over managing, if you will. I didn't pick up on any of that. I guess I was just in my own world, er somethin'. I didn't how much they tried to sell the University to us. I mean, there were things that I think were a good idea, but they took it a little too far. The people running ALMUN decided to have one day that was pretty much devoted to jabbering on endlessly about the university. Arthur was kind enough to spare us the agony, so I don't really know how boring it was. We went to the talk where they made all the adults leave, and the delegates had the opportunity to ask the college students who volunteered questions about college life. It was very informational, and I benefited from it. I guess one big difference between MUNUC and ALMUN is that ALMUN worked off the assumption that anyone who was at the conference was the type of person who was college bound. MUNUC didn't. Over all, I think ALMUN gave me some good experience to take into MUNUC. I understand the value of reading my material and understanding it, and I now have an amount of experience with debate that I think will do me good. I feel much more prepared for MUNUC. One of the veterans of the game told me last year, while we were preparing for MUNUC, that if I went to one of these things expecting to have fun, I would be bored, and that if I went looking for good debate and I cared about the problems at hand, I would have tons of fun. They were totally right. I would encourage anyone, who is well behaved and doesn't feel a need to insult Arthur by arguing curfews with him and giving him trouble (If you screw with Arthur, you SCREW with me...), to go on one of these trips, tuck yourself under the wing of someone who seems intelligent and has been there before, and go for it. It's a great experience. Peace to all.

~Maria