Understanding MeDMUN V Research and Training

Mitchell Dennis

Secretary General for MeDMUN V and MeDSeC I

As we get further into the Spring semester the Secretariat has finalized its committees, topics, and countries for MeDMUN V. We pick these topics early so as to allow our legal chairs and moderators plenty of time to research and understand the topics’ intricacies before they sit down to write their background guides and primary sources. The background guides, which are usually 6 pages, but can be as long as 10, usually take about 3 months to write from the initial topic introduction written by the Undersecretary Generals (USGs) to the final finished product published in September. Alongside these background guides staffers will write primary source documents that help direct delegates to key treaties, speeches, and agreements about the topic. Finally, before any staffers can participate at MeDMUN, they will undergo a 1-2-hour training session over skype that will go over our parliamentary procedure as well as other our expectations for the conference. Over the last year we have also worked to incorporate a training lesson on soft skills so that our moderators and legal chairs are more comfortable going and interacting with delegates to ensure that they do not need help and to direct them in a more substantive direction if possible.

Similarly, our crisis staffers also have spring and summer research to complete. At MeDMUN V we are offering our first all-crisis committee as well as our traditional integrated crisis offerings. Crisis staffers will contribute to the initial crisis breaks, create crisis trees to map out potential pathways for the crisis, and write delegate biographies for committees in which delegates are representing people rather than countries. This work will be completed over the summer, with the anticipated publication of all biographies in September and October and the disclosure of crisis updates at MeDMUN V.

We pride ourselves on our hardworking staff and know that their research helps us create a more substantive dialogue between our delegates. To ensure all of these materials are at their highest quality, all guides, primary source documents, crisis updates, and delegate biographies are edited by the USGs and Secretary General throughout the Spring and Summer.