MeDMUN V: A Raucous Success

General Release

This past Saturday the Metro Detroit Model United Nations Organization held its fifth MeDMUN conference. Nearly 200 delegates across 8 committees debated pressing issues from drug trafficking in the Americas to the effects of climate change on indigenous populations and a reformation of the Security Council sanctions process.

The day started with a welcome by the Secretary General, Mitchell Silva-Dennis, and an impassioned speech about important current political issues from TJ Rodgers of Freedom House Detroit, MeDMUN’s charity partner for MeDMUN V. After the ceremony, delegates proceeded to their committees for the morning debate session.
 
Chairs quickly introduced themselves and helped acclimate new and returning delegates to Model UN and MeDMUN. Debate quickly got underway with many committees quickly coalescing into blocks. Debate was particularly fierce in the General Assembly Silver as they debated the ethics of biological warfare and sought to prevent the acquisition of bioweapons by terror groups.
 
The morning session also saw two integrated crises scenarios, with the Organization of American States dealing with a radical drug cartel threatening the Mexican President’s inauguration. Meanwhile, the Security Council saw UN workers taken hostage at the UN headquarters in Kenya.
 
After breaking for delicious lunch, the delegates quickly returned to their committees to restart debate. The General Assembly Silver was the site of heavy debate, again, with the committee’s ambitious plans on investing in public infrastructure precipitating an appearance from an angry President Trump, who sought to decrease the amount of funds being promised for such projects. Across the hall, the Ad-Hoc: Paris Peace Conference was confronted by a radical syndicalist movement that wanted to destabilize Post-World War I Europe and implement radical social change.
 
Additionally, MeDMUN V featured our first crisis committee. The Undersecretary General for Crisis, Julia Iaquinto, helped organize Truman’s National Security Council, 1950 with a crisis that focused on the Korean War and the early Cold War-period. The crisis committee was successful and is helping the MeDMUN organization develop new procedures for our crisis committees to make next year’s crisis committees even better. Many of these new procedures will be debuted in the coming months and will be piloted at MeDSeC II on May 18th, 2019.
 
The day concluded with a closing ceremony organized by the Secretary General and Undersecretary Generals. The Secretariat chose to recognize Collin Gawron as MeDMUN’s Consummate Rookie Staff and Brian Blackney as MeDMUN’s Consummate Staffer. Each Undersecretary General then announced the Consummate Diplomats in each of their USG groups. The Secretary General then accepted a motion to close debate and MeDMUN V was closed.