At my first Model UN introductory meeting at UVA, I heard from members about the dazzling cities and college towns that hosted conferences across the country, encouraging me to join the organization. Club representatives pulled up the text threads with friends they’d met while at conferences, emphasizing how even long term friendships could come from brief interactions with other delegates hundreds of miles away. In my second semester after transferring to UVA, I decided that I would dedicate myself to the weekly meetings and club obligations required by Model UN—one of which was serving as a staff member for the Virginia International Crisis Simulation (“VICS”) conference at UVA.
Despite my weekly meetings and preparation, it wasn’t exactly clear to me what VICS would look like in action until it began. Model UN is composed of simulations of United Nations debates, with a focus on sharpening participants’ speaking, writing, debating, and policy-solving skills. Yet, within this umbrella, there are many different ways in which committees and conferences can be run. The more standard version of Model UN is the General Assembly format, or GA. In this setting, delegates assume the role of countries and debate a given topic. While these issues can vary, they’re generally relevant debate subjects you would see in a real UN debate, such as nuclear proliferation.
In addition to GA, Model UN clubs often have a “crisis” team, which was slightly more difficult to grasp in the beginning. In contrast to GA, these teams participate in a faster paced simulation while taking on a specific character. Within the simulation, the committee must work to address a pressing crisis, which ended up being a UFO sighting in my committee. However, the delegates are also allowed to build their specific character’s story arc. They do this by writing paper notes requesting certain powers, which are then delivered to a back room of staffers who respond. As the committee sessions go on, a story develops where delegates vie for personal powers against other delegates, while also trying to address the crisis in a way that doesn’t destroy them all. Confused? Well, that’s kind of the point. The crisis part of Model UN is supposed to test the ability of delegates to come up with creative, and oftentimes hilarious, solutions to their problems.
This year’s VICS conference, run by Emmet O’Brien, marked the 29th year UVA hosted the event. UVA’s International Relations Organization, of which Model UN is a part, worked to make this a high-end conference, and drew in over 400 undergraduate delegates from across the country. Among the GA committees, students simulated the African Union, the Chipotle Board of Directors, the ICC, and even debated intellectual rights. On top of the GA, VICS had 11 crisis committees. These also ranged in topic, from a fantastical crisis in Gotham City to simulating the very real threat of Viking invasion that the Anglo-Saxons faced throughout the 800s.
The event kicked off Thursday with a three-hour opening committee session. I was designated as a crisis staffer, along with two others. Our job was to respond to the delegates’ notes, collected at set intervals, in a way that furthered their characters within a general story plot. Updates on the delegates’ various actions were also presented at different times to inform the committee of the general direction of their arcs, and how those arcs were interacting with others. One of the other staffers and I were new to this format of Model UN, but help from executives and our veteran lead staffer helped guide us through the first opening sessions.
As the story drivers, we spent most of our time in a separate room from the active debate, but we got to know our designated delegates by responding to their elaborate notes and requests. Friday’s work started earlier at 5:30 PM, and ran for four hours. By this point, my committee’s alien invasion was progressing well, yet we staffers in the back room had to make sure the story arc for individuals was kept within reason. One delegate in particular insisted on bringing FDR back from the dead, within the context of our 1947 UFO crisis, to regain the presidency from Truman. Outlandish or reasonable? Throughout the crisis committee, I realized that the fun of it came in discerning that, and that for the delegates, waiting on the response was equally as tense and exciting.
A full day from 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM on Saturday cemented the story, with FDR eventually taking over and a deal being worked out with the aliens who saved earth at the last minute. After throwing in a Space Jam movie remake, and alien cult churches sprouting up across the country, the delegates were thoroughly entertained by the end. Seeing their faces light up over the updates was easily the most rewarding part from VICS. The parties and time those people spent together, who came from colleges ranging from Harvard to Georgia Tech, were the beginnings of the exact friendships I had heard about in my first Model UN meeting.
In some ways, I feel that I’m a first year getting my feet under me as a second-year transfer. Model UN has served as a way to get involved, build important professional skills, and tap into a whole community of people at UVA. While the acronyms and craziness of Model UN are sometimes bewildering, the people and stories you can create when you embrace something you’re passionate about pays off. VICS XXIX was a resoundingly successful way to offer delegates across the country the chance to embrace their passion—even for UFOs. That is something of which UVA and the IRO community should be proud.
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