Last weekend, the DAISMUN program hosted its annual fall conference. In the span of two days, with two committees, joined by students from the DAIS Model UN ASA, students from the Ealing International School, and Xi'an Hanova International School, students collaborated to tackle solutions for real-world issues. Let's take a look at how this went.
On Friday morning, students and teachers joined in the MPR for the opening ceremony. We welcomed speeches from our head of school, Dr. Swann, MUN director, Mr. Flanagan, and Secretary General, Ein Sel. This year's theme was "Redefining the Impossible." Just decades ago, the sky seemed like the limit, but now we have airplanes and rockets that take us beyond what was ever imagined. With this in mind, delegates were encouraged to push beyond current boundaries to embrace and provide solutions for the seemingly absurd: to witness the impossible turn possible.
During this time, a string trio led by Ms. Mims also played a few pieces as part of the opening performance!
At our fall conference, the General Assembly hosted three topics ranging from debate on the usage of veto powers, and promotion of employment growth, as well as measures that aimed at relieving tensions between ethnic minorities.
As the council designated for drug and crime-related issues, delegates of UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) discussed topics such as the illicit trade of weaponry in southeast Asia, threats posed by the black market and human trafficking, as well as the illegal drug production and trade taking place in Colombia.
As per tradition, after each conference, the chairs of each committee pick out a best and outstanding delegate.
Congratulations to Misa Irie for winning UNGA Best Delegate and John Zhang for UNGA Outstanding Delegate!
Congratulations to Myungha Kim for UNODC Best Delegate and Julius Chen for UNODC Outstanding Delegate!
Julius Chen
Ein Sel, Secretary General: "DAISMUN Fall 2023 was the first official conference this year’s DAISMUN Secretariat arranged for the 23-24 school year. We really wish we could’ve gathered more outside schools to attend, but are grateful to the students from Ealing and Xi’an Hanova for coming. Having them here definitely made the conference more exciting for our delegates. We hope having these outside participants pushed our delegates to try their best even for our “practice” conference. The secretariat team and I learned a lot from this conference, so we will go through all our mistakes, review feedback from our students, and make the official annual conference the best one we can. See you at DAISMUN XIV in March!"
Zuri Qu, Deputy Secretary General: "DAISMUN Fall 2023 was an opportunity for our new delegates and chairs to practice their MUN skills, and it was also an opportunity for the Secretariat to practice. For me, this conference was the first one I attended as a part of the leadership team. It was interesting to learn about MUN conferences from a different perspective and I definitely learned a lot from the feedback we received and mistakes we made. I hope all delegates gained a better understanding of MUN and continue to explore different world issues in their future MUN journeys. I look forward to our spring conference with more schools attending and more experience for our delegates. Stay excited for DAISMUN XIV!"
DAISMUN Secretariat
Gracie Chen, UNGA Deputy President: "It’s my first time being a chair in a MUN conference after several experiences being a delegate and I have to say being a chair is such a wonderful experience. Helping out delegates and seeing all the amendments passing and debating."
John Zhang, UNGA Outstanding Delegate: "This conference is the third conference that I ever attended. Compared to the previous two, I figured that MUN isn’t something that is hard and causes a lot of pain, as a delegate, it is important to have the courage to speak at the podium and communicate with your peers."
Once again, thank you to all directors, chairs, delegates, and admins for all your hard work. We look forward to seeing you again this spring at DAISMUN XIV!
