As described by our website (fsmun.org), FSMUN is a non-profit organisation, and embraces smaller committees – to facilitate greater participation from all delegates, in an attempt to nurture their public speaking, debating, writing, teamwork and critical thinking skills.
Our vision is to build leaders by providing students the right kind of environment, wherein they can grow as individuals.
- FSMUN 6.0 was my CAS project, in which I acted as the Under-Secretary General for Conference Management.
- My responsibilities for the event included taking care of the logistical details including managing the organizing committee, the resources for the event, etc.
- FSMUN 6.0 took place on 24th and 25th of August
- I hoped to gain more experience and become better equipped with organization and teamwork skills through the event.
- I wanted to support a cause I believed in and help various enthusiastic learners engage in a conference that would allow them to grow as diplomats.
- The event left me with many experiences that allowed me to become more aware of the real world requirements of organization of an event as well as better at dealing with situations of crisis.
LO1, LO2:
Having been a part of the Core Committee of FSMUN last year, I was keen on using the feedback from last year in order to help make the conference better this year. Last year, one of the main problems I faced was my people skills. I was a strict and unpleasant leader at times as I was too caught up in attempting to make the conference what I envisioned. This year, I tried to be more empathetic and work towards being a better leader. It was difficult to be friendly and empathetic while still ensuring that others would follow my instructions, especially while working with people my age/my friends. However, after a while, I figured out how to strike the balance and found that most of my peers were also motivated to help the event, even if they slacked sometimes.
LO3,
It was difficult to carry out many tasks independently, especially without too much help from teachers. My team and I ensured that the event went smoothly by planning every stage and having frequent meetings. We had a spreadsheet that contained every single detail about the event as well as an event manual, where all of that information could be organized in a manner that it was accessible to other teachers/staff from our school who were then able to help us out with our specific requirements. We had to start from the summer break, which meant that everyone had different schedules and arranging meetings was a tedious task. But we were able to do it nonetheless and lead the event to success.
LO4:
The project took place from the summer break all the way to August. We worked for months and had to ensure that we were all meeting mutually decided deadlines in order to execute it like we planned. This required constant commitment, even if one was travelling or had school work piling up.
LO5:
Working as a team made the job much easier. Everyone had pre-decided roles that allowed us all to focus on our job and our job only which lead to each task being done with precision. Having an organizing committee of 15 people and a core committee of 3 other people meant that none of us had to do the heavy lifting alone and could always exchange tasks if the work got too burdensome for one person.
LO6:
In FSMUN, the various agenda included Brexit, the Kurdish issue, the case of Uruguay Muslims and such. All the delegates that attended the conference researched and debated on these world issues and in turn gained greater knowledge and awareness. By contribution to educating others on these world issues we are contributing to a world that is more politically learned and aware which is often perceived the key to peaceful world.
LO7:
Having collaborated with the United Nations Information Center for India and Bhutan, we were supposed to make the conference as realistic and in line with the actual United Nations as possible (excluding some details with permission). There were moments in the conference when ditching parts of the rigid UN protocol was needed in order to push the debate forward and ensure that all delegates performed to their fullest. Here, we had to consider the ethics of what we were doing and whether we were going against our agreement with the UNIC. However upon further thought, we realized that it was more important for us to fulfill the motives of hosting MUNs and the reason why the UN encourages them – learning. If this learning was best delivered by tweaking the UN format as and when needed, we decided it was alright. Thankfully, the UNIC agreed and there were no problems.
Overall, FSMUN was a very good learning experience for me. It taught me to be a better communicator by reflecting not only on my growth but also by seeing others around me learn and grow. There were moments when I was frustrated or others in my team were but we have all become better team players from the experience and I am grateful for the same.
