BOMUN -Throughout the Years

Welcome to the 3rd annual edition to the BOMUN Chronicles!

We are ready to start the first of many to come articles with

a different edge to what has been done over the past two

years by analyzing how the debates have changed over the

years. To start off with, for those of you who are unsure

what BOMUN stands for and what it includes, it stands for

Bombay Model United Nations and as Ms. Allison says

sounds a lot better than ASBMUN! It started 3 years ago

and has been a culminating activity for the 10th grade his-

tory classes. MUN is a simulation of the United Nations

which seeks to educate students on the role of the UN in

the world. Participants role-play as a delegate from a mem-

ber nation of the UN and must research all aspects of that

country. Students then do research on the forum topic and

work collaboratively to create a resolution for debate. The

skills of research, debate and diplomacy are essential for

student success.

Over the last few years the 10th graders who participate in

BOMUN find new challenges and face problems that they

have to research and debate on to solve. Throughout

BOMUN conferences there have been multiple changes that

have become evident as the years of BOMUN have pro-

gressed; these changes include, delegates gaining more

speaking and debating experience by participating in Model

United Nation conferences and becoming more confident in

their public speaking. We can’t wait to see what this year of

BOMUN will have in store!

What was your position for your BOMUN debate?

Deputy Chair

Did you enjoy your position?

I loved it, during class practices, I did get some chairing time and I enjoyed helping people understand their argument and just help them during the debate; during the debate, I was in charge of technology and making sure everything ran smoothly which was quite cool too

Overall what would you say were something’s that have changed over

the years BOMUN has been here at ASB?

I think the amount of people interested in MUN, this year, from your grade, about half the grade went on MUN trips: that automatically makes your level of debate much more sophisticated as opposed to ours when more than half of the students barely had any experience to MUN

How do you think technology helped with

BOMUN?

Well being a deputy chair who's role exten-

sively dealt with technology, i truly believe that

technology is extremely vital for such confer-

ences. Though amendments are e-mailed be-

fore the conference, technology plays an im-

portant role sorting and filtering through

amendments, projecting the resolution and in-

dicating what clause or part of the resolution is

being discussed.

Last year at the second annual BOMUN conference Sagar Galani, now in 11th grade had the opportunity to be Deputy Chair at the conference and tells us about his experience.

What was your position for your BOMUN debate?

President of the GA

Did you enjoy your position?

Absolutely, it was great. Also the topic that was up for debate is one that I

find particularly interesting--the strengthening of the NPT and disarmament.

Would you make any changes to the way BOMUN was carried out?

Well that year there were clearly some delegates who were enthusiastic about and who were more confident with speaking. There are obviously some people who don't have the same MUN experience as others, and that can be intimidating. I think I would've probably had some more practice de-bates beforehand. But other than that I think the conference was carried out really well and it seemed to be a great learning experience for everyone

What about lobbying and merging, I hear that was quite hectic?

It was! People were sort of unfamiliar about the whole merging process and then what also made things more difficult was the amount of signatures needed. For each resolution, you need a certain amount of countries to sign on, and so there was only room for two resolutions. At first there were three main groups, so two of those groups had to merge as the other group had enough signa-tories. And then there were issues with which clauses to pick and whether a country could stick with a resolution if it had a clause that ne-gated its foreign policy.

3 years ago when BOMUN first started, Malika Bendre, now in 12th grade had the opportunity to hold the President position at the BOMUN confer-ence and tells us about her experiences during the conference

Who came up with the idea to bring it to ASB?

Ms Kelley and I began it and Ms Kalbag is now involved as well.

What changes have there been teaching how to prepare for a de-

bate such as this over the past 3 years?

In 10th grade history, we feel it is important for students to not only have historical knowledge, but also to practice the skills necessary for success in the 21st century. Our students have had a variety of projects through-out the school year that have focused on research and presentation skills. This is a history course, but we also incorporate current events and global issues. Recently, we have also added more formal debate activities in order to get students familiar with parliamentary procedure.

The co-creator, and history teacher of 10th grade, Julie Allison tells us about the changes experiences she’s had and challenges she’s faced during the past 3 years of the annual BOMUN conference

Have you enjoyed teaching BOMUN? Why?

Yes! This is truly a ‘student-centered’ activity and I love to watch stu-dents challenge themselves to meet their individual goals. This is a dif-ferentiated activity and we encourage each student to create their own achievable goal for the conference. The officers are challenged by the logistics of running a conference. Delegates often set goals related to delivering a speech, asking points of information, adding clauses to the resolution or becoming a main submitter. Also, on the day of the de-bate, students are well-dressed, confident and prepared and we often receive a lot of compliments!

Have there been any challenges with BOMUN in the past?

We always have challenges regarding where to hold the event. Due to scheduling conflicts, we couldn’t hold the debate in the MPH this year and will be hosting it in the SWEAT room instead. We are hoping to make some changes to the room -and maybe even change the name of it- before the conference takes place on June 1st. It is also challenging

to get everyone prepared, but it is much easier with great leadership from our officer team.

Have you enjoyed teaching BOMUN? Why?

Yes! This is truly a ‘student-centered’ activity and I love to watch stu-dents challenge themselves to meet their individual goals. This is a dif-ferentiated activity and we encourage each student to create their own achievable goal for the conference. The officers are challenged by the logistics of running a conference. Delegates often set goals related to delivering a speech, asking points of information, adding clauses to the resolution or becoming a main submitter. Also, on the day of the de-bate, students are well-dressed, confident and prepared and we often receive a lot of compliments!

Many of are aware of the honor that goes along of the prestigious

role of the president for our very own BOMUN conference, how-

ever not many of you know the man behind the title, his experi-

ence in THIMUN is one of the reasons he was chosen take on this

role at the 3rd annual conference and the BOMUN chronicles is

here to tell you about him, Anjan Narain.

This year, a debate was held for main officer positions in our BOMUN conference. The de-bate saw around 10 students competing for the prestigious positions of President, Sec Gen, Deputy Chair and Chair. Within an hour and a half, amendments, clauses and the resolution as a whole was debated and voted upon. All the students competing in the conference had past experience in either THIMUN or BEIMUN and showcased their skills to get hold of one of these positions. After the debate

Africa

Aneesh Mysore

Saaniya Shah

Australia

Brazil

Sam Beatty

Anouska Khambatta

Prasath