On September 26th, Columbia University kicked off their 14th iteration of the CMUNNY conference. The conference was projected to host over 400 delegates, according to their website. Headed by Stephanie Choi, this year’s Secretary General, this year’s conference vision was to expand and diversify committee offerings.
CMUNNY offered a wide range of committees listed here: Ad-Hoc Committee of the Secretary General, Blessed are the Peacemakers, The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Interplanetary Council of Affairs 2300 A.D., Amazon HQ2 Bidding Process, JFK Assassination, The London Provision for the Preservation of the Timeline, The Nobles of Mexica, Plotting Independence: Koreans in Exile, When Life Gives You Bananas: United Fruit Company, Akhenaten’s Council 1351 B.C., The End of theNew Order, The Golden Horde, Iranian Revolutionary Government, JCC: Turkish Succession Crisis 2030, La Revolución Mexicana de 1911, The Monuments Men, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Verona.
With 19 committees, CMUNNY is one of the largest conferences on the North American circuit today. It’s also one of the few conferences that offers only crisis committees, which is no small feat due to the quantity of staffers needed to support all 19 crisis committees. We asked some delegates on the circuit to share their feelings about committee.
One American University sophomore, Simon Lux, commented on winning his first gavel in the United Fruit Company Committee, “Winning my first gavel was a surreal feeling. I put a lot of work into this conference, so to see it pay off is super rewarding. I’d have to say my teammates’ screaming reactions during the awards ceremony was the best part. it’s so awesome to have such a supporting group around me that comes from model UN!”
However, one delegate who asked to remain anonymous, critiqued the two notepad system of the conference and the response time to receive notes back from crisis. They cited response times of 45 minutes to an hour. The delegate explained that this was equally bad for all members of his committee, but also included that the slow experience was not the same for all committees based on the feedback from the rest of their delegation.
This year, CMUNNY hosted a Saturday night delegate social at Hudson Terrace in Hell’s Kitchen, New York.
As the weekend came to a close on the last day of the conference on September 29th, closing ceremonies brought an end to the weekend with awards announcements. Courtesy of attending delegates, MUN01 was notified of the delegation awards.
Best Large Delegation – University of Pennsylvania
Outstanding Large Delegation – Georgetown University*
Best Small Delegation – American University
Outstanding Small Delegation – University of Chicago
*Originally MUN01 reported Harvard as the Outstanding Large Delegation, but a collegiate delegate who attended the conference alerted us to the fact that Harvard was announced as the winner at closing, but that due to a mathematical error it was in fact Georgetown University who won the award which was later corrected by the conference.
American University Delegation after their Best Small Delegation win
Regarding their Best Small Delegation win, American University Head Delegate Josh Iseler provided us this comment. “American got a fantastic start to the semester at CMUNNY. It really helps use reflect the work we put in last year and has got us ready for more competition this season. We’re looking forward to another great year and competing with Columbia delegates on the circuit!”
Congrats on all the participants of CMUNNY XIV, those who awarded, and especially those who helped contribute to the article!
MUN01 offered CMUNNY Secretariat a chance to comment for the article, but did not receive a response. Thank you to all delegates and teams who reached out to comment on the conference and supply quotes for the article.
Read more about CMUNNY and this year’s conference on their website here.
MUN01 