As the first major conference of the Spring 2020 season, the McGill Model United Nations Assembly (McMUN) occurred over the weekend of January 23-26, 2020. Temperatures may have dropped to well below freezing, but delegates still showed up in droves to the conference this year. The conference was led by Secretary-General Hawa Maiga along with an extensive staff to support the large size of the conference. According to the delegate handbook, over 1650 delegates attended the conference which was supported by over 600 staff members.
Attending Delegations
Due to the size of McMUN, a full delegation list would be entirely too long for this article. More than 90 delegations attended this year’s McMUN with teams from all over North America attending, as well as quite a number of non-North American teams.
Committees
McMUN offered an astounding number of committees this season. In total, there were 28 committee rooms offered at McMUN 2020. Three of these were General Assembly committees with 150 to 320 competing delegates. Five of these were ECOSOCs with 45 to 75 delegates. Specialized Agencies made up nine of McMUN’s committees with 20 to 60 delegates. Finally, Crisis committees made up eleven of these committees. An interesting committee that was offered by McMUN was the second iteration of their consulting committee which partnered with Deloitte. Six committees required applications.
General Assemblies
- SDG 2: Zero Hunger – Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- SDG 15: Life on Land – United Nations Environment Programme
- SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions – Special Political and Decolonization Agency (SPECPOL)
Economic and Social Councils
- UNGA Special Session: The Rights of the Child
- The 2020 African Meeting on Science and Technology
- The Equal Rights Coalition: Global Summit on LGBTQIA2+ Rights
- Moneyval: The Evalutaiton of Anti-Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism
- The International Organization for Migration (IOM): Special Conference on Resettlement, Repatriation, and Local Integration of Migrants and Refugees
Specialized Agencies
- McMUN Consulting
- The Pacific Islands Forum: Health and Well-Being in Oceania
- European Court of Human Rights: Agnes Nagy v. Hungary
- Fyre Festival 2.0: Executive Planning Committee
- Five Eyes: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence
- The Six-Party Talks: 7th Round – Peace and Security in Korea
- Formula for Success: The F1 Group
- French Bilingual: Reunion de Crise A Matignon: La Colère des Gilets Jaunes
- Spanish Bilingual: Responses to the U.S. Invasion of Panama, 1989
Crises
- Ad Hoc
- JCC: Platine Wars – Argentina v. Brazil
- JCC: Deccan Wars – Mughal v. Maratha
- The Death of Stalin
- Ross Perot 1992
- Fourth Merkel Cabinet
- The Furthest Shore
- Rise of the Zulu Kingdom
- The Court of Empress Irene
This year’s McMUN Ad Hoc was Dungeons and Dragons themed!
Committee Comments
As it should always be said, the committee comments section should serve as a balanced critique of the conference. MUN01 recognizes the hardwork and dedication that all Secretariat members put into the weekend. However, MUN01 also believes that delegates should be able to receive honest opinions and conferences gain feedback to grow and improve every year!
Committee Praises
As typical, McMUN 2020 was highly praised for their socials. One delegate praised McParte and said it “was great” but that McCrawl was not as good. The same delegate and several others also praised the in-room committee experiences. Another delegate praised the conference for being “well run, having a great staff-to-delegate ratio” which resulted in fast moving notes and crisis. Another delegate stated that the chairs at the conference “were largely really great.”
Committee Critiques
One delegate critiqued McMUN’s GAs for starting on Friday rather than the typical Thursday. They believed that replacing Thursday’s committee with an event forced delegates to rush debates and blocs. An additional critique was that their GAs were entirely too large.
Socials
McMUN hosted several socials over the long weekend. There were two different events on Friday night that the delegates could choose between to attend. One was the classic McCrawl, a bar crawl through Montreal with both bar and food stops along the way. The other choice was an Arcade Night at the Esports Central Gaming Complex. Saturday night featured another staple of McMUN, McParte, a club night for delegates at L’Olympia de Montreal
Awards
As the conference came to a close, delegation awards were given out on Sunday as follows:
- Best Large Delegation: Clark University
- Outstanding Large Delegation: Georgetown University
- Best Small Delegation: Claremont McKenna College
- Outstanding Small Delegation: Florida International University
To learn more about McMUN 2020, click here to see their conference website. Thank you to the teams and delegates who participated in building this article with their comments and critiques. MUN01 offered McMUN Secretariat a chance to comment for the article, but did not receive a response. Congrats to all who competed in or staffed the conference!
MUN01 