MUN in Konstanz
United Nations Association Konstanz – Unity through Diversity
It’s October and you’ve probably settled into the new semester and have eagerly prepared for our MUN sessions or are already excited for the conference you are planning to attend this semester.
But have you ever wondered how MUN might be at a different university? Maybe you have already heard different ideas for sessions from other delegates you met or thought of a cool idea for our society and wondered if that has already been done.
Well, read on! Over the course of the year we will try to introduce you to some of our closest friends from all over the world to see what their society looks like. Maybe we can even learn something from them?
This month, I spoke to President Rabia to find out what UNA Konstanz is all about.
Most interestingly, there is a general application process to go to the conferences. You talk about your motivation and pick your priorities from PMUNC (Princeton), WorldMUN (Harvard) or PIMUN (Paris), and if you’re lucky you get to join the association for their weekly preparation sessions. More experienced members prepare sessions for freshers to get to know MUN and be prepared specifically for the conferences they will participate in. Every week, delegates will hold a 90 second speech for practice and in smaller groups in-depth work is done.
This type of preparation is however only taking place in the fall term. During the spring term, there are presentations from different people on various topics each week followed either by a proper MUN debate or a more relaxed one.
But, similar to what we feel is an important part of MUN, they always have a social after their sessions to get to know each other better. As Rabia said, it is also really important to have connections to people from other directions of degree and not just focus on what you study. Diversity of studies is valuable to UNA Konstanz.
Once a semester, the society tries to cooperate with other university societies to get together for a social or debate each other. What I also found quite interesting was that they organize a trip for more experienced members to travel to Geneva (while others enjoy their time in Karlsruhe) to get to know the UN headquarters.
In January, UNA Konstanz organizes their own conferences: Konstanz Interactive Crisis Simulation, or short KICSim. One of the only conferences in Germany that focuses solely on a crisis and attracts around 80 delegates each year.
As far as cooperation goes, Konstanz has come up with a buddy system: they match their own members to delegates from other societies to bond with during the conferences and ensure cheap accommodation.
MUN Mannheim has regularly send delegates to Konstanz in January as it is a great way to try out a crisis even if you are a beginner. And I can personally recommend this conference as the University is beautiful and you will definitely meet incredibly nice people.
Lastly, I asked Rabia if she could come up with a mascot for their society to resemble them. She answered straight up with Panda: “It’s black, white and Asian. It doesn't get more diverse, something we highly value! And they basically just do their thing in a super friendly way.”
What do you think about specific applications for conferences? Are they efficient as they select the best delegates for specific conferences or do you enjoy being able to join whichever conference you want in Mannheim?
Let us know if you are interested to go to Konstanz in January or which society you would like to hear from next!
---- Annabel
>> our delegation at the last KICSim