Now a seven-year-old tradition, the Winchester Model United Nations Club has hosted WINMUN, led by a congregation of committed students that run the event. The conference had four separate types of committees this year: a large General Assembly giving a platform for global issues, a specialized committee with a focus on Britney Spears’ conservatorship, a Joint Crisis committee centered around the Prohibition era in Chicago, and an Ad-Hoc committee where delegates navigated the Marvel universe.
This conference, hosted on April 28th, was a huge success with students from 17 schools and four states in attendance for a day of spirited debates to tackle important problems.
The Sunday morning of the convention began with staff members arriving at Winchester High School around 7:30 to prepare for the delegates to arrive. Once schools began to show up, teams were ushered into the auditorium for opening ceremonies. After the ceremonies closed, excited delegates attended workshops to learn about how their committees would run. At roughly 10:15, debate was finally opened for WINMMUN VII and delegates remained in session for three hours. An hour lunch break took place where hungry delegates swarmed local stores and restaurants for snacks before the second committee session began. This session lasted until 5:30 with a delegate social in the cafeteria before closing ceremonies. The social provided a time for students to get to know those from different schools and areas. The final event was the closing ceremony where the debate finally ended with a “motion to close debate”. However, before delegates could leave, an important announcement was made.
Throughout the day, staffers had been collecting donations for the Casa Myrna organization largest provider of services to domestic abuse survivors in Boston. Each committee had goals for the amount of money the delegates could raise, with rewards such as putting staffers on the hot seat and answering personal questions. The committee that raised the most money for Casa Myrna would have the Best Delegate award recipient pie one of the committee’s staffers. The “Free Britney” specialized committee, with hundreds of dollars raised, ended up pieing Eddie Stewart at the very end of the day.
Overall, the conference was a huge success. Hard work and preparation from the staffers created an extremely productive and diplomatic environment that can hopefully be replicated in the future. The Winchester Model UN Club hoped to host more conferences in the future, with more and more delegates attending every year.