Specialized Committees Information
The experience in Specialized Committees and Agencies will come not just from the size of the committees, but more importantly from the unconventionality of them. With each committee, we shall offer our most experienced delegates a simulation more fast paced, complex, and subtle than they could find at any other conference. Delegates will be challenged to think and debate from new perspectives on familiar politics in the US Supreme Court, explore domestic policy on the African continent through the Ugandan Cabinet – with a chair who spent her summer in the Ugandan Parliament, explore the international politics of regional power plays in South America in the Columbia – Venezuela JCC, and experience even the classic Security Council in a whole new way, double delegates and an open agenda. We are pleased to bring back our innovative Press Corps simulation, as well as launch our flagship committee, YMUN Grand Strategy, for the most experienced MUN delegates.
Below are summaries of our Specialized Committee and Agencies. Please have your advanced delegates read them and fill out the application by with the other registration documents; no additional fees apply. If you wish to apply for the Press Corp and YMUN Grand Strategy, please fill out the respective applications by October 17th 2008.
Supreme Court
The highest decision making body of the judicial branch of the United States government is one that most Americans are familiar with only through newspaper headlines. With this simulation we invite students to explore a branch of government rarely simulated in a student forum. Students will follow the procedures of the Supreme Court, be pushed out of their comfort zones by representing Justices that very well hold views in polar ideological opposition to their own and do their best to be a lawyer representing a side of a case that they might not truly believe. It will give students an in-depth look into a co-equal branch of government that is familiar to many but known to few.
Ugandan Cabinet
For twenty years, Joseph Kony and his rebel Lord's Resistance Army terrorized the northern regions of the East African country of Uganda. The Ugandan army displaced the region's population into camps, purportedly for their own protection; with Kony now out of the country, these internally displaced persons are just beginning to return home. The Ugandan Presidential Cabinet has called a special session to discuss two topics — how best to facilitate the IDPs' return and the International Criminal Court's indictment of Kony — while keeping pace with constant updates on breaking news of changes in the situation on the ground.
JCC Venezuelan Cabinet
Regarded by some as South America’s most promising candidate for admission to George W. Bush’s distinguished axis of evil, its hopes have been dashed by a reality that, despite its President’s belief that Bush is the devil, is not so black and white. President Chavez’s socialist visions have not meshed as well as he had hoped with the internal reality of the country, and the man who had once attempted a coup on the government has faced a few of his own in recent years. It will be a fine line for his government to walk in order to maintain political stability, show real policy results, and throughout it all export its political agenda and gain a degree of hegemony in South America.
JCC Colombian Cabinet
Colombia, is famous for its main exports: Coffee and Cocaine. A committee simulating its cabinet, then, should undoubtably offer delegates much stimulation. Under the leadership of President Uribe, the government has made many advances in the fight against drugs, aided in the disbanding of paramilitary groups, and now holds the highest approval rating of any Latin American country. But the high experienced by Uribe and the Colombian government masks a reality that is laced with hidden dangers. The conflict with neighboring Ecuador and the impending failure of the Colombian-US trade agreement serve as sobering reminder that the government’s work is far from done.
YMUN Grand Strategy (GS)
Our flagship committee for YMUN 2009 has been included to take the YMUN learning philosophy one step further for the most experienced MUN delegates. The chairs have chosen not to reveal the nature of this small 10-12 delegate committee at this stage because the goal of GS is not just to learn about a single committee or organization, nor is it to impart information and structures one can just as easily learn in a book or on a website. This committee is designed to gain insight into decision-making and perception. How are political decisions made? How should they be made? And how do our individual and collective perceptions affect our decision-making? These are relevant questions no matter who you are, whom you are representing, or what committee you are in. As such, delegates who are accepted to this committee will receive regular committee specific preparation material from the time of acceptance. However, they will not be informed of this committee's nature and topic until one week before the conference.
