Whitney High School's May conference focuses on specialized committees and "International Gaming".  We are not a  traditional Model United Nations conference with familiar, pure academic committees, a bit of a break from the ordinary.      

Position papers will be required this year in every committee.  Instructions on content will be included at the end of each topic synopsis.

Tentative Conference Schedule:

Individual delegate fee:  $20.00.  Checks are preferred to cash.  Please address check to "Whitney High School".

School fee: $20.00 if sent by mail, $30.00 at the door.

Participation:  Novice delegates are defined as 1st year MUN students who are freshmen or sophomores.  Advanced delegates are any 2nd to 4th year students or juniors and seniors.  Unless it is unavoidable due to space issues, try not to put your very best advanced delegates into novice committees.

Awards:   We are working with our AP Statistics teacher to find a new and better formula for adjudicating both individual delegate and delegations in order to better find out who has done the best with what they have been given.  We want to smooth out some of the rough edges that non-performance related advantages such as representing a predominant nation or having five or six delegates in your committee from your school give.  More details on the formula will be sent out later.

Awards in all committees will be determined based on performance and ability.  Cooperation rather than showboating or "hard balling" will be rewarded.  Our chairs will be trained to be aggressively on the lookout for delegates who are out of policy and stopped.   Certificates will be given for commendable and outstanding delegate work.  Gavels will be rewarded in all advanced committees.

We define a large, medium, or small school delegation based on the physical number of delegates brought to our conference.  If for example, Tustin High school, which has a huge MUN program, brings in 70 delegates, it would be designated as a large school.  However, if Tustin brings in only 5 delegates, they would be eligible for the small school delegation award.  We cannot tell you what the cut off for large or small delegations are until the actual day of the conference!  We will also take into consideration the type of program the school offers.

Electronics:  Laptops, tablets, and smartphones will be permitted in formal resolution writing committees.  Any delegate found using these devices for texting, gaming, or simple web browsing will be referred to their advisors.  All computer devices must be used openly and in full view of the chairs.  We will try our best to get a temporary code for delegates to use.

Advisors:  Like all MUN Secretariats, we strive for fair and balanced chairs and judgment of delegate performance.  We aren't perfect and sometimes we might not notice something in committee that you do.  Adult school advisors are given the authority to intervene in a committee if they observe something going on which goes against recognized procedure, is biased, or is simply out of policy (such as the United States and North Korea caucusing or working on a resolution together).  There should be no two-hour icebreaking sessions, caucuses that go on and on and are renewed and renewed, or fake caucuses.  We'll do our best to keep delegates from wasting time as well.

In committees that write formal resolutions we will be encouraging the amendment process toward a final solution rather than the moderated caucus, which will be actively discouraged.  No yielding of time to other delegates will be permitted.  No prewritten resolutions will be accepted.

We'll be giving our adult, parent, and student advisors committee observation forms that they can use ONLY IF THEY PLEASE to jot down observations of the committees.

All committee rooms are open to advisors.  No advisor is to be kept from coming to and from a committee room due to voting block status.  There have been misunderstandings about this in the past so we want to make this clear.

Lunch choices:  As of this writing we'll be doing either Quiznos or Subway boxed lunches, which includes the sandwich itself, chips, a big cookie, and a drink.  Choices include Turkey Club / Italian / Honey Ham / Vegetarian at a first come, first served basis.  We will order extra vegetarian meals just in case.

At lunch:  Our lunch is an hour to give us time for our traditional lunchtime activities.  In the past they have included ethnic dancers from our Korean, Chinese, Indian, and Filipino groups.  We've also done an MUN trivia quiz bowl.  We'll also have a DJ and end-of-the-year dancing.  Let's see what 2012 will bring!