About GatorMUN IX

The University of Florida Model United Nations organization is pleased to bring you the ninth annual GatorMUN conference. Our conference provides a learning experience unlike any other in that it breaks from the traditional classroom setting to transform high school students into experts on pressing international issues. For the weekend, students become delegates in important international forums addressing complex global issues such as preventing the spread of diseases, defending human rights, and upholding justice in the international system. Unlike traditional Model United Nations conferences, GatorMUN has chosen to eliminate the General Assemblies, which are typically the largest and most formally run committees. Instead, GatorMUN offers delegates seventeen smaller simulations to choose from, which we hope will give delegates the opportunity to become more actively engaged in understanding and debating various global issues.

Because we have found that delegates respond enthusiastically to fast paced and high intensity situations, GatorMUN IX will offer eight full crisis simulations. Crises encourage delegates to use their problem-solving skills to apply their previous knowledge to new situations, ensuring that the debate never gets stagnant. In these committees, delegates will prepare to debate a specific issue, but they should expect to receive and act upon new information as the conference progresses. As in the real world, each decision they make will have consequences, and the committee will have to respond to whatever new situations they create. Furthermore, in the more traditional Assembly Committees, the directors will be prepared to introduce a crisis situation if they feel it will help foster more debate in their committees. This option, which received outstanding reviews as an impromptu idea at GatorMUN VI and was formally introduced at GatorMUN VII, will ensure that each committee challenges its delegates to be constantly collaborating on solutions to the world's problems.

GatorMUN IX hopes to be a thrilling experience for both delegates and advisors, in and out of committee. GatorMUN will continue to provide several training workshops for delegates during registration, regardless of the delegate's level of experience. We will also continue to provide a lounge for advisors to chat and get work done while the students are in committee, and we plan to make sure that internet access is available for advisors. In addition, we hope to provide delegates with an after-hours event that will keep them occupied while giving them a break from the intense debate of the weekend.