The Rotary Club of Eugene (Club) and Model United Nations (MUN): An opportunity to blend two Rotary priorities of local and international service by engaging high school students toward understanding geopolitical issues and Peace through Service. In the Spring of 2017 three Club members visited a MUN program hosted by several Rotary clubs in the San Diego area to explore the many programmatic aspects of establishing a MUN in the Eugene area. These Rotarians returned from that trip passionate and committed to starting a local Rotary MUN program. Several Eugene club members joined a committee and invested hundreds of hours of planning time to launch our MUN program in April of 2019.
What is a Model United Nations program?
A MUN functions like a ‘mock’ court or ‘mock’ trial. Students are selected to be delegates of a member nation of the real United Nations. ‘Delegations’ of two students and one adult Rotary advisor are assigned a country and then study their country’s political, governmental, social, economic, and cultural history in preparation for a two-day MUN Conference and General Assembly session. After completing their country research, the student delegations are given a resolution developed from the actual United Nations General Assembly Agenda for the current UN session in New York. Each delegation prepares a white paper and speech outlining their country’s position on the resolution. After approximately three months of research and speech preparation – outside of their regular school time – the Delegations meet at the MUN General Assembly held at a local hotel and conference center.
The Rotary Club of Eugene raised funds to found and host the Oregon Rotary MUN (ORRMUN) program as a two-day conference modeled on a United Nations General Assembly session. The first ORRMUN recruited 22 students from the Eugene and Springfield area high schools from grades 9-12 who applied and were accepted. After their research and speech preparation, the student delegations gathered at the ORRMUN session. On day one of the conference, the delegations met, debated, made alliances, presented their speeches to the General Assembly, caucused with allies and negotiated with adversaries. On day two, the Assembly reconvened for additional debate to negotiate, amend the Resolution in order to have the Resolution pass on the vote of the entire Assembly. This was a great learning experience for the future leaders of our country and a great addition to college applications and job resumes. The Club was only the 2nd Rotary Club in the US to develop and host this important learning experience. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic required cancellation of the ORRMUN for 2020 and 2021. The project remains dormant.