Press Editor Desiree Wee chats with SMUN 2021 Sec-Gen Valen Yo on her MUN experience and organising this year's conference.
1) Hi Valen, thank you for agreeing to an interview with us in spite of your busy schedule. Would you mind if we start off with a self-introduction and a quick rundown of your experiences in the MUN scene?
What’s an interesting introduction… Let’s run with a basic one first. Name’s as above in the title (have a guess at the pronunciation heh), currently half done with my undergraduate degree at NUS. Also happy to be a Sociology major, for the curiosity of those who have asked, “Have you considered political science/law/economics/etc?” As for MUN… Started in 2015 right with SMUN actually! I remember being thrown into an intermediate level, double delegate committee as part of a school delegation – I do not recommend the former. Thereafter I've kind of just been floating around the local circuit, most notably a starter conference with a white dove as its logo (is it appropriate to name other conferences?).
2) As of this interview, it is the final days before SMUN 2021 officially commences. How do you feel?
Preparations are more or less according to plan so that’s a good start. This will be the first time we are importing over more traditional elements of a physical conference into an online one, i.e. the two ceremonies at the start and end, as well as a Socials event, so fingers crossed they go well! Our Events team have tried their hands at coming up with some interesting happenings so do keep a lookout. Besides that, it’s a pity we couldn’t get the delegate packages mailed out to reach delegates in time for the conference due to tighter measures for these number of weeks, but we’ll get them mailed out once the situation improves.
3) This is the second year that MUN conferences have been forced to be conducted online due to the ongoing COVID situation and SMUN 2021 is no different. What are your opinions on this eg. How this has changed the way council sessions are carried out, quality of debate etc.
In the words of our Academics team, “Our Chairs have worked tirelessly to improve upon various aspects of the committees, be it through additional mechanisms to simulate realpolitik, or to engage delegates with new points of views.” (Chairs, as you can see, you are very much loved and appreciated.) We understand that an online conference presents its own sets of challenges that can affect academic quality – our Academics team and Chairs have thus been continuously experimenting with new ideas to see how we can improve from last year. This year, the pro memoria is a new feature that will help our Chairs better assess points of growth for our delegates. This will also be the first time SMUN is bringing online the Q&A sessions with guest speakers during ceremonies and, as the name suggests, social activities for Socials night to see that delegates can still have the comprehensive MUN experience even while working remotely.
tl;dr – The pandemic is not something that can be controlled, though the way we choose to adapt and manoeuvre changes is something that is within our control. We are bringing in a slate of changes this year that hopefully serves our delegates well both academically and experientially. These will then be assessed post-conference and the next team can make the necessary adjustments to improve for the future.
4) What is the toughest obstacle you’ve faced so far in your many years of experience in MUN and what keeps you going?
Genuinely… I’ve sat on this question for a day or two and nothing really comes to mind. Every conference brings its own set of challenges for many, many different reasons, but every conference is always a new opportunity.
5) In all your years of experience in the MUN scene what is your most memorable event (can be funny, sad, happy, cool anything that left an impression that has changed your outlook on MUN)
This is going to be a very cliché answer but the things that I keep closest to my heart over the years is being able to see our delegates grow over the conference as well as becoming friends with their Chairs and council-mates. We all have a fair share of the “bigger” moments like passing a resolution that was painfully debated over or for some, getting awards, etc., but the moments you remember are really just the smaller interactions as you get to know different people. For one, I recall getting a small encouraging note from the Chairs after I made the very first speech on Day 3 in SMUN 2015 – this, I believe, played a very large role in shaping how I wanted to approach subsequent conferences.
Another quick titbit from SMUN 2015: SMUN used to last for five days back then and our committee had passed resolutions for both topics. within three and a half to four days. I don’t remember the details anymore, but the rest of committee sessions were used for a very wild crisis simulation that I vaguely recall involving country flags, boats, and Rohingya refugees. Feel free to imagine what were the wild changes that could possibly have occurred every half an hour or less.
6) Moving on to more personal questions, what do you have planned after SMUN 2021?
Ensure that I remain retired from MUN. Retirement means I get to spend more time on the whole bunch of other work in progress and then have some to spare for some things I’ve been meaning to pick up for some time (eg. if someone is familiar with Chinese embroidery, feel free to hit me up). Otherwise life really goes on as usual, though I’m glad to finally leave MUN behind after so many years and have other things fill up its spot in the future.
7) Finally, anything you want to say to the delegates and chairs of SMUN reading this article?
As much as we hope that it will be an academically rewarding experience, do also take some time to get to know the people you’ll be crossing paths with. It’s easy to just leave the call once debate has been suspended, but who knows what friends you may make. Someone in the local circuit used to always say, “People make a conference” – this has always rung true.