SAIMUN (Pronounced Sime-on) stands for Saint Andrews Internation Model United Nations. It is a Model United Nations conference held annually around easter time by St Andrews College in Dublin Ireland. It is one of the biggest conferences of it's kind in Europe hosting over 700 delegates as well as Press, administration, chairs, student officers and advisor's for all the delegations. The conference has been held for 21 years and its director for the last 18 of those was Mr Michael Allen. It was held in Juries Hotel up until the hotel closed in 2007 and has since moved to the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laorighe. The 2008 conference was held there from the 18th to the 21st of March.
Format
editThe General Conference is broken down into 4 days with a number of different things happening. The important events are.
Lobbying Opening Ceremony - Speeches Committee's General Assembly Closing Ceremony
Lobbying
editLobbying is one of the most feared tasks for any slightly nervous delegate. You enter a large conference hall and move over to the section that has your committee's chairs (chair people, not seats). Once there you begin to try and talk to other delegates in your committee and get them to sign your resolution. Each person can only sign one resolution from each topic, there are 4 topics and they already sign there own. So if everyone in a committee of 100 wrote a resolution there would be 300 available signatures from 1500 wanted signatures. To shy or less experienced delegates this is hell on earth, however to more outgoing confident delegates this is the chance to begin to make allies in committee or just to build up toward the social life they came there for. Once you have your signatures you can then submit your resolution for approval.
Opening Ceremonies
editOpening Ceremonies are for most a relaxing and enjoyable time. It is during opening ceremonies