Along with many other aspects of life that have changed as a result of social distancing measures, the way we run activities in school has also adapted. MUN might be one of the most affected because it involves other schools around the country and potentially further afield. However, at ISB we are of course trying to keep the spirit of MUN alive even if we are going to be restricted by federally mandated pandemic regulations.

One of the major aspects that will be affected by restrictions, is the ability to have a sufficient number of members in each council. Each room in the school has a Covid capacity, meaning that only a certain amount of people can be inside at a time to ensure that social distancing measures can be maintained. In an MUN environment, it is widely-known that there is an optimum number of people that should be in the council for there to be a riveting debate; a balance between awkward silence and groups too big for comfortable flow. 

When I spoke with the Secretary General, Tarini Pisharody, she reassured me that the MUN conference this year will be safe and all restrictions will be put in place in the interest of our safety. The Covid capacity is 20 people, meaning that the maximum number of Delegates will be 15 to allow space for Chairs and Admin. In the past, a few Delegates have invested their time into a double delegation if they wanted to, but seeing as this wouldn’t be safe only single delegations will be allowed this year. Tarini mentioned that COVID-19 will not be a topic in any of the councils as it could be too ‘monotonous’, and that the debates might be centered around the implications as a result of the pandemic, rather than Covid itself.   

As for the other schools attending BaMUN, Tarini said that they are looking into online alternatives in case the schools from Germany or France can’t attend, but they are remaining hopeful that the conference will be as operationally smooth as possible. We are all very grateful that MUN and other activities can run this year despite the restrictions, and that this pandemic has only opened up a whole new plethora of topics for the councils to debate!