JCC-BG-Guide-Winmun-III-V2.Pdf
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Letters from the Chairs and Crisis Director Dear fellow delegates, My name is James Shiang and I am ecstatic to be your chair for the Soviet Civil Administration at WinMUN III! I am a junior at Winchester High School and have loved being a delegate of Model United Nations since I stepped into my first debate room in freshman year. Last year, I staffed the backroom of the JCC at WinMUN II and had a blast responding to crisis notes and immersing myself as debate unfolded. Step into the world of 1946 Korea: a tumultuous time with two of the strongest governments and militaries facing off for dominance over the Korean peninsula. The Soviets claim the north part of the 38th parallel while the United States claims the south. Who will come out victorious? It’s up to you to decide. Crisis committees are my favorite type of MUN committees because they mirror real-world scenarios: fast-pace, rapid debate with delegates gunning for personal gain by any means necessary including backstabbing, betrayal, murder, and espionage. Anything can and will happen in this crisis committee. Prepare the best you can, but don’t be caught off guard; if another delegate foils your original plans, always have another one ready to execute. I want you all to push your public speaking, debate, character and perseverance skills to the limit: this JCC is meant to be difficult, but give it everything you’ve got. Outside of MUN, I am the Vice-President of Tri-M, an honors society dedicated to serving the community through music. I am also into filmmaking and video production, playing the violin, and card magic. I look forward to getting to know you all and watching you grow over the course of the conference. Maybe, just maybe you will walk away with an award that day, but if you don’t I at least want you to be proud of your accomplishments and the effort you provided to make yourself a better MUN delegate. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or the rest of the conference staff! James Shiang WinMUN III JCC Chair: Soviet Civil Administration [email protected] Korea 1946 Background Guide 1 Salutations Delegates, My name is Shakir Sahibul and I’m a junior at Winchester High School and a member of the Winchester MUN team. I’ll be the chair for the United States Military Government side at WinMUN III, and I’m so excited to help craft this JCC experience for all of you. Although this will be my first time chairing a committee, I have experience as a crisis staffer from WinMUN II’s JCC, working in the shadows to shift the story of the crisis. As a chair, I hope to encourage you all to make big moves and keep the other side always guessing what you’ll throw at them. What will you be willing to trade away to gain an advantage over your adversaries... and who really are your adversaries? Crisis Committees are unique, with individual delegates being capable of swaying the entire crisis if they use crisis notes properly. If you want a fun and interesting committee experience, I cannot stress this enough: write lots of detailed crisis notes. They will allow you to build your personal “crisis arc” and pursue your objectives, which are of the utmost importance when representing a person in a Crisis committee. They will often times also be more influential than any directive that is passed in committee (not to say that directives are not important). I also want to stress that you should be an individual in committee. Don’t be afraid to voice a new opinion, even after one has already started to gain momentum. Also, remember that every action you take in committee should be in the service of your personal objectives. If you cannot get the committee’s support for directives that further your objectives, write crisis notes that do. Remember that not everyone in your room has the same goals as you, but there will be a few similarly minded delegates. You should find them and write joint crisis notes together to further your personal objectives more effectively. You may be in a room with other people on the same side of this conflict, but that does not mean that your objectives are very similar. I excitedly await to see how all of you will pursue your personal objectives while still trying to work together. I especially can’t wait to see what insane crisis arcs you all will craft. Remember to be bold and independent. Shakir Sahibul WinMUN III JCC Chair: United States Military Government [email protected] Korea 1946 Background Guide 2 안녕 대표들! (Hello delegates!) My name’s Alex Lee, and I’m a junior at Winchester High School and a member of THE Winchester MUN Executive Board. I’m super pumped to welcome you to WinMUN III! This is my third WinMUN Joint Crisis Committee and my second as Crisis Director. I’ll act as the “storyteller” of committee, weaving your nefarious plots (and some nefariousness of our own) into an exciting and challenging crisis that both sides must overcome to survive. This year’s JCC is kind of a passion project for me. You’ll jump into the middle of a very uncertain post-war world, where East Asia has just emerged from decades of colonialism and the US and USSR haven’t quite fallen into their Cold War deadlock. With all of the layered subplots, conflicting loyalties, and clashing interests that our topic provides, supported by an amazing series of chairs and an incredible backroom staff, I’m positive that you will find novel, manipulative, treacherous, and probably murderous ways of upending the Korean peninsula. One thing I want to emphasize in this year’s JCC is to reach out to members of the other room. A unique aspect of our scenario is that, while the USMG and SCA each hold many opposing goals, the committee rooms don’t start out in open conflict and don’t necessarily have to enter it. It’s up to delegates how inter- and intra-committee conflicts play out! I encourage you to seek out your delegate’s counterparts in the other half of the Crisis and talk face-to-face. Some of you may find that your closest allies aren’t even in the same committee room, or that your enemies are sitting right next to you. When preparing for crises (or any committee in general), the best thing you can do is research, research, research. On top of your typical in-committee maneuvering, Crisis committees involve a ton of rapid-fire events that have to be dealt with quickly and effectively. The better you know the topic and your character’s positions, the easier of a time you’ll have when the crisis starts heating up and directives get debated. This background guide is (hopefully) a solid start to your researching quest, but make sure to look beyond what we’ve given you and study up on outside resources. I’m thrilled to get back into the crisis room and see what crazy schemes you come up with. We’re really excited about this committee, and we hope that you are too. Happy researching, and best of luck! Alex Lee WinMUN III JCC Crisis Director [email protected] Korea 1946 Background Guide 3 How JCCs Work Intro to Crisis1 Crisis Committees differ in many ways from a General Assembly or other traditional MUN simulations. Rather than an international debate over a global issue, most Crisis simulations focus on a specific region or conflict. There are typically no more than a few dozen delegates, who usually represent the interests of individual people instead of entire nations. Delegates receive dossiers describing the objectives and abilities of their person, as well as pertinent information about that person. Compared to a GA, the pace of debate is much faster and less formal. Crisis Committees are most significantly different from GAs in delegates’ capacity to directly affect their scenario. While General Assemblies typically pass resolutions at the end of the session, Crisis Committees will pass multiple directives throughout the day that immediately alter the “state of the world.” Delegates can also submit private “Crisis Notes,” which use the delegate’s personal powers to individually change the direction of the committee. All documents are sent to the Crisis backroom. Another major aspect of Crisis committees is “Crisis Events.” Crisis staffers will regularly deliver updates to the committee room about changes in their scenario, whether it be wars, natural disasters, statements to the press, or beyond. Delegates can even be assassinated! Some of these events may be the result of directives or crisis notes. These Crisis Events create a feedback system between delegates and the crisis staff as each work to build the world and the story of the committee. It is usually harder to prepare for crisis committees as a delegate since you have no way of predicting when, how, or which curveballs will be thrown your way. In this committee, you are your given character, and the crisis staff represents the “outside” world and all the events that occur there. Every delegate will be advancing their own character’s agendas, so stay on your toes! So what’s a JCC? Prepare for trouble. And make it double. A JCC, or Joint Crisis Committee, is a special type of Crisis consisting of two or more individual Crisis Committees, where decisions in one committee directly affect the other.