Reporters: Maya Dijakovic (BBC) and Thandeka Mangwiro (New York Times)

 

As a fantastic way to start the first day of ZIMUN, the acting chair (Megan Kadzirange and Patricia
Makura) of the General Assembly, very cleverly decided to introduce the debate with multiple fun
activities for the delegates, which they seemed to enjoy, because they got to know each other, and they
seemed to enjoy themselves before the big debate. With minor technical difficulties, the activities
continued and passed the time before a small presentation was displayed.

The presentation was called a “Conference Introduction” for delegates who were new to the concept of
ZIMUN. Following with rules and regulations, the chair also introduced multiple codewords to be used in
the debates for the following to days, including motions. The presentation was excellently displayed and
the delegates seemed to be engaged in the presentation.

After the presentation, roll call was taken, only one delegate was not present, their name was not
mentioned. The delegates were then broken up into groups to discuss problems in their countries and
write up resolutions to get approved and hopefully debated for the next 2 days. Unfortunately, considering
the abundance of newcomers, and it being the first day, not a lot of discussion was made, and many of the
delegates were often distracted by their own discussions. However, there was still progress made and
groups reviewed their own resolutions, and made a compromise to create one resolution. The group
contained the delegate of the UK, Uruguay, Romania, and the United States, and they seemed to have
made more progress than any other group. These countries would be a force to be reckoned with for the
next few days.