McMUN, McGill’s annual Model United Nations Conference, was held the weekend of January 27, and was well attended by Management students. Ranging from participating as covert agents within the delegates, to being entertainment staff, to creating various committees as Chairs and Directors, to being members of the Secretariat, Management Majors and Minors made their mark on this year’s McMUN.

For the first time ever in a McMUN conference, the NHL Lockout was recreated as a Joint Crisis committee consisting of NHL Owners and NHL Player’s Association, an idea brought to life by U2 International Management major Chase Potter and Doctor Brock Clancy, a Management student at heart. Labeled as one of the best committees in the history of Model UN, these gentlemen, along with their outstanding staff, impressed students from across North America. As one UCLA student, who impersonated Edward Roski, stated, “ It was the most well run committee and the funniest people I have arguably ever been in MUN with”.  Alex Goudavich from the State University of New York couldn’t agree more, as he expressed the NHL committee being “by far the most fun I’ve had in any model UN committee.” The committee was represented by Elliot Holzman, Jacob Hardy, and Alex Lin who contributed their skills from various other faculties.

Mixing business with pleasure, the NHL committee introduced delegates to the first ever e-mail communication system created by Matt Tan (he definitely wishes he was a Management student). This system allowed each delegate and staff member to have his or her own account in the name of the player or owner assigned to them. The emails provided them with live crisis information and a means of connectivity and instant interaction within both committees and the crises staff, or “Front Office”. The email system was so impressive, delegates requested a “How-To” guide so that it may be used within future conferences. As Steph Shapiro from Hamilton College asserted, “it was the first committee I’ve ever felt involved in.”

Another addition to the committee were ludicrous media representatives. This group of students included management students Charlie DiGuilian, Dan Fussman, and Operational Manager of Crisis, Dikembe Galiano Celestino, interacting with arts and science students such as Jamie Opzoomer, Edoardo Rossi, Maddie Lusk, and Tysen Potter (who flew in from Toronto to be the best camera man in the Sheraton).  They, along with many others, were in charge of reenacting the reality that NHL owners and players face: confronting the media and seeing their actions and mistakes appear on TSN.

Intrusive video reporters, compelling news articles and a constant flow of outrageous crisis scenarios, the most interesting of which were Crosby being caught gambling and rigging games, the disappearance of New York Islanders owner Charles Wang, the death of a player on the ice due to fighting causing President Obama and the US Senate to want to ban hockey from the USA, various marriage and adultery scandals amongst players and owners, and inevitable disagreements over the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Controversies were constantly being  leaked to the media by “anonymous” delegates thanks to the e-mail system. A bidding war over the purchase of the New York Islanders, the two main groups being “Jim Balsillie” and a partnership between “Jay-Z” and Mikhail Prokhorov caused mayhem in the conference room . Needless to say, this committee had an array of outlandish crises to deal with during this past weekend.  At one point they even fired NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, played by Chair Chase Potter, and replaced him with the weekend’s popular news reporters Todd Jenkins and Bob Rockbridge.

Management students played the role of delegate in each committee as a planted “undercover” agent. Winning the delegate award for “worst mole”, U0 Joseph (1B) Feldman was able to experience the best of both worlds. Posing as a student from an American University, he was able to interact on an equal playing field as other delegates but had the inside scoop of the crisis room. Awarded “the best mole”, David Chaim could become “elected” President of the Player’s Association, due to a very convenient secret ballot and became an outstanding delegate.

Other Management students leading committees included Hana Shashaa as Chair of Google and Robert Townley as Chair of UNECOFIN working alongside Adam Duffy-Fagan.

Secretariat members – Chief of Operations Omar Chatur, USG Financial Affairs Congsi Wu, Deputy USG Aditya Swarup, and Deputy Director of PR Arjun Gogia – did a superb job following Secretary-General Nida Nizam’s lead in organizing a remarkable model UN conference. With their hard work, McMUN was a huge success and will hopefully inspire more Management students to both take part in future conferences and become involved with IRSAM.