Tomorrow, Thursday, February 15, St. Edward High School, in partnership with the Cleveland Council on World Affairs (CCWA), will hold the 2018 Cleveland International Model United Nations Conference (CLEIMUN18). The conference is held at One Cleveland Center in Downtown Cleveland. CLEIMUN18 marks the third conference for the CLEIMUN organization. CLEIMUN began in October 2015 at St. Edward High School, and has since grown to where the event stands today. For CLEIMUN18, over two-hundred students, from Northeast Ohio, Michigan, Chile, and New Zealand, will attend the three-day event.

CLEIMUN is the first and only conference in the world to use a specific conference structure. In North America, the majority of Model UN conferences use the Harvard-style. In Europe, the conference use the THIMUN-style. Clarifying, THIMUN (The Hague Model United Nations Conference) is the largest conference in the world and is held in the Netherlands each year. CLEIMUN has combined significant elements from both conference styles. Participants are exposed to elements of each, making CLEIMUN unique among all other conferences.

The three-day conference marks the culmination of close to a year of work by the CLEIMUN leadership and staff. Beginning in late March, individual divisions within CLEIMUN began planning this year’s conference. At an oversight level, the CLEIMUN Board of Control (BOC) began planning logistics for the conference. BOC is led by Mr. Michael Perrins, Director of International Programs at St. Edward and Director of the CLEIMUN Conference. BOC is supported by Mrs. Jessica Hilty of St. Edward and Mr. Charlie Polinko, of the CCWA, both of whom are Deputy Directors for CLEIMUN.

But what has been most impressive is the work of the student-leadership team, the CLEIMUN18 Secretariat. CLEIMUN prides itself as being a primarily student-led conference, and this was readily apparent this year. The Secretariat is led by the conference’s Secretaries-General: Anthony Perrins ‘18, of St. Edward, and Claudia Stephens ‘18, of Saint Joseph Academy. Underneath them is a passionate group of Deputy Secretaries-General and Committee Chairs. The Secretariat has worked tirelessly to train for the conference and to develop topics, research papers, and procedures that will create a fun and impactful experience for all participants.

A division within the CLEIMUN organization is the CLEIMUN Press Team, led by Dylan Zsigray ‘18 of St. Edward High School. The Press Team is hailed as one of the best in the world, a designation that those involved are extremely grateful and honored to have. The Press Team manages CLEIMUN’s brand image through their publications, social media accounts, and videos. During CLEIMUN18, be sure to check out press.cleimun.org for daily stories and follow the conference on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (@cleimunconf).

The three-day conference will include numerous opportunities for delegates. With the committee topics that were published by the Secretariat last year, delegates prepared resolutions (solutions to the problems) that they will bring on Day 1. Upon entering their respective committees, delegates will work with one another, merging their resolutions to create impressive and sophisticated solutions. Upon finalizing a resolution, a delegate will submit it to the Approvals Panel, led by Special Rapporteurs from the United Kingdom. The Approvals Panel approves the resolutions after any changes are asked to be made.

Day 2 and part of Day 3 is primarily made up of debate within committee. The Approvals Panel picks resolutions out of over one hundred that are approved and sends them back to committee to be debated. Delegates within committees will debate, revise, and pass or fail resolutions. Like last year, whenever a resolution is passed within committee, a press release will be posted online at press.cleimun.org. Look for these releases to see the tremendous work that the delegates will do over the three days.

Everyone involved with CLEIMUN18 is excited to bring the Cleveland-area the conference once again this year. All of the work throughout this past year culminates Thursday through Saturday. The partnership between St. Edward High School and the Cleveland Council on World Affairs, and the expertise of CLEIMUN’s leaders, combine to create a unique conference experience for all. This is why CLEIMUN continues to grow each year.