A History of the CLEIMUN Conference

The Cleveland International Model United Nations Conference was founded in 2015 by Mr. Michael Perrins, Director of International Programs at St. Edward High School, in cooperation with the renowned Cleveland Council on World Affairs (CCWA). Perrins' idea to create CLEIMUN came from his "frustrations at the clear divide across the Atlantic on matters of procedure and ways of doing things in the Muniverse." Primarily, conferences set in North America utilize the Harvard conference style while conferences set in Europe use the THIMUN style. Perrins, who had the opportunity to travel to and advise students in both types of conferences, devised a plan to combine positive elements of both styles, creating a hybrid conference: CLEIMUN.

When investigating the strengths of both conference styles, Perrins came to the conclusion that the THIMUN-style "produces better resolution content, structure, and focus, due to the preparation time and the scrutiny process of the draft resolutions" prior to their discussion in committee. In contrast to this, the Harvard-style "often produces weakly constructed and sometimes incoherent, hastily put-together resolutions, with little time to cross-check them and ensure their quality." But, there is another facet to this. The Harvard-style "allows for plenty of very positive informal discussions, negotiation, and collaboration," an opposite feature to the THIMUN-style, which is very structured.

CLEIMUN is the first and only conference in the world to combine both systems together. Under CLEIMUN, delegates:

• Write a draft resolution prior to Day 1

• Lobby and Merge with other delegates in committee on Day 1

• Submit merged resolutions to the CLEIMUN Approvals Panel

• Committee time is interspersed with formal debate and unmoderated caucuses which promotes diplomacy and collaborative solutions

The CLEIMUN Conference was first held in 2015 (CLEIMUN15), welcoming close to 100 delegates from around the Cleveland area. CLEIMUN17 welcome close to 200 delegates from Cleveland and Chile. This year, we look forward to welcoming over 200 delegates around the world to Cleveland.

*Portions of this article were written in reference to Michael Perrins' piece from CLEIMUN17: CLEIMUN - A Short History.