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A Wind-Down of the New Note-Passing System

A Wind-Down of the New Note-Passing System
Luiza E.

If you had walked into any of the conferences at last year's IMUN conference you probably see IMUN admin staff walking around the rooms passing notes. However the same can no longer be said this year seeing that this year's IMUN conference saw the introduction of a new note-passing system which is being tested out by the Economic and Social Committee. If everything goes according to plan, this new system will be incorporated into all committees at the next conference. This system was implemented as a part of the conference's efforts to reduce paper waste.

On day one, some technical issues were found within the program, during which admin staff returned to the room to help with the note-passing. However, the problem was quickly solved and has been working efficiently since. With the use of digital note passing the conference seems much more focused, as the only people walking around throughout it are delegates to take the floor.

To obtain an insider perspective and feedback on the new note-passing system a member of admin, one of the chairs, and one of the delegates from the room were interviewed.

Admin Interview

Grace, an admin from ECOSCO, acknowledged that delegates now have fewer distractions. Grace also added that it was much less work for her during the debate and that even though there were some technical issues, they were always resolved quickly so it was not much of a problem.

Chair Interview

The two chairs in ECOSOC this year were Matilde D. and Emily A. The only issue they found is that the messaging system requires another tab they need to have opened which was not very practical for them, as they don’t get notifications when a note is passed. Besides this, they mentioned that the new system does not really affect them, as it is admins who check and confirm messages before delegates receive them.

 

Delegate Interview

The delegate representing Cameroon in ECOSOC was then interviewed to get a delegate's perspective on the new system. The delegate of Cameroon found that the messaging program was very simple to use and made the process of discussing with other delegates during debate much easier. The delegate of Cameroon also found themself much less distracted.

The creator of the new system, Mr. Jochem Vermeulen, was interviewed to answer the following questions:

Interviewer: What was your main goal when creating this program?

Mr. Vermeulen: Our main objective was to make further gains on our way to becoming a paperless conference. But once a new application is introduced, there is always an opportunity to improve other things as well. In this case, we also wished to make the process of debate smoother, by making it easier, faster, and less disruptive to exchange notes. The platform allows exchanging messaging in general, so this could also benefit the communication between conference organizers and MUN directors, for instance.

Interviewer: How did you come up with the idea of this program?

Mr. Vermeulen: It was need-based. The need was to go paperless, and then the creative process of software design started to see how best to go about that. Since notes are essentially messages, a messaging framework is a logical direction to take. Of course, there are many existing messaging frameworks that can serve as inspiration (we all use several in our daily lives). But none of them have the simplicity that we were after, so some further thinking was required to achieve that as well.

Interviewer: Until this moment of the debate how do you believe the delegates have benefited from your program?

Mr. Vermeulen: Difficult to say at this point, we will still need to evaluate this experiment. But I believe it is fair to say that there is less distraction during the debate (less need for admins to walk around to give and receive messages). Also, the threshold for sending a message and engaging in a conversation with fellow delegates is lower, and smooth coordination can take place between delegates (in a better manner).

Interviewer: What are some changes you might make to the program, for IMUN next year based on what has happened in the past few days?

Mr. Vermeulen: There is a whole list of features that we could and should add. But many are perhaps less visible. One more visible change is that we should introduce the ability to change your password (for security). We also want to make it look better on browsers of devices like phones and tablets. However, the main effort will be towards being able to serve multiple committees. For instance, the note checkers of the committee should only be checking notes from their own committee. Next year’s version of the application should be able to handle these kinds of needs.