5) The Venue

An undeniable upside of this conference in particular is that BRAMUN is held at the Iberostar resort in Praia do Forte. The committee rooms are nice, the food is also really great, and the resort is adjacent to the ocean.

4) Free time

After a long committee session, it’s always nice to take some time relaxing. At BRAMUN you work a great deal during the day on debating and writing clauses, but there’s also time to enjoy Bahia. The weather is always pleasant. Projeto TAMAR in Praia do Forte is an enclave of the resort, it’s not unheard of to see baby turtles being released into the ocean.

3)The Atmosphere

In every sense of the word, the atmosphere is one of the best parts about BRAMUN. It’s at BRAMUN where likeminded people get together to talk about the issues the world is dealing with, it’s great to meet likeminded people from other schools, something a lot easier to do at an MUN conference at BRAMUN than at a Sports Tournament.
Delegates must embrace diplomacy, which lends itself to a collaborative environment.
To talk about atmosphere in a literal sense, since TAMAR is so close to where the conference is (Sea Turtles lay their eggs on the beach), there is very little light pollution, and the stars are very visible at night. On a moonless night (with few clouds), the milky way is very visible as well.

2) Amount and Quality of Debate

The conference spans 5 days, three of them being full days, where delegates normally get about 7 hours in committees each day. It’s the most important part of the conference, and the quality of debate is always high since delegates normally get to travel to SALMUN or SPMUN in the first semester, so they have some familiarity with MUN. Delegates also get a lot of time to research; the topics are released very early.
The conference is big, this year it brought 387 students from 15 different schools from all over Brazil. Unlike huge conferences like ones run by colleges in the US, committees are big, but not too big, it’s easy to find an opportunity to talk during the conference. Committees range in size, but are usually 26-60 or so.

1) Always having a challenge

There is something for everyone at BRAMUN, there’s the usual committees (Political, Historical Security Council, Security Council, Human Rights, and ECOSOC) all have a range of difficulty, more experienced delegates tend to gravitate towards different committees than less experienced delegates, and this year at BRAMUN XII there were three special committees, geared towards more experienced delegates. The three special committees were DISEC (Disarmament and International Security), ICJ (International Court of Justice), and G20 (Group of 20). The special committees are up to the Chairs, so they can change every year. There is usually a crisis during the conference at some point, there was one that all committees had at BRAMUN XI and was discussed during the General Assembly, but this year most committees had a crisis that was particular to their own committee.

Picture for 1&2 from BRAMUN Facebook page. Cover and all others by Andrew Jacobson.