Harvard Model Congress
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Harvard Model Congress (HMC) is the largest congressional simulation conference in the world, providing high school students from across the U.S. and abroad with an opportunity to experience American government firsthand. Although HMC is run entirely by Harvard students, it is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is operated independently of the university.
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[edit] Domestic Conferences
Harvard Model Congress Boston, founded in 1986, is the oldest of the HMC conferences and is held annually at the Boston Sheraton Hotel. Each February, approximately 1,500 delegates descend on Massachusetts to tackle the most pressing and important issues facing the nation as they assume roles in each of the three branches of the U.S. government and beyond. Exciting and diverse programs, ranging from committees in the House of Representatives, Senate, and Supreme Court, to special programs such as press, lobbyists, and the National Security Council, help bring American government to life and have established Harvard Model Congress Boston as the nation's premier American government simulation.
Founded in 1999, Harvard Model Congress San Francisco is a new and exciting American government simulation program based on the successful Boston model and the first conference of its type on the West Coast. Over three hundred delegates from across the country travel to HMC-SF to learn about American government by experiencing it firsthand. The four-day conference, held at the Crowne Plaza San Francisco, is more intimate than the Boston conference and thus features lower student-to-staff ratios and more individual attention from the experienced staff of Harvard students.
[edit] International Conferences
Harvard Model Congress Europe holds an annual conference in Athens, Greece during late March. Though from 2009, the confence host will be Brussels, in Belgium. Although it maintains a strong tradition of American government simulation, HMC Europe also has a strong focus on institutions of international governance, including (among others) the World Health Organization, Group of Eight, and International Monetary Fund.
Harvard Model Congress Asia runs an annual conference in Bangkok, Thailand though 2008 conference,supposed to held from September 4-6, was cancelled due to rebellion in Thailand. HMC Asia focuses on America's political system and governmental institutions. Held at the United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok, students are given the opportunity to participate in a simulation held where diplomats meet to make decisions that impact the world. This conference boasts the lowest student-to-staff ratio of any of the model congress conferences. Organizationally it differs from the other groups by offering funds to staff in the form of travel stipends in lieu of funding an extensive social organization on campus. As the substitution for the cancelled 2008 HMCA, the 2009 session of Harvard Model Congress Asia was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea from January 28-29.
In both international conferences, students discuss and debate global issues from a more global perspective, formulating policy firsthand. The structured committee settings expose them to the realities of the democratic process, challenging them to forge compromise while advancing the interests of their constituency. The conferences seek to provide an unparalleled educational experience for talented secondary school students from around the world, offering hundreds of students each year an exciting opportunity to practice public speaking and policy writing. The conferences accommodate students with varying degrees of English ability, and the global diversity of participants and staff offers delegates the unique opportunity to approach challenging issues from numerous different perspectives.
[edit] Logistics
Harvard Model Congress strives to prepare the next generation of democratic leaders and global citizens. Because of their sheer size, the Harvard Model Congress conferences require a large amount of planning by the students hosting the events. Harvard Model Congress is one of the largest Harvard student organizations, and each year around 200 Harvard students assist with planning and running the conferences.
As soon as one Harvard Model Congress conference ends, planning for the subsequent such conference begins. For the Boston conference, topics for debate must be chosen by May so that briefing books can be prepared over the summer and distributed by early fall, in time to allow delegates to begin intensively researching each committee's topics for debate. Updates to briefings are written and distributed to schools by winter, and issue summaries are also provided to the delegates. HMC 2009 is slated to be HMC's first-ever paperless conference. For the duration of the event each year, Harvard Model Congress uses essentially all of the conference space available at the Boston Sheraton. Although most of the written work during the actual weekend of the event is done by the delegates, the staff continues to provide programmatic direction and manages all operations throughout the duration of the conference.
