The opening chords of “The Imperial March” struck fear, trepidation and excitement into the hearts of viewers when announcing the arrival of Darth Vader in the infamous “Star Wars” trilogy. When used instead to announce the entrance of the Delegates and Chairs on the first morning, one could safely say; only in SciTec. It did safely set the tone for a humorous but slick operation, and over the course of the three day conference there was a healthy mixture of passionate debating and light-hearted banter.

 

 The first resolution came from the UK on the subject of Carbon Capture and Sequestration. The climate change issue was current and hotly contested, and eventually passed with a solid majority. The delegate from Ireland certainly made a strong impression with his resolution on Internet Piracy, which he humbly claimed was, “The God of all resolutions”. Unfortunately the majority of the committee disagreed and the bill failed (spectacularly). For his antics, however, the Ireland delegate did manage to earn both “Highly Condemned” the “Most Annoying Delegate” awards.

 

The final resolution came from the enthusiastic delegate for China and tackled the topic of violence in video games. It was preceded by an excellent talk from John Bush explaining the potential impact on children and teenagers, and provided great insight. The conservative resolution from China failed, but not before Costa Rica managed to be evicted twice – first for declaring war and the second for sexual harassment of the UK. Apparently the line, “How you doin’” doesn’t translate well on note paper.

Tristan Boyle managed to earn the title of Best Chair, despite telling the red headed Austrian delegate he didn’t like “gingernuts”. He was referring to the biscuits, obviously.

 

Iran definitely managed the best line of the meet with, “This resolution is like my brother Phil. They’re both simple, but unlike Phil, this resolution works.” He also won the title of, “Best Junior Delegate”. We couldn’t possibly say if these were connected. China’s trilby and flash suit earned him the best dressed male award, with Ghana taking the title for the girls. Myanmar received “best tie”, South Korea took home the “cutest delegate” honour and Japan, Croatia and South Africa got the less sought after “Silent Award” for managing to go three days without once saying a word. Finally after much thought the winner of “Best Delegate” went to the USA who was a deserving victor despite some fierce competition. Overall the lively chairing and animated debaters led to an entertaining conference for all in the SciTec Committee.