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 VOL. 5, No. 9;  Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Dear Arthur,

Today's newsletter includes:

1. Report on yesterday's  Middle School M.U.N. teacher meeting.

2. Information on this Saturday's High School Discussion Group.

3. Review from Civitas "Reinventing the U.N." Conference.

4. New survey on Is The Mardi Gras Your Kind of Fun?

Civitas Home Page
              



Middle School Teachers Meet To Select Resolutions For Spring Sessions


Nineteen Middle School Model UN teachers met at the Creve Coeur Government Center yesterday to select resolutions for the six sessions that will take place in April and May.  Many of the teachers brought resolutions that their students had already authored with them; others came with the frameworks of resolutions that their students were working on.

The Spring sessions will be on April 5, April 26, May 3, May 4, May 10, and May 11.  Each will have between 70 - 100 delegates.  The teachers began the resolution process yesterday so that the students for each session would know well in advance what topics they would be discussing in their sessions and what ideas have been put forth.

Lisa Granich-Kovarik and Bobbi Clemons are working on organizing the resolutions and ensuring that they are "fit for publication."  Once they are ready, they will be published on the web and printed copies will be distributed to teachers.

Any Middle School teacher who has any questions about the meeting or what their remaining responsibilities for the year are should contact Lisa at 314-865-4704 or [email protected].


Photos from Middle School Teacher Meeting
Middle School Country Selections for 2005-2006

Discussion Group This Saturday at Crossroads

We will have our first "pure" high school discussion group in six weeks this Saturday, March 4, at Crossroads School from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM.  Since mid-January, all Saturday sessions have been related to the recent "Reinventing the United Nations" conference.

This Saturday will be two hours of unfettered discussion on topics of your choice.  We'll have our usual blend of nutritious and non-nutritious food -- all of it tasty.

Topics can be serious from the New York Times suing the Pentagon to the more frivolous (the greater meaning of the Mardi Gras).  Your wish is our command.

Hope to see you this Saturday!

Map and Directions to Crossroads School

 For Those Of You Who Missed It, Civitas "Reinventing the U.N." Conference Major Success!

 
Following a month and a half of preparation work, the Civitas "Reinventing the United Nations" conference took place on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 17 - 18 at the DoubleTree Hotel - Airport
.

Thirty-nine students divided into three committees to tackle issues related to reforming or reinventing the U.N.  Among the topics that received the greatest attention were: (a) establishment of a permanent U.N. peace-keeping or "police" force; (b) changing the voting systems in the General Assembly and/or Security council to a form of "weighted representation."  Under such a system, the voting power of a nation could be determined in-part by factors such as its population, its contribution to the U.N. through dues, its GNP, its military strength, its human rights record, its willingness to commit troops to serve in U.N. peacekeeping operations, its land-mass area, adherence to the U.N.'s mandate that all member nations be "peace-loving countries."

Other topics included reworking the U.N. Human Rights Commission, eliminating or restricting veto power in the Security Council, and establishing a "Fast Action Council" to take the place of the Security Council for international emergencies.

One topic that received considerable attention and support was promotion by the United Nations of an international language such as Esperanto.  One completed resolution on this topic was written in Committee 2 (chaired by Lisa Granich-Kovarik) and you can read it by clicking here.  Committee 2 also authored a resolution on U.N. peacekeeping and it can be accessed from the same site.

Additional information is available on our intranets site.  You can get information on the intranets site as well as join by
clicking here.

More information, particularly from Committees 1 (chaired by Gloria Bilchik) and 3 (chaired by Arthur Lieber) will be available shortly.

Our thanks to photographer J.B. Forbes of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who covered our sessions on Saturday morning.  The Post carried one of his photos on page 2 (or was it 3?) of the Metro section in the Monday, Feb. 20 edition of the newspaper.

Also, please remember that Dr. Ronald Glossop will be starting a new class on Esperanto next Tuesday, February 28.  You can contact Dr. Glossop at [email protected].  Among the students who have already indicated interest in learning Esperanto are Christina Doelling (Rosati-Kain, 2008), Katie Fanning (Lindbergh, 2008), Abigail Henderson (Fox, 2010), Tanya Konovalova (Fox, 2007 {Exchange student from Ukraine}), Derick Martin (Hazelwood Central, 2009), Allison Reed (Rosati-Kain, 2008), and Gabrielle Ruess (Fox, 2006).  In addition, several Civitas staff may be interested as well.


Conference Home Page


Map and Directions to DoubleTree Hotel for Conference 





Is Mardi Gras Your Way of Celebrationg?
 

KMOX radio reported this morning that since Hurricane Katrina last August-September, St. Louis has gained approximately $17 million in convention and visiting revenue from New Orleans.  A good deal of that came this past weekend with the Mardi Gras celebration in Soulard.

The media often presents Mardi Gras as being synonymous with "a good time."  We wanted to see how a possible Mardi Gras experience would rank for you as "a good time."

Today's poll is, "Which, if any, of the following types of 'fun' would you prefer to being at a Mardi Gras celebration?" (You may select more than one answer.)

a) Informal socializing with friends.

b) A "private party" as opposed to a "public party" in which you know most of the people present.

c) A quiet night at home reading, watching TV, or playing games.

d) Going to a sports event such as a Cardinal baseball game or one of your school's football or basketball games.

e) None of the above.

Click here for the survey:




Previous Survey Results!  

Last newsletter's question was: 

Why Are The Television Ratings For The Olympics So Low This Year? 

The Kansas State Collegian newspaper reported this morning:

"Olympic athletes are having a hard time holding their own against performance prisses.

Nielsen weekly ratings for Feb. 6 to 12 place Saturday's prime time Winter Olympics on NBC at seventh place - after CSI, Grey's Anatomy and both airings of American Idol.

Crunching the numbers, USA Today said the viewership numbers are down 36 percent from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

For broadcasters and, especially, advertisers, the million dollar question is why are the Olympics' ratings down by almost half from four years ago?"
 

Our question is, which of the following (you may select as many as you wish) reasons do you think have contributed to the lower ratings of the Olympics in 2006?

a) None or few of the American contestants in the Olympics have that "American Idol" appeal. -- 3 (18%)

b) The way in which the Olympics events are presented is that they are too chopped up -- there is frequent switching from event to event. -- 4 (24%)

c) Many Americans are hooked into their favorite programs such as CSI, Grey's Anatomy, and American Idol.  They are unwilling to pass up episodes of these programs to watch the Olympics. -- 6 (35%)

d) Americans are retreating into a form of isolationism in which they have little concern or care about activities that take place outside of the United States and in which most of the participants are from other countries. -- 4 (24%)

e) Not Sure -- 1 (6%)


COMMENTS ON THE ISSUE

Bobbi Clemons; Civitas Staff

The real reason is that the Olympics are boring.

Brett DeLaria; S.L.U.H.; 2009

As Americans have we really been so engrossed in reality TV that good old and real competition is out?  Or is it just simply that the Olympics are not able to compete with TV contest like eating worms?  Who knows...

Tony Keel; S.L.U.H., 2006

I think the real reason is a combination of 2 and 3. People do get hooked on shows, and the networks still run new episodes despite the Olympics. Also, the coverage is so long; they show everyone and everything and keep cutting from event to event so it's hard to keep up. The Olympics is a hard thing to watch. However it's the Olympics people! You got to watch figure skating, speed skating, and hockey... even if there is a series of commercials every 5 minutes.




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