Munecdote – Crisis: All in the Details

Here at Best Delegate, we’re implementing monthly themes for our website content! The theme for January is Crisis Committees – enjoy this crisis-filled article and let us know what you think!

Additionally, The MUNecdote (MUN-Anecdote) series, will be a string of epic MUN stories, retold by our Media Associates to guide you through their mindset on how they successfully circumvented themselves out of some sticky situations. 

I gaze across the hall at hundreds of delegates with a facade of confidence disguising anticipation. Just like me. Suits, ties, vests, scarves, and the occasional sweater fill the room alongside a light mixture of various perfumes and colognes. Despite our bus being half an hour late, opening ceremonies were just beginning.

Image result for model UN opening ceremony

 

“Welcome to Harvard Model United Nations, 2016!” the Secretary-General greeted legions of high school students in a rehearsed, yet still genuine manner. After an hour, I’ve learned about charity projects in Brazil and heard the harmony of the esteemed acapella group, but as I head off to my committee in the conference, an older memory rhythmically pangs through my head, chipping at my self-esteem: 

***

Two years ago, in freshman year, I’d felt almost the same feeling. Except that time, I had not only hope, but arrogance that I would be called up to walk in front of thousands of people and claim an award. I was wrong. But that wasn’t what sent me falling off my high horse of middle school success. On the way back, the bus stopped for lunch, and I somehow expected what was to come. The president of my school’s club walked up to me. I almost hoped that he would offer a few words of comfort or advice or just anything positive, but at the end of my last freshman conference, the my club’s president told me I was “all talk”.

 

Image result for crisis note writing model UN

HMUN, one of the flagship winter conferences on the prestigious last weekend of January, was when I took my second crisis ever, but I felt as if the weight of my whole future was upon me. Up until that point in my Model UN career, I had never won an award at a national conference, and it seemed as if no one expected any better of me. Truth be told, I had made the team due to some last minute emergency cuts, so no one thought I would be going up for an award on Sunday.

Regardless, Thursday night, I tried my best. I wrote crisis notes, directives, and spoke as much as I could, but I felt as if I was crashing against a brick wall. Although the later two went well, almost every single one of my crisis notes came back with a notice that it could not be executed. After the first committee session, I asked the crisis staff what I could improve on, and was told to be more detailed and relevant to what was happening in committee.

Friday and Saturday, I took that advice to the best of my ability and broke every single one of my plans into small individual actions in order to write specific details. Moreover, I made sure to stay relevant in my crisis notes, which meant tying them into directives in clever ways. As a papal legal attempting to rise to the position of pope, I kidnapped the pope himself with the help of the Ottoman Turks, who were introduced in a previous update. When I authored a directive on rescuing him, I ordered our forces to kill all guards. In a private note, I dressed the pope as a guard, taking him out without any blood on my hands.

As I entered closing ceremonies on Sunday, I knew that I was not the same delegate as four days ago. And when I was called up for receiving an Outstanding Delegate Award, I knew that my transformation as a delegate was worth much more than the paper.

 

Thank you for reading, and good luck to all delegates at Model U.N conferences this weekend!

 

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