Okay, I’m going to write a series of essays on what I think it takes to win Best Delegate. This is not a definitive guide; it’s more of a start to a conversation. I would love to know what other people think, so please post comments, or heck, even write your own essay, e-mail it to me, and I’ll post it.
So let me start by claiming that there is no definitive guide to winning best delegate. Every conference, every chair, every delegate differs. Some conferences value realism and sticking to your country policy no matter what; other conferences prize diplomacy and compromise in order to reach a solution. Chairs are inherently subjective in deciding who should win Best Delegate; some are hardcore MUNers who know what to look for, whereas others get duped by that backstabbing delegate who stole the committee’s ideas and passed them off as his own. And what works for you in one conference may not in the next depending on the quality of the other delegates. For one conference, you’re the most experienced delegate in a huge General Assembly committee; at the next conference, you’re sitting on a 15-person crisis cabinet full of head delegates.
Given these dynamics, what can be said with regard to winning best delegate, and winning it consistently? There’s still a lot to be said, actually. In fact, it all starts with a prayer:
“God grant us
Serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
Courage to change the things we can,
and Wisdom to know the difference.”
– The Serenity Prayer, as used in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings
The dynamics I described above that differ from conference to conference are things that–ironically–you cannot change. But what you can change is your probability for winning Best Delegate, which depends on your actions and choices before and during the conference. Your strategy for winning best delegate, then, is to maximize your probability of success despite your circumstances.
How? That is what this series of essays is dedicated to. Broadly speaking, I think maximizing your probability of success comes down to two objectives: 1) actually being a leader in committee and 2) ensuring that the chair knows you are a leader in committee. Leadership is the constant in MUN conferences; no matter the conference philosophy, the chair, or the other delegates, groups need leaders, and a committee is essentially a group looking for a leader. Be that leader.
So of course those two broad objectives can themselves be broken up into smaller stratagems, and that’s how I want to structure these essays. As best I can, and consistent with the assumptions that I’ve laid out above, I’ll try to come up with a step-by-step guide of how to win Best Delegate.
