This article is written from the first person perspective of Genevieve Pool, Editor of Best Delegate Content and Georgetown’s Director of Team Affairs.
In 2016, we advertised ChoMUN’s new forum on diversity. This was an exciting new initiative to create a conversation around gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic inclusion, taking the form of a moderated conversation. I was fortunate to attend this Friday morning of ChoMUN 2017, after working (and in some ways fighting) to create regular conversations about inclusivity for my team.
It was exciting to meet like-minded individuals on the circuit, and the conversation felt far too short for me. Additionally, it was disappointing to see how few of the delegates present at the conference chose to come, especially since there was only one GA committee and delegates did not have to meet in blocs. The question left on my mind, therefore, was: how can we create this impact at scale? How could we bring this conversation to more delegates than the handful who chose to show up and speak up?
Step one was to continue the conversation on my home team, and to expand past conversations of just gender. We’ve since hosted forums ranging from panels to activities to informal conversations sitting on the floor of a classroom. I’ve seen members of our team push themselves to consider inclusion where they haven’t before, and we’ve hired our first majority-female USG staff, had our first woman head delegate, sent our first dual women double delegate teams into a General Assembly committee, and revolutionized our financial aid process.
Georgetown team members at a Women in MUN forum
Step two was to expand in DC. The most exciting conversation occurred when American University, another DC team, was able to join us for our most crowded event yet. AU brought new ideas and team-specific issues we hadn’t discussed before. More importantly, when competing together at conferences this year we’ve had those relationships built. There have been multiple instances since when members of our two delegations have come together to address an issue of inclusion or discrimination one of our delegates has faced. I know that I have allies in the American team, which makes a huge difference in feeling comfortable calling out discrimination in a competitive setting.
American and Georgetown delegates talking at a joint inclusivity forum
Step three was taking these conversations beyond just our team. The National Collegiate Security Conference (NCSC) 2018 saw the first Inclusivity in MUN forum, and while most of the participants were my delegates, we had some really important conversations around gender, staffing, and team leadership. Since I had been largely focused on the college circuit, I was surprised when the executives of the North American Invitational Model United Nations (NAIMUN) asked me to host a similar forum – but excited. This past weekend at NAIMUN, I spent a sleep-deprived hour of Saturday morning sharing my experiences and answering questions as best as I could with just five delegates and their moderator (from a top MUN high school), and it was one of the best conversations I’ve had. We discussed everything from how staffers can factor diversity into awards decisions, disability and learning styles in various types of MUN committees, and that ever-difficult balance of inclusion and competitiveness. I was stopped in the hallway later by a delegate with follow-up questions, who prioritized our conversation enough to ask her bloc members to come back later.
With graduation looming, I wish I had done more throughout my four years on the MUN circuit. But throughout these four years I’ve also seen a growth in conversations around exclusion, a better system to call out biased actions, and a prioritization on competitive teams of inclusion above awards. I’ve been grateful to Best Delegate for providing a platform on which these conversations can happen and diverse individuals can share perspectives. There’s still a long way to go, but I believe that continued commitment to change on individual, team, and circuit levels are all capable of creating sustainable change.
