Yes, that was our group motto for a conference designed to promote
international collaboration and compromise. However, I have to admit
that Team Sweden did pretty well.
My partner and I were sponsors
on two resolutions that passed in UNESCO, and the entire Swedish
delegation across all four committees at the conference was recognized
as a Distinguished Delegation, which is the equivalent of second place.
The
experience was great, but the conference was a lot to take in at first.
During the first committee session, my partner and I were so lost.
Other delegates made motions and seemed to know exactly what to do, but
we left thinking, “What just happened?”
To make matters worse,
the topic we had prepared to discuss was voted down by the rest of the
committee, so we had to work on the fly and review all of our notes on
the second topic that we hadn’t looked at in weeks.
The hardest
part of the conference was figuring out what countries and delegates I
wanted to work with. Some groups were too large, and I felt like I had
to fight to share any of our ideas. Other groups were smaller but were
led by aggressive personalities who would reject any idea that didn’t
fit into their agenda.
Eventually, I finally found a group with
whom I could work. The delegates in my group were mainly from the
Philippines, the United States and Canada, and they represented
Colombia, Panama, New Zealand, Chad, the United Kingdom and Sweden’s
forever friend, Finland.
I realized the trick to Model UN is to
just be nice. Very few of the delegates who felt the need to control
everything won any awards, and they ended up making a lot of people
frustrated, stressed and angry. I definitely stand by the belief that
it’s easier to get what I want by being nice and polite rather than
making demands.
The students I worked with were amazing, and
they were probably the reason my experience was so enjoyable. We could
all share ideas without having to talk over each other, and I think it
was a true collaboration without one person dominating the group. Not to
mention, they were just awesome people, and we had a lot in common.
At
the end of the conference, we had produced Resolution 1/6 that focused
on bridging the gap between professionals and the community and
increasing access to education for indigenous and marginalized people
groups and Resolution 1/10 that focused on ensuring sustainable
development through technology and mentorship programs. Of course the
resolutions weren’t binding in any way, but it was a little nerve
wracking when it was time to vote because I had spent so much time
invested in those papers. It was super awesome and relieving feeling
when they finally passed!
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Read more from Jaime at http://jaimed03.tumblr.com/
Learn more about past Model United Nations conferences at http://waltonblog.uark.edu/2015/01/26/national-model-united-nations-rome/
