Organizing COMUN required that I work collaboratively with others for a long period of time in order to plan and pull off such a large conference. I went into the program with noble ideas about inspiring the chairs under my direction to do amazing things and in really distributing work evenly between people. However, I had not taken in to account the stress and challenges of organizing a project this big. There were definitely moments when I could have communicated with people better about work load and about what i needed them to do. I stepped up to the pate I the last few weeks and started fielding more questions from faculty advisors and communicating with people that needed it. But though I demonstrated an ability to communicate articulately I feel like I have an improved awareness for my areas for growth in my communication ability at least on an interpersonal level.
In a public speaking I excelled, this is a strength that I am more aware of now than i was before the conference. I wrote and gave my speech at the opening ceremony about my hopes for a future world and about how I hoped the COMUN Delegates would be prepared to face such a world. It was a hard task balancing the small scale, that weekend, and the long term issues of global importance that I wanted to address. I think I managed it well be framing the diplomacy work the conference was simulating inside the larger idea of calling for international and cultural compromise. I got excellent feedback from those who were watching my speech. Mr. DeSilva in particular made a point to say the he thought my choice of words was good for the occasion. The text of this speech is attached to the end of this post.
We did manage to pull of a really wonderful conference. It called for a lot of demonstrated dedication to pull it off. For this first time this year we had two day long topic during conference which took a lot more preparation that the year before when I also served as a chair, but the feedback we got on this decision was good and it definitely reduced the stress on the deligates if not on the chairs. We also had for the first time this year a simulation of both the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the Economic and Social Council.
Interfacing with people as a mediator and as a decision maker was a new challenge for me. Though I was in a similar role in the organization last year I wasn't at the one actually making the calls. This year if there was an interpersonal problem I was the one who mediated. I was the one who made decisions about how we were going to handle things. I of course had help, as a secritariate we made decisions together, but it was a role that was knew to me. It really made me consider the implications of what I was doing, ethical or otherwise. I had to consider how the decisions I made were going to impact deligates and how a decision that benefitted one kid might disadvantage another. I hope I made the right decisions but I also do not have the benefit of a removed perspective to evaluate these decisions.
All in All, I a so happy I undertook the challenge of running a conference. I had so much fun over the course of the seven moths we worked towards last weekend. I made a lot of knew friends and I hope I impacted the lives of some of my peers and younger students. I tried very hard to speak words to them whenever I was asked that were both honest, "sometimes other people win" or "sometimes you have to compromise", and idealistic and hopeful.
The text of my Opening Ceremony Speech:
There is a phrase with which I am
intimately familiar, one with which I think that many of you, adults and
students alike, are also well acquainted, that is “Someday soon.” The wording may
vary, perhaps your phrasing of choice is “eventually”, or “In a few years”, or “when
I grow up”, but the sentiment is the same: it is not yet my time.
I disagree, but I do not blame you
for saying this. I thought it as I wrote this speech and I am sure I will think
it again before the day is out. It is a comfort to remind ourselves that we are
still young, that there is still time to make decisions, that our lives are not
set in stone, that things can and will get better for all of us. I disagree,
but I would not advise you to forget the future. I disagree that it is not yet
your time, not yet our time, because I believe that there is no firm line
between now and then.
Isaac Asimov once said that Today’s
Science fiction is tomorrow’s Science fact. However, I prefer to think of it in
this way: today’s idealism is tomorrow’s reality. The things that we dream up
today, perhaps in this very conference can be our reality, for we construct our
own times. The words we speak and the hopes that we carry do not exist only in
the here and now. Instead, they spill over the rim of today and pour into
tomorrow as bright as we can make them.
This year’s Colombo Model United
Nations Conference is all about the interplay between the present and the
future. Our committees will strive not only to produce solutions to the issues
our world faces today, but also to ensure that these solutions are not just
guttering candles in the dark but are instead bright and enduring. My fellow
executive committee members and I hope that the questions we ask and the
discussions we facilitate over the course of the next few days can produce
meaningful answers to the question of what our tomorrow might look like.
Our theme this year, Sustainable
governance, is not just about going green, though that is a not insignificant
part of it. Sustainable governance is about ensuring the security of regions
and giving stability to the displaced. It is about creating global economic
partnerships and about curtailing the infringement of human rights. It is about
preventing war, healing from conflicts, and learning to decolonize ourselves
successfully.
Sustainable governance is about
having it be easy to open your mouth and say “we will deal with this someday
soon” or “We can address this in a few years” and instead making the choice to
say “Now is the time to address these difficult issues, now is the time
compromise, now is the time to learn”
With that in mind I implore you not
to let your personal ideals nor the ideals of the country, cooperation, or
organization that you represent be waylaid by fear or by ambition. I hope to
see in your committees the foundation of a tomorrow that we can all dream of,
that we can all no matter our differences be secure in. Let us be reassured
this weekend that our time, be it now or tomorrow, will be a good one.
Evidence and photos available here: http://content.educationtimes.lk/print-edition-1/7236-22-years-of-comun-by-osc and http://www.osc.lk/comun/
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