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Greetings Delegates,
Did you know the Ipomoea Alba, also known as the Moonflower, only blooms at night? While other flowers may welcome the piercing glare of the sun, even growing in its direction to maximize the amount of light they recieve, Moonflowers look like closed tulips during the day. Their true form is only revealed when the cool light of the moon washes over their fields, and only those who welcome the ungrown, somewhat messy and incomplete appearance of the flowers in the daytime remain, knowing that a little bit of care and patience will reveal the flower’s true beauty.
Walking into my first conference, I closely resembled a Moonflower closed in on itself under the sun. I was excited and eager, but also nervous, a touch unskilled at public speaking, and struggled to fully understand my potential. And while in other parts of my life, I may have been overlooked as just another wilting tulip, those within the MUN program treated me as though I was a beautiful flower just in need of a little love and care.
Running for Secretary General was offset by those first experiences within the MUN program - but my reason for running is not to recreate my own experience for all of you. I recognize that inherent in our individuality is the fact that no two people will have the same exact experience. I am running because I see each and every single delegate as a Moonflower; I recognize our potential, wait every year to bask in the reflection of everyone’s true beauty at conferences, and hope only to enhance and improve each individual experience to inspire collective growth.
My platform is geared toward this very goal and consists of three parts; pre, during and post- conference initiatives.
Building confidence is a key aspect of ensuring that delegates can walk into a conference in full bloom and knowledge, we are relentlessly told, is power. Thus, pre-conference initiatives will include a series of preparatory virtual meetings to cover what constitutes a complete and well-researched GRP, how to write a resolution, how to debate, and, for those in specialized committees, what differences to note. During conference, initiatives will include expanding the annual service project to be more inclusive of those who cannot purchase items to donate. Moreover, to increase delegation interaction, inspire environmentally-friendly habits, and raise awareness of important issues, another in-conference initiative will be a book exchange program, where delegates bring in a book about an issue they are passionate about, to exchange with a randomly assigned delegate. Post-conference, to allow for further exploration of one’s future, building off of the experiences gained from MUN, meetings hosted by MUN alumni of various careers will allow delegates to connect with someone who used to be in their position and ask questions about college, the application process, and more.
Like any growing plant, Moonflowers require the persistent and dedicated care of a passionate gardener, and I hope to have the honor to be yours.

Sincerely,
Danica Chakroborty

Danica Chakroborty

Chakroborty

Starting off my high school MUN experience I had a great year. I got my work done and talked to a lot of people. I didn’t worry about a lot of the smaller issues because of my upperclassmen and officers in my committee. From there I thought a lot of delegates don’t always have that and as an officer I’d like to reach out and see if I could help out and make that process any easier to give others that same experience. Then this past year I was lucky enough to be elected as one of the Chief Justices of the ICJ. Acting as an officer taught me a lot of things about the logistics of conference and how things are set up. I still aim to reach out to my delegates and help them. Making their experience as stress-free as I can is my main priority. Moving past that all I want to run for Secretary General in order to address these little logistic issues. I want to be able to fix the little problems so they don’t become a bigger problem for all delegates and affect their MUN experience. Having a more readily available and consistent form of seeing changes to conference for all delegates and officers alike is very important. The website itself helps address this issue but delegates are notified of these changes and with many deadlines coming in rapid succession knowing this information is exceptionally important. Another way to improve overall delegate readiness is increasing inter-delegation contact and forms of communication. I’d seek to do this through the youth secretariats. By changing the formal structure of communication, the youth secretariats would now be pushed to reach out and talk amongst each other on resources or materials used by their delegations to help some of the newer delegations out and help improve some already established delegations on top of their normal contact with the Lead YS and staff. Moving on conference itself could also have examples and conference related materials ready for delegations if they need. Many of these things may seem minor but together they really add up. Having small stressors sprinkled around really detracts from the MUN experience that we know and love

Nathnael Ambaw

Ambaw

Hi everyone! Now that I have described my reasons for running in my campaign video, I’d like to describe my platform/plans. There are 3 main goals within my Secretary General platform.
Firstly, I’d like to work towards making delegates more comfortable at & connected to conference by helping to form connections between delegates/delegations & between delegates & the officers. To build connections between delegates, I’d like to pair first year and more experienced delegates, in the same committee, together prior to conference almost in the form of pen pals. Similarly, I’d like to pair larger & smaller/less experienced delegations together prior to conference. To build connections between delegates & their officers, I’d like to establish the option for delegates to get on calls with their officers prior to conference to get to know each other/build relationships in a less formal and relaxed environment. This option would be available in both 1-on-1 & group settings.
Secondly, I’d like to allow for Delegates to become more engaged in shaping conference & to have more opportunities to become involved in conference initiatives. To do this I would create a platform through which Delegates would be able to voice their opinions, recommendations, & ideas regarding the improvement of conference. This could be done by creating a Delegate Panel, similar to that of YAG, or by expanding the role of Youth Secretariats to not only “preparing delegates for conference” but acting as a panel that works together to actively inform the conference of the delegate’s needs/wants. In addition, I would provide delegates interested in becoming more involved with conference’s initiatives with opportunities to engage in different projects, & I plan to allow delegates to initiate/lead service themed activities/projects both during & after conference. The delegate’s projects would be supported by the conference, & would allow for delegates’ ideas to become transformative action.
Finally, I’d like to expand the reach & involvement of conference in inspiring civic engagement & change. To do so, I’d like to continue & amplify the efforts to extend civic engagement beyond the 3 days of conference. I’d like for conference to empower delegations to hold/initiate their own CE events/projects (i.e. service projects/mock conferences). The conference would provide a template for how delegations could hold mock conferences in their communities & show support for difference projects/efforts by promoting them among its reach & network. Secondly, I find the idea of having both an in person & virtual conference to be extremely valuable as they have different strengths/benefits. There are Model UN conferences all over the globe, so, through the virtual conference, I’d like to look into uniting international MUN conferences as it would share the benefits of a foreign exchange program without risks/inequality in accessibility. Finally, I’d like for the conference to provide civic engagement opportunities relevant those of all passions. This can be done by partnerships with nonprofits, revamping programs like Yimpact lab, utilizing the alumni network, & recognizing/advertising the ideas/projects/work of delegates that others could get involved with.

Saanvi Mehta

Mehta

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