NC’s Model United Nations team hosted its annual New Delegate conference Saturday October 24, from 9:00AM to 3:30PM. The conference assists first year members of the club in understanding the format and components of the committees they attend at Georgia State or Kennesaw State University further in the year.  

Junior leadership member Dylan Kellos, along with junior Leighann Raksasouk, led club members the last “two to three months” to prepare the research and presentations required. However, Kellos certainly thinks the time proved its worth, as “[The club was] the most prepared for this conference that they ever have been,” he said.

Freshman Harrison Haley thought the conference helped him. He felt he “learned a lot about how to be a better public speaker,” one of the key focuses of the day. Haley, one of the more involved new delegates when the conference began, felt the day helped immensely and “definitely” better prepared him for Georgia State in November.

The work leading up to the conference created a heavy workload, but most of the stress waited until the conference day itself. “On the [day of the] conference was the least amount of work but the most stress, because this was when everything could fall apart,” Kellos said. Fortunately, the day “went without a hitch” as the new delegates experienced a conference setting without the stress provided by outside pressure.  

The layout split the day into two parts, the first made up of four workshops, where new delegates learned about the country they would represent that day, how to write resolutions (the U.N.’s version of a law), the formal procedures of a conference, and how to improve their public speaking abilities. The second half of the conference consisted of a mock meeting, allowing new delegates to practice their newly acquired knowledge of how Model United Nations works in a practice setting at their own school.

All told, this year’s new delegate conference helped in maintaining a successful program at NC.