GallatUN

Piled into a simultaneously frigid and boiling white school bus, delegations from Germany, Hungary, France, and Kazakhstan accompanied the Bozeman High School Model United Nations team to the University of Montana in Missoula the Sunday before Thanksgiving Break. Gallatin’s UN delegation, made up of Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors arrived at the outskirts of the university, many, including me, not knowing what to expect.

The two day conference, which brought schools from around the state and Idaho to compete, is organized by students of the University of Montana, who complete a one semester course, this year taught by Professor Dominic Beccari. Gallatin’s chapter of the event is advised by Logan Aytes, who is also the advisor to Academic World Quest and Rotary Interact, and Shelby Jackson. To compete, members meet every Friday leading up to the event to research and cover parliamentary procedure. The conference is split into 5 assemblies, General Assemblies 1 and 2, the United Nations Environmental Agency, the UN Human Rights Council, and the UN Security Council. 

Position papers, which are submitted to the University to review, are one page documents that allow students to embody their assigned country and reference past national and international actions their countries have taken. These papers correspond to the two topics assigned to each committee and are used to establish the stance of each delegate. 

At the start of the conference, around 300 high school students listened, decreasingly attentively, to UM students enrolled in the course speaking to their experiences at the national Model UN conference in New York, which was attended by 12 students. The audience became more attentive when Owen Sirrs, the Cultural Instructor at the University’s Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center took the stage, as advertised by an oversized (and serious) selfie of Sirr’s Face against the backdrop of knotty pine panels; Sirrs, an author who worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency as an intelligence analyst, was characterized by his red striped tie, reminiscent of a Reagan presidential portrait, and animated the crowd of teens with his countless analogies and entertaining speech. The instructor was not afraid to single delegates out, often referring to the outsized power that countries like China, Israel, the United States, and Russia hold in the real United Nations. At this point, the shared experiences of delegates diverged, and assemblies began to call roll and begin discussion.

Evelyn Taylor, Gallatin’s Model UN president who attended the conference last year, was a member of UN General Assembly 1. Taylor’s method of convincing delegates to workshop and pass her bills stems from networking skills. “First things first. I go up to people and I say, “what’s crack-a-lacking?” I go, “do you want to hear our resolution?” I create quick bonds fast,” the Junior commented. This year’s conference was different in the respect that Gallatin’s team is “growing” and competitors like Taylor know “one million more things” than the previous year.

At the finale of the conference, all delegations gathered where they had started; the insulation speckled ceilings and the view of the blizzarding November day were overshadowed by a general buzz - so much so that the conference was gavelled down by university students yelling “decorum!” The dias of each committee had selected resolutions to be voted on in front of the entire conference. Two delegates from Gallatin, Shelby Tyler and Kayla Lobb, delivered speeches voicing their opinions on the resolutions on the floor for a vote. “After a lot of us got our awards I just felt very pumped up,” said Evelyn Taylor. “I decided to make everyone stand in a circle.” Taylor gave a brief speech and directed Gallatin’s delegates to put their hands in for a cheer.

The designation of Honorable Delegate, which denoted the top 20% of delegates in a committee, was awarded to Ezra Graham and Rhea Lowe. Elina Jiang, Sophie Woodard, Kayla Lobb, Shelby Tyler, and Evie Taylor were recognized as within the top 10% of their committees, and Kayla Lobb was honored for writing a position paper that fell in the top 1 - 2%. Marking the most successful year for Gallatin thus far, the Model UN conference was a learning experience that left many with lasting friendships, networking skills, and memories - and another 4 hour bus ride in the same white vehicle that had driven us down the drifted, worn roads just days before.