Behind-the-Scenes Superheroes
PANAMUN is a conference that requires the collaboration of everyone to be successful. But who are the individuals that bring all of this together? Who are these behind-the-scenes superheroes? These are the admins; these individuals are the ones in charge of making sure everything is ready for the committees so that the debates run as smoothly as possible. But who is the leader in charge of these superheroes?
Dixie Waigel is this year's Deputy Secretary General of Admins. “I work closely with the secretariats in order to take mostly charge of the physical aspects of the conference, such as: the materials, the looks, the maps and generally the physical organization, as opposed to the content of the debates,” she said. However, even though Waigel has a specific role as a DSG, she also has to support other Secretariat members who focus more on the content of the conference.
She explained how everyone in the conference needs to collaborate and help each other. “We all provide our input despite our jobs not being related,” she pointed out. On the other hand, as a DSG in general, she believes that she has the responsibility to constantly keep an eye on her staff, to make sure that they are all doing their assigned tasks. Waigel mentioned how they were “like pieces in a puzzle” to describe how every member of the DSG has a significant impact in the flow and organization of conference.
In order to be part of the DSG, individuals must have wide-ranging experience in many different MUN conferences. Waigel, for example, has been part of five PANAMUN conferences and two other international ones. In PANAMUN, she has been a delegate and admin twice, Deputy head of Admin, and chair of the UNHCR. Apart from this, she has also been a delegate at a conference in New York and Boston. She points out that this year´s PANAMUN has been by far her favorite debating event. She said enthusiastically, “I think last year can come second for sure. I absolutely loved being a chair but being part of this Sec is an experience that I can´t describe.”
When asked why she decided to become a part of the Secretariat, Waigel answered: “I love MUN, I love the aspect of unity that it implies, I love everybody coming together and speaking about these issues that I'm so passionate about advocating awareness for. So, helping to make the conference come to life as easily as possible was definitely something that I thought would be important to do.”
But, what part of being a DSG makes her feel like this year´s PANAMUN was the best? Well, Waigel is a person who likes the idea of being able to see all aspects of the conference. “Even though I am really busy all the time, the few times that I have a small break, I can watch any debate that I want, any issue that I think is important, at least to me personally or any that is important in the world today. I can get watch it and it amazes me to see the delegates being able to enjoy the conference, due to all our collective efforts,” she indicated. Waigel in particular has a passion for advocating human rights and learning new languages, and seeing the bigger picture of the debates interests her greatly.
PANAMUN has been very busy and, although there have been several obstacles, everyone has been identifying the wrongs and focusing on the rights. In terms of delegates, Waigel said: “I’m hoping that, through their debates, people become more politically aware of issues around the world. I see a lot of insensitivity to them, perhaps due to desensitization or perhaps due to just lack of care in general, but maybe it’s due to lack of awareness and I’m hoping that this will help aid awareness and make people maybe want to work towards making the world a better place.”
