This year's conference, organized by Clay and Director-General Jessi Merry '12, was the largest the College has ever hosted, according to Merry.
"This year we have 75 more delegates than last year and we've added two more committees," she said.
DartMUN, which originated as a conference of 140 delegates in April 2006 and has since grown to include almost 400 participants, aims to provide high school students with an opportunity to discuss international issues, meet other students with similar interests and learn public speaking and diplomatic skills, Charge-d'affaires Caitlin O'Neill '12 said.
DartMUN, which is unique in its reputation as a "novice conference," strives to maintain a sense of intimacy in its program, according to Clay.
"Whereas many college [model UN] conferences have been around for 30 or more years, DartMUN has a relatively small number of delegates," he said. "A lot of the schools that come to the event are just starting programs and this year we have two novice committees designed for beginners."
Student delegates and faculty advisors cited the personal attention provided at DartMUN as one of the conference's most impressive qualities.
"The intimacy of the DartMUN conference is really great," faculty advisor and Sharon Academy history teacher Seth Goodwin said. "Students can really be seen and heard."
This is the fourth consecutive year that Sharon Academy, located in Sharon, Vt., has attended DartMUN, according to Goodwin.
The League of Nations committee a new group presenting at the conference this year simulated several historic conversations concerning disputed land between Turkey and Iraq, according to committee chair Kenji Praepipatmongkol '13.
"This committee was arguably one of the hardest," Praepipatmongkol said. "Delegates had to research countries in a different time frame and know how to apply [their research]."
Delegates and faculty advisors interviewed by The Dartmouth said the more relaxed atmosphere of the conference differentiated DartMUN from model United Nations competitions at other colleges and universities around the country.
"DartMUN remembers that [the conference] is supposed to be fun, which a lot of other conferences forget," Paula Kates, a junior at Brookline High School and Secretary-General of her school's model UN club, said. "I've been to other conferences where there's this frantic air of award-mongering and it's really irritating."
Ensuring that the conference was well-balanced but challenging was one of DartMUN's main goals, according to Merry.
"We have to walk the line between the kids having a good time and learning something," she said.
While the weekend featured over 14 hours of committee meetings, DartMUN took time off from serious discussions of international affairs for its annual dance Saturday evening, held in Collis Common Ground.
The majority of students hailed from 25 schools throughout New England, but the conference also attracted a school from Germany and another from California, along with several exchange students from Afghanistan and Belgium, Clay said.
Merry and Clay worked continually throughout the past year to hire the senior staff, advertise the conference, recruit freshmen and train the committee staff, Clay said.
O'Neill oversaw DartMUN interactions with the high schools involved.
"I had to deal with all 27 schools that attended helping with hotel reservations as well as assigning countries to every delegate," O'Neill said.
Because DartMUN's executives were scattered around the world on different off-terms over the course of this past year, international meetings and Skype sessions were often necessary when organizing the conference, Merry said.
"[O'Neill] was in Paris this winter and I was at Oxford, so at one point we met up at Oxford to work out the spreadsheet of DartMUN delegates," Merry said.
A high level of organization and a willingness to "make changes on the fly" is critical to making a model UN conference successful, Goodwin said.
"I think that it's important [for students] to be introduced to the system by which decisions can be made by a larger overseeing body that has the ability to shape and direct international action and mediate conflict," he said. "As a teacher, it's the highlight of my year I have not experienced anything else that matches the rigor of model UN."
Along with educating high school students, DartMUN also serves a philanthropic purpose, Merry said. Last year, the conference raised $450 for the Ugandan charity Invisible Children by selling candygrams and snacks during breaks between committee meetings. This year the conference raised $800 through the sale of t-shirts to donate to Charity: Water, a non-profit organization that provides clean drinking water to residents in various developing countries, Merry said.
Clay is a member of The Dartmouth Staff.
