By Morgan Thaler
Staff Writer
Costa Model United Nations advisors Wayne Knutson and Robert Timberlake released the 2013-14 Secretariat on April 17, naming juniors Teddy Friedman and Sydney Walley as the secretaries-general.
Juniors Shaylyn Austin, Matt Jones and Lynn Wang will also be members of the new Secretariat as under secretaries-general. This year, a new USG of technology position was created to oversee the conference’s new incorporation of technology and was given to junior Milo Davis.
The junior secretariat positions were given to sophomores TJ Ford and Maggie Hackney, the new chiefs of staff. Eva Abramson and Kaleo Kinimaka-Akoi are the new heads of the Office of Public Information.
“Being a part of the Model UN secretariat is an honor,” Friedman said. “I’m excited to see what we will accomplish in the upcoming year, and the whole program is dedicated to making LAIMUN a huge success.”
This December, the Costa Secretariat will be in charge of planning, coordinating and running the 19th annual Los Angeles Invitational MUN conference, hosted on the Costa campus. Friedman and Walley have already begun the process of appointing LAIMUN’s committee chairs.
“Teddy and I are honored to be able to conclude our final year in MUN as SGs, and we hope to continue the legacy of putting on one of the best novice MUN conferences in California,” Walley said.
The SGs are specifically responsible for coordinating country and committee assignments with the high schools that attend LAIMUN. They work with the USGs to make sure all chairs are properly trained so each committee is run fairly and smoothly.
“We are all really excited about next year’s LAIMUN XIX conference,” Timberlake said. “We are expanding technology by using instant messaging, Google Docs and turnitin.com. Hopefully, the SGs will coordinate everything well.”
The USGs keep track of their specific committees and chairs. Austin will be in charge of the General Assembly committees, Jones will oversee Economic and Social Council committees and Wang will be in charge of the Specialized ones.
“I’m excited for next year’s conference,” Wang said. “I’m nervous about my duties, but I’m confident that this LAIMUN is something this school can be proud of.”
At last year’s LAIMUN conference, Costa experimented with technology in a few committees for the first time. According to Timberlake, Davis will expand and incorporate technology next year in every committee in efforts to eventually make the conference completely paperless.
“I am confident and happy with the newly chosen secretariat,” outgoing Secretary-General senior Taylor Lewis said.
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