Coffee With Kader

By George Jieh
For the first edition of Munity we were able to have the opportunity to interview Sanam Kader, the secretary general of this year’s THIMUN Singapore conference. For many delegates the idea of what a secretary general does might be unclear, especially what Kader will actually do here at THIMUN Singapore. Through our conversation with her, Sanam to what a secretary general does behind the scenes. She gave her job description as the following: "The SG’s (SG is an acronym for Secretary General, and will be used as such hereafter) job is to coordinate the entire team of student officers both during, and before the conference. It is the job of the SG to make sure that each forum is running smoothly, that any problems within the conference and the forums themselves are resolved with the least amount of difficulty, and also to act as a liaison between the officers, admin staff, conference managers, and MUN directors that will be attending the conference. All of these tasks are performed with the aid of the Deputy Secretary-Generals, of course; with a conference the size of THIMUN-Singapore, it would be very overwhelming for a single person to tackle all these issues." Simply put a secretary general is the top most leading character of the conference, and might be considered as the person that makes "the magic happen" at the conference.
Being such an important leader, she must have goals that she wants to achieve. We need to continue making THIMUN Singapore better and better every conference. When Sanam was asked the question, "What you would like to accomplished this year?" she replied, "As a relatively young conference, THIMUN-Singapore has yet to fall into an established pattern which allows for subsequent years to follow a prescribed method of preparation and execution. I hope to establish a set agenda and routine for the officer teams in the years to come so they have a base to work from to improve the conference, so THIMUN-Singapore will be able to grow and expand comfortably.
After Sanam’s description of the actual job of the secretary general, and her goals for the year, we felt that she must have gone through many experiences with MUN conferences in order to reach this point. Curious about the history of her participation in the MUN, we asked her what MUN experiences eventually led her to be chosen to hold such a high position? She answered with humble pride, saying, "I began as a delegate in 9th grade, my first ever conference being in The Hague. Actually, that was my only experience as a delegate, since I was made an officer upon my return from THIMUN, and have been one ever since. I think the most valuable experience I have had is starting the MUN program in my current school. It has taught me more than I ever hoped to learn so early in life about responsibility, leadership, and commitment and I believe that this has prepared me greatly to take on the role of SG and lead the conference to success this year."
As the interview was coming to the end, we felt that we were slowly coming to understand Sanam Kader’s diligence in MUN. We started to understand a lot about her driving personality that is able to push her forward and helps her to achieve all that she has. To close the interview we asked her for some last words of encouragement for all the delegates participating in THIMUN Singapore this year. With passion she said, "I’d like all delegates to give their best efforts in this year’s conference. To go to their forum, sit down, and not say a word is a waste of time. So I encourage all delegates to try their best and endeavor to create practical, viable, and creative solutions, and engage in constructive debate. I’ll come around to all the forums and see how much this advice is taken to heart!"