# play by the rules

     When I was in high school I was a member of the World Affairs Club. We participated in a model United Nations program, for the purposes of which each school was a country. Our school came late to the game, and the larger countries were already assigned. We were the Maldive Islands one year, and the Seychelles another. Our team had to think up a speech that these countries might make to the United Nations, and deliver it. Since we were representing such a small nation, it was assumed that we would have time on our hands ( we did ). Some of us were made part of the sergeant-at-arms staff, responsible for keeping order in the assembly.  Our speech, based on research into politics and economics in our "nation" was already written, so I had time to read most of  Robert's Rules of Order before our next "session".  According to the rules, the sergeant-at-arms and his or her staff are responsible for note-passing--permitted in the UN, if not in school. Power! We found it. The "United States" couldn't pass a note to "Russia" unless we would handle it for them. We tried to get political and economic concessions from them before we would pass their "notes". That is how the "Seychelles" became a contender in the game for world domination. Or something like it.