THE MUNISH FINAL ISSUE
COMMUNICATOR
SUNDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2017
Photo by Mihai Chira
What Has MUNISH XXVII Achieved? By Eleni and Mihai
It all starts with the first lobbying session. Delegates get to know each other, their rivals, potential allies, and form their first impressions of it all. While it might be intimidating at first, not knowing what to expect and what is to come, the chairs makes sure that all delegates feel secure and comfortable voicing their thoughts, opinions and views. Lobbying is the stepping stone to forming well balanced, realistic and powerful resolutions. Delegates from different countries gather together, form alliances and work towards the same goal, always having “Peace, Justice and Inclusive Societies” in mind. As a result of the collaborative nature of the lobbying sessions, debates can be fruitful, constructive, as well as informative. The in depth thinking that goes behind the resolutions and the intense atmosphere that is present during the rounds of debate only add to the suspense of achieving practical yet powerful solutions to our global issues.
In this issue: •
Interview with Press Advisors
•
Jeroen about InMutual
•
Interviews about MUNISH
•
Heads of Admin revealing!
•
The Latest Gossips (from the boxes)
Colofon COMMUNICATOR 2017 • Editors-in-Chief: Aaron Wang, Chiara Zwijgers • Designers Jasmin Stoios, Erin McClain • Editors Mihai Chira, Jet Kraaijveld, Amandine Leenstra, Nadine Schubert, Maxence Rynwalt, Federico Sellitto, Eleni Socratous, Eva Lucius • Digital Media Jaap Deinum, Zoe Socratous, Katerina Kazantzi, Marisa Pantelaras, Iñigo Imaz Blanco, Dimitry Usov, Patrick Lacorum • Advisor Valentina Bravo, Alice Godfrey-Froment, Rowdy Boeyink
An example of this being The Human Rights Council’s resolution on protecting the universal human rights of illegal migrants, submitted by the delegation of the United States of America. The delegation of the United States not only suggested a practical solutions to problems faced by migrants but further encouraged the creation of other bodies within the UN that will potentially help combat future issues. The creation of a United Nations Border Data Sharing Association (UNBDSA) could help with the diplomatic cooperation between two or more nations which have border conflicts, thus allowing for better relations between the nations themselves, but also to establish a safer pathway for migrants. Therefore, the resolution, not only helps with attacking problems faced by migrants but further encourages better cooperation between member states. Moreover, the resolution requests from the Security Council, an important division of the United Nations which is often called into session to respond quickly to international crises, to eliminate illegal migration as well as strengthen national security. This could be done by encouraging recipient countries to share intelligence on illegal migration. By doing this, it will be easier and more efficient for countries to be able to tackle the issue of illegal migration while encouraging the cooperation between nations. Allowing for a more united body combating the aforementioned concern, will ensure the inclusion of minority
groups into society. The General Assembly have been discussing many different problems around the world. The main focus of the general assembly is to have as many resolutions solved to our theme of Peace, Justice and Inclusive Societies. The two chairs,Kieran Schmidt-Das and Ron van der Horst, in the General Assembly have done a wonderful job of approving their most pressing situations. Ron van der Horst took a serious and concern look to all the problems facing the different and serious problems presented to him. He acted on different countries giving the problem a few different points that would change the view of other delegates and vote differently than they had originally planned to. One resolution was successfully passed with the help of our amazing chair Ron van der Horst. The situation of implementing measures to combat cyber warfare. The main focus of passing this resolution was for the delegates to collaborate with each other .
(Continue reading this article on munish.nl > go to Archives > go to Press)
Image by Katerina Charalambides
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“MUNISH is a Very Professional and Well Organised Oil Machine that Just Runs!”
By Amandine Leenstra and Jet Kraaijveld Rowdy Boeyink is one out of the five MUN directors of MUNISH at The International School of The Hague who all have different responsibilities to make MUNISH an unforgettable experience. His role is to help the press team, student officers and to stay in contact with other MUN directors. When do you usually start preparing for MUNISH? “Not until September because, we hold the interviews with the new SGs and CSGs in May, but once those students are chosen and the BOD is formed, the students take off and do all the work. The supervisors keep an eye on what is happening, but Ms Peters is the driving force behind the BOD and she makes sure that all the deadlines are met. In August or September I start looking at the press work and the pre-conference issues that we want to release a few days before the conference starts.”
“For the whole conference, I think that it went very smoothly, much smoother than last year.” How is the theme selected ? “This year’s theme was based on one of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and it’s completely up to the BOD and the academic advisors to select a theme that is relevant, current and different from last year. They hold a debate to choose what happens at the conference and us, teachers have almost no influence on what theme is chosen. Of course, if the chosen theme is inappropriate or irrelevant, teacher will make sure that it is changed, but most of the time we are dealing with MUNISH experienced students and they know their issues and what’s important to discuss right now.” How do you feel this conference went? “For the whole conference, I think that it went very smoothly, much smoother than last year. I was
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thrown in as a new teacher and there was a lot that I was impressed with last year. Our school has so many students volunteering to be part of this conference and making it a success and that didn’t change year after year. I was really impressed to see how year 10’s and year 11’s helping out with getting the setup ready, year 11’s and year 12’s stepping up with being chairs and delegates and helping with delegate training.” What is different to this year’s conference than to last year’s conference? “The theme, the BOD, the people, there are a lot of experienced people in the BOD now and know what they are doing.” Is there anything you would have done differently in the this year’s conference? “I don’t think so, because every conference is different. It is run by a different group of people but what you can see is that time and time again MUNISH is a very professional and well organised oil machine that just runs. It is very big, but not big enough that students drown, so I would keep it this size and I would not grow or get smaller. The change
I would like to see next year is that the opening ceremony is always a very impressive hour of the day, videos debates, keynote speakers, and it is all at the end of the day so maybe we can bring that earlier so that students aren’t that tired from the whole experience. Since our facilities can not cope with 1000 students, the theatre is not big enough, therefore I suggest we have a large screen on the plaza so that people can view the opening with the music and the videos together, otherwise a lot of school leave which is a pity.”
“Join! Have fun! Be a delegate, write a resolution, try things out, try something different. if you are an admin, you should become press, if you are press, you should become a delegate.” Do you have any tips for people joining MUNISH as their first time next year? “Join! Have fun! Be a delegate, write a resolution, try things out, try something different, if you are an admin, you should become press, if you are press, you should become a delegate, if you were delegate you should try become a chair and then later on become an SG. Try something different to develop your own skills because it is a three day, funpacked conference where you meet a lot of new people if you are open to it.”
MUNISH MUN Directors: Ms Godfrey, Mr Boeyink, Ms Peters and Ms Matthews
An Exclusive Interview with the Creator of InMutual By Amandine Leenstra
What is the mission for InMutual?
What inspired you to create InMutual?
What do you expect InMutual to be in 10 years?
“InMutual is a new platform which we set up to help MUN delegates. Being previous MUN delegates ourselves, we really noticed that there are a lot of people that you know well from previous MUN conference, but there is also a far larger group of people that you might have had a short conversation with or might have seen but don’t personally know. This is why InMutual is set up for you to see how you are connected to other MUN delegates and for you to go on after conferences to stay in contact with each other; it is also a dedicated platform where people can engage and lobby online about previous meetings that they had.“
“I have been a participant of MUN in the past as a delegate, a chair and in the board of directors. What always resonated was that MUN is a great experience because of the people that you meet and engage with, but afterwards it is always hard to stay up to date with everyone. In addition, when going to a new MUN conference, it was a struggle to know which people you had already met with before would be attending this conference. This is why we saw the need of a platform such as what InMutual has now created.”
“So, of course, 10 years is a really long time, but it does go by quickly. But I hope that in 10 years, people will still be using InMutual in all kinds of steps in their lives and all types of conferences, for them to see how they are connected with other participants.”
How many conference has InMutual been used for? “We had our first conference in February this year launching with THIMUN in The Hague which had around 3500 participants and since then we have been at a range of different conferences throughout the world from Dubai to Malaysia through Rome and Istanbul. Currently, MUNISH is our seventh conference. “
What would you recommend for new InMutual user? “So, the unique thing about InMutual is that by adding the names of the previous MUNs that you have been to before, it really shows you how you are connected to the other fellow delegates. The key thing for people to really complete their profiles, is for them to add the networks that they were part of to stay in contact with students that they met before.”
Do you think that it has been a success? “For the first few months in a lot of different conferences, it has been really great. It has had an interesting start for us to work and understand a lot how our platform has developed.” Jeroen van Gennep
MUNISH Party
By Mihai Chira After all the tiring resolutions and votes and note passing, we all deserved some great time off. Munish has had the privilege of hosting a party at Madurodam. The tourist attraction housing small figurines of famous Dutch landmarks. But who cares about small dolls when there is a party. Music blasting and people moving to the beat of the music, the hectic dancefloor barely able to fit everyone from MUNISH. The heat, the music and the beat of the songs made it “Lit” as quoted by Mr. van Vliet in the opening ceremony. It was an amazing night .And remember delegates and admins party hard and hardly work.
How To Become A Head Of Admin Written by Jet Kraaijveld Maria Fallenius. Being the Head of Admin is one of the many key components to making MUNISH run smoothly. Helping others, guiding and collaborating well are all of the attributes Heads of Admin need to have. The role of the Head of Admin is to supervise, teach the Admins everything necessary and make sure that the Admins know in which committees they have to be during MUNISH.Since it is necessary to be familiar with the school, the ish students can apply for this role. Why did you apply for Head of Admin? I applied for Head of Admin because I really like being an admin and I have also done a lot of work with the previous Heads of Admin, I also admire the work that they do. It is nice to see the other organizing sides of it as well of the admin job, and not just being the admin itself.
What did you need to do to apply? I had to write a letter of motivation, and then they gave me an interview and through the interview they picked the head of admin. What requirements or character traits do you need for this position? You need all the general character traits like leadership skills and good organization. You also need to be really familiar with admin jobs because if you don’t know what people on your team do, you can not lead them and supervise them. How have you experienced been being Head of Admin? It has been quite a stressful and full week. They have been long and stressful days. For example, we came it at 7:30 this morning until 9:00 to clean everything up. What have you learnt from being
Head of Admin? My leadership skills were pretty terrible before being head of admin so that has definitely developed and speaking in front of the hundreds of admins that we have, I wouldn’t have been able to do that a year ago.
A View Into The Gossip Box Written by Federico Sellitto, Nadine T. Schubert and Eva Lucius Unfortunately this weekend is coming towards an end, but the excitement hasn't yet! As you may know, each committee has a gossip box where people write notes about other delegates, chairs or anything else that could stir up some drama. The notes range from conversations amongst delegations, pickup lines and fascinating stories about the MUNISH party. We went to a few committees including ECOSOC, GA1 and SPC2. ECOSOC and SPC2 that unfortunately had little to no gossip, but luckily GA1 had a overfilled box full of juicy notes. We collected some of the gossip notes from these committees. Here is a preview of some of the best notes we could find in the gossip boxes:
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