Apparently, the only thing that is worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. Proceeding without a specific direction, passion or purpose can not only lead to discontinuity, but also be misleading into places that nobody would want to be in. Knowing where our end-goal lies, is in fact essential for the flourishing of EuroMUN as a whole. Below you can find the EuroMUN Secretariat expressing their vision.
The Secretary General and Conference Manager
As per my role within the management of the conference, my vision is to ensure smooth communication within the Organizing Team, to be a proper representation of EuroMUN in the UNSA board and vice versa, to take feedback and tackle, reason and make good use of it, both from the participants during the conference and from all people involved during the preparation stage. Looking at the EuroMUN 2018 project more broadly, my vision is for it to be the biggest EuroMUN yet with the highest possible academic standard.
Finding myself in the position of Conference Manager, I cannot help but hope that the 2018 edition will be successful in terms of meeting the targets that we posed for ourselves. EuroMUN 2018 will develop under the following visions:
- Innovation, with changes that play both a procedural and substantive role in the creating of the conference;
- Academic excellence, mirrored in the choice of committees, topics and study guides;
- Sustainability, encouraging the responsible use of technology and utilize sustainable materials (as much as it is reasonably possible);
- Gender equality, with our secretariat being composed of 3 women and 4 men, and the general gender ratio of the conference being 1 male to 2 females;
- Creating an environment that goes beyond borders and enhances cultural diversity;
- Having a regional, national and international impact through putting forward European cooperation and values of integration;
- Aid and encourage the democratic involvement of the youth through managing a dialogue between themselves and decision makers.
The Secretary and Under Secretary General for Communications
My vision for the 2018 edition of EuroMUN is to enhance the strengths, acknowledge the weaknesses, take advantage of the opportunities and tackle the Threats. The main strength of EuroMUN is being an established conference with strong presence in the MUN world, organized by a structured team, under the supervision of and accountable to, the UNSA board. The opportunities that the 2018 edition will meet are a potential expansion of the European Outreach of the conference, targeting more local students; and the development of stronger ties with UNSA. My vision in regard to the potential weaknesses and threats is to tackle them by welcoming all possible feedback at all times throughout the process, and working in accordance to the feedback received.
Head of Content and Chief of Staff
It was recently said that ‘visions are for the optometrists’. I disagree with this: visions lead the world, for better or for worse. In both my qualities of Head of Content and Chief of Staff, everything I do in preparation for EuroMUN 2018 follows the hopes and ambitions I have for this year’s conference.
First, I strive to uphold the standards of EuroMUN regarding academic excellence. This ought to be reflected in our choice of committees and of topics, as well as in our selection of highly qualified chairs. Where there is academic excellence, there is the potential to solve difficult questions in a comprehensive, realistic, and yet imaginative fashion – results for which EuroMUN is famed.
Second, I intend to boost the innovation at EuroMUN 2018. Last year was our 10th birthday, and a breeze of change will blow on the 11th edition. We will do so, again, in our choice of committees, simulating bodies that may represent the future of international relations. Our Rules of Procedure will also be substantially updated and adapted to better reflect reality, and to facilitate debate in every possible way. Most importantly maybe, our topics should lead delegates to look at world problems with a fresh pair of eyes.
In sum, my hope for EuroMUN 2018 is for the conference to leave a mark on the attendees, be they Delegates, Chairs or Staff members. My ambition for them to leave this conference with new, great ideas, aspiring to set the world in motion.
The Under Secretary-General for registrations
My vision for the Registration’s team for this year rests on four major points. Firstly, the Registrations Team will strive to uphold and improve on last year’s level of hospitality, service and effectiveness at the conference. Last year’s team was lauded in this regard and I am positive that this year’s team will be able to uphold this high standard.
Secondly, we seek to improve the streamlining of the tasks, to introduce a better overview and division of the workload through making proper schedules and through setting and upholding clearer goals to create a better indication of what is to be done by when and by whom. This applies particularly to the allocation procedures and emails as we believe this makes the former fairer and clearer and the latter more timely and adequate.
To further improve these aspects brings me to my third point. We will seek to enhance the organizational aspects of our work to create an improved overview for the team. This includes clearer administration of incoming and outgoing email correspondence in order to keep better track of ongoing- and closed inquiries and responsibility over the different correspondences. For allocation, this means extending the categorization of applicants to again ensure a fairer process of position allocations based on merit and to ensure more applicants can receive one of their preferred positions.
Lastly, we seek to foster greater involvement and interest from the Registrations Team in EuroMUN in general. It is detrimental that the Registrations Team is up to date on all developments in the organization of the conference and stays interested and involved throughout the planning phase of EuroMUN. As the work of this team can be more monotonous this can prove more challenging around the middle of the organizing period. As such, a great team spirit should be fostered, both within the team and among the entire organizing committee, and the team should be kept adequately up to date on and involved in the overall planning process.
The Under Secretary-General for Finance and Fundraising
EuroMUN as an MUN of a large scale has and will continue to be a platform where young adults come to develop their intellectual ability to comprehend and compare polarizing positions while enhancing their social skills by having genuine conversations with people who have a different life story. My general vision is to have the conference become an excellent source of learning where the delegates get a dual learning experience by: (1) Giving the delegates the platform to understand the why’s and how’s of a country’s position while critically evaluating the rationale behind other countries positions and (2) Assembling people from the world to ultimately engage in constant dialogue which broadens the emphatic understanding of delegates.
As the Under Secretary-General of Finance and Fundraising, I have a clear vision of increasing the amount of sponsorships received from last year to ensure that the conference runs smoothly from a financial perspective. However, there are certain visions I have for the upcoming conference:
- Strong dialogue between western and non-western delegates to raise cultural and social perception;
- Strong dialogue between delegates and sponsors with clear-cut views;
- Ensuring that sponsors will want to continue collaborating for future conferences due to clearly defined benefits for the sponsor.
The Under Secretary-General for Logistics
The vision for EuroMUN 2018 is a providing the participants with a welcoming and responsible atmosphere. I would like to promote EuroMUN through our socials, not only making them memorable but by offering access to Maastricht University student in order to make the conference more visible for the upcoming years. Moreover, I am a strong believer that the international community of Maastricht will resonate for the international delegates. Our events, including a Gala, a Welcoming Party, a EuroMUN style Cantus and our infamous Club Night shall try and live up to last years’ successes.
For EuroMUN 2018, the Logistics team will also focus on the sustainability of the conference. Indeed, I believe it is our duty as an event welcoming 500 students from all over the globe to promote eco-friendly behavior whether that be in regards to the food we serve, our socials or simply by reducing the amount of waste we produce.
With this in mind I am looking forward to work with the Secretariat in order to offer our delegates the best EuroMUN to date.
The Under Secretary General for Marketing
The marketing vision for the 2018 edition of EuroMUN is mainly focused on the enhancement of academic excellence, innovation, youth involvement and dialogue with decision makers. More practically, it is the very aim of the marketing team is to enlarge the conference, further focusing the target of our marketing actions on Continental Europe and, more specifically, to Maastricht.
Our vision is to take EuroMUN worldwide, within five years, with outreach on social media to 20 000 (hence, doubling our current outreach) and increasing the size of the conference to 800 participants, while keep enhancing the academic excellence and making sure that everyone in the MUN world will know what EuroMUN is and immediately recognize our logo. Arguably, this vision is very far-fetched; although, idealism is only naïve when it lacks action, determination and imagination – I can assure you that this is not the case.
