ETHMUN participated in the National Model United Nations conference in New York with a delegation of 16 people. This was a very large and professionally organized conference and took place in the Sheraton Hotel in New York. It was the first time that ETHMUN attended this conference and it can be seen as a success. Most of our delegates represented the Republic of Moldova while two double delegations had Colombia and France in Security Council debates. The debates in the committees were very well organized and led, however we felt the committees (with exception of the security council) were generally too large. Some members could for instance only speak once because the speaking list was too long. A highlight of this conference was the final debate and closing ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters. Except of the delegate’s dance which took place on the last night of the conference, the social events were poor since they only consisted of a “delegates lounge” which was a large room in the Hotel where some music was played. The majority of delegates at this conference were from colleges or universities in the United States, furthermore there were several teams from Germany and France and some more international participants. Most American delegates were extremely well prepared and worked very hard, even at night, because they attended this conference in partial fulfillment of their degree. For this reason, our delegates did not manage to win any awards this time.
The organization on our side was good. We lived at a Best Western hotel close to Times Square which was at walking distance to the conference venue. In the free time, our delegates organized the activities themselves: Each delegate was responsible for one activity, for example viewing Brooklyn Bridge, and researched in advance how to get there, cost and other information. Then other people could choose to participate. This worked very well and is recommended to be repeated for future conferences.
To sum up, this conference was a valuable experience to all of our delegates. In the future it would be advisable to check on the size of the committees first before signing up to a conference.