This year ETH MUN’s participation at OxIMUN went on at the 11th session of the conference. A delegation of eight students, lead by Lucas Schaus, was brought together to represent Brazil and Malta in different committees, including DISEC, UNODC, UNHRC, UNESCO, OAS and EU.
The conference was a hassle to organize, because of students confirming to participate, then cancelling again and the overall costs were above the expected amount. Overall, however, the conference turned out to be a great experience for all the delegates. New friendships were formed and old ones were reinforced during the social events organized by the OxIMUN committee. The events included a formal masquerade, during which the ETH MUN delegation decided to wear the most elegant of all ball masks; the burrito mask, and a formal dinner with the delegates committee. Of course all the events were followed by a fun night-out to the different clubs, pubs and cocktail bars of Oxford.
On a more serious note were the committee sessions, where the delegation of ETH MUN was evenly matched with the different delegations and overall our delegation represented our given countries very well. Thanks to our weekly training sessions, experienced and less-experienced MUN members were familiar with the rules of procedure and were able to keep up with the level of debate at the conference. Sadly, our delegation did not win an award during the conference, however a delegate that won an award was mistakenly presented as a delegate of ETH MUN, this was not the case unfortunately.
During the conference a dinner was organized with the delegation of the University of Zurich, which was a great experience and was the start of a discussion for a closer cooperation of the two rival teams, which culminated in the joint crisis session.
The accommodation this year was the Holiday Inn Express near Kassam stadium in the suburbs of Oxford. It turned out to be a very pleasant experience and the delegates enjoyed it. However, being in the suburbs it was necessary to take the taxi into the city center every morning and evening. Overall, it was a good decision to stay there for the conference as rooms had to be shared only in pairs and the breakfast was included.
The delegation is grateful of the financial support from the “Stiftung Mercator Schweiz” for the participation at the conference. A great deal of the overall costs were able to be covered with the generous donation.
We thank the the Mercator Foundation for making this trip possible.
