ToMUN conference 2023

This year, we had the amazing chance to travel to Torùn in Poland a day in advance to meet the organising team of ToMUN 2023. This allowed us to learn about what it takes to organise a conference. It was an utmost fruitful experience, as we probably paid more attention here than in any lessons at school. We gained an insight into housing and catering management, the press and facilitation team’s job, managing the media aspect, providing coffee as well as organising a blast of a party. We are sure that we will use this precious information to organise the best MUN experience for everyone at our school Lycée Michel-Rodange in January 2024!

I, Sara, had the honor to be one of the chairs at ToMUN 2023, more precisely, I chaired the committee called United Nations Environment Programme. I had never chaired at a conference before, so pretending I was little nervous, would be a major understatement. Nevertheless, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome of the conference. My delegates, despite being first timers, were amazing, engaged and quite knowledgeable. Seeing the conference from another perspective was a chance to gather precious experience in the perspective of our own conference next January.

I, Mira, had the privilege to be part of ToMUN 2023 as the delegate of Germany. As this was my second MUN, I was a bit nervous at first but confident at the same time, as I was able to use the experience from my first MUN in my work. On the first day, however, my patience was put to a test, due to the fact that the majority of the delegates participating in the United Nations Environment Program turned out to be beginners and therefore hadn’t really felt comfortable with the rules of procedures yet. But Sara, our chair, calmly guided them through the debate and so, slowly but steadily, everyone began to participate in the debate. As a co-submitter of our first resolution, I was amazed by the fact that the debate held on until the next day, due to so many beginners speaking up and proposing creative ideas. Because of the very heated first debate, I became motivated to prepare a resolution for the second debate that had taken place right after lunch on the second day.

I, Victor, really enjoyed ToMUN not only as delegate of Canada but also on a personal basis. It always gives me a “wow” feeling when I look back at the wonderful, wonderful experience that I’ve been blessed with. On the first day at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime committee, I was looking forward to the debate with confidence, because I had prepared myself better than for my last MUN. However, I quickly noticed that my preparations had weak points.

For me, Tara, ToMUN was my first conference which made me sufficiently nervous about the whole process. I wasn’t sure what to expect and didn’t know if I was prepared enough. After the first days of the conference, I realized that these doubts and hesitations were without reason. ToMUN is a very beginner friendly MUN, that offers a beginners’ workshop before the start of the conference, where every procedure is further explained, and which helped me to lose a bit of my nervousness about the committees. Furthermore, the chairs in the different committees were very open for any questions and offered a lot of help.

My Committee, the UNW, was quite interesting as the subject of domestic violence and surrogacy can be quite diverse and controversial. While the first day was a bit slow, as most of us were first-timers and so were quite reserved, the second day was a lot of fun and we were able to debate seriously and in an intense way over the topics.

After the exciting conference in Torùn, we also had the honor to be invited to a breakfast held by the Ambassador at the Luxembourgish Embassy in Warsaw. We were given an insight into the world of diplomacy and the effort it takes to become a great diplomat. The ambassador and consul shared a lot of their knowledge about diplomacy with us and told us how exactly they were assigned at the Luxembourgish Embassy in Warsaw.