In the blink of an eye, or rather through the hard work of writing and editing 72 articles featuring every single committee and beyond, EuroMUN 2023 is drawing to a close. UNSA’s President Koen Kramer has kicked this closing ceremony off by thanking each of the Secretariat members for their year long contributions that have cumulated in the last four days. Not even five minutes in, and the tears have already started rolling - as USG Logistics & Socials Lisa Krapp cannot believe that it is over - whether they are tears of happiness, sadness or relief we will leave for you to decide. We from the Maastricht Diplomat would like to echo Koen’s words of gratitude, especially when dealing with the countless requests to make sure that the press - that you could never quite all get in the same room- could run our backroom of madness smoothly.
And now, as for every conference, the awards for each of EuroMUN’s thirteen committees are being handed out. We are just one committee in, and already, the platitudinal - albeit sweet - closing speech clichés have started rolling in. And despite having heard time and again how each chair presenting had the best fellow chair, the greatest committee filled with memes (well, unless you are EUCO this year) as well as insiders are appreciated by about 5-10% of the audience per committee, how inherently wholesome is it to truly believe that this is the sincere opinion of each person talking?
Every award ceremony does not go without its quirks, such as the frat bro behaviour of the Leiden delegation or UNSA's own PD chanting for each of their wins or the fan cams, as delegates pull out their phones in anticipation of a member of their delegation winning. Notably, they seem to know every time when to start filming - perhaps a sign of leaks within the award system?
Of course, with 280 people present, and a lack of impulse control after four full days of EuroMUN, it comes to no surprise that some of the comments dropped border the line of appropriateness. Much to my dismay, my press staff is not excluded from that, as a wardrobe malfunction of a best delegate was met with a loud “STRIP!” coming directly from my left.
As we continue this closing ceremony, I would like to personally reflect on this conference, as the last act of my year as the Maastricht Diplomat’s Editor in Chief. Despite my “Asian-mom-esque” strictness and high standards, my international press corps has exceeded far beyond any other IPC I have seen in my six year long MUN career. Through the dedication and commitment to this conference of Alodia, Jonathan, Lars, Lee-Ann, Leen (as the greatest 2 session alternate), Marta, and Pauline, the International Press Corps of EuroMUN 2023 has published an astounding 72 articles and I could not be prouder of every single piece I had the honour to edit, publish, and track on my dearest whiteboard. Coming early and leaving late (including that one time we got locked in the faculty), I truly mean this cliché: the past four days were made only as successful through the contribution of each of my delegates, press members that I would love to work alongside in any news room - if simulated or real. I am so proud of each and everyone of you, especially seeing as you were entirely new to the world of Model United Nations just four days ago. From everything, like watching me direct orders standing on two chairs to reach the white board, over having been made experts in 13 different committees, their mandates, and topics to finally letting me provide you with Nintendogs and MarioKart when my social battery ran out, you have been nothing short of exceptional. Without you, none of this would have been possible, your next JaneTonic at Que Pasa will be on me.
Signing off,
Juliane Maria Hilgert - Editor in Chief of the International Press Corps at EuroMUN 2023 and the Maastricht Diplomat for the academic year 2022/23
