The Chair Evaluation Weekend for MUNOL 2018 took place at the Thomas-Mann-School. It was an event where the Secretaries General (Leonard Roemer, Johannes Willert) observed the Chair applicants while those were leading a debate. We as Press of MUNOL talked with both of them to give you an insight of the weekend.

„What is this weekend all about?“

Secretaries General (SG): „This weekend is mainly about MUNOL and the selection of the Chairs. For the next MUNOL we need to run more than twenty Chairs and we checked if the applicants who are interested in becoming a chair fit in the conference as we imagine next year.“

„What is your task as Secretaries General?“

SG: „We are responsible for the content, the issues on the agenda, the conference theme, the delegates and the Chairs. During the weekend we were watching the Chair applicants and were evaluating their appearance, what they did during the debate and how they solved problems which could occur.“

„Why is it reasonable to have three full days for that?“

SG: „The first day we had just a practice part which means we held a seminar teaching them what to do during your debate, how to react to different situations. The other two days we had to evaluate them. It has been serious debates the whole day and we ran a bit out of schedule but if we didn’t two days would be the perfect amount.“

„Do you have suggestions for future participants as Chairs?“

SG: „They should know all about the issues in their committee and they should have a general understanding of the United Nations.“

„What is your impression of this weekend?“

SG: „It was a really good opportunity for us to get in touch with the applicants. And they had the chance to improve their debating and chairing skills.“

So now we know what the Secretaries General think, let us talk about the Chairs next. Each pair of Chair candidates had to lead a sixty minute debate while the delegates represented different countries. Thereby it wasn’t just a training for the future chairs but also for the future delegates. Here are the voices of the weekend:

„I like being here because all the first timer Chairs learn how to chair, you all have a lot to discuss, there are as many resolutions as twenty Debating Clubs on one weekend. I like it. Its fun.“

„Friday was really interesting because the first timers including me got the possibility to chair and they got feedback in the end. That was quite helpful.“

„The weekend was pretty well organized and it was really fun to debate and also to chair.“

„I think it is an important weekend because MUNOL is a cool but in a way serious program. You have to see whether the people who are going to sit in front of the committee later are capable of doing it. Because we don’t want to push someone into the cold water.“

Press: Hannes Ridder and Maya Briére