The first OLMUN, which was founded and organized by the former high-school student Gero Elerd was held in 2001. His idea behind the conference was to help students to develop their understanding of the UN and to enhance their debating skills. About 100 students, mainly from Oldenburg but also from St. Petersburg, attended the first conference at the “Altes Gymnasium Oldenburg”.
OLMUN developed to become the largest student-organized MUN in Europe with 850 students taking part in 2013. As more and more participants got involved, the number of committees also increased from three to currently seven committees, offering a considerable diversity of topics like human rights issues as well as environmental ones.
The Inner Circle, consisting of approximately 50 students, plans and organizes every aspect of this event with its secretariat, student officers and chairs.
In 2005, the OLMUN association was founded with major involvement of Kersten Stamm to create a reliable base for the annual organization of the conference.
Moreover, the membership in the JUNON (UN Youth association), a union of several German UN groups, since the spring of 2007 means a further step toward national cooperation and offers the chance to exchange experiences and socialize with other MUNs.
In 2020, the conference was cancelled due to the COVID-19-pandemic. As an alternative program, the Secretariat called out the OLMUN@home Challenge which gave students, who usually participate as a delegate, the opportunity to create a poster with resolutions on specific topics of the agenda together.
The same year, OLMUN also approached its 20th anniversary, which could not be celebrated as planned but was still important to emphasize, especially the development of OLMUN and its importance for high school students.
One year later, covid conditions allowed the secretariat to host a hybrid conference with two committees taking place in person and the rest online via video conferences. Like the previous years, there was an opening ceremony, which can still be watched on Youtube and evening activities such as a quiz night.
In 2022, OLMUN does not have to be online anymore due to the better Covid regulations, therefore all committee sessions and evening entertainments are planned to take place in person and under almost pre-Covid conditions. We are happy that approximately 400 students from Germany, Turkey, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands are attending this year's conference.
Comments