What’s your name and what role do you play in this year’s OLMUN?
My name is Hendrik Ebel, I’m part of the Inner Circle and held several positions during previous OLMUNs but this year I can relax a little more.
How long have you been interacting with and what positions have you had in the OLMUN?
I started in 2017 as a Tech Staff and I joined the Inner Circle in 2018. In the year after that I was
happy to take up the position of one of the three Executive Administrative Officers and in 2020 and 2021 I had the honor of being the Deputy Secretary General. In 2022, I had the role of coordinating the crisis and this year, I’m working more in the background as an IC-member.
Which positions have you had at previous OLMUNs and which was your favorite?
Of course, the position of the Deputy Secretary General in which I served twice (even though we unfortunately had to cancel the OLMUN in 2020) is the most prestigious one, however, I think I had the most fun in 2022 when I had the position of the Crisis Coordinator.
In what way did the topics change over the years and what topic interested you the most?
It is always a little challenging to find topics good for a three-day debate that are also interesting for the delegates, and they definitely did change with the global issues we face. What I find remarkable, however, is that in 2019 we talked about the prevention of epidemics in the World Health Assembly while the North Atlantic Treaty Organization dealt with the aggressive behavior of the Russian Federation towards its neighboring countries. Both of these topics have become now extremely relevant only a little later and it is interesting that we talked about them a year before they actually happened. This proves to me that what we do here at the OLMUN isn’t just a fun game but that it actually deals with crucial topics that need solutions.
How has the number of participants of the OLMUN changed? Has it increased?
Through the years until 2019 the number of participants was constantly increasing, and we had nearly a thousand participants by then when, in 2020 we had exactly zero because we had to
cancel the OLMUN for obvious reasons. It was very hard to restart the OLMUN in 2021, we didn’t know how we would grow back to our previous size but to now see that we are having nearly one thousand participants this year again does make me very happy
What motivates you to take part in the OLMUN every year?
Thinking about how many people have participated in the last years and how I and other alumni can now support the Secretariat with our experience to help the OLMUN get even better.
What event did you like most in the week?
The barbecue at the first evening where you can see all the participants at a private setting for the first time. Seeing everybody making friends and connecting with people from other countries and different cultures is just great. This is the first event of the week where everybody is really just enjoying themselves and that is the one point where every year I say to myself “You gotta contribute to this next year again“