Praise the Admins!

Admin Staff Keeps THIMUN Chaos Organized

By: Bavo Stevens

Delegates are the face of THIMUN. They are the picture that comes to everybody's mind when we think about THIMUN, and their standard is what we use to evaluate its success. Had there been no delegates, there would have been no THIMUN. Yet, while the delegates unquestionably do play an important role, the Admin staff plays an equally important one. Despite the fact that they have been often called 'note-passers', [admittedly even by MUNITY reporters!] they are the people who work behind the scenes to ensure that this conference goes smoothly, and without them, there would have no organized chaos.
When it comes to lobbying and debating, the amount of work that the Admin staff has can be said to be less than that of the delegates, their jobs aren't as easy as many of us would like to believe. The students at the American School of The Hague (ASH) started preparing for their positions as Admin staff in November. Nathanial Bulovas, from ASH, told MUNITY press that he had devoted his lunch breaks during these last two weeks for his Admin position training. Admin staff Kelly Smith and Julian Janssen from ASH, said that their positions required them to know everything from dress code to the safety procedures needed in the case of an emergency. They went on to tell us that at the end of their training, they were required to take a test to prove that they were sufficiently prepared to be Admin staff Despite the amount of work that the ASH students had to endure, they are happy that they volunteered as Admin staff, telling us that THIMUN had provided them with a rewarding experience.
Not all Admin staff, however, volunteered for their position. The students at the British School in the Netherlands (BSN), for example, have to participate in THIMUN during their junior year. Having no real option over the matter, Billy Baric, Admin staff and student at BSN, said that he could not think of many students from his school that didn't particularly enjoy participating in THIMUN.
What some of the readers might not know is that many of Admin staff needed to have good academic records before they participate in this conference. Kelly Smith said that ASH required grades above 75 percent and teacher recommendations for each of her classes before she could miss a week of school for THIMUN. Other schools had similar requirements; Thuy Nguyen, a student at the International School of The Hague, said that her grades needed to be high enough to miss a week of school but still be prepared for her International Baccalaureate exams.