INTERVIEW:
Q: Can you give us a brief description of yourself, what's your name? What grade are you in? What is your role here at ASMMUN? And what school do you go to?
A: My name is Juan de Grazia, I'm from Argentina, and I'm a chair in the Historical Security Council. I'm also in charge of the technical stuff during the meeting, such as letting people in and out, and I'm from ASM.
Q: For how long have you been doing MUN?
A: This is my second year doing MUN. Last year was my first year doing ASM MUN.
Q: How are you feeling about this online conference? And are you sad that it’s happening online this year?
A: As a delegate I'm not sure if this year’s conference is less fun or if the people are less engaged, but I do think that as a Chair it’s way more interesting now, there is much more availability, you can be checking all the things and all the people and breakout rooms. It’s way more interactive than it was when you were just sitting down in front of a class, because Zoom offers a lot of functions. Actually in my opinion it is more fun and more engaging for a Chair.
Q: Have you ever made a friend or got to know someone through these committees?
A: Yes, last year I was in a conference for the Historical Security Council with a delegate from Switzerland, who was from the United states, and we became friends immediately. Funny enough, their passion in life was to veto, and they would veto every single clause in the resolution, every time it was funnier than the last time. They printed out a sheet of twenty veto paper’s in order to record every single time somebody said something, it was hilarious.
Q: What do you like about MUN and what do you think could be improved?
A: I like how people get to make relationships with each other and rivalries are formed. The fact that there are groups of countries that have the same ideologies makes teams, and these teams compete with each other, that just naturally creates human connection between people and it’s a fun way to make friends. One way I would fix it is by preparing delegates more, there are a lot of delegates who arrive not knowing the procedure and have to learn it as they go, a lot of delegates don’t have clauses ready and that just takes away time from MUN, so I just think more preparation would be useful.
Key Takeaways
Overall Juan loves MUN, mainly because it allows to make new friends and build relationships with people. After this meeting I also asked him if he preferred being a delegate or a Chair ,“Both are great,” he says, but he admits to prefer being a delegate.