NGO in Roster Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

 

The Hague, July 2007

Dear colleagues and friends,

First of all, many thanks for your continued support. We have read all your comments and tried our best to make the improvements that have been suggested. The Board would also like to thank the Advisory Board for their continued support and cooperation as well as Irene Crépin and her team for their efficient management of the office and the conference.

Many of you requested a new procedure for opening speeches. After much discussion, we decided that the holding of opening speeches will be on a ‘first come, first served' basis i.e. those of you who get your form in first with the request for your delegation to hold an opening speech will have that request granted.

The only increase in fees this year is in the Delegate Fee. After evaluating the questionnaire from the last conference, we shall continue to leave the Wednesday afternoon free for those of you who want to organise a cultural trip with your students. We have moved the opening Ceremonies to 15.00 on Monday afternoon.

The Board is in the process of producing a simple delegate's handbook which will be available on the website just before the MINIMUN which will take place on 13 th October, 2007 at the British School in the Netherlands in Voorschoten, near The Hague . There will again be a one day workshop for new MUN directors, as usual, during the MINIMUN Conference and we look forward to welcoming those of you who are new to the MUN programme.

We have received many requests from new schools to attend THIMUN 2008. We have established a list and we hope to accommodate the majority of the schools. If, however, a school is close to Singapore , we would prefer them to attend the THIMUN Singapore Conference as it will cost them less and it was set up precisely for those schools further away from The Hague .

The Singapore Conference has once again had great success and doubled its numbers. The Hwa Chong Institute kindly agreed to host the Conference and provide the Administrative Staff for which we are most grateful. Helping Katharina Haucke is David Taylor who organised a very successful MINIMUN in Singapore . David will be working with Katharina on the issues and reports books of the Singapore Conference. Katharina was joined as usual by many volunteers who worked hard and without whom the Conference would not have run so smoothly – many thanks for all the help! Bob Stern did a sterling job in setting up ICJ and Dennis Boyle-Woods will take this over for him in Singapore 2007, as Bob will be unable to attend.

The Youth Assembly marches on with two conferences a year, showing its popularity. Once again it was hosted in the winter by the German International School and in the summer by the Lycee Francais Vincent van Gogh. Many thanks to the management of both schools. Dirk van Leeuwen has now left us to continue his studies and Laurens Verhoeff has taken his place as Conference Manager for Youth Assembly. Vlad Vergu also left us, after being a great support in running the IT for the THIMUN Conference. He has been replaced by Jochen Vermeulen who already started to take over at this year's Conference. We welcome him to the team. Seref Isler continues as our Webmaster and we thank him for his continued loyal support.

This last year has been a very special one with H.R.H. Princess Mabel van Oranje agreeing to be the patron of THIMUN for the next 4 years. At the opening ceremony she captured the interest and hearts of all the delegates with her touching speech. We are very proud to have her support, knowing that she has very many important commitments.

The 2008 Conference will be our 40 th anniversary and we hope we can gain the interest of some prestigious speakers…more of that later in the year! All contributions gratefully received, if you are in a position to pull strings!!!!

The Board and Conference Management look forward to seeing you all in January and hearing your comments to help us maintain the high standard of the Conference.

Enjoy your summer break,

Yours sincerely,

Linda M. Dubock
Chair of the THIMUN Foundation