Drafting Diplomacy, Delivering Excellence: SLRMUN ’26

SLRMUN Mar 27, 2026

They say the best things in life, come unexpectedly. Rewind several months backwards, to the month of August 2025, one of the Co-Directors of the Rotaract Club, reached out to me on WhatsApp. We had talked with each other before through our work in another club, but the messages I received that night would come to change the next few months in my life.

“Ravitha, I saw in the application you filled as a compere, that you are an award winning MUNer.”

“Yes Shaam, I did MUN several years ago,”

“Perfect, would you like to chair an MUN Conference?”

Although the exact conversation was much longer, after some thinking, I told our Co-Director of International Services, Rtr. Ihithishaam Fazaal, the words he wanted to hear from me:

“Sure, let’s do it!”.

And thus began one of the most unforgettable projects of my life.

***

Sri Lanka Rotaract Model United Nations (SLRMUN) is a Model United Nations Conference, organized by the Rotaract Club of the University of Moratuwa, and I was given the responsibility of making it happen, along with my co-chair Shannon De Silva, for its sixth consecutive year: SLRMUN ‘26. As a past MUNer, being a Secretary General of a Conference means a lot, and this year, we started the project in August 2025 with an aim to make it much bigger, better and to leave a mark in the MUN arena of Sri Lanka. So, right after my co chair was confirmed, we got straight into work. We envisioned this conference in a massive scale, and dropped a suggestion to our Co-Directors, Rtr. Ihithishaam Fazaal, and Rtr. Ashen Randira, “What if we go ahead with a 02 day conference, instead of one? It would give enough time for the delegates to conduct the full debate in depth.” Without any hesitation, we got nothing but support from our Co-Directors to the scale that we were eyeing at.

Since that transition meeting, we formed our Organizing Committee of 40 members, and we built multiple plans and multiple budget forecasts to cater different scenarios. From venue hunting at multiple locations outside the university along with our committee members, to budget 1, budget 2, budget final and final final final, the evenings and nights spent at Sentra Court drafting our plans, oh and how can I forget, me and the fellow MUNers in the committee explaining to the other members, on what MUN actually is, and random crash courses on how an MUN Conference functions… the first few months were quite the experience.

It was within these first few months that we built a strong foundation to our work ahead. We built and launched our brand new SLRMUN ‘26 Website, thanks to our web experts in the Web Development and Technical Team, and our Partnership Development efforts launched immediately. From having members in the Finance and PD team who had no experience in PD before, to successfully raising multiple partnerships, and taking a lot of the financial burden out of the conference. It was during these months that we also partnered up with SLMUN (Sri Lanka Model United Nations) as the Conference Protocol Partner and thus being endorsed by the National body of MUN in Sri Lanka for the first time in the history of the conference. The marketing and the PR aspect of the conference was something that left everyone talking about, thanks to the creative minds in the Marketing and PR team. Partnering with multiple entities, schools and universities across the island, we were able to set a foundation like no other. And it was upon this foundation that our conference was carried upon, till the very end.

Along the way, as a team, the SLRMUN ‘26 Organizing Committee faced numerous challenges, both big and small. In a six month long project, it was not unexpected that we would have countless challenges. But some challenges that hit us, were challenges that we never thought would show up infront of us. The crazy part is, these mammoth challenges hit us not once, but multiple times, scattered through these six months. And we were able to face every single one of them like pros, and to the outsiders, we made it look like there was no challenge at all. Thank you, very dearly to all those who stood by the Secretariat during those challenges! Among all these challenges, we learnt, we grew, and we made ourselves better, and stronger.

SLRMUN ‘26 did not just conduct a conference. It looked after the progress of its delegates, and we aimed at truly enriching the experience and the development of the delegates who chose to be a part of this conference. We had multiple sub events, leading to the conference. These sub events included a Newbie Workshop named ‘Intro to MUN’ through which we were able to expand the MUN presence in Sri Lanka, which was highly limited to schools, towards the university students as well, thus leaving a true mark in the MUN arena in the country. These followed with more events such as our Newbie Practice Debate, the Main Workshop, the Main Practice Debate and not to forget, the Practice Debate Sessions catered for the delegation of UoM.

Towards the final few weeks leading to the conference, the team worked many hours daily, to make sure that the delegates are properly informed and coordinated, the logistics are perfect from the venues, to the food and beverages and the smallest of details, to the decorations, to perfecting the arrangements with our financial and conference partners; the list goes on. Not to mention, all this in the middle of hectic academic work. But no detail, was left unnoticed. No detail was left unattended to. Thank you, to all those members who put in all your valuable time, effort and creativity to making this conference truly remarkable.

On the 13th of February late at night, we put in the final touches. And we checked the final checkbox, in preparation for the two days ahead. All set.

The two days of conference started with our grand opening ceremony, followed by the conference procedures on day 01, and continuation of conference procedures in day 02, to end the conference with the grand closing and awards ceremony. The details that did not go according to plan on day 01; were fixed on day 02, and the entire event went smoothly.

To the delegates and everyone who partnered, the conference gave so much more than what they were expecting. To hear all this from the delegates and the partners in both days of the conference, was truly what we lived for.

To see them enjoy every aspect of the conference, from the debate, to the food to the logistics, to the training and the ceremonies; our goals, were not just achieved, we shattered our goals, and went much beyond it!

So, to look back at SLRMUN ‘26, the conference that taught me many things; the conference that made me try several things, the conference that made me a family of 40 (and even more); and the conference where everyone who came, said that this gave much more than they were ever expecting!

To my delegates of SLRMUN ‘26, we hope you had the best time at the conference. We hope you learnt something from all the sessions and the two days of conference, and we wish you all the best.

To the SLMUN team, thank you for all the support you gave me and my team, and thank you for an amazing debate on the two days of conference and all the help your team gave to SLRMUN ‘26 with training, and conference protocol.

To our Co-Directors of International Services, thank you for attending to all the questions we had and staying by us throughout these six months. And how can we forget the board of officials of the Rotaract Club… from approvals to documentation to advice on anything, thank you for all the support given.

And finally to my committee, my Under Secretary Generals and my Deputy, SLRMUN ‘26 was a long project and we did many things to make sure that we do the best conference possible. I know, there were many challenges that we faced, but I'm glad about how we handled all of that, and how we learned, every step of the way. Thank you for attending to the countless requests to do this and check on that. You all made those six months an unforgettable story!

Thank you, SLRMUN ‘26!