CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD: MY EXPERIENCES

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD: MY EXPERIENCES

Introduction

My name is Boyd Vosters and I am currently 22 years of age. Before I moved to Tilburg at the start of my Bachelor IBA, I lived in Reusel (NB). During my bachelor IBA, I went on exchange to the city of Exeter in the UK. Studying at their Business School was a great experience,  and I had a great time traveling throughout the UK. After I graduated for my bachelor in the summer of 2018, I faced a decision point.

This relates to the fact that I was active within Asset | International Business & Management for almost three years. I started with the Promotion Committee in 2015. The year after, I was fortunate to organize the first Ski Trip of Asset | IB&M. Since skiing is my biggest passion, it was great to organize the trip for 44 participants as a Chairman together with the committee to Saint Francois Longchamp. After the Ski Trip, I joined the Lustrum and Almanak Committee. This committee work was split up by my exchange, and upon my return, I assisted the Lustrum with the operational tasks. Additionally, I became the Chairman of the Recruitment Dinner in my final year as an active member.

But when I returned from my exchange I noticed that my student life was going at such a pace that I had the feeling that only my academic skills that I required along the way were not enough to prepare me well enough for the future. Since I aspire a job within management and working with people, doing a board year seemed to provide the perfect learning curve to acquire more experience. Additionally, being in the board of an association I was part of in the past years would be a true honor.

So I decided to apply for to function as Chairman of the Board at Asset | International Business & Management and fortunately I got chosen.

The association

Asset | International Business & Management is the study association for the Bachelor IBA and Master International Management. Together with our large group of active members who are dispersed among 28 committees, we organize several events ranging from formal and informal. As the chairman of the association, together with your team of boardies you lead and steer the association to achieving the policy goals that you have set at the start of the year. We organize events based on three pillars, career development, study support, and social cohesion. Since you are the end-responsible, you are basically the CEO of a small company. This is both challenging as it is a fun task.

Tasks

As the chairman of the association, you have a package of tasks that are related to your function. Every Monday morning you lead the board meetings which assures that your board is updated about topics that require action or involvement. Furthermore, you are part of the Asset General Board where you also hold a portfolio. Here all the chairman of all the departments and MAK take place and meet every Tuesday morning and talk about strategic issues that apply for the whole of Asset. The portfolio that I hold is the Administration Portfolio which makes me the Secretary of Asset. Since we had a new database system at the start of the year it was a big challenge to get everything working and ready for the start of the year. Within IB&M I coordinate two committees which is a bit less in comparison to your fellow boardies because you can be very occupied with both functions.

Besides this, you are also responsible for contact with the university and the respective programs that your study association supports. I meet on an occasional basis with the Academic Directors of IBA and International Management, Jorna Leenheer and Louis Mulotte. Here we discuss on which grounds we can cooperate and help each other with the planning of events.

But most importantly, you have to keep a ‘helicopter view’ of everything that goes on in and around the association and act accordingly if an intervention is required in case there is a deviation from your policy.

Learning along the way

Already from the start onwards, the chairman function offers a steep learning curve that requires quick adaptation. But overall it provides you with experiences that are useful now and in the future. You will learn to prepare meetings quick and being flexible throughout the day since often you do not have a lot of time. Furthermore, you have to represent your association towards other departments in the General Board Meetings of Asset. During certain topics, you have to keep a thorough stance towards other parties in order to make sure the opinion of your association is heard and in line with the opinion of your board. Moreover, you learn plenty of soft management skills that are valuable for your future function within a company.

By the means of this article, I hope I explained what the Chairman function of study association Asset | International Business & Management exactly entails. In case you have any further questions, feel free to contact me via chairman@asset-ibm.nl!

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