A board year as Secretary at Asset | IB&M
I can surely say that the past 8 months were the quickest of my life. The reason behind that is that I started my board year at Asset | International Business & Management. For this article I will look back on this awesome and unforgettable year and why I can advise everyone to do a board year at Asset | IB&M!
Who am I?
Let me introduce myself, my name is Ivo Calon and I am 23 years old. I fin
ished my bachelor Business Economics last summer and I am doing two courses of my master Marketing Management already. When I came close of finishing my bachelor, I concluded that I did not want to immediately start with my master. As many of you might know, the university courses are very theoretical and you don’t develop many practical skills. Therefore I started to search for a more practical environment which I could do between my master and my bachelor. After considering an internship abroad I came to the conclusion that it would be pretty difficult forme to get that since I wasn’t very active yet in my student life. I looked for alternatives and ended-up with the board application of Asset | IB&M. I’ve never been active at Asset so for me it was kind of a giant leap since many other board members were already active in one of the departments. This giant leap ended up with being one of the best decisions in my life.
What does a board year look like?
A board year is like a rollercoaster which doesn’t stop for an entire year. You do so many different things and no day will be the same as another one. You will meet a ton of awesome people and you will come in contact with so many nice opportunities. You will be busy with coordinating the different committees of IB&M and furthermore with doing your function specific tasks and working for IB&M in general. I did this together with five other amazing people and you really learn to do it in a team. You also learn really well to work with many different people since you are also coordinating various committees.
The week of a Secretary
Like I said, every day is different so to describe a week will be tough but I will do my best. In general you will begin your day with checking your e-mails and already doing some small tasks which you can do immediately and postpone the rest if possible. After that, I would probably have meeting with one of my five committees. Then it is time to work on your bigger tasks like; updating the website, writing a guide about starting your career, contacting Coca Cola to arrange a new fridge, checking if your committee is still running well, brainstorm together with another association for an event, picking up the printed guidelines, etc. In the evenings you will have like one or two activities organized by IB&M or Asset general per week. You can think of dinners and parties but also formal events like recruitment events and interesting symposia. And furthermore you will have like one dinner/activity with one of your committees to get to know each other better.
Some tasks for me in general are:
- Maintaining the websites
- Keeping the membership database up to date
- Arranging guidelines and office supplies
- Maintaining the LinkedIn page
- Coordinating the Blog, First Year, Marketing Expedition, Quest, and Promotion committee.
- Arranging the Department Members Meeting
- Responsible for internal and external communication
I can surely say that being the secretary is a very nice and diverse function. It gives freedom to do many things that you like. Many people associate being secretary with making minutes, but I have to say that making minutes of our board meetings is one of the smallest tasks that I have.
What was my most memorable moment?
Pfff… It is so hard to pick one since there where so many fantastic moments. I think that the board weekends are at least in the top 10. During the first board weekend to Centre Parks we invented the new sport called “Helmonds Wild Waterslide Racing”, and for the second one we went to Poznan in Polen and that location will probably speaks for itself. We had lots and lots of fun and enjoyed being together in a different environment. Also the ETC to Porto and Lisbon was a very nice. Together with 24 other people we discovered these beautiful cities of Portugal and of course also tasted lots of different ports like you can see in this after movie.
Interested?
Did you become interested in doing a board year after reading this blog? Do not hesitate to contact me to get more information, ask questions and/or make an appointment. You can e-mail to secretary@asset-ibm.nl.
Currently, we are already looking for my successor for who the conveyance will start around July and will officially start from September onwards. The deadline for applying for my function is the 10th of May. You can apply yourself by sending your motivation letter and curriculum vitae to vice-chairman@asset-ibm.nl.
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- Being a working student at MAZARS: My experience - November 28, 2023
- Day in the life of a student/intern/active member - April 6, 2023