VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD: MY EXPERIENCES
Introduction
First, let me introduce myself! My name is Wesley Romijn and I am currently 21 years of age. Before I moved to Tilburg for my Bachelor IBA, I lived in a small village called Raamsdonksveer. I started studying here at Tilburg University in September 2016, however I only started doing a committee in my second year at Tilburg University. My first committee at IB&M was the IBA committee. We had an amazing group of people in this committee and I immediately felt at home at our association. I joined the IBA Week committee in my second year at IB&M. In this committee I really developed myself in a formal way.
After this, I decided I wanted to contribute even more to IB&M to make the association even better and to make sure other members also feel at home here, so I decided to apply for a board year! Fast forward to now, I am the Vice-Chairman of the board for 10 months. In this blog article, I would like to share my experiences of my board year!
Tasks of a Vice-Chairman
So, what do you do during your board year and why did you choose for this function?
Let me explain! As the Vice-Chairman of the board of Asset IB&M you are responsible for a whole lot of different tasks. The most important one is the active member policy. As the Vice, you are responsible for the recruitment of our members. With our big amount of committees, you want to have a great diversity of people to get the most out of the committee and each other. You will have talks with new/current active members to decide in which group they fit the best. Making the division of the committees is a really nice challenge from which you learn a lot! The best thing about the active member policy is seeing members having a nice time and really developing themselves within our association.
Next to the active member policy, the vice is also responsible for making the entire year planning of the association. With 100+ events every year, it is quite challenging to make a perfect year planning since you already make it in February for the next academic year. However I really improved my planning skills while making the year planning., since you had to keep the planning of other departments and the university in mind while making choices for your own planning.
One of the tasks I liked the most during my board year was being responsible for the promotion of the entire association. I had a lot of opportunities to give my creative touch to our promotion channels. At the beginning of my board year I made a “social media plan” to improve our social media presence. It is great to see some of these ideas work in real life. Next to that, I massively improved my designing skills which was fun to do and can be of added value later on in your career.
You also have the freedom to choose your own projects within the board, for example being responsible for the exchange project, socials or internationalization. In the second semester of the board year I was primarily responsible for the internationalization of our association. Together with my committee, I am currently busy to bring our international buddy program to an even higher level. The goal of this program is to help the international students to better integrate within their new environment.
Lastly, you are also the representative of IB&M within the faculty wide organ “Asset Academy”. In this organ you are busy with organizing events for Asset General like the COdE and the TOP Week. Next to that you are also making promotional content for Asset General. Within AA you also have a lot of freedom for you own project. For example, this year I really put effort to organize the Asset Thirsty Thursdays together with the other vices and the Polly., hopefully this will stay a great success even way after my board year.
Board year at IB&M in general
Why did you actually decide to do a board year?
This is a question that I got asked a lot over the past 10 months, especially since they don’t really understand what a study association does back home. I can say one thing for sure, joining the board of Asset | IB&M has been one of the best choices of my life so far. You will develop yourself in a lot of different ways. I really developed myself formally. For example, I got way better in leading groups, discussions and setting up projects. Doing a board year is also a good way to explore different aspects of businesses, in this way I can now orientate myself better on which master I want to follow in the next academic year. Coordinating various committees of IB&M was also really valuable. I found it really important that there was a good atmosphere within my committees so in the end we can get the best results possible! Lastly, it is amazing to work together with five other motivated board members for a year. You work towards a lot of projects and activities together as one team and it is a great feeling if these turn out to be successful.
I already want to thank everyone that helped to make this year special for me! Specifically the other boardies of IB&M and of course all active members. I really had a great time and I hope my last couple of months will be as good as the first 10! If you have any other questions or just want to have a cup of coffee with me? Don’t hesitate to contact me. You can find more information about how to apply for a board year on our website.
- Enexis Management Traineeship - April 9, 2024
- Being a working student at MAZARS: My experience - November 28, 2023
- Day in the life of a student/intern/active member - April 6, 2023