Tag: Board Year

Treasurer of the Board: My Experiences

Treasurer of the Board: My Experiences

Hi everyone, My name is Kevin ter Bogt. This academic year I am the Treasurer of Asset | International Business & Management. I am 21 years old and I am from Lichtenvoorde, in the east of the Netherlands. In 2018 I moved to Tilburg to…

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS OFFICER OF THE BOARD: MY EXPERIENCES

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS OFFICER OF THE BOARD: MY EXPERIENCES

Curious about how I experienced my board year? In this article, I will tell you a bit more about being the External Affairs Officer of Asset | International Business & Management. First thing first, let me introduce myself; My name is Laura van Wesel, I…

TREASURER OF THE BOARD: MY EXPERIENCES

TREASURER OF THE BOARD: MY EXPERIENCES

Hello there,

My name is Anton van Werkum and for the past 9 months I have been the Treasurer of Asset | IB&M.

In 2017 I moved to Tilburg to study International Business Administration, where I joined IB&M as a member of the First Year committee. In my second year I joined Vidar, while also staying active at IB&M. In this year I became the chairman of the Exchange committee, which organized orientation for students that wanted to go on exchange. In the year after, after spending a semester Canada, I joined the Recruitment Dinner committee and finished my bachelor. The semester after, is where my adventure begins.

Why did I decide to do a board year?

I chose to do a board year at Asset | IB&M mainly because I wanted to develop myself professionally, and to give back to the association that I enjoyed being part of during my bachelor. One of my goals this year was to make sure that there would be large group of students that would feel involved in the association and I am quite happy with how that turned out so far. In terms of developing myself professionally, I felt like there was not a better place to gain management experience during my time as a student than in the board of a study association. On the one hand you get the responsibility of running an organization with over 100 volunteers, and on the other hand your environment understands that you are still a student and are bound to make mistakes occasionally (which I did). Next to that, the prospect of getting to work closely with five other highly motivated students, five days a week, sounded like something I could learn a lot from. All of this, of course, while still being able to enjoy all the perks that student life has to offer.

The reasons why I decided to go for the function of Treasurer were quite simple. I knew that I liked working with numbers, and I was doubting whether to continue pursuing master’s degrees in accounting and finance. For me this meant that a year as Treasurer would not only let me play with numbers for a year, but it would also help me decide whether I enjoyed finance and accounting as much as I thought I did. What also attracted me to role of Treasurer were the responsibility, and the impact on decision making that went paired with the function.

What was your biggest challenge during your board year?

Already in the first few weeks of my time as Treasurer of Asset | IB&M I was thrown in the deep end.

My predecessor gave me a crash course in all things I had to know, and I was then quickly directed to my first big challenge: making a budget for the upcoming year. Where making a budget for a whole year is already a challenge, with almost 30 different committees with different kinds of cashflows, this year was especially difficult.  With all the unpredictability regarding COVID-19, it seemed next to impossible to have an idea of what this year was going to look like. With the hopes of being able to return to normal after sitting out one corona semester and organizing hybrid activities, I made a budget. However, it quickly became clear that we had been way too optimistic about the whole corona ordeal. As a board we had to adapt to all the restrictions and change most of our activities into online alternatives. Of course, not all activities were easily translated to Zoom, and therefore some events would no longer be able to take place. For the budget this meant that what I predicted at the start of the year was not at all representative of how the rest of the year was going to look like. This called for action and I worked out different scenarios and back-up plans for the coming months. The challenging part of making new budgets was mainly that there was nothing to fall back on from previous years, as this has never happened before.

What did you spend most of your time on during your board year?

The things I spent most of my time working on were my function specific tasks, coordinating several committees and working on my own projects. My function specific tasks included mainly updating the budget, sending invoices, booking receipts, keeping an eye on the budgets the committees, and having meetings with the treasurers of the committees. It took some time to get used to the bookkeeping software and to learn how to correctly handle invoices, but after a while most of these tasks became a habit. The coordinating of my committees also took some time each week. With most of my committees we had to change our plans and adapt to the new standards set by the pandemic. One of my committees for example that organizes a study trip, had the high hopes of organizing a 10-day trip to northern Europe. Even though we worked hard and kept an eye on all updates regarding the pandemic, we eventually had to realize that a trip already happening in May was a bit too ambitious. Overall, my other committees were able to adapt to the pandemic much better, with the Activities committee we organized several hybrid and online activities, and the Case Competition committee is currently finalizing the preparations for our event next month.

The workload as Treasurer differed per week, mainly depending on the number of events taking place. At the start of the year, for example, I had a lot of meetings with committee treasurers, and spent a lot of time on the budget, but there were not many receipts to be booked or invoices to be sent yet as there were no events. The busiest periods of the year were the weeks in which I had to have my bookkeeping and all financial documents perfectly up-to date for the tax authorities. Making sure every receipt was booked correctly and finding out where those last Euros and cents came from was really satisfying, but it did take a lot of time.  

What did you learn during your board year?

First and foremost, this year has taught me how important it is to stay organized. With all the things I wanted to get done, all the events we had scheduled, and everything I wanted from my personal life, it sometimes seemed like it was impossible to juggle everything. I learned how easy it is to get lost without a task list, a planning, and a clean desk, especially when you start your day with a hangover. The corona pandemic has also taught me the importance of flexibility. With all the changes in corona measures I learned how to constantly shift ideas and work with back-up plans. Skills I improved a lot were working in teams, communicating clearly, prioritizing tasks in busy periods and not being afraid to ask for help when necessary.

Overall, I can already look back on a very fruitful year. I am very thankful for all the opportunities that presented themselves this year, and for the team around me. I have been able to develop myself both professionally and personally, and I hope to continue doing so even more in the coming months!

I hope this article has given you somewhat of an insight into what it entails to be the Treasurer of the board of Asset | International Business & Management. If you ever have any questions about my function, Asset | IB&M in general or anything I wrote in this article, do not hesitate to contact me via treasurer@asset-ibm.nl  

Are you possibly interested in becoming my successor? You can take a look at our website for more information about my function, the other opening functions, and how to apply!
https://www.asset-ibm.nl/about/board-application-information

External Affairs Officer of the Board: My experiences

External Affairs Officer of the Board: My experiences

Over the course of the past 9 months, I have had the opportunity to be the External Affairs Officer of the Board of Asset | International Business & Management. In this blogpost, I will tell you more about what has made this such a great…

Secretary of the Board: My experiences

Secretary of the Board: My experiences

Over the course of the past 9 months, I have had the amazing opportunity to be the Secretary of the Board of Asset | International Business & Management. In this blogpost, I will tell you more about why I decided to do a board year…

Treasurer of the Board: My Experiences

Treasurer of the Board: My Experiences

For the past 9 months, I have had the pleasure of being the treasurer of the board of Asset | International Business & Management. 

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Myrthe Heuer, I am 22 years old and am originally from Kaatsheuvel, a town close to Tilburg, which you might know from the Efteling. I started studying IBA at Tilburg University in 2016 and graduated in July 2019. I became active at IB&M in my second year and started off with the IBA committee and later on the Manager for a Day committee. In the fall semester of 2018, I went on Exchange to Victoria, located on Vancouver Island, Canada. While being abroad, I started to think about what I wanted to do after my bachelor and the idea of doing a board year at IB&M started to be an option that I seriously thought about. I wanted to develop myself both professionally as well as personally and saw a board year at Asset | IB&M as the perfect way to do this. 

After receiving the message that I was chosen to be the new treasurer of the board of Asset | IB&M, everything happened really fast. In the summer break, you already start with your first big challenge: developing the budget of the whole association. This implies that over the course of the summer you are busy with making careful estimations of future costs and revenues. While some of the other board members can easily transit in their new function, as treasurer you immediately start with a big responsibility. While developing the budget you are faced with a lot of uncertainties, since the future cash flows are still unknown. It requires a great deal of precision. You have to focus on the details while keeping the bigger picture in mind. As a result, you already start developing new skills right from the get-go. It also already gives you a taste of all the activities that will be organized during your board year. You will immediately feel involved with the association and can already get pumped about all the nice activities coming up. Next to that, the summer break also gives you the opportunity to get to know your fellow board members better. This period really helped us all to get close and allowed us to start our board year as a close group of friends. 

It does not stop there, once you have developed the budget of Asset | IB&M for the upcoming year, it is very important that the budget is updated regularly to keep a clear overview.  With 27 committees you can imagine that there are a lot of cash flows going in and out of the association. It is your task as treasurer to keep a close eye on all these expenses and revenues and update the budget accordingly. You will do this by updating the expectations and realizations on a regular basis. Other treasurer tasks include, but are not limited to: booking and paying incoming invoices, sending outgoing invoices and making incasso’s. Next to that, it is crucial that the budgets of the committees are regularly checked to see if they are still performing according to their budget. You will, therefore, be the main contact person for committees concerning all their financial matters. 

Next to the function-specific tasks, I coordinate 4 committees: the Activities committee, the IB&More committee, the Intercontinental Travel Committee (ITC) and the Women Event committee. These committees range from formal to informal. All committees will be divided over the different board members so everyone can coordinate committees he or she likes. 

In addition to my tasks related to Asset | IB&M I also take part in the weekly treasurer meeting with all the other treasurers of the departments of Asset | Tilburg. In this meeting, we discuss the financial affairs of Asset | Tilburg. Together we assist the Asset General Treasurer in his tasks and we are all responsible for a specific portfolio. My general portfolio consists of booking invoices and making cash withdrawals. I approximately spend 10% of my time on Asset General Tasks. 

Below you can find an example of what a week of the treasurer of Asset | IB&M can look like. 

Monday
Morning: Board Meeting
Afternoon: Meeting with Women Event committee, checking the financial status of committees 
Evening: Free time

Tuesday:
Morning: Book and pay incoming invoices
Afternoon: Meeting with ITC, sending outgoing invoices
Evening: IBA Cantus

Wednesday:
Morning: Meeting with the Activities Committee, updating the balance sheet
Afternoon: Updating the budget sheet
Evening: Date Dinner

Thursday: 
Morning: Treasurer’s Meeting
Afternoon: Bookkeeping of invoices at Asset General, meeting with the IB&More committee
Evening: Monthly Drink

Friday:
Morning: Check outstanding debtors and contact them
Afternoon: Prepare a withdrawal for the events of the past month, weekly board lunch, fill in the agenda for the next board meeting
Evening: Going home to my parents

To conclude, I am really happy that I decided to do a board year as treasurer of Asset | IB&M. It has taught me a lot of things including coordinating a group of people and working closely together in a team.Besides, it helped me to gain the practical financial experience I was missing during my bachelor. Even though being present at all the activities, both formal and informal, might seem a bit exhausting, you get so much energy from the 150 active members our association currently has. You meet so many new and wonderful people, that even if you are maybe a little bit tired you always go to work with a smile on your face and enjoy every little minute of it. 

I hope this article has given you somewhat of an insight into what it entails to be the treasurer of the board of Asset | International Business & Management. If you ever have any questions about my function, Asset | IB&M in general or anything I wrote in this article, do not hesitate to contact me via treasurer@asset-ibm.nl  

Are you possibly interested in becoming my successor? Subscribe for our virtual board information session on Monday March 30 at 13:00 ‘o clock via: https://www.asset-ibm.nl/event/board_info_session/. Moreover, you can always shoot me a message to plan a (virtual) coffee to discuss my experiences in more detail and/or answer all questions you might have!

Chairman of the Board: My Experiences

Chairman of the Board: My Experiences

Over the course of the past 9 months, I have had the amazing opportunity to be the Chairman of the Board of Asset | International Business & Management. In this blogpost, I will tell you more about what has made this such a great experience…

Vice-Chairman of the board: My experiences

Vice-Chairman of the board: My experiences

Hi there, My name is Wessel Grol and I have been the Vice-Chairman of the board of Asset IB&M over the course of the last 10 months already. I started studying here at Tilburg University in September 2015 and at the same time, I also…

External Affairs Officer of the Board: My experiences

External Affairs Officer of the Board: My experiences

Hi everyone,

My name is Michael van den Eijnden and for the past 10 months, I have been the External Affairs Officer of the Board of Asset | International Business & Management. Even though this means that my board year is (unfortunately already) slowly coming to an end, I’m really glad that I have learned so much during my board year. In this article, I will tell a bit about myself, my experiences as a board member, give an example of how a week could look like as the External Affairs Officer and the key things that I learned.

About meIMGL4255

I was born and raised in the beautiful town called Geldrop, and I am at the time of writing this 19 years old. I have been studying at the University of Tilburg since the academic year 2016-2017, but due to my board year I decided to pause my studies for a year as being a board member at Asset IB&M is a full-time position. Therefore, I am a second year International Business Administration student. I have been an active member at Asset IB&M since my first year, in which I joined the First Year committee, the Lustrum Committee, and the Promotion Committee. As you can see from the number of committees I joined I really liked being active at Asset IB&M as there is so much to learn with a study association.

Why a board year?

Whenever people hear that I am a second year IBA student they always ask why I decided to do a board year already instead of after obtaining my bachelor. After I joined Asset IB&M in my first year, I already knew that at some point in the future would like to do a board year. First of all, doing a board year gives you first-hand experience what it is like to run a small company. We have around 150 active members which are all divided amongst our committees, and every committee has to be coordinated by a board member. Next to that, we have our board meetings on Monday morning in which we discuss everything that is going on in our association and discuss important decisions that we have to make for our association. Secondly, I wanted to learn how to communicate more professionally and, as I had no idea what I want to study, get in touch with companies from all four pillars of IBA in order to figure out what master I would like to pursue after obtaining my bachelor. The reason why I also chose to do my board year before I went on Exchange is that, as I am still quite young I wanted to be a bit older and grown up before going abroad for half a year. Also, this meant that I can apply in the first selection round of the Exchange program of Tilburg University, which gives me a higher chance of being selected for my preferred University. Therefore, I decided to apply in November 2017 to become the new External Affairs Officer of Asset IB&M.

Why External Affairs Officer?

As I wanted to learn how to communicate more professionally and learn what field of study suits me best, I decided that becoming the new External Affairs Officer was would give me the best opportunity to figure this out. As an External, you are responsible for handling the company contacts of the association, as well as trying to acquire new partnerships with companies. This gave me the perfect opportunity to speak to a lot of recruiters and meeting them in their offices, which required me to become more professional in my communication and attitude. By meeting the recruiters to talk about a possible partnership at their offices I was able to see what it is like to work at those companies, as the recruiters were almost always willing to talk about their company and give a quick tour around the office. Therefore, it was really valuable for choosing which field of study I would like to pursue. Another perk of being an External is growing your professional network, which could prove useful whenever I am going to start looking for a job.

What a week as External could look like

Week of an External

Key things that I have learned/improved

  • Communicating formally
  • Networking
  • Coordinating and motivating people
  • Leading
  • Organize big events

As it is almost time to pass on my function to another person, I already want to thank my fellow board members and all our active members for the great experiences this year, and all the great parties we attended together and making my board year legendary. I have truly enjoyed my time as a board member of Asset IB&M, and luckily it is not over yet!

If you have any questions about being an External Affairs Officer, or about being a board member in general, do not hesitate to contact me or come by our rooms! I will gladly answer your questions, and tell you many more stories as this article would be even longer if I wrote everything down. On our website, you can find more information about how to apply for a board year. 

See you around!

Michael van den Eijnden