Tag: Tilburg University

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…