A board year as Secretary of Asset | Accounting & Finance – Renate de Vries

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As secretary I am responsible for taking minutes at meetings, the in- and outgoing communication of the association and the annual planning. In addition, I have organized the Audit Activity and I coordinate the committees Accounting Insight and Faces Online.In this article I tell you how I experienced my year as secretary of Asset | Accounting & Finance so far, which challenges I still see for my last months and why I made the decision to do a board year last year!

Who am I?

I am Renate de Vries and I am 21 years old. I was born in Hoek van Holland (Province Zuid-Holland) and after obtaining my VWO diploma I moved to Tilburg. I wanted to live on my own and chose to study further away from home. Besides my year at Asset, I am the treasurer of my dispute Keiretsu and when I have some spare time, I can be found at Keiretsu or at Vidar.

My choice for Asset | Accounting & Finance

In my first year of my Bachelor Business Economics I became active at Vidar. I liked this very much, but I wanted to orientate further within my education. During the TOP-Week I came into contact with Asset | Accounting & Finance, where I started as secretary of the Activities Committee. I immediately liked the atmosphere within A&F and felt I had found my place.

The reason I finally decided to dedicate myself for a year as a secretary

When I started my studies, I already had my plan ready; I wanted to complete my bachelor in three years and then do a master. I had already been delayed by a year, so I thought it was time to do my studies fast. When Corona showed up in March last year and completely changed our lives, I started to doubt this. I wanted to study for an extra year, but I didn’t know yet how I would spend my extra year of study. A year on the board was certainly not the first thing that came to mind, but after a few conversations with (former) board members, I became more and more enthusiastic. In the end, I decided that I wanted to take on this challenge and I have not regretted it for a second!

“What do you do as secretary of the board and why are you always so busy”?

This is a question I often hear, especially from my friends. I must confess that I find it quite difficult to answer this question. I have many different tasks and my weeks do not look the same Of course, I have a few fixed tasks, such as taking minutes at the board meeting every Monday morning, posting an article on Faces Online and the weekly meetings with the committees I coordinate, but the rest of my week is mostly made up of smaller tasks. Fortunately, we don’t just sit in the office all day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but the six of us also do many fun things, such as our activities with the members, dating with other departments or just having a nice lunch. 

“So what kind of ‘smaller’ tasks do you have?”

Something I also often hear is that a secretary only sits in front of the computer taking notes all day. This is certainly not the case. I am responsible for all mailings that are sent out from A&F. These are the monthly mailings, but also mailings for companies. This involves a lot more work, especially creativity to make the mailings look neat, tidy and attractive to students. 

Besides that, not only Myron is working a lot with Indesign in our board, but I also do a lot of promotion for Accounting Insight together with Odile, a committee member of Accounting Insight. At the moment, I spend quite a lot of time on this, but after many frustrations, I think I’ve mastered Indesign! Accounting Insight is also getting closer and closer, so we have a lot of meetings and I spend at least a couple of hours every week on these.

“I really wouldn’t want to miss this and definitely I don’t regret my choice.”

Besides Accounting Insight, I am also the coordinator of Faces Online. Every Wednesday, I prepare the article and post it on the website. After this, I make a Facebook and LinkedIn post announcing that the article is online, to make sure it gets read as much as possible. At the beginning of my management year, I was often busy with this all Wednesday, but nowadays it takes much less time.

Organising an active members lunch is also part of my duties from time to time. I write the Member of the Month pieces and of course I help my fellow board members when necessary.

This is just a small selection of the tasks I have, but I will never be bored, that’s for sure.

“What moments will you never forget from your board year?”

The first moment I will never forget is when I was shown which two other board members I would be working with for a year. This is what we call your foundation. I started together with Myron and Joep, so I have built a very good relationship with them. At the moment of writing this article, the three of us are busy organising the board weekend, one of the other highlights of my board year. With nine people we go on a transfer weekend to get to know the new generation better.

I will also never forget the active members weekend. I was also in the activities committee last semester, so I had the honour of organising this weekend together with my committee. We had many setbacks and as with every activity in that period, we had to work out three several scenarios, but despite all the corona rules, I think we always went for it 100% and wanted to get the best out of it. We did this not only as a committee, but also as a board at every event.

What did I learn during my year on the board?

In the past year, I have developed myself in various areas. In particular, I have grown a lot as a person. I learned to deal with deadlines, but also to set priorities. As I wrote earlier, I am also active at Keiretsu next to my year on the board. This was not always easy to combine. I had to make choices, because I could not be present for everything. In the beginning, I found this very difficult, but eventually I managed to find a way.

I have also learned a lot professionally. I was given many responsibilities, an opportunity that I will not get soon. I was also introduced to various programmes, such as WordPress, MailChimp and Pimcore, which I may be able to use in the future.

What else am I looking forward to?

I’m really looking forward to Accounting Insight. Despite some setbacks, I’m really looking forward to this event and I’m sure that together with the committee I’ll be able to deliver a very cool edition. The last few weeks will certainly be hectic and exciting, but also very instructive. In addition, we are now almost a year busy with organizing, making it really a task what I love to do.

After my year on the board, I will start working as a student at FIT. Thanks to my management year, I came into contact with this company and I am really looking forward to this new challenge. I am also very much looking forward to studying again and to continue my studies.

Would you recommend a year on the board?

I don’t have to think twice: the answer is definitely yes. Apart from the fact that I met a lot of new people, developed myself and made contacts with companies, I also had a great time. I really wouldn’t want to miss this and definitely I don’t regret my choice.

All things considered, for me this is a period of my student life that will go into the picture books and one that I will never forget. I hope to speak with my fellow board members Richard, Ella, Simo, Myron, Joep, Nina, Lotte Schipperheijn and Lotte de Jager for a long time to come.

If, after reading this article, you would like to know more about a year as secretary at Asset Accounting & Finance, please feel free to contact me via LinkedIn or app me for a chat over a cup of coffee.