A board year at Asset | Accounting & Finance – Twan Tacken, Vice-Chairman

It was November when I was severely doubting about what I was going to do next year. The application deadline for the “winter board” was approaching and I had already discussed several times with former Vice-Chairman Niels van Blitterswijk, if a board year would suit me. After careful consideration, as it’s a year of study delay, I decided to apply for the board. With success and after the induction period in January and the General Members Meeting on January 28, I could officially start as Vice-Chairman of this beautiful association.

As a Vice-Chairman, you have a very diverse range of tasks, but the responsibility for the (new) active members is one of your most important tasks. Especially at the beginning of each semester this is your most challenging task, so this was the starting point of my year as a board member. After watching my predecessor Niels having a conversation with a future member once, I was allowed to have my first conversation right away. During this meeting, you explain all the committees that start that semester and explain what it means to be an active member of Asset | Accounting & Finance. It can be a big puzzle to assign everyone to their preferred committees, but after succeeding in this, all new committees could start.

”As coordinator of a committee, you are the link between the board and the committee.”

As Vice-Chairman, I coordinate two committees, the Accounting Insight and the Sports Committee. As coordinator of a committee, you are the link between the board and the committee. In this way you, as coordinator, keep the rest of your board informed of the developments within the committee, by giving updates during the board meeting on Monday morning about what happened last week within the committee.

The Accounting Insight committee is organizing an accounting related symposium on November 21, in which various people from the accountancy sector will discuss current statements within the accountancy world. Organising a symposium involves a lot of work. For example, a suitable location must be found, relevant propositions must be devised and speakers and a chairman of the day must be found. These are just a few of the tasks that such a committee performs.

Furthermore, the Sports Committee organizes a range of sports activities for our active members. This year we already went to JumpXL, we played soccer several times, we organized a tennis tournament and we went for a day of swimming with our active members.

Coordinating these committees is a nice change from the other management tasks you have. However, you should keep in mind that you are a coordinator and not a committee member. Therefore, you shouldn’t take on too many tasks yourself and give the committee the space to do their thing.

In addition to these committees, which you coordinate as a Vice-Chairman, you are also a member of Faculty Wide Organs (FWOs). This means that you sit together with board members from other departments for various reasons. As a Vice, for example, you are responsible for the A&F website. Every Wednesday you sit down with all the other webmasters at Asset to discuss the latest updates to the site. In addition, problems with the website are discussed and, if necessary, solved.

”You learn many things, such as developing soft skills and looking at things with a critical eye.”

As a Vice-Chairman, you are also part of the Asset Academy, in which you sit together with all the other Vices of the departments. The most important points that are discussed here are the promotion of Asset, the organisation of events such as the COdE beer canti, the Asset Champions League and the Asset Gala and lastly what else Asset can do for our active and passive members. Together with the Vices of Marketing, SBIT and S&L, you are also part of the BE-cluster. In this way, we try to reach Business Economics students as well as possible in order to introduce them to Asset and to become active. This cluster also organises various informal activities for the BE student, such as the annual beer cantus and a Get-to-know Asset Activity where first and second year students can get acquainted with Asset in an informal way. In this way, you will not only be working on A&F during your board year, but you will also be contributing to Asset General and the business economics cluster.

Apart from all the meetings and activities, there are of course many fun activities for which a board year is known. Every week you have activities such as drinks and excursions together with your fellow board members and active members. This sociability is what makes a board year so much fun!

Overall, I can say that I am happy with the decision to apply for a board year. You learn many things, such as developing soft skills and looking at things with a critical eye. However, you also get to know a lot of people. If you still have doubts about a board year, you can always come to me with your questions!

If you want to know more about my board year, don’t hesitate to visit room E1.07 to ask your questions while enjoying a cup of coffee! You can find out more about the specific division of functions within the board via the following link.