Board To Board

After a long summer together with the new board in the E-building, the board of 2012-2013 was relieved of their tasks during the DMM on August 27. Now they can be found in the lecture rooms once again; but on a Thursday morning in September, they returned to the coffee corner of the E-building to tell us all the amazing, successful, happy, sad and mostly funny stories of their incredible board year. After a long summer together with the new board in the E-building, the board of 2012-2013 was relieved of their tasks during the DMM on August 27. Now they can be found in the lecture rooms once again; but on a Thursday morning in September, they returned to the coffee corner of the E-building to tell us all the amazing, successful, happy, sad and mostly funny stories of their incredible board year.When asked what the highs and the lows of last year were, they immediately remembered some great events. Cas and Marleen mentioned as obvious climax the LED, but there is much more. Daniëlle added that there were multiple great events and that the AMW was really great, as almost all active members were together and had a lot of fun. Senna thinks that organizing successful activities in general is a highlight and she loved it to see how committed the active members were in organizing the activities and how much everyone enjoyed to attend the activities. For Corné, in general the entire process of changing the structure was a highlight. However, there are no highs without lows. This year’s low was the cancellation of the Orientation Day, which was especially frustrating since they worked very hard on organizing this day. Corné: “Explaining the Econometrics department why it was cancelled was definitely a tough moment.”We would like to compliment them though, with organizing a great Bachelor Information Day for the first year students, to replace the Orientation Day for them.Back to School
Since they are all back in the lecture rooms, their lives are totally different from last year. According to them, it is not extremely difficult to study again, but of course after a board year you miss certain things and there are things you certainly do not miss. Marleen thinks she will miss her fellow board members most, or as Cas put it: they will miss the atmosphere at the rooms. Moreover, Daniëlle misses the structure in her life: instead of getting up early, she now goes to sleep late more often, which she actually does not like at all. Senna misses having a purpose and working for it together, while Corné misses discussing most. However, Daniëlle thinks he especially misses winning discussions, at which he was very good. Of course it also has advantages to follow lectures instead of doing a board year. All five agree that it is nice to have more time for their friends. When they want to plan for example a lunch with a good friend, they can easily take a few hours off.Favorite Activity & Committee
Marleen liked the LED most as activity and as committee to be in. The others agree that the LED was the most remarkable activity and Cas mentions the great evening the board had together with the committee in Utrecht on the day before the LED. They had a nice pyjama party at one of the hotel rooms and were all really looking forward to the event on the next day. The choices for favorite committees however, really differ. Cas liked to be in the IBT committee together with good friends, namely his TIK (now known as TOP) brothers and sister. Senna loved the D&A committee most, for it was always fun to meet with this committee. For Corné, the choice for the Freshmen committee is obvious, since it is the only committee he was part of, but he really liked to be in this committee. Daniëlle preferred the Finance Expedition committee, since everybody in the committee was focused on organizing a great event, the committee members got along really well and it was nice to work together with another association. Another favorite of hers was the Nekst committee.

Funny and Annoying Habits
During a year of living together in E1.10, you really get to know your fellow board members and their special habits. Corné, for example, always left lots of chocolate spread on his knife, which made it more work to do the dishes. The workplace of Marleen could easily be recognized by the huge amount of post-its lying around. Cas was very critical, he even rejected a declaration of one of his fellow board members, because the receipt was stapled on the wrong side of the declaration form. A remarkable characteristic of Cas is that when he concentrates on his work, he does not hear what other people say. Often when he heard a good story or rumor about something that happened weeks ago, he complained that nobody told him earlier, even though it was discussed next to him in E1.10. According to the others, Daniëlle has a ‘prethoofd’ when going out and her smile gets bigger as the evening lasts longer. Daniëlle also adds one habit herself: she admits that she has a talent for wrecking computers. Lastly, Senna has the habit of tapping her pen on the table during meetings and to tell long stories during meetings with every detail thrice in it.

Evaluation
When it comes to evaluating the year, everyone admits that they would have done some things differently if they had the opportunity to do it again. Daniëlle was a bit stressed at the start of the year, especially about small and less important matters. During the year she became much more relaxed and enjoyed it more. Marleen, Senna and Cas think they would be able to do things more efficient since they have much more experience now. Corné would have considered the cost (in time and energy) better of the things he did, especially in the evenings. For example, they visited some drinks they did not really have to visit when looking back. However, visiting all these drinks together made them a really close group. What they are all very proud of, is that they think they were very approachable for active members and always stayed themselves. As a board you make mistakes —› as well, and they were not afraid to admit those. Besides these things they encountered during their own board year, they also have an advice for the new board: do not forget to enjoy this year! Corné immediately admits that it sounds cliché, but time goes really fast and before a nice activity has ended, a new one has already started.
Someone once said that during a board year you get two years older, since you learn and experience so much. Whether this is true is difficult to test, but the year has certainly had a big impact on the board. Senna agrees that you really change after such a year, for you learn to cooperate better and to take responsibilities, and she is sure that those changes are positive. Corné thinks you really get to know yourself and that you learn what your strong and weak points are.

Are you aware of the fact that we had a fantastic year?
At the start of their board year, their predecessors made them and the attendants of the DMM aware of some crucial facts. Now the moment has come that they can inform us about some facts concerning each other. Daniëlle: “Marleen, are you aware of the fact that you are not photogenic? Cas, are you aware of the fact that you are not subtle?”.Marleen: “Corné, are you aware of the fact that you do not have to text people, by SMS, to inform them that you finally have a phone with WhatsApp?”. Senna: “Daniëlle, are you aware of the fact that a light bulb does not contain batteries?”. Corné: “Ladies, are you aware of the fact that the rooms were never cleaner this year than during the IBT?”. I hope that they are all aware of these facts now and I would like to wish them good luck with their studies. Corné, Daniëlle, Cas, Marleen and Senna, thank you very much for a fantastic year!

Text by: Floris van Loo