Board blog vice-chairman 2023
Look into the life of the Vice-Chairman of Asset | Marketing
Wow, it’s already time to write my board blog. Time flies by when you’re a boardie of this beautiful association. Luckily, I still have some time as Vice-Chairman before handing over my duties to my successor (is it you? ;)). In this blog I want to tell you more about my board year at Asset | Marketing and especially about being the Vice-Chairman.
Why a board year at Asset | Marketing?
I started my board year during my bachelor Business Economics. During my bachelor I was really figuring out which directions I liked, but couldn't get a real answer on that. That's one of my reasons why I decided to do a board year, to figure out what I like to do. And by doing a board year I could extend my student life, while getting new formal and informal experiences. Also, I always wanted to do something back for the association. I have always felt really welcome since I stepped in the rooms 2 years ago and want to give everyone the same experience. When I saw that I could join the board with Patrick, Femke, Cas, Sjors and Tijn, I was sold!
What does a board year as Vice-Chairman look like?
Honestly I do not really know where to start. A board year flies by because it is so much fun and so much has happened. What I like most about the vice function is that you are the one that brings life to the association, you are the one that attracts new members and makes sure that the active members know each other and can enjoy a good atmosphere in the association. How you want to handle this is mostly up to you, will you organize big introduction activities, set up fun monthly challenges for ranking the Cies, organize member evaluation talks to get an idea of what is missing or can be improved, or will you come up with some other new inventive idea to make the atmosphere in the association more vibrant and engaging? Besides that you’re in charge of all the promotion and PR of Asset | marketing which gives a lot of opportunity for creativity.
What do your tasks consist of?
During a board year, your tasks can generally be divided into function specific tasks, general board tasks, and tasks for Asset Tilburg.
Function specific tasks:
As vice chairman you are the main contact point for all active members, you are the first one they meet when they join a committee when you have an introduction talk with them, in those talks you go through the available committees with them to see which one fits them best. After that you are the person they come to when they have any questions or remarks, because of this the role of vice chairman helps you expand your network very quickly, as you get to know all active members in no time. Furthermore, you are also responsible for all the promotion of Asset | Marketing, this means that you will make a promotion schedule every week showing what gets promoted through which channels to bring committees and events under the attention of the marketing students. Because of this many vices in the past learnt a lot about designing, however this is definitely not a must! You work as a team, this means that you will always help each other out with whatever is necessary. So, there will always be someone who wants to help you out with designing. Additionally, you occasionally have to lead the board meetings whenever the Chairman is away. Next to these things, the vice-chairman has several smaller tasks that are mostly aimed at increasing the social cohesion of the association such as ranking the cies and updating the picture of the month wall.
General board tasks:
These are tasks that are the same for each board member. First of all every week starts with the board meeting on Monday morning. Here, everything that is on the planning for the coming week is discussed, as well as things that happened in the past week, this includes for example proposals from Asset Tilburg, incoming mails, committee updates, policy progress and the promotion schedule. Next to this, every board member coordinates several committees. Personally, I like this the most about my board year. You really learn how to manage multiple committees and how to work with them. As a board member you will be the coordinator of 3 or 4 committees, which will be divided in the beginning of each semester. This way you can choose the committees which fit you the best or challenge you the most. As the Vice-Chairman you will most likely be the coordinator of the Designcie. Finally, you sometimes organize informal and formal events together with your board, such as our introduction activity ‘The Beer Olympics’.
Tasks for Asset Tilburg:
Next to the tasks you do for Asset | Marketing, you are also responsible for some things that have to happen for Asset Tilburg. To make this work, Asset Tilburg has several Faculty Wide Organs (FWO’s). As vice-chairman you join the Public relations meeting (PM) of Asset | Tilburg together with all the other vice’s from the other departments. Together you are responsible for organizing and promoting all the informal events of Asset | Tilburg. To make it work efficiently, all vices in PM have their own tasks, for example I was responsible for the Events and for TOP-week. This means that for the Events taksforce I was responsible for the Asset party’s such as the Carnaval Party, for the COdE (really cool!!) and the Asset Champions League. For the TOP-week taskforce you work closely together with all the other vices to set up an unforgettable introduction week. To me this was one of the coolest aspects of my board year, because you set up big events for a big amount of people.
What did I learn?
Most importantly, although many of the tasks listed above are officially “function specific” you learn that during a board year in the end you are responsible for anything that happens with Asset | Marketing with your entire board. For example I have also picked up tasks from other people in my board that had nothing to do with my function, and my fellow board members also quickly jumped in to help me out with my tasks, so in the end you really have to do it together! You learn to work in a team while becoming close friends with your fellow boardies.
Furthermore being vice-chairman has really helped me to be more comfortable with speaking to new people. I used to be somebody who is more comfortable with looking at everything from a distance before jumping into the conversation. I got used to doing it more quickly because as a vice you regularly are forced to meet new people.
But you don’t only learn a lot, you also get a lot of new friends! You work closely with your own board, who become one of your closest friends. And you work together with all the other 40 boardies on the floor. You get to know all these people really well in your FWO, but also during the ABA’s (All Board Activities). And of course when you just go for a small talk in one of the other departments rooms.
If you are interested in other board functions, have a look at the Board Application page.