Hey! My name is Martijn Tannemaat and I am this year's Internal Relations of the TeMa Board. In this blog, I will tell you everything you need to know about my function and my experience this year. I can absolutely recommend doing a board year and I hope the blog excites you to join the TeMa Board next year! And if you have any other questions you can always come by or contact me!
What my week looks like
The ‘workdays’ of an Internal Relations varies a lot. But every workday, the entire board works at our ‘office’ at Zernike in the Duisenberg building. Twice a week, we have board meetings in another office. Monday night, we have our weekly Board Night. We eat together with the Board and drink some beers. It is also great to invite a committee or another board during this evening! Next to that, board members go to almost all TeMa activities. These are at night sometimes as well. Besides the Board I also have a side job and try to follow a few courses of the Bachelor Bedrijfskunde. Next to that I love to play soccer or go sporting several times in a week.
What my daily tasks are
As Internal Relations, I meet with the Committee Members a lot during meetings or when they come by at the office. When it comes to the committees, I am mainly in contact with the Chairman’s and Chairwoman’s. I help them organise the activities and I am the point of contact for questions to the Board. Besides, I try to make sure everyone is having a good time and is happy within TeMa! As an internal you also are a point of contact for new members and try to have a lot of contact with them. When new committees need to be recruited, I’m busy approaching and enthusing members and thereafter with the selection and kick off of the new committees. A very educational and fun way to get to know your members a lot better!
Together with the rest of the Board, we also work on our policy for the year. We try to add value to TeMa as an association for the long term, by working on sustainable developments.
What qualities suit Internal Officer?
I think the most important qualities of an Internal Officer, are the ability to communicate well and the urge to help Committee members. You have to enjoy organising activities and you have to be creative in the organisation. Besides, you have to be resilient and have to like working with lots of different people. And personally I love to let people connect with each other and have a great time! If you have fun in these things, a Board year as Internal Relations suits you and will be amazing.
What I like most about being Internal Relations of TeMa
It’s so much fun to do all these things with a fantastic group of people. It's great to look at a year ago and then at how much I've learned already. And I'm only half way through at this point! I wish for everybody to seize the same opportunity. In addition, you work together with fantastic people who you will also see as your friends. Off course it takes a lot of time and effort but all the experiences, activities and people greatly compensate for that. Not to mention the fact that doing a board year is interesting for your future employers. Some say it will be the best year of your life. But you can determine that just by experiencing it yourself ;)
