Today I will tell you about my personal experiences of this year so far. Firstly I will introduce myself shortly, secondly, I will tell something about the chairman function, and last but not least about my board year in general. 

My name is Feiko Smid, I am 23 years old and started my master Technology & Operations Management this year after I completed my bachelor Business Administration with the Technology Management track. Before I started my board year I did two committees at TeMa. Two years ago I did the Social Committee and last year I did the Lustrum Committee. During these years there were a lot of fun and educational experiences, which made the choice of becoming active again easy. Besides that, I wanted to develop myself in a professional way, where I benefit from later in my career. If you combine these two reasons with the fact that I wouldn’t mind another year of student life, you will have the main reasons why I decided to do a board year. 

The position of chairman was the most appealing to me because I saw the biggest challenges here. Speaking in front of large groups, thinking strategically and being responsible for a group of people were (and are) skills I want to develop myself in. 

The best part of being a chairman is the variation you have in this function. Besides your own responsibilities like the coordination of the board and leading meetings, you support your fellow board members where necessary. You have to be aware of what everybody is doing. Other tasks from being chairman that I enjoy a lot are that you are the contact of all external parties (except for company relations). You can think of other study associations, the Department of Operations or political parties. 

What I enjoyed the most of this board year so far are the countless social activities. Of course, there are the activities of our own association and the mixes with our committees, but besides that there is way more! For example, you visit socials of other study associations, you mix with other boards and there are a lot of constitution drinks where you will be invited for! But for me, the highlight of the year was the beer cantus with the other economic study associations.

I hope that with this blog I gave insight on the position of chairman in the TeMa Board. It is not possible to explain everything in a blog, but if you want more information, you can always message me (+31655684854) for a coffee or a beer!