How we Conquered #nowomen

FSE How we Conquered #nowomen

Active members Leonie, Martje and Evie joined the board of the FSE in October. Now, going towards the end of their board year, they would like to share their experiences about being an FSE board member Text & Images: FSE board

In the last five years that the FSE has existed, the executive board has only had two women before. In the year 2016, two women joined, including, of course, one Intermate member. However, this year is even more special, as we have three women in our board, and all three of them are a member of Intermate. Now, some of you might not be as familiar with what the FSE is and does. The FSE is the umbrella organization of all the study associations at the TU/e, also Intermate is part of this assosiation. Together with the study associations, we work on the tasks that the study associations have in common. This includes the central book sale, BHV courses and career orientation. We also organize some activities for all the students of the TU/e, such as the BorrelXL and MomenTUm which are really fun! As this is not all that we do as a board, we would like to share our experiences and what keeps us busy during our board year.

Leonie Being secretary involves social activities, like writing marvelous constitution and yearbook stories. Additionally, just how Mick and Sander wrote and will write the minutes of Intermate’s GM, I write the minutes of the monthly FSEAB meetings. And this is where the magic happens, because these minutes are written with the perfection of all previous secretaries of the FSE combined. The first female secretary of the FSE wrote her ‘raw' minutes (jargon for the first version) using pen and paper, which is admirable!

Luckily, I get the chance to do more besides minute-making, like being involved in career initiatives at the TU/e, participating in the umbrella meetings of the introduction week, and most of all enjoying the company

of my fellow board members. Discussing, brainstorming, laughing, and suffering with my board has taught me so much, and seeing us grow as a team has been very valuable. This board year gave me the opportunity to develop myself in both defending and combining the opinion of eleven associations, and it showed me the possibilities that initiate from collaboration.

Martje Next to being the first female Vice-President of the FSE, I’m also responsible for career, education, X(L) Mas the Christmas drink, and the BorrelXL. I don’t have a lot of function specific tasks so I spend most of my time on my portfolios. Normally, I have quite some meetings in a week with many different people of the FSE associations and the university. I really enjoy seeing everyone and having small talks. During these meetings I’m representing the study associations and all students. Furthermore, every working group or

“Since the FSE is a quite

old federation, traditions

have developed”

portfolio has its own division of roles. This year I was the treasurer of the BorrelXL and I made the budget for the X(L)Mas drink. Next to the serious work, I also really enjoy it when boards of study associations visit our office to drink some coffee. Since the FSEDB is a quite old federation, some traditions have developed. There is one vice-president tradition: the new vice-president has to cook FSE a dinner for all previous VPs. I’m already looking forward to the meal served by my successor.

Evie As treasurer, you would expect that I spend a lot of my time working in our office on book keeping. However, I only spend a small amount of time on finances every week. This gives me a lot of time to work on my favorite part: the portfolios. These portfolios give me the opportunity to get in contact with the board members from all the study associations and I also get to work on my problem solving and social skills. During my board year, I wanted to learn how to be flexible and how to stand by my opinions. The monthly FSE-AB meetings, which are comparable to GM’s, give me the perfect opportunity to work on this. The FSE has a unique structure in which the study associations all are part of the governing board, which means that any important decision needs to be approved by all study associations. It is therefore important that you can adjust your plans quickly, but also be able to defend your own opinion to eleven strong-minded boards.

There are many adventures outside of the safe haven of Intermate, and if you are looking for one, definitely check out an FSEDB board year. We have learned a lot during our year and also met people we otherwise would have never encountered. You can talk to us or all of our past board members (which we call Giants) that are also Intermate members as we have quite a few of them. Luckily, Intermate’s long standing tradition of having a member in the FSEDB board will be prolonged next year with Roxane and Adriaan, which we are very excited about!