4 minute read
STORIES OF CHANGE
By Mr SANDER VAN ECK RT 185, The Netherlands
JANUARY 2017 I started a new job as an account manager and for a traineeship I spent 2 weeks in Ghent, Belgium. What should not be missed when you are in Ghent, is a visit to the unique meeting location of RT 68 Ghent. So after contacting Christof with a C, I was able to experience a super nice evening there. The next day I received a phone call from the then Chairman of our Round Table 185 Woerden, Junior Brandenburg. He asked me to succeed him as Chairman, so the year started well!
Unfortunately I was without a job 7 months later and therefore the first unemployed Chairman of our Table. I wanted to avoid falling into the trap again by going for another sales job. So in the few months without a job, I decided to reflect on who I was, what I wanted to do and what would fit with that in terms of work. I did this by talking a lot with family, friends and especially other Tablers.
JUST WHEN I HAD DECIDED what suited me, our annual tradition began: the Christmas tree sales. This is a charity event of which a large portion of the profit that year was donated to Freedom Through Education. This is an organization that, among other things, is committed to building schools for children in India. The Chairman of the Christmas tree committee had just become a father and could not give the correct attention to the organization during the event. Fortunately as an unemployed Chairman, I still had some spare time left and we turned it into a super event with our Tablers.
During this event many Christmas trees are also sold to Tablers of neighboring Tables and so I came into conversation with Rainier Kwakkenbos, Tabler at RT 152 De Haar. When asked what I normally did, I could only answer that this was selling Christmas trees for a good cause. It then turned out that he was looking for someone to manage the internal organization of his company. After 2 conversations before and after Christmas, we came to the conclusion that this fitted me very well. And Rainier had found the right man who could help him with the stability and growth of the organization. So we decided to enter into a partnership.
IN MY ROLE AS OPERATIONAL MANAGER I have since been very much released by Rainier and I can fulfill this new role in my own way. Because you are both Tablers, this gives that extra bit of confidence to take the necessary space. But also to be able to make mistakes and to be able to improve and reinforce each other when the situation requires it. It does not always happen automatically, but it is precisely then that we find each other and this helps us to take the next step. The longer I work there, the more I get confirmation that this role is a good fit. It ensures that I am learning, that we are having fun and that I’m growing every day in both business and private life.
AFTER MY YEAR AS CHAIRMAN I succeeded fellow RT185 Woerden Tabler Mark Heida as Area Chairman of Area VI. Mark joined the National Board as National PRO and so we could continue to work together. In this role I was forced to step out of my comfort zone and join Tables in my Area as a "strange" Tabler. Every step I took outside my own Table gave back a lot of energy. The regular meetings of the Table Council, great events of Tables in my Area and the (international) trips with Table friends have brought me valuable knowledge in addition to a lot of fun.
By working with Mark I also noticed what a job as a National PRO he had. Through a conversation with Roy Helmink of RT 95 De Liemers we got the idea to professionalize the Webshop and I took care of that and released Mark from some work. A very nice, challenging job that I took on with great pleasure and I was able to learn a lot about optimizing and improving an online shop.
I did it all because I enjoyed doing it, wanted to get to know Tablers and could learn a lot on a personal level. This was superlative when I was asked to serve on the National Board as National Treasurer… TO BE HONEST, this was the position I least thought of as a possible role for myself. I am not an accountant, I do not run my own company where you continuously monitor the figures and I have not been working with accounting packages for so long. But what did turn out is that through my dedication, presence and work ethic, others came to believe that I possessed the right qualities. And those qualities, combined with the right support, made me the right man for this role.
So with the support of Christian van Tellingen (Past National Treasurer 2017-2019) and Hans van Kats (Fellow Tabler from RT 185 Woerden) I now have a wonderful position that involves a lot of challenges, that I feel comfortable with and that teaches me a lot. Not only in the role of National Treasurer but also as part of the national board of RTNL and its 14 Districts, 195 Tables and more than 3,000 Tablers.
MY MORAL IS THAT when you do things that you enjoy, you can automatically take the steps that help you to grow as a Tabler and as a person. A wise man once said "What you put in energy and time into Tabling, you will get back over and over again."
