Now the time has come for us to write our board blog. As all other board blogs already mention, this is the moment you realize how much you have learned and grown. Even though some periods of our board year were still filled with corona measures, our year was still filled with meeting new people, new experiences and fun events! In this board blog, we will tell you all about our experiences and what the external affairs officer function entails.
Why a board year at Asset | Marketing?
Sjors: In march 2022 I joined Asset | Marketing as a member of the Activities Committee, where I became the treasurer of the committee. Asset | Marketing immediately felt warm and welcome for me. I finished my pre-masters in January 2022 and didn’t know what I wanted to do but I knew that I wanted to extend my study time. Especially with the knowledge that we lived in covid time for 2 years as students, I wanted to get more out of my study time. That is the moment when my former board members came to me and asked about a board year. From that moment on I started thinking about a board year and after joining a lot of events I was convinced that I wanted to do a board year. I have never had any regrets so far because you get to know a lot of people and make new friends. On the other hand, you get the opportunity to develop your professional skills and expand your corporate network.
Tijn: As I finished the second year of my studies International Business Administration, I had the feeling that I was not quite sure what career path I wanted to pursue. Furthermore, the studies felt very theoretical and so I wanted to do something besides that to also learn some practical skills. A board year is the perfect way to do that as you are actively involved in daily operations and you are very quickly improving on communication, teamwork and negotiating. The best thing about doing a board year however is that you can develop as a professional while also getting a lot of fun and new friends!
What does a board year look like as an external affairs officer?
Everyone has their own tasks within the board that are specific to their particular function. In addition to this you have general board tasks, in this way you can extend your function specific tasks with other things. This makes it all more diverse and you can develop yourself in areas that you are interested in.
General board tasks
Many general board tasks are the same for the entire board. For example, we start every week on Monday morning with the board meeting. Here, we evaluate the events and activities that have taken place the previous week. Of course, we also look ahead to what is coming up in the next week(s). In addition, we go through the recent and relevant developments that have taken place in everyone's portfolio and all the committees. This way, everyone is aware of what is going on and what other directors are working on. These meetings are very important for the consistency of the association. They are intensive meetings but they are of an undeniable importance to the association because it is here that you are informed of the ins and outs of the association.
Tasks related to the function
Together with your fellow external, you are responsible for formal events and contact with companies. Company contact and keeping your partners happy is the most important part of your function. Next to this, doing acquisition is also a big part of your function. Ultimately, your task as an external is to ensure that enough companies connect with Asset | Marketing through a partnership and bring in enough money to keep the association going.
I didn’t know what to expect from doing acquisition, but you have to do both warm and cold acquisition. In our case, we had to do a lot of cold acquisition to acquire new partners. By doing cold acquisition, you really learn what works to attract potential partners and what not. Some of the things you have to do for companies is sending a partner update once a month, putting their vacancies on our CPT, putting their posts on our social media, mailing and creating contracts. Next to this, you are responsible for events, such as workshops, inhousedays and the business dinner. By being in charge of these events, you will learn many skills regarding organization and planning.
A big pro of this function is that you will get in contact with a lot of different companies, in this way you really learn how the companies work and get a better understanding of the working field. Normally you go to the offices of your partners, but since corona it is mostly online. So we haven’t visited any of our partners in real life, but it is really nice to see them at events! In this way it makes it more personal and you can really network with them. A tip here is to add all your partners or people you speak with on LinkedIn, in this way you also build your own network.
What do we do for Asset general
Each board member is also part of a faculty-wide organ. As external affairs officers, we sit in on the Acquisition meeting. At these meetings, all external affairs officers from all departments are present. Here, we discuss issues that are important to each department. We discuss asset membership deals, career portal tilburg and many other things. In addition, everyone in the acquisition meeting sits in 1 or 2 task forces. This year, for example, we are responsible for our career platform Tilburg and for the Asset champions league.
Do you want to know more?
Are you interested in doing a board year and want to know more? Send a message to sjors +316 55253620 or send an email to externalaffairs@asset-marketing.nl so we can plan a coffee together!