Behind the Scenes with Pieter: Balancing Roles and Responsibilities

Hi! I’ll start off with a brief introduction. My name is Pieter Maarse and I’m a 21 year old econometrics student. Last academic year, I finished my bachelor’s degree in Econometrics and Data Science. Currently I am serving as the External Affairs Officer and Vice-Chairman of the 52nd board of Study Association Kraket.

As External Affairs Officer, my main task is maintaining the contact between Kraket and external parties, mostly companies. Over the summer, I had meetings with many potential partners, either at their office or online. In these meetings, I discussed potential collaborations, after which I kept in touch, via email or phone, to finalize the way in which we were going to collaborate with them. The rest of the year, I keep in touch with our partners to coordinate the implementation of our collaboration. This entails putting vacancies and company profiles on Kraket’s website, sending the monthly vacancy mail, and coordinating inhousedays and other events. Additionally, we keep busy with exploring opportunities for new collaborations throughout the year.

The Vice-Chairman role can take up either no time at all or a lot, depending on the week. If Micha, our chairman, can do everything himself, there is not much I have to do. However, if Micha falls ill, I have to assume the majority of his chairman duties.

Let me take you along for a week in my life! I have to warn you, this is one of the busiest weeks of the year. Not every week is like this!

Monday (February 5)

Today is the National Econometricians Day (LED)! The LED is the biggest career event for Econometrics students of the year. Kraket organizes this day once every 5 years, and this year it is the turn of the Study Association in Groningen. This means that we are not playing an active role in the organization today. However, as board members we do have to help out when needed.

The day starts at 9:00, with a motivational speech by olympic gold medalist Mark Tuitert. After this, there are cases, speeddates, and a company fair. For the morning, I’m assigned the company fair and speeddates. Many of the companies we talked to over the summer are present so it is fun to have a catch-up with them.

During lunch, I have to cut the line to quickly grab my lunch, as I need to support the organization. Board members are designated to be so-called “Company Companions”. This means you have to help them with their case or their stand at the company fair. I’m assigned to De Nederlandsche Bank (the Dutch Central bank), who will be presenting a case. I help them with setting up, check attendance, participate in the case, and thank them on behalf of the organization for their participance.

We end the official part of the day with a 3-course recruitment dinner, and afterwards, there is a party until early in the morning! During the party, I talk to, and dance with, many of the board members of the other Econometrics Associations. We also slept in the hotel where the LED was.

Tuesday (February 6)

I wake up in the hotel, where breakfast is included, and it is one of the best I have ever seen with almost endless food possibilities! After breakfast, I quickly grab my stuff and go back to the VU by car. I ride along with the External of the VSAE (Kraket of the UvA), who has become a good friend of mine. It is my turn for kamerdienst (room duty), so I am at the VU until 17:00. During this time, I answer all the emails I got during the LED and earlier today.

Wednesday (February 7)

Wednesday is a long day. I start the day with the first meeting of the new Speeddate Committee! We divide tasks, and go over the Transfer document, which I wrote myself since I was in the committee last year. When our meeting is finished I go to the Kraket room, where I answer all the emails I received since yesterday. Next, I have a meeting with Sean to discuss how we are going to shape the sponsor brochure for this calendar year.

As student confidants of Kraket, Anne and I had a training earlier this year to prepare us for this. Today is the follow-up training, which is given by Jos de Haan, the confidant (vertrouwenspersoon) for students at the VU (If there is anything you want to discuss with him, you can send him a WhatsApp message at  +31 6 81387779).

We end the day with a practice General Assembly (Algemene Leden Vergadering, ALV), where we go over everything we are going to say at the General Assembly next week! During our practice session, the fire alarm goes off, so we move to the NU-building.

Thursday (February 8)

I start Thursday with some non-Kraket stuff, so I get to the Kraket room in the afternoon. On Friday, I am doing an Instagram takeover with a day in my life. I’m filming some videos for this today (I know it’s a bit fake, sorry for this, but it shows better what I do than filming on Friday). I start with a meeting with the DDD committee, in which we discuss the last details of the organization of the Diversity and Development Day  next week. Then, I’m taking a picture for the almanac with the 2023 Speeddate Committee. After this, I film a few videos of me drafting up a contract for a vacancy on our website. When the contract is signed I also actually put it on our website.

In the afternoon I have a Chairman/Vice-Chairman meeting with Micha, where we have a quick catch-up. Our meeting needs to end in time, as I’m going to the office of the Dutch Postcode Lottery to discuss a potential further collaboration. They were already present at the Caseday earlier this year, and will be at the DDD next week, so we will discuss if we want to continue this collaboration after the DDD.

In the evening, the first year committee organizes an ice-skating activity! The weather is not on our side, but we still have a blast. After close to two hours of skating, we call it a day, and have some food at a cafeteria with everyone that wants to join.

Friday (February 9)

The day of the Instagram takeover! I already have most of the videos ready, so I just have to post them. In between posting, I am busy with emails, some requests from members, chilling in the Kraket room, and… writing this article, which will be posted today as well! I put this off to the last moment, since it was quite a busy week, but end good all good!

I hope this overview of a week in my life gives you a better idea of what the life of a board member, and more specifically External Affairs Officer and Vice-Chairman looks like. If you have any further questions or just to know more, you can contact me any time!