April
General
The month April was another month in intelligent lock down in the Netherlands. We as a board have tried to continue with the usual tasks the best we could from home. One of the things we are very happy about is that SA Helix now has a complete candidate board. The candidate board members are all very excited to start next year with great events again! Together we are trying to make the transition as smoothly as possible, we are busy with training the candidate board members via Zoom. Luckily, next year a lot of board members will still be in Maastricht to help them out if needed!
Within this month, we would have had our Committee General Assembly. The GA was cancelled and to still keep our members up to date all committees have participated in writing a report concerning their work. They have evaluated their planning, even if events were cancelled, which next year can be used to perhaps plan the cancelled events again.
Additionally this month, we have thought about the online events we can organize for our members. Together with committees brainstorm sessions have led to a few events in March, so check our social media for the latest updates!
President
In April, I have been busy with training the candidate board, together with Lara I have provided them with several presentations of Helix to still give them a complete overview of the association. Furthermore, I have trained Lieke Troost, the Candidate President, in her position.
I have also participated within meetings with the President of Pulse and Santé to discuss their policies within these strange times. Brainstorming together has helped in several aspects.
Secretary
As always I have been performing my usual tasks, with the addition of the candidate secretary for her board year.
Excursion committee
The Excursion is canceled so the committee is working hard in getting all the refunds from the activities so that we can refund the members as fast as possible.
Treasurer
The main thing I’ve been busy with this month is keeping up with the all the excursion updates regarding the companies. Beside this, the checking of all the committee budgets was also something that kept me busy this month. Finally, I’ve also been training the candidate board member that’ll take over my role as treasurer, Luca Santus. We’ve been primarily going over the all the things that can be done online, such as conscribo and the processing of certain payments. Due to us not being able to access the helix room, some physical bookkeeping lessons shall be pushed till we’re able to access the helix room again.
Vice-President
This month has been different than our usual, a whole month communicating online and without physically seeing each other. For me that is having contact with the University about the Master Open Day which is held virtually through skype sessions of 10 minutes with either staff members or student ambassadors. We made sure to promote this to the second and third year students so that they are aware and can also join. Furthermore I was contacted to also promote experience day which we did through the facebook group of the prospective first year students. For the experience day I will be present during the Q&A session to answer questions related to the study, and student life with SA Helix. Lastly, I have been training the candidate Board member taking over the Vice-president position, Khushbu Mirchandani. I have been training her step by step to make sure it will be easier by time.
Gala committee
The gala will unfortunately be cancelled, both the Gala committee and Board are dafistated by this situation, but the safety and regulation needed to be followed. Therefore, We will provide a full refund to those who have bought their gala ticket.
Head of Education
This month has been quite different from the past, since all my meetings were held on Zoom, with no face-to-face interaction. On one hand, this resulted in shorter and more efficient meetings, but the discussions were often difficult, with less interactions than before.
At the beginning of the month I took part in meetings of the Master committee of the Student Council with the Head of Educations from Santè and EUnitas. The main point of discussion was the possible creation of a Master committee for all the Master tracks, with the aim to make it an independent Study Association in the future. However, while Santè and EUnitas do not include master students between their members, Helix does. This discussion resulted in the decision of Helix to step out of this project, since it would be easier for us to focus our energy on our own association and inclusion of master students, instead of creating a completely new one.
Furthermore, the BMSO happened, that is, a meeting of all Heads of Education of Biomedical Sciences from the whole Netherlands. This time, only a Faculty round was made, with every representative explaining how their university was handling the corona-crisis and online education.
Together with the Candidate Head of Education, I took part in a meeting with the SHAPE party and other Heads of Education from other study associations of FHML. We discussed the upcoming election week and the election program of the party. Furthermore, there is the intention of an even closer collaboration between the party and the study associations, that’s why we are planning to include the Heads of Education in the meetings with Faculty and University councils’ representatives.
Furthermore, to train the candidate Head of Education, we took part in the Bachelor coordinator meeting, where the new online exam dates and regulations were outlined. Additionally, we discussed issues that could be presented in terms of timings, study load, and approach to internet issues, as well as how the exam inspections will work.
Furthermore, I participated in my first Master coordinators meeting, during which the budget for the next academic year has been discussed, as well as the fact that almost every coordinator went over-budget with the planning of their courses. Moreover, the introduction of the mentoring system in the Master program was confirmed, as well as the introduction of a new management track.
As always, I kept participating during Student Council meetings, during which we were informed that all the students abroad who asked to come back were repatriated. Furthermore, we were informed that, contrary to what was communicated at the beginning, missing online tutorials will lead to consequences on the MSF forms.
In the past months I also started training the Candidate Board member Terence de Meza to take over my position. We had weekly meetings to discuss the Script, the Policy plan and all the duties of the Head of Education.
Furthermore, I took care of organizing, together with Sacha, the “Helix crush course”, a presentation and explanation of the basics of being in a board and the basics of how Helix works for our CB.
SEPs
All SEP committees kept meeting as usual, all the reports were done and sent on time to the course coordinators, and the one who wished for a meeting were invited to discuss the report.
SEP 1 met with the course coordinator of BBS1003 to discuss the report. It was an efficient and productive meeting, and the major concerns were addressed. The coordinator agreed to implement most of the suggestions given. Furthermore, the report of BBS1004 was sent even though the exam session was still missing, since the coordinator asked for as much feedback as possible regarding online education. The feedback on the exam will be sent once the exam has taken place.
SEP 2 will meet with coordinators of BBS2041 and BBS2042 by the end of the week.
Head of Activities
This month has been very different compared to the past. The board and committees had to adapt and perform all tasks and duties online over skype/zoom. The committees are all brainstorming to come up with online events and wrote their committee report online. This month the new Candidate Head of Activities, Christine Verhagen was chosen and started her journey by following trainings online. Besides the Helix Crash Course, I have had online calls/ meetings with Christine and am trying my best to explain how the life, tasks and duties of a Head of Activities in the ‘ normal life’ would look like, which can be sometimes quite challenging. Christine will attend all meetings I have with the Activities Committee, Education Committee, Sports Taskforce and Randwyck Committee online.
Head of External Affairs
During this quarantaine, not a lot has changed for my position. I still try to find companies to sponsor us, but a lot of the biomed related companies are not interested. I still have good hopes about finding one until the end of the year, as we are their future. We have had some business proposals, but these did not seem beneficial for us at all, therefore I am currently trying to get more out of these arrangements.
We finally found a candidate Head of External Affairs, which I am very happy about. His training is starting and at first glance he seems very motivated to help the association out with finding new sponsors.
Camp committee
As I am becoming the board member in the camp committee, I will be looking for enthusiastic people to be with me in the committee. My first year I had a blast as a participant and last year as a mentor I had a blast as well. Therefore I hope that some of you from last year will help organize this camp!
March
General
First of all, we as Helix board really hope that you are all safe and healthy. We just want to say once more that in these strange months, please listen to the advice of our experts and help the ones in need!
For Helix, it has been a month with cancelling events. We as board and our committees had to make some tough decisions. The committees have worked hard and sadly events had to be cancelled. We want to take this opportunity to thank our committees since they have worked very hard to cancel the events in appropriate manners.
Luckily, at the beginning of March we had the event of the Sports Taskforce to see our members once more after the Carnival and before the extra rules to stay at home. At the 2nd and 9th of March Helix danced together with the sports association Let’s Dance. The sports taskforce had organised a nice workshop of the Jive and Bachata. We all danced and made sure we were prepared to show our dance moves at the Gala. It was a big success and luckily not everyone was as bad as a dancer as our Vice ;).
The next event was the Master Open Day, Helix was present at the general lecture talk for biomedical science and explained what we can do for Master students. After the Master Open day the atmosphere within the Netherlands changed and the board discussed the cancellation of the Family Day. Together with the University and the Family Day Committee the decision was made to cancel, it would be too risky to invite all the families. Later on, the decision to postpone Gala had to be made. The gala committee had done all preparations and was fully prepared for an amazing party. Sadly, we have to postpone to ensure the safety of everyone. The committee is negotiating together with the University and Complex if other dates are options, to keep updated please check our social media! Lastly for the month of March, we had to cancel the VIP Bruch. The Activities Committee wanted to organise a wonderful brunch for all Helix Members. We were excited for the nice food but sadly this was also not an option with the current situation.
We really want to thank all of our committees for their effort!! Thank you for your cooperation Family Day Committee, Gala Committee, Activities Committee, Excursion Committee.
As board we are working from home to ensure all Helix work is still executed. For instance, we have been working on recruiting our candidate board. Through skype we have meetings with our Advisory Council and applicants. We are very excited to decide on our candidate board and start the training.
President
My work over the past month has consisted of a lot of digital contact. We had to inform our councils on the made decisions to cancel events. We held multiple skype meetings to keep everyone up to date. Furthermore, I have had contact with the Presidents of other study associations to discuss the difficult situations we are in now. We made a drive with the Presidents of LOBEG to ask each other questions and to inform on the best found solutions.
Family Day Committee
For the day everything was prepared: the groceries were done, booklets were printed, orders were set. Sadly the committee had to cancel everything in the last days. The Committee worked very hard to offer everyone a complete refund and to inform appropriately.
Secretary
I have been performing my usual tasks even though they are very limited now due to the coronavirus. The Excursion committee has decided to cancel the excursion and are busy with the cancellation of all reservations at this moment.
Treasurer
Due to the unfortunate cancellations of events this past month, my work was primarily focussed on providing the members with their refund. As well as financially assisting/checking up on the affected committees with their process of making sure our members can be refunded. Also, a shoutout to all the affected committees and their efforts in dealing with this headache of a situation!
Vice-President
For this month, I focused on the master Open day. I made sure we had good slides that I would represent at the general session of Biomedical Sciences. I further stood with student ambassadors and talked to some people who were interested in the masters. Furthermore, I was working with the university to plan the Experience days, unfortunately they had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation.
Gala committee
The gala committee was working hard as the gala was this month. All decorations were ready and our scheme of how to divide tasks during the day was set. With all the excitement the committee had, it was super sad they had to postpone for now. The committee is in contact with the university and complex to see how to further take action and plan the gala if possible.
Head of Education
This has been a chaotic month, especially considering that most of my time is spent in meetings that suddenly needed to be cancelled or postponed.
However, at the beginning of the month I met, with SEP 1, with Roger Godschalk, coordinator of BBS1001, to discuss the SEP report of the course. It was a positive and proficient meeting, and most of the comments were shared and understood by the coordinator.
After that, I had a week of home-quarantine due to coronavirus, and the fact that I travelled back to Italy during Carnival. In that week, I was supposed to take part in several meetings, however nobody from the rest of the board was able to fill in due to the short notice. Furthermore, I took part in the coordinators meeting for year 2+3, during which several points were discussed: problems in filing in MSF forms for BBS3004, and the possibility to change it with peer grade; they are considering to start an experiment to evaluate if the MSF forms and Competencies are really effective and useful for personal and professional growth. Eventually, the introduction of a “Shadow Mentor” was discussed, a figure that would accompany the actual mentor of each student to double check that the evaluation is fair and unbiased. This would also mean that the PAC committee won’t have as much power as it has now anymore, thus won’t be able to change any mentor’s evaluation.
I kept meeting with SC, however nothing relevant was discussed. Furthermore, due to closure of university because of coronavirus, all SC meetings have been cancelled until 6th of April. From that day onwards, SC meetings will be held via Skype.
In the past month, I also took over most of the interviews of CB applicants, the last of which was this week. Eventually, I moved all of my usual meetings to online platforms.
I met with SEP 2, with the coordinator of BBS2003. Although it was a bit chaotic at the beginning, it was an efficient and positive meeting, and most of the comments will be integrated in the planning of the course for next year.
Eventually, I met with the Master committee from the SC, the Head of Education of Santè and the one from EUnitas to discuss the possible formation of a Master Study Association that would include most of the Master tracks at FHML. Although it seemed a good idea, we discussed the option, and don’t see the point of putting effort in making a new Study Association instead of putting effort in Helix itself and make it more “Master-friendly”.
Head of Activities
Last month the main activities that took place were organised by the sports committee, namely the dance events that took place on the 3th and the 9th of March. It was a big success and all students attending were fully prepared for the Annual SA Helix Gala later that month. However, then all other events were to be cancelled sadly, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Activities Committee was planning on organizing a VIP Brunch for all Helix Members. The Education committee was busy organising the PubQuiz and planning out the Lab/Company visits. Luckily Zoom and Skype exist which made it possible to have meetings in which a lot of brainstorms regarding cancellation took place as well as interviews for the CB, and this will be the main platform we will be using in the future.
Head of External Affairs
Firstly, I hope you as Helix members are doing okay in these tough times. As for this month, I have mostly been looking at potential companies to look into and compiled a list of them. I have been working on sending emails out a couple days a week to get a response from any of these companies. I have been getting some response and I am trying to reel them in, but this might become harder as the economy might become worse due to the whole corona crisis. I am still going to try and hopefully something will come of it in the coming month!
February
General
We started the month of February with COP IV in Défile, on the 4th of February. It was a good party where everyone enjoyed the good 90’s and 00’s music! The next event on our calendar was the bachelors open day (BOD), during the day we represent Helix at the market with all the study associations. We tell prospective students everything they need to know about the study and Helix. We also inform them about our camp, at the end of August. The Helix room is open during the BOD, this way the students can take a look in our room and see the different pictures of our events.
On the 11th of February the board organised Board Information drinks, here interested students can ask anything they want to know about board life. We have talked with a lot of members who have interest in becoming the 28th Candidate board. If you still have questions, don’t hesitate to send an email to us! The rest of the month we have promoted the board applications via Social Media and made sure that there were more board members present in the Helix room.
For the board the most important event this month was the Half Year General Assembly (GA). During this GA the board received questions and comments on their half year report. The half year report regards everything that happened in the first 6 months. Within the report all matters, issues are discussed for the general board work, the different positions within the board and the committees within the associations. During the GA useful comments were made and we will evaluate further on everything discussed during the upcoming months. During the GA all members also voted on the leaving of Prasinjit Paul and Julius de Baaij, they have been voted out of the 27th board. We then moved on to the voting in of the Candidate Board members, Austin Isabella and Philip Ernst. Both presented themselves, answered some questions and were voted in. After the GA we had after drinks at the Zwaan, it is always nice to share some drinks after the GA.
President
The work I did during February mainly consisted of preparation for the GA. I ensured that the candidate board members were trained properly and that they were aware of the procedures. The Half year report had to be known by all board members and we prepared questions that were probably going to be asked. I also took care of the presentation and made sure that we met with AC before the documents for the GA were sent to the members. During the GA I supervised the discussions and answered general questions for the board.
Family day
The committee is working very hard to manage everything in time for the Family Day which will take place on the 14th of March. We are looking for helpers, ordering the food, reserving the lecture halls and overall that everything is perfectly organised. We have already reached a lot of sign ups and hope that many more students are interested in joining!
Secretary
I have been working on the minutes of the Half Year General Assembly and have been performing my usual tasks such as taking minutes of the Board meetings and receiving/answering emails.
Treasurer
Interim Treasurer (until 18th of February)
This part is written by the Interim Treasurer, Lara Bini. During this month I took care to keep the books up to date, as well as Conscribo, and met with committee treasurers to check their budget and see how they are all doing.
Furthermore, I continued the training of the candidate Treasurer Austin Isabella, making sure that he has all the information needed to fill in the position for the next few months.
I met with FSC to approve the treasurer books and work.
Eventually, I participated at the Half Year GA as both Treasurer and Head of Education, during which I presented the Half Year Realisation as well as the Term Realisation of Prasenjit Paul, the former Treasurer.
Treasurer (from 18th of February)
This part is written by the new Treasurer, Austin Isabella. The weeks before being voted in as official treasurer I was trained by the interim Treasurer, Lara bini. She trained me on how to keep all the administrative work in check and how to process everything properly and efficiently. Also I joined Lara in on a meeting with a committee Treasurer. Now I’m continuously getting more familiar with all the processes and getting help from the previous treasures when needed.
Vice President
The month of February was short but still had some major events. For me I had organized the Bachelor Open Day, this time we had talked to several people and made sure we had stood at the information market as well as in the Helix room. As the biomedical Science information session was held in MSM less people came to the information market where all the study associations were located. After the bachelor open day the board had fully discussed the positive and negative sides which were all further discussed with the organization team.
Gala committee
The gala committee is working hard making sure all the final touches are made to make sure we have a magical gala! This year the gala will be held on the 19th of March at Complex. Ticket sales started with more than a month before the gala to make sure we have enough time to promote.
Head of Education
In the past month I kept meeting with SEPs from all years, and all the reports have been sent on time. Furthermore, I met with the coordinator of BBS3003 with SEP 3. It was a really nice meeting, and the coordinator agreed with all the highlighted points of improvement. On the same note, I contacted coordinators of BBS1001 on behalf of SEP 1, since there has been some problem when organising the meeting, that will eventually take place in March.
Around the end of the month I was asked to participate in a meeting for innovative learning spaces design, during which, together with other students representatives, we helped designing new learning spaces for MSP faculty.
Eventually, I took part in the Student Council meetings. The only relevant point of discussion was the possible introduction of a joint project between all the Bachelor courses in the curriculum. The idea is to make this project mandatory for all the Bachelors, but we pointed out a lot of organisational problems. For example, since Biomedical Sciences already has competencies that take out a lot of ECTS from the actual courses, we would need to take away extra ones for this project. Furthermore, different Bachelors have different ideal points of time at which this project would be doable. In general, the idea is still blurry, and they still have to think this through.
Head of Activities
The month of February started with the 4th COP of the year, dynamic duos. Even Though the Defile started getting crowded later that evening, the party was a success. A lot of active members attended and obtained some BOC points ;). The second event organised by the Activities committee was the Beerpong Tournament later this month. This year we held the event at d’n Hiemel, a bigger cafe which made it possible to organise an XL event. Students enjoyed this a lot. I have been busy attending meetings from all committees, helping them planning events, communicating information with the board as well as in between committees and preparing the Half year GA together with the board.
Head of External Affairs
Interim Head of External Affairs (until 18th of February)
This part is written by Houda Soliman. During February I made sure that Candidate Philip Ernst got all the information he needed to start as official Head of External Affairs. We went over the mails, contracts, and invoices so he knows how everything works once he is voted in. During the GA, I answered the questions related to the position to give the full explanation; however, Philip was fully aware and also knew the explanations.
Head of External Affairs (from 18th of February)
This month I have been looking into different companies, from food to biomedical oriented companies, and I have been getting some responses back. I also reinstated the contact with Athenastudies and renewed the contract with them for next year. For the next month I am going to look into more biomedical oriented companies to get potential sponsorships and lab tours. This month was also me becoming an official board member, which made me really excited as well. Houda helped me out with proofreading emails and contracts and taught me how to make an invoice.
January
General
The month of January was for us the start of a fresh year, even though we had some set back due to the cyber attack we managed everything around. The year started with us going to the year opening of the University at the Bonnefanten museum, it was a nice ceremony with all workers from University and different Study Associations. As for Helix events, the Activities committee made sure we had a good start with COP III where everyone enjoyed the good 90’s music!
Not only Activities did a great job, but also the Sports taskforce. As the Sports Taskforce had organized the Glow golf which was a great success as it sold out early. During the event we enjoyed the 18 different holes and the interactions with the members. Afterwards it was time for some drinks and snacks and also to find out who lost. We therefore are happy announce the greatest loser of all group being Houda Soliman our Vice-president ;). The Excursion committee had opened their registration on the 27th of January and were sold out on the same day, for so many events and activities being sold out we cannot be happier.
Additionally in January something special took place, the board choose their 2 candidate board members! Austin Isabella and Phillip Ernst have been trained for their position in the upcoming months.
In the month of January we also enjoyed a balie Pubcrawl together with Santé and Pulse. We organise these kind of events together with their boards to ensure great teamwork and bonding. It was a good Pubcrawl with a lot of games and beer. Afterwards we all went together to the CoBo of Eunitas. We celebrated their constitution and enjoyed a great night at George’s Pub.
As we started the month January with an event organised by University, we also ended it the same way. We had the Dies Natalis, an event where the University celebrated their 44th birthday and gave away prizes to Masters students, Wynand Wijnen prize and honorary doctorates. The event ended with drinks, where SA Helix made sure to congratulate Leo Kohler and network with the different professors of the University.
President
The month of January was a month full of preparations for the Half year general assembly. During this GA the members have the chance to comment on the half year report written by the board. Therefore I have been very busy with writing everything needed for the general part and the evaluation on the policy plan. After everything was written the report was sent to AC to give them time to make comments and see if they agree. I have planned a meeting together with AC to go over all important matters of the report.
The experience day has also taken place in January, during the lunch I gave a speech about Helix and which events we all plan. The High school students are of course mainly interested about Camp and the book discount so I gave them an explanation about all they needed to know.
Family Day
The family day is being planned very smoothly. We had a meeting in January to ensure that we are aware of all preparation steps. The food and vlaai are being ordered. Furthermore, the committee is in contact with Leo for the lecture and an interactive anatomy practical. The lab practical in UNS 40 is also being arranged. At this moment the committee is searching for the perfect helpers for the day.
Secretary
For the past month I have been answering emails and doing my regular tasks, in addition to this I have been trying to arrange a room for the Half year general assembly.
Treasurer
Written by interim Treasurer, Lara Bini.
In the past month, the Financial department of FHML required the Year Realization from 2018-2019 and Year Budget for 2019-2020, and we took care of sharing it.
I also started training the new Candidate Treasurer, Austin Isabella, to take over the position from the 18th of February onwards. Furthermore, gala decorations has been paid, as well as the bus deposit for excursion. All the treasurer books are up to date, and the Half Year Realization is ready to be sent before the Half Year GA. The meeting with FSC is planned one week before the GA, the 10th of February.
Vice-president
For January, I took part of the Experience day which was planned well and went smooth, unfortunately being not too busy. Board members explained what SA Helix was and gave insight what the privileges were of being/becoming a member. Furthermore, I was looking into the Bachelor open day and Master open day taking place in the upcoming months. As the excursion registration opened at the end of january several students decided to become a member and so I was making their accounts and registering them in clubIT.
Gala committee
The committee has been working hard making some final decision to have a concrete plan of the amazing night coming towards us. They have been ordering decorations and deciding on last things. The ticket sale will start in February.
Head of education
In the past month I took part in another coordinator meeting with coordinators for year 2 electives and year 3 courses. During this meeting, the main problems caused by the cyber attack were discussed, and how these would affect education in the upcoming weeks. Furthermore, some courses were discussed, and SEP feedback was successfully integrated in the coordinators report and new changes in the courses themselves.
I kept meeting with the Student Council, and nothing relevant for us has been discussed.
SA Helix took also part in supporting the nomination of a professor for the Wynand Wijnen prize, and I was the one in charge to write the motivation letter and to help the PR office of the university.
For the first time since its constitution, SHAPE board required a meeting with all the Head of Education of FHML and FPN. However, at the meeting the only Helix, Santè and Pulse were present. During the meeting, the role of SHAPE inside university was discussed and how we can help each other.
Eventually, I took part in the BMSO, which was my first of the year. We met in Utrecht with other Head of Education from Biomedical Sciences courses from around the Netherlands, and the main discussed theme was “internationalization”. Furthermore, each one of us updated the others about what was happening in their universities concerning the Biomedical Sciences courses.
Head of activities
The month January started off right, with the first COP III of the new year. Members came together after the christmas holidays and celebrated in Defile. One week later, the first Randywck Party of the year took place at The Lab. The event was a big success, as it was already sold out before it started The Lab became crowded with members from all Randwyck associations. Some members have also been sportive last month, by attending the Glow Golf event organised by the Sportstaskforce. I’ve had a lot of meetings with all committees making sure all events were well organised in advance and trying to plan ahead for the new year.
Head of External Affairs
Written by interim Head of External Affairs, Houda Soliman.
In the past month, I have been working on the emails, checking whether everything is up to date with contracts and agreements with our partners. I have been training Philip to get him acquainted with his prospective position as Head of External Affairs. He has been making the drafts for emails, learning how the contracts work, and to how we function as a board. We have been looking into further sponsor and sending out emails. He has been showing a great attitude with a very positive and enthusiastic energy which is great!
December
General
The Month of December Helix celebrated Christmas! We started off with an amazing dinner at La Familia. The Activities committee made sure we got a three course dinner, which was delicious. Everyone enjoyed the food, drinks and conversations. We as board really appreciated the event to celebrate Christmas with our Helix Family.
Further one in December we needed a christmas card to wish everyone Happy Holidays! So we had our Christmas Photoshoot; thank you so much Steven for taking the pictures in the cold and making us look like we are not freezing! Helix also went to the Christmas Market at the Vrijthof, here we enjoyed some Gluwhein and showed off our best ice skating skills. It was really nice to see all of the different nationalities participating in a Dutch tradition. In December the Education committee organised the second Exam Pubquiz for the first years. Everyone had studied a lot already which made the pubquiz a success. That was the last event of 2019. We as a board have really enjoyed the year 2019 and are looking forward to the nice events we will be organising in 2020! Happy new year and see you at COP III on the 9th of January!
President
I started the month with a meeting about the Bachelor Graduation, together with Houda and the university we evaluated the event. I also had a President meetings with Santé and Pulse, this time we discussed the reconstruction of UNS 40. We can implement our ideas and hopefully if the budget allows some will be used! We will have several more meetings about the reconstruction later in the year but the brainstorms are now finished! I have also started working on the half year report, this report will be presented during the half year GA in February.
Family Day Committee
We have had a very successful meeting were all ideas were worked through. Right now we are in contact with the university to make sure that we can have the day going perfect. We have started the promotion of the day by doing lecture talks for all years and tracts. And all companies are informed of the date and the order will be done next year. All and all, it’s going very well. We also had our very first dinner to earn some points for the battle.
Secretary
During the last month it was not very busy for me as a secretary, I answered my emails and processed the rest accordingly.
Treasurer
I officially took over from the 6th of December as new Treasurer as interim, until we decide on our next permanent one. In this month, I got used to Conscribo and our accounting system, and I took care of keeping the Treasurer books up to date. I had a meeting with Rabobank to change the names on the bank account and make the new cards.
Furthermore, I took part in my first FSC meeting, during which we closed Prasenjit’s term and checked that everything was in order.
With Enzo’s help, we managed to solve all the KvK problems we had, and found out that everything can be done online. Thus, in the future, all the legal changes will be faster than before.
Concerning the committees, I worked with Excursion committee to finalize their decisions, and we paid the deposit for the accommodation in Copenhagen. The bus company didn’t require any deposit, so the whole amount will be paid in the future, after we receive money from sign ups.
Eventually, I met with Rob, the financial responsible from university, to officially introduce myself and explain to him the situation and our plan of action concerning the treasurer position for the future months.
Vice-president
In the month of December, I had my meeting with Margie & Katja for the Bachelor graduation evaluation, Sacha had joined me as she was present at the graduation and would help with some input. We had a good evaluation and the live music was highly appreciated and so will be kept for future graduations. I met with Daniel who is responsible for our website and clubit to fix up some parts, which will be soon fulfilled.
Promo:
The promo committee has been working really hard making more and better promotions to reach everyone, and made their merch photoshoot which are posted on instagram.
Gala:
Gala had met with Wessel the contact person of Complex to arrange the contract and brainstorm with decoration ideas.
Head of education
In the past month I had my first meeting with the Master coordinator, Ronit, to discuss how SEP works, what we can do for them and how they can help us with our work. She was really excited and happy about the report, since it helped them a lot while discudìssing the course. We informed her that we wish to cover all the tracks, and she will help us to get in contact with students and professors from different specializations. As coordinator, she also wish to receive all the reports written by SEP, and she asked to send them to a representative of the Board of Examiners.
Furthermore, I kept meeting with the Student Council. The main points of discussion were the fact that we still don’t receive a proper acceptance letter when applying for university, the presence of names on our exams, which can lead to bias when evaluating them, and the possible introduction of a new minor in Neurosciences, while combining the Nutrition and Movement ones. Another point of discussion was also the problem that we do not have enough places for the internship required during the 3rd year, which often leads to a lot of problems.
Eventually, the possible introduction of a new Bachelor was discussed, but if it will happen, it will be in3-5 years.
SEP Committees:
SEP committees kept meeting as usual. SEP 2 met with course coordinators of BBS2001 in a productive meeting. Coordinators of BBS1001, MBS1001 and Minor coordinators didn’t wish to meet at the moment, so meeting will be scheduled after the Christmas holidays.
In the past month, I’ve been in contact with Carolin Sehlbach concerning the training of new SEP members, however the first suggested day was not available anymore due to short notice about who was able to be present. New dates will probably be provided in the future, however all the new members seemed enthusiastic about the possibility to take part in the training.
Furthermore, I met with Rob to discuss about the amount of money available for SEPs, but even if we have an extra committee, the same amount from last year will be allocated for us.
Head of activities
December is a festive month, and that should be celebrated! Therefore a lot of activities were organised by Helix. The activities committee organised a cozy christmas dinner at the beginning of the month, followed up by the next event, ice skating! The events were the perfect occasion to meet, bond and get to know more of your fellow students.
However, December is also a month including the last exams of the year. That did not hold back the committees to organise activities, it moreover was a reason for the education committee to organise the Pubquiz BBS1002!
The sports taskforce has been busy organising new events, and will kick off the new year with glow golf!
With the randwyck party committee we have been planning the first Randwyck Party of the year, on January the 16th. It will be Dirty Disney themed party, and we hope to see you all in the Lab, wearing your dirtiest Disney outfit celebrating the start of the new year!
Head of external affairs
As I have been taking over external affair since november, i have been working hard emailing and contacting many companies to see if they are interested in Helix. For now, I have had meetings with Arbor Project, a project that recycles paper to make notebook, and they will hopefully be our future sponsor.
November
General
The month November started off with the committee General Assembly. During the committee GA on the 5th the committees present themselves and their plan for the upcoming year. After all the lovely presentations we went to the Gouveneur for some drinks to talk about the first GA of the academic year! Later in that week we as a board were present at the official graduation ceremony of our bachelor students. Especially some old board members were congratulated and thanked for all of their work within Helix!
In the first week of November we also went to congratulate Lunatik at their COBO, since they now have formed their board. We of course brassed some of their merch and helped Santé since they couldn’t do it on their own..
In November we had the Battle of Committees kick off event, this event was organised by the board to have the committees battle against each other with several games. It was a lot of fun to see all members fight for their own committee. After the games the Battle for the rest of the year has begun. Committees can now earn points by having drinks, dinners or by going to a Helix activity. For this event we also held after drinks in the Gouveneur, where some nice beers were really enjoyed ;).
Another activity that was held in November was the pool tournament organised by Activities committee. The pool tournament was a lot of fun! Different committees came to support Activities Committee and also to earn some points for themselves. Again everyone was really competitive and wanted to win the title, which was won by … In November the Sports Taskforce had their first event, Bouldering! This was really a big success, a lot of members came to climb for their live. Some members were definitely better than others but we for sure had a lot of fun!
During the month of November we as a board unfortunately had to say goodbye to 2 of our board members. We have really appreciated everything they have done over the last half year and are very thankful for the time we had. Sometimes really sad decisions have to be made but please know that we were really happy with you in our board. Pras and Julius, thank you so much for all of your effort and work! Good luck and see you around!
President
The month of November started with the GA, as President I collected all the slides made by the different committees. During the GA I led the discussions and made sure nobody went over time. To prepare the GA we always have a meeting with our Advisory Council to make sure we are prepared for every situation.
With Houda and Lara I was present at the Graduation of the Bachelor students, I made a small speech to thank everyone and wish them good luck with their career.
In the first week of November the presidents of Randwyck also had a meeting. We discussed the events that we are planning, problems within our association and the reconstruction of UNS 40. It is always really nice to learn from the others and see how they handle certain situations. This is also what we do at Landelijk Overleg Beweging en Gezondheidswetenschappen (LOBEG). This month I went together with Joyce from Santé to Amsterdam, where associations from all over the Netherlands were present. We discussed how we all can improve and what solutions could be for our problems. Afterwards we had some nice drinks and then the long journey back to Maastricht began.
In November we had the first presidents meeting, here all presidents of the committees come together and discuss their plans for the upcoming time. Together we went through the script, explained the meetings and made agreements to use the Drive. I’m very excited to work with our presidents and am curious on how they will perform this year!
The last meeting I had in November was with the Presidents of Santé, Pulse and Werkgroep Inkom. We evaluated the INKOM from this year and decided on some new plans for next year. Hopefully our opinion will be used and the INKOM of 2020 will be even better!
Family Day
With Family Day we had our very first meeting, we talked about how the outline of last year was and explained to our new members how the day in general will look like. All members are really enthusiastic which is very nice! We are thinking of changing the Virtual Microscopy practical and are right now thinking of new options..
Secretary
In the past month we held our first GA, the committee GA went smooth nothing out of the ordinary happened, right now I am processing the minutes with which I am almost finished.
Furthermore, I processed the emails I received.
Excursion committee
I have taken up the task to supervise the Excursion Committee in the absence of Prasanjit Paul, for this I have been updated to the latest situations and plans and will continue to stay on top of this committee.
Treasurer
Similar to the previous month, I assisted and continued working alongside the treasurers of Activities Committee and Sports Taskforce, via google sheets. I kept an overview of the planned event’s finances and their budgets for their respective events in November (Bouldering and Pool tournament).
Consequently, I had the opportunity to teach and duly explain the tasks of a treasurer within a committee to the new treasurer of Activities (Luca Santus), Gala and Excursion (Ita Nudelman), and Education (Agnieszka Talik). We held short independent meetings of around 45 minutes, where I showed how to budget and realize their events, while also teaching them how to make use of google sheets and keeping track of sign ups via clubit. The last committee treasurer to be trained is Family Day (Zylienne Fluonia), and we have a meeting scheduled on Dec. 2nd.
In continuation with my position, I paid several invoices and declaration forms, while also keeping our books updated e.g. cashbook and Conscribo. Since I will be stepping down from my position after this month, I have began training our current Head of Education, Lara Bini, as our interim treasurer until a suitable replacement has been found. The above mentioned bookkeeping tasks were completed with Lara Bini, to allow her to visually see and learn the tasks of the treasurer.
FSC:
As I will be stepping down from my position, my financial term of six months needs to be realized and checked by the financial supervision council. They serve as the accounts of the association, to make sure all transactions made are lawful. During this meeting, they will check all our books and verify if every expenditure has been accounted for. I will also present my realization and link this to Conscribo.
Vice-President
In the past month, the day has come for which I had been preparing for a long time, the Bachelor graduation! The day was planned in with two sessions. The Ceremony was delightful, with smooth execution of the planning. Lara was helping me out with registering the student and Sacha was in the Hall welcoming everyone and of course giving a touching speech! I managed to have Leo Kholer to speech for the students as she has helped out any of the students; it was amazing to see her speech end with a standing ovation.
Furthermore, a band came to play to give a more special meaning to the day. They played when students would walk in and in between the giving out the diplomas to have slight change and for people to also enjoy the long sitting. As an overall I am happy the graduation went well.
As for the Bachelor Open Day which followed 2 days later, it was also a success. Students came and asked about the study and what Helix does. However, most prospective students were still unsure of what bachelor to decide or were more into medicine, but we were prepared for that. We made sure we had a poster with a QR code for the facebook group of their year and a camp poster ready for the prospective students to keep it in mind.
The only thing that I think needs to be changed is the lecture hall where the information session is given about Biomedical Sciences as this time it was in the Management School of Maastricht.
External Affairs
As our External affairs stepped down for his position I have been executing his tasks. I had a meeting with him to have a good overview of the situations at hand and what further needs to be done. I made sure all contact persons are aware that I am in charge now, and so we have good contact.
Head of Education
In the past month, a lot has happened. I participated at the Graduation ceremony and Bachelor Open Day, helping our vice during the days in tasks like taking presences and showing the Helix room to prospective students. Furthermore, I helped with the Battle of Committees event.
Around the middle of the month, I participated at the ceremony for the Education Awards of FHML, during which the best tutor and course of Biomedical sciences were announced. Those were, respectively, Yvonne Oligschlager and BBS2062 Allometry. Furthermore, Lars Eijsses, former internship and thesis coordinator for Biomedical Sciences, was awarded with the prize of Honours Education. On that day, we also received the information that Albert Scherpbier was stepping down from his role as Dean of FHML and vice-chair of MUMC+.
Later in the month, I met with Hans Savelberg, Director of Education of Biomedical Sciences, to discuss the nomination of a specific person for the Wynand Wijnen Education Prize 2019. He asked Helix to support his decision about the nominee, and we were more than happy to write a motivation letter to support the candidate.
Furthermore, I’ve been invited to take part to the Coordinators Meeting for year 2 electives and year 3. A lot has been discussed during this meeting, such as the introduction of a new course, similar to the Education minor, after Bachelor, Master or PhD which would give the students the possibility to teach at Dutch highschools. As of now, it is just a minor option, but starting from September 2020 it will become an external course as well. Price and duration still to be determined. Also, from September 2020 there will be a shift from BlackBoard platform to Canvas as new Student Portal website (specifics still to be announced).
The introduction of LabBuddy platform has been discussed, and all 1st year students seem enthusiastic about it. Starting from this year, it has been introduced to 2nd year as well, but not for all the courses since the budget didn’t allow it.
From this year onwards, the Allometry course will allow students to enter the AKO program, since it was not the case in previous years. Eventually, the problem of missing GPA has been discussed, and the fact that this causes a lot of stress and anxiety in students.
On another note, I kept meeting with the Student Council, and the main point discussed during the meetings were: the introduction of an Innovation Budget to improve education and bring students and staff together, the changes brought to the Biomedical Sciences Master program for next year, and the students’ lack of abilities when working in a lab, which is causing a lot of concerns in several coordinators and a problem when compared to the ability of students from other universities.
Treasurer meetings
Since our treasurer is stepping down from the board, I started my training as Treasures as interim. I’m receiving training on how to keep the treasurer books, the cashbox and cash book updated, while also learning how to work on Conscribo. Furthermore, I participated in a meeting with a committee treasurer to understand how to make a budget and deal with it.
Student Evaluation Panels
SEPs committees have been formed and are efficiently working on the reports. All the SEPs managed to respect the deadline to send the report for the first course of the year.
Master SEP decided to evaluate all the different tracks of the program using online questionnaires and personal connections.
SEP 3 decided not to meet until the minors come together in the third course. They will be meeting in pairs to discuss the single minors, and the reports are checked by the whole committee. All the reports have been sent on time.
SEP 2 and SEP 1 kept meeting during the 2nd and 7th week of the courses, and all the reports have been sent on time.
Head of Activities
Activities committee
For this month the activities committee has been busy organising and planning events for November and December namely: pool tournament, ice skating and the Christmas dinner. The pool tournament took place this month and was a big success, with a good amount of members from all three years attending.
Education committee
The education committee had meetings in which they were busy planning the second Pubquiz for this year, which will take place next Month.
Randwyck Party
Together with the other members of the Randwyck Party committee, we planned our first Randwyckparty of this academic year, which will take place after the Christmas break. We also brainstormed about our future plans, and set up some long term plans.
Sports taskforce
Furthermore, I took over from a board member that stepped down, and so now I supervise the sports taskforce, which planned and organised the bouldering event this month.
October
General
During the month of October, the board has been very busy with the formation of the committees. During the committee drinks a lot of members signed up for all the different committees we have within Helix, which we were of course very grateful for. The interviews were held and on the 14th of October all the emails have been sent to the appliticans. During the rest of the month the committees have gotten to know each other and prepared themselves for the first General Assembly.
For the first years we organised the first exam Pubquiz in the Lab, example questions were given and answered in small groups. This event was organised in collaboration with the board and education committee. The first years were really enthusiastic and the event was sold out in no time! So for the next pubquiz we will try to get a bigger place to give everyone a spot. The last event of October was the Course Opening Party of course II. It was again a party everyone forgot about with all those nice drinking deals ;).
President
I had the first presidents meeting with the presidents of Randwyck (Associations in these meetings: Pulse, Lunatik, Santé, IFMSA, Eunitas, Hera, Askleipios). With the presidents meetings we discuss all the problems that we might have and that we can help each other with. During this meeting we evaluated the INKOM and decided to set up a meeting with the Werkgroep Inkom to improve INKOM for us next year. We also discussed the role of Shape and how we will implement that into the several associations.
Now that the official committees are formed, the committees will make their committee boards. If these are made I will reach out to the presidents and set up presidents meetings. During these meetings we will discuss the events, problems and questions all together.
Family Day
The Family Day committee is officially formed! We are all very excited to get started with planning this super nice event. Our first meeting will be held in the upcoming week were we are all going to meet each other and start brainstorming.
Secretary
I answered my emails, arranged with servicepoint that we could use the Coen Hemkerzaal for the GA and had a meeting about the upcoming battle of committees.
Treasurer
This month I assisted the treasurers for Activities Committee and Sports Taskforce. For Activities, they held their first successful event of the year, the Cycling dinner. It was a huge success logistically and all expenditures were accounted for. I will continue working alongside the treasurers for Activities Committee and Sports Taskforce, as I will oversee their budgets for their respective events in November (e.g. Bouldering or Pool tournament). The treasurers for committees such as Gala, Family Day and Education will be in my scope soon, once they have been decided. In addition, I paid several invoices and declaration forms, while also keeping our books updated e.g. cashbook and Conscribo. In preparation of the committee GA, I have held meetings with the treasurers for Camp and Introweek 2019 and finalized their realizations. This realization will be presented during the GA.
FSC:
I have assisted the financial supervisor council (FSC) in finding a student member representative for the next two academic years. We also have our first meeting planned prior to the committee GA, where the members of the FSC will check all our books and verify if every expenditure has been accounted for.
Excursion
The definitive Excursion committee has been officially formed! We are excited for the year ahead and ready to plan an awesome excursion this year. Our first meeting is planned later this week.
Vice-President
This month, I have evaluated the Faculty Introduction day with the university and we had some good feedback and aspects to improve and implement them for next year. Furthermore, I have been busy planning the bachelor graduation which will be held on the 7th of November, I have prepared the slides and am excited to see the graduates and be part of their special day! Moreover, I was keeping the website up to date, now you can find all our event posters and monthly overview on our website.
Gala
The Gala committee has been formed and they are all very enthusiastic students!We had our meeting last week and got to know each other a little more. I explained what was expected of them and how we will work through the year to organize the annual gala!
Promo
The committee is also formed, I am happy to announce the Promo committee is expanding having a full board now, who are all excited to improve promo this year! They are busy now making all the committee posters.
Head of Education
This month I kept meeting with the Student Council, and nothing relevant was discussed, but the wish to have more cooperation between SC and Study Associations.
I was asked to participate to the coordinator meeting of electives year 2 and year 3, but due to personal reasons I could not attend, thus Prasanjit Paul took my place and reported back what was discussed. The main focus was on the rules for resits for students, the new format of the coordinator meetings, and the developments on LabBuddy system. Furthermore, they are planning to modify and improve the competences for 3rd year students.
SEPs
The 3 different SEP are formed, and I’m proud to inform you that this year we will be able to introduce the Master SEP Task Force!
The committees are meeting this week, and before friday we will have the Presidents and Secretaries elected.
The first meeting of SEP 1 was held, and the role of Head of Education was explained, as well as what’s expected from them, the upcoming GA and the Battle of the Committees.
Head of Activities
This month, I had a lot of interviews, for the activities as well as education committee. I enjoyed it, met a lot of people and formed two enthusiastic committees.
Activities
The activities committee had quite some meetings this month, as the cycling dinner as well as the COP II was organised. For the cycling dinner, members teamed up and cycled from house to house, that prepared different dishes in their hosting kitchen. Afterwards we all came together in the Lab to have some drinks together, which ended up being a big afterparty! During COP II, the Defile was very crowded with lab rats and spooky themed members.
Education
The (preliminary) committee organized our first Pubquiz this year! It was sold out very fast and the Lab was fully packed with our first years that enjoyed making our quiz and were well prepared for the exam to come. The definitive committee is formed now and will meet later this week so keep in touch, to be up to date with all the fun events.
With the randwyck party committee we have had a meeting to get to know each other, and work out some of our long term ideas.
Head of External Affairs
This month I have been busy with interviews and forming the committee for sports taskforce. Next to that I have been working out a potential sponsorship deal which will hopefully soon be announced. I have also been in contact with one of our sponsors to work out how we can improve promotion and communication between Helix and the sponsor.
Sports taskforce
The sports task force was formed halfway through the month, in our first meeting we evaluated what went wrong with our first event and made plans for future events. Next to that we had our first committee bonding activity and we choose a committee board. We are very happy to have our next event being bouldering and we are hoping the Helix members are as excited to go bouldering as we are.
September
General
First of all, welcome to our first years and newest members reading the monthly update! This is where the board will give you a full recap of all the events that have happened over the past month. We, the board, will also discuss what we have been doing per position!
The month of September was the start of the academic year. We welcomed the first years with a nice introweek. The Introweek Committee has organized some wonderful activities for the whole week. We started off with Intro Drinks in Helix, here we played some fun games and got to know each other in the chillest place of uni: The Helix Room! If you missed it, don’t worry you can always still come in for a drink and a game (the board is always up for winning)! The next day we explored the city during Crazy 44, which was a good event to break the ice between the students. On wednesday we introduced everyone to a Pubquiz and showed them how we party in the Lab. This prepared them for the Thursday when the first COP of the year took place in Defilé. O fcourse, on Friday we were all hangover and enjoyed a tosti during the hangover brunch.
The other event that we had in September was the Committee Drinks, all members of Helix could come talk to committee members and ask their burning questions. A lot of members applied and now we are busy with interviewing all of the candidates.
President
In September my main job was to integrate with first years and show my face! We also had our first board meetings of the year and are excited for the rest of them. The next meeting is planned with the different boards of FHML for our presidents meeting. Furthermore I’m working on the interviews of Family Day with the old members of the committee.
Secretary
This month I helped the introweek committee out with the introweek. Which went smoothly in the end, and next to that I just did my job with the emails.
Treasurer
This month I assisted Johanne Vermetten with Introweek budget. It was fortunate as many logistical preparations between Johanne and myself, concerning the finances, worked out well. In addition, I paid several invoices and declaration forms regarding expenditures for Introweek, while also keeping our books updated e.g. cashbook and Conscribo. Furthermore, I am working alongside the treasurers for Activities Committee and Sports Taskforce, Maria Fernanda Scoz Luz and Tom Wyckmans, respectively. I have been overseeing their budgets for their respective events in October.
Excursion:
As you may know, I am overlooking excursion committee 2020 as the respective board member. We had our first meeting within the preliminary committee this month. The possible locations and dates of the excursion were briefly discussed. The committee board has yet to be formed and we are expecting new faces in the committee after a successful committee drinks.
Vice President
In September I have been making all the new members’ accounts and helping out students who had trouble with logging in. I have worked on the website to make things better in reach, such as the membership form link, the Instagram and Facebook links of Helix, etc. I have been updating the membership list, making sure we have a good overview. Further I have been in contact with the Bachelor graduation planning group so that we can plan in advance and make sure we plan a good day.
The highlight of this month is getting to know all the first year students!
Head of Education
In September, I attended a meeting with the Faculty Council about the Quality Agreement Act, during which it was explained how the university plans to spend the money, and what has been done so far. Eventually, the meeting ended with an informal drink to get to know each other.
I remained as the represent of SA Helix during the Student Council meetings, and nothing of a particular importance has been discussed so far. However, the Student Council had to leave their previous location due to the fact that that space was required by another department, thus SC is without a room, and will be relocated. Also, one-on-one meetings were held with the board of SC to discuss their plan of the year.
I met with Athenastudies to discuss about their program and the promotion of their services through Helix’s social media.
SEPs
SEPs didn’t meet yet, as the preliminary committees were to small to hold proper meetings. However, I’ve already started with the interviews for the definitive committees.
Furthermore, I’m happy to say that this year I will be able to form the Master SEP Taskforce.
Head of Activities
The first month of the new academic year! In this month the introweek took place in which I got to know a lot of the new first years, and made sure they got to know me. The activities, education and randwyck committee meetings have been full of preparation work for lots of events to come. The committee drinks took place, and the interviews for the new applicants are scheduled.
Head of External Affairs
In this first month of the new academic year I have been busy with sponsors and the new Helix taskforce. I have been in contact with most of our current sponsors to make sure we maintain a good partnership and to get a good start of the new year. I have also been trying to reach out to some potential new sponsors but so far I haven’t had much luck so I will have to keep looking! In the sports taskforce we have been busy planning the first sports taskforce event and I think it will be a great event. The committee has been working hard on planning the football tournament and hopefully our members will be as enthusiastic about the task force as me.
August
General
During the month of August the board appreciated their well-deserved holiday. We stayed in contact very well and were jealous of Pras (who was India) and Enzo (in Bali).
However, it was not only vacation for us since we also promoted Helix during the INKOM! We started at the ‘Welcome to Maastricht’ market on monday next to Santé and Pulse. Here we had the first contact with our new students and gave them a brief summary of the best association, SA HELIX! During the rest of the week we mainly spoke to students who had some burning questions and needed some more information. On Friday, we participated at ‘The day at the Uni’ where students had a college tour and the opportunity to meet the several study associations. Many students saw the benefit of joining SA Helix through our participation in INKOM and we genuinely loved meeting new faces and explaining what SA Helix is all about. For us the INKOM consisted mainly of talking and partying with first years which has made it an awesome week.
On the 27th of August the Faculty Introduction Day (FIC) took place where the first years got familiar with the university and their fellow students. This was done by mentors who showed students around and played games. And as every year, SA Helix made goodie bags for the new first years. We are funded by Maastricht University every year, and this year we spent those funds on buying SA Helix pens and notepads. These products we placed into SA Helix bags with another bag and a SA Helix sticker.
We also had our camp with the first year biomedical students. The camp committee had organised 3 amazing days at the Kalei in Belgium. We went with an enthusiastic group of students who came back all tired of those fun days and sleepless nights.
President
During the first half of August we all left our lovely home Maastricht and communication was mostly done via Whatsapp and Email. Being the president, I had the task to keep the communication clear and straightforward since we sometimes had a lot to discuss.
After all of our great vacations we started the academic year in August with the wonderful INKOM of 2019. We as Helix promoted at the market on Monday and at the college tour on Friday. To make this possible I had communicated everything with the Werk Groep Inkom (WGI) and had to make sure during the INKOM that all went smoothly.
A week later camp came along and my task consisted of bonding with the first years, which was of course the easiest task in the world! I have really enjoyed meeting everyone and am looking forward to see all of them becoming active within Helix!
Secretary
Not a lot happened for me in the month of August I received emails with questions from first years and I answered them. I helped out during Camp as much as possible.
Treasurer
August was an eventful month as I have been working and helping with Intro Week committee in managing the accounts with their respective treasurer, Johanne Vermetten. In addition, I have paid several invoices and declaration forms over the summer, while also keeping our books updated e.g. cashbook and Conscribo. Furthermore, I created a google sheets document for the treasurers of every committee that I and the respective treasurer share. This allows both of us to make live time adjustments and improvements to the budget on a timely basis.
Camp Committee:
This year I was overlooking the Camp committee 2019 as the respective board member. The Camp took place at De Kalei, Belgium this year, from 28th to 30th of August. It was a huge success as many logistical preparations were improved this year while guiding my committee and all first years and mentors truly enjoyed the event. Unfortunately, the expected number of first years joining the event was not reached due to most students not fully reading the emails sent by Maastricht University. Nonetheless, the budget was constantly reviewed and looked upon by myself and the committee treasurer, Ita Nudelman.
And a big thank you to the camp committee, mentors and 27th Board for their efforts during the event to make it a success.
Vice President
During the summer holidays I was busy going through the member list and making sure it had consistency. I had also worked on renewing the sahelix website. furthermore i worked on recruiting mentors for the faculty introduction day (FIC) which I plan with the university. so there were various emails just to make sure we have a perfect day. I made sure that every group passes by the helix room and received the FIC goodie bag where we explained what Helix was and what we do. the university and I planned an escape room, which took place around during the tour as questions were put up. so students will see the questions when they have their tour. At the end of the day i held a kahoot for the students to have an interactive ending game.
Promo committee:
This year I am a member of the promo committee, and so I wanted to make sure all the newcomers could put our events in their agendas. I made sure most events happening in the beginning of year went public before the academic year could start.
Head of Education
No meetings took place during holidays, thus I mainly helped other Board Members in their tasks when needed. Eventually, I participated at Camp event, and due to the low sign ups I mainly helped the Camp Committee and other mentors when needed.
SEPs
No SEP meetings took place, however I worked to get in contact with new Master students to constitute the Master SEP Taskforce for the following academic year.
Head of Activities
This month has been all about preparations for the first month of the academic year, full of helix activities.. Together with the activities committee, the first activity was organized, namely the cycling dinner! Stay tuned and more information will follow soon, but first upcoming; intro week!
Head of External Affairs
In august, lots of helix board related work had started for me. Two days after I got back from holidays I had a meeting with Dominicanen about reviewing the previous year and looking at how we continue our partnership. So during my meeting with dominicanen we discussed on how we can improve book sales in order to make dominicanen satisfied with the partnership and what a new contract would look like. The most important parts of the new contract will be: We are not selling books from the helix room anymore, books can either be ordered online or bought at the helix section in boekhandel dominicanen.
Camp
Next to that Pras and I were very busy with making sure the camp was organized well in the second and 3rd week of August. During the week of INKOM committee members became more active and the President of the committee stepped up more so everything fell in place. The camp ended up being well organized with only big issue being the low signups and people cancelling the camp. Ways of improving communication towards new first years could be: being more active in promotion of the camp during open days, asking the university if we can write a camp specific email.
June
General
The month of June was a very important month for the 26th and the 27th board of SA Helix! Finally the day was there that we became officially board, the 13th of June. During the changing GA the 26th board ended their board year and all got voted out, after that we finally were voted in. It was our moment of fame! After the GA we had some nice drinks in the Zwaan were we enjoyed our first drinks as an official board.
The next event was still organised by the 26th board, the Active Member day! It was a nice event with nice drinks, good food and great company. The active members then went together to the Randwyck Party organised with the other associations of FHML. The Randwyck Party was a lot of fun, it was a successful Jersey shore themed party at the Lab! At that moment it was time to organise some fun committee drinks. We had members come to the Helix room where all the committees were explained and introduced. Members signed up and we’ll form nice preliminary committees! And then, there it was, the evening of the 20th of June, the day we have been looking forward to and dreaded at the same time: the Constitution Drinks. We were socially accepted within Helix and by the other boards, it was nice to see everyone there. That week we also went to the Cobo of Santé which was a great way to prepare for our own Cobo. The day after our social acceptance we got the chance to meet all the Old Boards of Helix. The Old Board drinks were in The Gouverneur were the 27th board drank some IceTeas while the rest enjoyed a beer. The week after that we had a great barbeque at Fun Valley, the last event this year organised by the Activities committees. We enjoyed some drinks and food while sunbathing! The following day we had to recover from all that sun and decided to stay cool inside. We had a labtour at MERLIN which was really interesting!
President
This month I took over from Claudio as the President! This meant that I had to prepare for the changing GA and had my last training meeting with Claudio. We went over the presentation together and he showed me the way it all should go. In the Changing GA I introduced all our members of the candidate board and they presented them self to the members. After that I presented our Policy Plan and explained how we would execute the several propositions. We answered questions and got to the voting, when I was able to use the hammer for the first time! Additionally I have been leading the board meetings and making sure we are ready for a full year of working together. We also have had our last presidents meeting of the year were we looked back at the whole year and evaluated together.
Secretary
After the GA I officially took over as secretary. Which means I am taking over in writing the GA minutes, Sam helped me out by recording the GA on his phone from another location. The days after the GA weren’t very different from the other days except for having to clean the helix room of course.
Treasurer
This month I took over from my predecessor, Maria after the changing GA on June 13th. The budget of academic year 2019-2020 was accepted by the members, Advisory council and Financial supervisor council. I have now started doing tasks such as writing in the cashbook, putting all the transactions in conscribo, printing all the transactions for the financial binder, paying invoices and declaration forms and making sure everything is up to date, independently.
Our association’s financial supervisor has been replaced by Rob Jacobs. On June 26, the former treasurer and I sat down with him and respectively presented our year realization and budget for the upcoming academic year. This was similar to what had taken place during the changing GA. I have also worked the committee treasurers of Introduction week and the Camp committee, to appropriately budget the funds for their respective events in the beginning of the academic
Excursion:
This year I am overlooking excursion committee 2020 as the respective board member. A problem had risen with the committee of 2019 that they underspent during the trip. Thus, my first major task as the association’s treasurer was to return unused funds during the excursion to the respective students that had gone. This was a very tedious task but it was a challenge I accepted and enjoyed in the end.
Furthermore, every year we travel by bus to our chosen destination with the association and this has always been an exhausting journey. This year, I am trying to collaborate with a travel company that can organize flights for us. I have already contacted one company in Maastricht and one in Amsterdam. If all goes well, we will be flying to our next destination.
Vice President
This month I took over from Ela right after the GA. I immediately had to keep the website updated and promote events through Facebook as I am also in the Promo committee. I uploaded the pictures of the last COP of the academic year right away so that everyone can have a look at our last successful COP of the year. I have already had meetings for faculty introduction day and for the bachelor graduation, making sure we have a good plan and everything will go smoothly. For me, there is a lot of planning and organizing such finding speakers for the graduation or making goodie bags for FIC. furthermore, as an overall I am supporting the other board members and helping them out when needed.
Head of Education
General
On the 13th of June I took over as Head of Education. I attended the coordinators meeting, during which updates were communicated and discussed. During next year, LabBuddy will completely substitute the Lab notebook; furthermore, the new Bachelor Coordinator was announced (Roger Godschalk) alongside with the idea of keeping two Bachelor Coordinators, one for 1st and 2nd year until electives, and one from 2nd year electives until end or 3rd year. Also, a Practical Coordinator has been introduced, Herman Popeijus.
Change in the scientific writing and presentation forms and evaluations will be introduced. Eventually, the drop in lecture attendance was discussed, and the desire of some coordinators to remove lecture recordings.
The Student Council meetings kept being held, and new members were announced.
I attended SHAPE board interviews alongside members of other Study Associations
SEPs
The SEP1 met with the coordinator of course BBS1004 and sent out report of course BBS1008 and BBS1005. SEP2 also sent out their report of course 2051 and BBS2052 and met with the coordinator of course BBS2041. As almost everyone is leaving, from all the 3 SEPs, their board will be discussed and changed after the definitive committee is formed.
Head of Activities
This month I took over from my predecessor, Orwa after the changing GA on the 13th of June. It been a scheduled month full of activities. We started of with our last dont freak out pubquiz for the first year students at Peter’s Irish Pub, just before the exams. After the last exam our VIth and therefore last COP was organised, a Luau party at Cafe Defile. It been a good party, including a lot of drinking deals, decorations and dancing biomedical science students. On the 18th of June a Randwyck party was organized by the Randwyck committee at the lab. Also this was a successful party including a nice, crowded location serving good cocktails and other drinking deals, a DJ playing good music. On the 25th of June, the activities committee organized its last event; a bbq beach party at Funvalley. The event was full in sign ups, and even decided to add more spots. Besides having some delay wicht committee members as well as the groceries entering the beach, members ended up having a really good time. The location was very good for a BBQ and we should keep this event organizing upcoming year(s). For the education committee, the very last event organized was the MERLN visit in their lab’s. The visit was very eye opening, including a lot of new information and members were enthusiastic! However, it was not fully booked with sign ups and some members did not show up. Furthermore, I interviewed new applicants for education as well as activities preliminary committee by the end of June.
Head of External Affairs
This month I took over from Andrea on the 13th of June as Head of External Affairs. In that week Andrea and I had a meeting with dominicanen. The meeting was really good in the sense of clear communication and the contact from domincanen was really nice. However domincanen did say that the low amount of books sales currently is a problem. I got a list from domincanen with the books that we ordered and how many actually were sold and the numbers are really low. Of one book for example they ordered 21 and sold 0, most books half or less than the amount of expected sales were actually sold. This leads to domincanen making unnecessary costs(helix doesn’t pay for the books) because domincanen can not return the books to the publisher. I agreed with domincanen that something should change so we made the following agreements: first of all to lower the amount of expected book sales, so domincanen doesn’t order as many. Second is that helix will promote at least 1 or 2 books at the start of each block the same way we promote events to try and increase sales. Third is that helix members can either have the books ordered and then send to their home address or pick them up at domincanen, we will not give the books out from the helix room anymore. This will avoid unncessary transport costs to get books back and forward between helix room and domincanen. Hopefully with these steps we can increase efficiency and increase book sales. If these do not increase domincanen will not want to move forward with the same contract the year after.
I also looked at switching to a different company for our clothing(committee and board clothing) than GOT shirts, in the hope we would get sponsorship money somewhere. But because Helix is not big enough as association all they could offer was around 10% discount, which is the same amount as we are getting with GOT shirts right now.
The past month has been a lot of figuring out how things work and adjusting to having a somewhat different time schedule than normal due to all the helix events and meetings.
Next to that I have held all Sports Task Force meetings and will be deciding who are the fit candidates over the weekend.
