De Chemische Binding

Dear reader,

It seems like you might be interested in becoming an active member, if that is the case this is written especially for you! Committees are fun experiences where you work in close proximity with fellow students towards a common goal. There are many different committees with different goals, there is the symposium, the Almanac, the activities committee and many more. The best way to know if becoming active is something for you, is to listen to those who have already done a committee.

Hello! Would you kindly introduce yourself?

Josephine:  Hi! My name is Josephine, I am an almost third-year bachelor's student in Chemistry, and am currently in the candidate board! In my free time I participate in dancing and gaming, and of course, chilling with my friends!

Caya: Hi, I'm Caya, I'm a 21-year-old Chemistry student and am almost finished with my bachelor and I have been an active CB member for the last four years. 

Pieter: I am Pieter Brongers, a third-year chemistry student, in the track smart materials, and hope to finish my Bachelor’s by this summer.

Ivar: Hey! I am Ivar and I am 20 years old. Currently, I am a second-year Chemistry student.

What committees have you participated in within De CB, and why were you interested in these committees?

Josephine: aXie is the first committee I joined because organizing activities sounds like a lot of fun! And because during the ICE committee round, I liked the aXie the most, as they were really nice people. These nice people also had done ICE the year before, so I decided to trust their ‘hype’ and applied for that committee as well! Finally, Christmas Dinner because I knew awesome people were going to apply and because I wanted to stay active in the association.

Caya: In my second year I wanted to join the SpoCo because I really wanted to become active and I really like to play sports! So it seemed like the perfect committee for me. In my third year, I joined the Christmas Dinner and Parents Day Committee as I was very curious to know more about organizing such a big activity and I was curious what it would be like to cook for over 100 people! And the Parents Day Committee I joined because of my fellow committee members, who were also my friends. This year I joined the Almanac committee, as I wanted to stay active but also wanted to get another experience than organizing activities which the Almanac perfectly supplies.

Pieter:I am a proud member of the Career Committee and the Symposium Committee. At some point, I would’ve liked to join a committee to get to know people and organise stuff, and I was glad when the Intern asked me if I was interested. These committees appealed to me because they involve contacting experts from outside the association to come to us and teach us on a topic, whether it is soft skills or lectures, which is pretty cool. Also, the symposium is such a big event, I was thrilled (and a little bit scared) to organise it.

Ivar: I was part of the aXie, BorrelCie, ICE and the TripCie. I joined the aXie due to the committee being very persuasive and because it felt like the best way to get to know the association. The BorrelCie I joined for a similar reason, by being behind the bar at the weekly social drink you get to know a lot of people very fast, which is really nice. The ICE committee I joined to organise the best activity of the whole academic year: the ICE camp! I was the FID coordinator which meant that I had to organize the FID, with which a lot of different factors were involved, so I felt like I learned a lot. Finally, the TripCie, where we as a committee organized the first ever official CB skiing trip. 

What did you enjoy most about these committees and what did you learn?

Josephine: very ‘gezellig’ to work on a project together with fellow students where you can do what you want, the organization of doing things behind the curtain, but also doing stuff with a group of fellow friends. In my time I had sports, dancing, and study and this was a nice addition to my free time.

Caya: I really liked the fact that I got to know many different people from within the association. Not just from my committee, but also the association as a whole. Besides that, in all committees I have been in I had a great time during meetings and socializing as a whole! The thing I enjoyed the most was the big activities we organized, like the Night Volleyball Tournament and the Christmas Dinner, as everyone seemed to be really happy and like they were having a lot of fun. What I learned during the committees I did was to work together and to make sure that everybody has a good time.

Pieter: The main thing for me was responsibility and how to organise something. I have not prepared any activity where people relied on me before. Communication and collaboration is another. Fortunately, you do not have to do it on your own but you need to stay in contact to make it happen and not have any unpleasant surprises right before the activity (it has happened that we brought coffee, only when the lecture had already started).

Ivar: In the ICE committee I learned a lot, as I was responsible for organizing an entire day which was filled with a lot of small activities and I also had contact with the faculty, staff, mentors and multiple board members. All the committees I joined were a lot of fun, but my best experience with De CB was definitely going on the Ski trip that my committee organized, it was so much fun.

What was the most memorable thing that happened?

Josephine: One of our meetings took all evening, because we weren’t actually doing anything, and were just playing games and fooling around all evening. With the Christmas Dinner, after just having gotten the first-year members, after a social drink, we spontaneously went somewhere to go grab a beer at a cafe. It was very nice as we got to know each other quickly and the atmosphere was immediately amazing.

Did you feel like you had enough freedom to do what you wanted?

Jose: Initially at the aXie maybe not so much, because I did not know how things functioned. At the end of the year, there was the SpaXie first-year activity, where we as first-years were in control which was a lot of fun. During ICE there was also quite a bit of freedom, but also logical restrictions such as budgets and planning. Christmas Dinner was lovely because everyone had a lot of freedom in preparing their courses and the creativity that goes along with it.

Pieter: The only limitation is budget but that is part of life. It is nice to work your way around it and get more creative. And to be fair, most people will come if you ask them nicely. So yes, there was plenty of freedom. In the career committee, you only have to make sure that you don’t clash with the education committee but that is minor.

If somebody was interested in joining one of these committees or becoming an active member overall, what do you think they should know?

Josephine: Doing fun stuff with your committee outside of organizing activities is also a lot of fun, you get to make a lot of new friends. The aXie is a great committee to get to know the association quickly, however, I discovered I prefer organizing big activities instead of many, so I preferred the Christmas Dinner and ICE more.

Caya: I would really recommend being an active member. You will get to know a lot of very nice people and you can have lots of great times. When you don’t think you will have enough time, it is maybe nice to know that there are a lot of committees that do not take that much time or only during a certain period, so you can apply accordingly!

Ivar: All these committees were a lot of fun to do! If you are doubting, you can always ask me anything!

Pieter: You should just do it. It took me two years to become somewhat active within the CB but I am glad that I did. You get to know more nice people and it is fun doing it. Regarding these committees, they are perhaps more serious than others, but still, there is a lot of joking around as well. The sympo committee brings about some responsibility and you start preparing more than half a year in advance so some dedication is desired but it will not hinder in study progress if that is ever a concern.

We hope that these personal bits helped with your decision about becoming an active member, if you have any questions you can always contact another active member or your Internal Affairs!