Annual Report 2017/2018
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Annual Report 2017/2018 Merlijn van Montfoort - Chair Anna Immink - Secretary Robin Coesel - Treasurer & Vice-chair Nina Somer - Social Committee Affairs Officer Egbert Peppelman - Study Related Committee Affairs Officer Raz van Houts - Officer of Sales & Acquisition Preface After each academic year, the board of our association writes an annual report to look back on the year and everything that has happened concerning the VSPA. We also do this, by means of this document, the 77th annual report of the VSPA. The main goal of this piece is to inform members and future boards about the way our policy worked out. The writing of this report was not possible without the support and feedback of our advisory bodies: the Supervisory Board (SB) and the Cash Audit Committee (CAC). Of course, we cannot forget the contribution of our members. Members who have been in committees, administrative bodies or have invested their personal time in other ways for the association are the ones that have made the academic year of 2017/2018 ('17/'18) a wonderful year for the VSPA. We thank you all very much for the efforts you put together for other psychology students. Love, The VSPA board of '17/'18 Merlijn, Anna, Robin, Nina, Egbert and Raz 2 Table of Contents Preface 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 6 A. Focus Points 8 1. Accessibility 8 1.1. Internationalisation 8 1.2. Fractions 14 1.3. Tentafters 14 1.4. VSPA Offers 15 2. Career 17 2.1. Workshop Committee 17 2.2. Expansion Vacancies 18 2.3. Study Rooms 19 B. Committee Policy 21 1. Focus Points for all Committees 21 1.1. Accessibility 21 1.2. Transparency 22 2. Start-up and General 23 2.1. Start-up of the Committees 23 2.2. Functions within the Committees 23 2.3. Development within the Committees 24 2.4. Closing and Transmission 24 3. Role of the Board 24 4. Specific Committee Policy: Social Committees 25 4.1. Activities Committee 25 4.2. Borrel Committee 26 4.3. Party Committee 26 4.4. Gala Committee 27 4.5. Hitchhiking Committee 27 4.6. Music Committee 27 4.7. Skiing Committee 28 4.8. Sports Committee 28 4.9. Trip Committee 29 5. Specific Committee Policy: Study Related Committees 30 5.1. Altruism Committee 30 5.2. Career Committee 30 5.3. Conference Committee 31 5.4. Excursion Committee 31 5.5. Lecture Committee 31 5.6. Parent Day Committee 32 5.7. Study Trip Committee 32 5.8. Workshop Committee 32 6. Administrative Bodies 33 6.1. Supervisory Board 33 6.2. Cash Audit Committee 34 6.3. General Members Assembly Committee 34 3 6.4. Application Guidance Committee 34 6.5. Application Committee 35 6.6. First-year Coordination Committee 35 7. Facilitary Committees 36 7.1. Promotion Committee 36 7.2. Simmer Committee 39 7.3. Editorial Committee 40 7.4. Friday Afternoon Borrel Committee 40 C. Ongoing Policy 42 1. General Thank-yous 42 1.1. Weekend Getaway 42 1.2. Thank-yous for Active Members 43 1.3. Birthday Cards 43 1.4. Closing Borrel 44 2. General Members Assemblies 44 2.1. Tuesday, October 31, 2017 44 2.2. Tuesday, December 12, 2017 45 2.3. Tuesday, February 6, 2018 46 2.4. Tuesday, April 3, 2018 48 2.5. Tuesday, May 1, 2018 48 2.6. Tuesday, May 22, 2018 49 2.7. Monday, June 18, 2018 50 3. Former Members Reunion 52 4. VSPA Room 52 4.1. Opening Hours 52 4.2. Room Policy 52 4.3. Cleaning 53 5. Special Activities 53 5.1. Constitution Borrel 53 5.2. Committee Evening XXL 54 6. General Promotion 55 7. Website 55 7.1. Finalising Transition 55 7.2. Use of the Website 56 7.3. Attractiveness to Members 56 7.4. Maintenance 57 7.5. For the Future 57 8. Direct Debit 57 9. Storage Spaces 58 10. Insurances 58 D. External and Internal Contacts 60 1. External Contacts 60 1.1. Youtopia/New Partners 60 1.2. Establishment of Study Associations in the Netherlands 61 1.3. General Student Association Amsterdam 62 1.4. Studystore 62 1.5. Sports Psychology 64 1.6. Section Psychology Students of the Dutch Institute of Psychologists 64 4 2. Internal Contacts 64 2.1. Graduate School 64 2.2. Faculty Association of Social and Behavioral Sciences 65 2.3. Student Council Psychology 66 2.4. Faculty Student Council 66 2.5. Alumni Association Spectra 67 2.6 Programme Committee 67 E. Book Sales Policy 68 1. Book Sales in General 68 2. Promotion of Book Sales 69 F. Financial Policy 71 1. Introduction 71 2. Distribution Administrative Budget 71 3. Year Result 71 4. Explanation Income 71 4.1. Memberships 71 4.2. Interest Rate 72 4.3. Sales Study Material 72 4.4. Grants 73 4.5. Received Reservations 74 4.6. Sponsorships 74 5. Explanation Expenses 79 5.1. Association Costs 79 5.2. Postal Charges 81 5.3. Office Costs 81 5.4. Promotion 82 5.5. Investments, Depreciations and Reservations 84 5.6. Thank-you Gifts for (Active) Members 87 5.7. Committees and Administrative Bodies 90 6. Unanticipated Expenses 97 6.1. Unanticipated Expenses Annual Budget 97 6.2. Unanticipated Expenses Major Activities 97 7. Equity Capital 97 8. Debtors and Creditors 99 Appendix A: Translation List 100 5 Introduction This is the 77th annual report of the Association of Psychology Students in Amsterdam (Vereniging van Studenten in de Psychologie te Amsterdam; VSPA). In this report the board of the academic year of '17/'18 will explain the ways in which the policy that has been determined in the policy plan was carried out. There will be outlined and evaluated to what extent the plans have been a success. We used the same titles as in the policy plan we wrote in the beginning of the year. On a practical note; at the end of this piece, you can find a list of translations to Dutch for names and terms related to the VSPA. Before we start, we would like to name a few things that have been characteristic for our year. Generally speaking, we look back to a wonderful year in which we have learned a lot both as individuals and as a group. We started off with several ways to better get to know each other. For example, we had a ‘policy weekend’ in the Achterhoek (region in the eastern part of the Netherlands). This weekend has contributed a lot to our bonding within the board. Throughout the year, this bond helped us cope with the difficult and harder aspects of being in the board. This year, we also spent time together outside office hours or activities. And this report was partly written during another stay in the Achterhoek similarly to our policy weekend. To provide a good overview of our development in this year, we can start by saying we were quite optimistic when we wrote our policy plan. We had many plans to make changes to the association and some might have been too hard to implement. During the year we learned to form a more realistic image of the means we had to make changes and manage the association. We think we have learned to be more critical about our own and each other’s work. The half-year result (HYR) was an exemplary moment in which we had to downscale our positive expectations about our policy. Yet, this was mostly financial. The following report will also evaluate the non-financial side to our policy plan. Secondly, there were some difficulties and setbacks through the year. Due to the implementation of our new website, we have had quite some difficulties with it. It has been a topic in most of our board meetings throughout the year. There were also difficulties with the summaries and of course our troubles in the Lille trip cannot remain unmentioned. You can read more about these subjects in this report. Another thing that has been characteristic to our policy is that we have been very keen to leave our mark on the association in the long-term. For example, we have done extensive research about the insurances and unanticipated expenses. We also suggested a lot of changes to the Standing Regulations (SR) such as a policy against drugs in the VSPA. Apart from these long-term adaptations we too focused on improvements on a shorter term, like the contract negotiations regarding partnerships for summaries and test trainings. Of course we cannot forget to mention the activities that were organised this year. Characteristic for our year was that at most activities we were present in full muster as a board. Beside, many activities with registrations were filled really quick, which is something we think we can be very proud of. For a more nuanced image of our activities you can revert to the section of committee policy in this annual report. 6 Lastly, as you might have noticed, this report is written in English. We have put a lot of effort together to prepare the association and the board of 2018/2019 for the changes concerning internationalisation. Apart from essential aspects to internationalisation, like translating certain documents and the website, we also tried to create the right foundation for an bilingual future in which the VSPA can form a right platform for both Dutch students and students of other nationalities. As the last board to only have Dutch bachelor students, we wish the best of luck to the consecutive boards of the VSPA.