History

DWARS Brabant was founded on 21 November 2012 with a first AAV (General Branch Meeting) held at the city hall of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. In honour of the second lustrum (10th anniversary) of DWARS Brabant, we delved into the archives and discovered the following about the history of our section and of sections of DWARS under the Meuse in general, as the history of sections in Zeeland and Limburg is intertwined with the history of DWARS Brabant.

For DWARS Brabant

Previously, several divisions of DWARS existed in North Brabant focused on a city or region, but these all eventually came to an end. We found evidence of departments under the umbrella of Den Bosch, Tilburg, Breda and Eindhoven, as well as for the regions of West, Northeast and Southeast Brabant. Of course, not all of these existed at the same time, and some departments existed several times.

Our history begins with the first sources from 2001, when there were the departments of Den Bosch, Tilburg, Breda and Eindhoven. Clearly, these came into existence earlier but exactly when cannot be determined. It was already mentioned of Breda that it cooperated with Den Bosch under the name West Brabant. In 2002, Breda really became the West Brabant division. At the same time, Eindhoven did not seem to exist for a while in 2002. In 2003, DWARS established many new departments, and one of them is South-East Brabant. Departments in Limburg and Zeeland were also established for the first time in 2003. The establishment of the Zeeland division began on 16 November 2002 and the division was presented on 17 January 2003. During 2004-2005, Limburg is limited to South Limburg, and in 2006-2009 only Maastricht remains. In 2007, many departments suddenly disappear. For instance, Tilburg is downgraded from a full-fledged departments to a department in formation, West Brabant is again reduced to Breda, and Den Bosch, Eindhoven and Zeeland are no longer there. In 2008, the Tilburg department is no longer there at all, but an Eindhoven department is created again. In 2009, Breda also disappears again, and in 2010, so does Maastricht. In 2012, the Eindhoven department comes to an end. Reports on the department website show that on 7 April 2011, the then board resigned at the end of their term and only an interim chairman was elected, with a mission to find a complete board together. Evidently, this did not succeed.

In 2011, DWARS does start to grow in departments again. At the beginning of the year, another Limburg department is founded, whose first chairman Max Tollenaar played an important role in our department's history. On 4 November 2011, DWARS Noordoost-Brabant is founded. The department exists only a little longer than a year, as DWARS Brabant is founded as its successor on 21 November 2012.

The establishment of DWARS Brabant

Around the 2011 Provincial Council elections, a Brabant campaign team was said to have been active that eventually wanted to grow into a department. So that year it did not get beyond the North-East Brabant division. The first steps were taken in early 2012. The following is quoted from the DWARS friends booklet, published on the occasion of DWARS's 30th anniversary: “In early 2012, a small group of enthusiastic DWARSers with big ideas came together in the Klein Café van Horen Zeggen in Tilburg, where the story of our department began. A department where sociability (with a soft ‘g’) can always be found, where everyone is welcome and where political energy is never in short supply.”

DWARS Brabant will be established by the first AAV. It was held at the ‘s-Hertogenbosch city hall on Wednesday 21 November 2012. According to the minutes, present there were Babette Jongen, Carmen Wijnen, Dwayne Heuvelmans, Anna Hoogendoorn, Mahmut Ucar, Vanessa van der Kraats and Michiel van der Velden. Among the guests were Max Tollenaar, then national board member of DWARS from Roermond, Ruud Schouten, alderman for GroenLinks Den Bosch, and Paul Smeulders, parliamentary group chairman of GroenLinks Brabant and, as a then 24-year-old, also an ordinary member of DWARS. The meeting opened at 20:10 with a welcome speech by Ruud Schouten and a talk by Max Tollenaar. Then Babette, Dwayne and Carmen explained why they wanted to found DWARS Brabant and talked about the predecessors of DWARS Brabant. After further discussion on how the department should work and what all needs to be done, the board election follows. Babette, Dwayne and Carmen are unanimously elected president, secretary and treasurer. Paul Smeulders gives another talk, and the meeting closes with thanks for Paul and Ruud and informal drinks. The meeting finally closed at 22:00. We therefore consider this the exact moment DWARS Brabant was founded.

DWARS Brabant and other sections of DWARS

As a department, of course, we were not alone. When we were founded, there were already departments around us for Limburg, Nijmegen (merged into Gelderland via Arnhem-Nijmegen) and Rotterdam (now Rotterdam-Rijnmond). A Zeeland chapter was also there again from early 2013, perhaps founded around the same time. We have not been able to get further clarity on the exact reconstitution date of the Zeeland division, as there appears to be a twitter account @DWARSZeeland already on 26 May 2011, and a facebook page DWARS Zeeland on the same day, but we do not see any mention of the division on the website while there are mentions of the Eindhoven, Limburg and Noordoost-Brabant divisions in this period. That twitter account appears to have been discontinued and a twitter account @DwarsZeeland appears to have been established on 22 August 2013. After 2015, Zeeland and Limburg will cease to exist as divisions and Brabant will remain as the only division of DWARS under Maas. Zeeland will be placed under Rotterdam-Rijnmond and Limburg under Brabant. As an April 1 joke, DWARS Brabant posted a message on their Facebook page in 2016 that they were expanding to DWARS Zuid. There was a grain of truth in it, as Limburg was placed under DWARS Brabant as a department in formation. On 23 March 2017, then-president Jade van der Linden announced a Limburg working group. On 15 December 2017, DWARS Limburg was already re-established. This success then led to Zeeland being transferred from Rotterdam-Rijnmond to Brabant from 2018 in order to hopefully re-establish DWARS Zeeland just as successfully. However, this did not prove so easy, and a new Zeeland division did not get off the ground. In late 2020, a working group does emerge to re-establish the Zeeland division, but this fails. DWARS Landelijk demands at least 3 years of functioning as a committee within a department before a new department can be established, unachievable expectations compared to Limburg's demands. Thereupon, the working group continued under the name Jong GroenLinks Zeeland within GroenLinks Zeeland. In 2022, the board of DWARS Brabant-Zeeland set a goal to become truly active in Zeeland and, to that end, to establish good relations with Jong GroenLinks Zeeland. In 2022, a new department policy was also adopted by the board of DWARS nationwide which made establishing a new department easier, with a 3-month cycle and clear goals of what to achieve in those months. In 2023, for the first time with Rick Baerends, a Zeeuw still living in Zeeland will be elected to the section board. We do not yet know where this will lead, but for now we will continue as the Brabant-Zeeland division.

Boards

DWARS Brabant has had different board structures. Originally, the board had a term from winter AGM to winter AGM, and there was also no summer AGM. With the introduction of summer AGMs within DWARS, the term was shifted from summer to summer. The number of board members also changed over time. The first board had three members but a fourth position for activities coordinator. This structure with four positions was sustained until mid-2017, ending with the three-member Van der Linden board doing half a term. From the second half of 2017 with the Van den Meulengraaf board, several spots were open for general board members and that board was elected with as many as seven members, although six were ultimately active. Successive boards have operated with four, five and six members. In 2021 and 2022, the ward congress decided that there would be a maximum of six board members, but in 2023, it was then decided that there could be up to eight board members, even if only six candidates were available. Will this actually happen? Time will tell.

Here is a list of boards, including interim changes, from the most recent to the oldest that we know of, even before DWARS Brabant existed.

2025-2026 (elected June 14)

Vera Langens, Chairman

Pim Duijmelinck, Secretary, Vice-Chairman, Communication & Campaign

Tim van de Meulengraaf, Treasurer

Laurens Rijk, Politics, Zeeland

2024-2025 (elected June 22)

Bart Leloux, Chairman

Imme Zander, Secretary, Zeeland, Member engagement

Karlijne Wiegers, Treasurer, Politics,

Vera Langens, Vice-president, Promotion & Membership recruitment

Aitana Pallas, Activities, Activism

2023-2024 (elected June 24)

Luc Goos, Chairman

Pim Duijmelinck, Campaign, Activism

Rick Baerends, Politics, Zeeland, Vice president, Interim secretary (since winter AGM 2023 secretary)

Tobias Jansen, Communications, Interim treasurer (treasurer since winter AGM 2023)

Nordin Kole, Member retention & recruitment, Activities

2022-2023 (elected 18 June)

Quintin van Zuijlen, Chairman

Anne van der Vliet, Vice-chairman, Communications, Interim activities (from 25 September)

Mark Hoefnagels, Secretary

Yannic van Heereveld, Treasurer

Ruben Bals, Campaign, Politics, Zeeland

2021-2022 (elected 27 June)

Rick Timmermans, Chairman

Jamie Verstraeten, Vice-chairman, secretary

Brechje Beljaars, Treasurer

Emma de Kleijn, Communications

Damon Worm, Campaign

Elma Mujakic (from September interim), activities

2020-2021

Louana van Nistelrooij, Chairman

Ciska Brommer, Vice-chairman, Treasurer

Rick Timmermans, Secretary

Renilde Becker, Campaign

Baran Yilmaz, Activities

Helene Biemans

2019-2020 (elected June 21)

Nicky van Wanrooij, Chairman

Thomas Dortmans, Secretary

Shaye Olij, Treasurer

Louana van Nistelrooij, activities

Myrte Hesselberth, Campaign and Communications

2018-2019 (elected June 8)

Sinyuan Zhu, Chairman

Thomas Dortmans (from 31 January), Secretary

Luuk van Doornmalen, Treasurer

Sam Goossens, General Board member

2017-2018 (elected June 22)

Tim van de Meulengraaf, Chairman

Thomas Sluijk, Secretary

Luuk van Doornmalen, Treasurer

Laura van Hazendonk, Campaign

Kim van Hooijdonk

Sinyuan Zhu

Tom

2016-2017 (elected November 4)

Jade van der Linden, Chairman

Thomas Sluijk, Secretary, Press officer

Tim van de Meulengraaf, Treasurer, Activities Coordinator

2015-2016 (elected November 5)

Bas van Weegberg, Chairman

Nicky van Wanrooij, Secretary

Jade van der Linden (from 3 May), Treasurer

Fabian van Hal (from 3 May), Activities coordinator

2014-2015 (elected Oct 30)

Dwayne Heuvelmans, Chairman

Joery Martens, Secretary

Mahmut Ucar, Treasurer

Barbara Verstappen, Activities

2013-14 (elected 10 October)

Marlon Wong Sioe, Chairman

Carlijn Bussemakers, Secretary

Carmen Wijnen, Treasurer

Barbara Verstappen, Activities coordinator

2012-2013 (elected 21 November)

Babette Jongen, Chairman

Dwayne Heuvelmans, Secretary

Carmen Wijnen, Treasurer

2011-2012 (Northeast Brabant, elected 14 November)

Carmen Wijnen, Chairman

Fons Meijer

2011-2012 (Eindhoven, elected 4 April)

Yorina Wouters, Interim Chairman

2010-2011 (Eindhoven)

Cyriel Prinsen

Doortje van Hal

Menno Slaats