Apply for the DWARS A'dam board 2019/2020!

A new board will be elected before the summer break, at the General Assembly in June! Would you like to hold a position on the board of the largest DWARS branch and get involved in green and left-wing politics, organise cool events and liaise with different organisations and political parties?

Then send an email to amsterdam@dwars.org, with a short motivation, explaining which position you want to stand for and why. If you are standing for general board member, please explain how you want to fill this position. All members can apply until the AAV.

President

As chairman, communication is your most important skill. You are a contact for the media and other Amsterdam political organisations. You may also be invited to debates, or to speak at venues such as schools. You chair the meetings and make sure they run as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Furthermore, you do the general management of the department, making sure everyone knows what to do.

It is a very versatile job where you can do a lot of things yourself and learn a lot. That does mean it is very variable in terms of time commitment. Between 4 and 16 hours a week.

Secretary

The secretary is the backbone of any department. Are you organised, can you work neatly and are you proficient with language? Then the position of secretary at DWARS Amsterdam may be for you!

As secretary, you are involved in the administrative part of the department. You deal with membership administration, you keep the minutes of the meetings and forward them to the head group, and you prepare the newsletter and send it to the department. Here it is important that you can work meticulously, and are well organised. Keep in mind that you will spend at least 8 hours a week doing this!

Treasurer

As treasurer, you are responsible for the department's finances. This manifests itself in a number of ways. Firstly, you make payments with the department debit card, handle declarations from (board) members, and keep the accounts. You are also responsible for financial policy. You submit a budget to the national treasurer and monitor the level and distribution of expenditure. Furthermore, you are responsible for the department's furniture, such as promotional materials and the projector, and make long-term purchases.

A good treasurer is good at handling money and keeping an overview. In addition, you enjoy dealing with numbers, budgets and money. You also have a long-term budget vision and are able to justify your financial choices well.

You are also, of course, a general board member and participate in many ways in setting up events.

Count on a time commitment of 10 hours per week. This includes meetings and events.

Vice president

The vice-chairmanship is a position you hold in addition to your regular position. Your main duties will be to support and replace the chairman. Because it is not clear beforehand what the dynamics of the board will be like, it is difficult to say what your specific tasks will be, but you can be sure that you will have additional internal and external tasks under your belt.

For example, the chairman will approach you first if a decision needs to be taken quickly. It also means that you will temporarily take over tasks if other board members (for whatever reason) are unable to perform them. Occasionally, you will have to fill the chairman's external function if the chairman cannot be present.

In an extreme case, you will have to take over the presidency.

Due to these major uncertainties, there is no set number of hours, but 2-5 hours per week is realistic. Do realise that it could be 10 hours in some weeks and 0 hours in others. But this also makes it fun: because you have a flexible position, you will encounter many parts of the organisation and learn a lot.

General board member

Besides these permanent positions, there is always room for one or more general board members. This position is yours to fill (by mutual agreement) as you wish. In 2018-2019, there were a board member of external communication and a board member of politics & campaigns. Useful positions include:

Board member external communication

As a board member of external communication, you will be responsible for DWARS Amsterdam's social media and website. You can use all your creativity here, create a nice banner for a Facebook event or make the most beautiful instagram stories. You will also be responsible for communication with the press, in collaboration with the chairman. Among other things, you check the press releases.

Per week, you spend about 8 hours on your board work. On Tuesday evenings, you go to an activity or attend a meeting. You also keep the website and social media up to date. For this, you write texts, take photos and let your creativity loose on editing these photos for posts.

Board member Politics & Committees

As a Politics & Committees board member, you are primarily responsible for communication between the departmental board and committees. Here, it is important that communication comes from both sides. You are also the first point of contact for new members when they want to become active in the department. In addition, you are also responsible for communication between the department and GroenLinks.

Per week, you will spend about 4-16 hours on this, depending on how many events the department organises and whether you go to GroenLinks's group meeting and board meetings, to which DWARS is invited.

Actions & Campaigns

You are the board member who, together with the Actions & Campaigns Committee, thinks up and implements cool actions. You are also involved in the campaign around the upcoming European and provincial elections.

In addition, as a general board member, you support the other board members and help where necessary. This allows you to discover where your talents lie best!