Monthly Update

May

President

My parents always told me to either go big or go home (they never did but for the sake of this story), so here we are. Becoming CB was not on my bucket list for this year, but I am glad I ended up here. The training from Mr. Javier Sanmartin Martinez was super helpful, and has been making me more prepared to take over very soon. So far the period of CB has given me great insight into how the Helix operates from behind the scenes, and getting to understand how things are taken care of and organised. I’m definitely looking for a very exciting year with my fellow board members!

Rutvik

Secretary 

Since I tend to talk A LOT, I will try to keep this update short and sweet (like me). It will be difficult since quite some things have happened since I joined the Candidate Board. My schedule became filled with meetings, trainings, and fun events.

We have already had a couple CB meetings, and it was great to get to know this awesome group of people better in this setting. We also have gotten very close during the CB weekend, where I found out that kayaking is not for everyone (some people took 5 hours to kayak a 2 hour track). Despite this, everyone really enjoyed the weekend. 

CB life unfortunately also brings less joyful things, like the trainings to prepare me for my new role as Secretary. Just kidding, I have really enjoyed my trainings, since Laura was there to help me every step of the way. Now, I feel very well prepared and ready to take on this exciting role. 

Next to board business, there were some fun events I enjoyed organising or attending this month. I played poker at Casino Night (Lustrum) and learned incredibly interesting things at the Company Visit to MERLN (Education). I loved partying at the Pride Party (Wellbeing X Activities) and ended this month relaxing at the Cinema Event with ‘The Little Mermaid’ (Wellbeing). 

I feel like that was basically all Helix-related things that I have experienced this month. I unfortunately can’t say that I kept it short, my apologies.

Lots of love,

Lisanne

Treasurer

Candidate treasurer – it does seem daunting, but after all the awesome training I received from our lovely current treasurer Amadiez, I feel much more prepared. Since becoming CB there have been so many meetings, trainings and – of course – events to attend.  This has given me a taste of what challenge is awaiting me next year, and yet I am still excited to become part of the XXXIth board. This month we had a relaxing yoga event, a casino night where I gambled away my drinks’ chips at the roulette table and danced through the night at the pride month party. I also attended our more educational events with the Company Visit at Merln and the pubquiz of course 1005, both of which I helped organise as a member of the Education Committee.

I’m hoping to see all of you at the changing GA and have a lovely month!

Maïté

Vice-president

Well here we are, finally on the XXXIst board. Well not officially though, still technically Candidate Vice-President. Let me tell you my little journey so far. Currently, I’m busy helping out with the preparations for the Faculty Introduction day. So let me shamelessly plug the event. Also, I’m still looking for buddies to help us out. To whoever is reading this, next time you see me in the Helix room or somewhere wandering around, ask me about it and maybe we could work something out. I have been enjoying some of the latest events as well, such as the pride party where we were all dancing with well… pride, and the relaxing yoga event which was organised in part by none other than yours truly. I might have lost some fake chips at the casino event as well, but that is neither here nor there. Right now I’m mostly looking forward to the changing GA, where we can finally (hopefully) officially become members of the board. That’s it for me this month. I’ll see you around and have a lovely day y’all!

Oguz

Head of Education

Hi y’all! I am happy to introduce myself as the Candidate Head of Education. I am very excited to be a part of the XXXIst Board and learn an endless amount of experiences. The Candidate Board hit it off immediately, after one of our first Board Meetings we went to make dinner at Rutvik’s and had a blast. After being an active member of the Education Committee for 2 years we ended the year with an amazing PubQuiz for BBS1005. What’s to add, we are all almost done with our exams of period 5 and happy to leave for the CB weekend the second the exams are done! 

See you around the Helix room!

Love, Barbs

Head of Internal Affairs

The first month of our Candidate Board period has started. I am very excited to have been chosen to fill the newest role in the Candidate Board as Head of Internal Affairs together with Valentijn. We already had our first CB meetings, in which we have discussed a lot, but we mainly focussed on our policy plan for the upcoming year. We had a lot of ideas of what we want to do next year and we are now wrapping everything up into a complete report. Other than that we also took some time to get to know each other outside of the meetings, which also has been very fun. All in all, it is a very exciting time and I can’t wait to see what the upcoming year will bring us!

Loes

Head of Internal Affairs

In may I have had the pleasure of being chosen as part the candidate board of Helix as Head of Internal Affairs with Loes, this month has been one of the craziest periods of my life what with the excursion, going through the terror that is BBS1005 and of course becoming Candidate Board . Because we became CB quite late we had our work cut out for us from the start, you could see this as stressful but let’s be optimistic and call it exciting. I look forward to what my board year brings.

XoXo,

Valentijn

Head of External Affairs

May has been an exciting month this year; we had many amazing events, such as the Excursion to Berlin, the Pubquiz of BBS1005 (fingers crossed I passed the exam) and of course, most exciting of all: all of us have been nominated as Candidate XXXIst Board. It is truly an honour to (hopefully) fill in Alicia’s shoes as the next Head of External. In the beginning there were some small stressors and questions I had, but thanks to the trainings with Alicia and the collective words of wisdom from the XXXth board, my fears and anxiety are put to rest and, can I just state? I am REALLY excited for the General Assembly and see if I will be voted in ! So see you in June, and I will let you know if I got voted in 😉 

Mylena

April

President

It finally happened. I have finally been attacked not only by a horse-sized duck but by ten duck-sized horses as well; and all in the same month. Although I have been able to (barely) survive both encounters, I can now confidently say that I may have underestimated the fierceness of duck-sized horses. These vicious creatures would stop at nothing to put me down, no matter how fast I ran or how hard I kicked, there was no escape. I can count myself lucky as a nice Dutch student distracted these beasts with their mini-carrot snacks and I was freed. The duck came after me a few days later, on a rainy day. It seemed like a regular Tuesday when I was surprised by this monstrosity on my way back home, a towering mass of feathers and pure anger. I will not recount here the details of this fight, but they have become engraved in my flesh through horrendous scars.I can say I am lucky to see another day. I hope it stays that way.

Javier

Secretary

Hi everyone, I’d like to start this month’s monthly update by confessing a recent discovery. In my last almost 6 years of being gay, I never imagined being something different. Some happenings in my personal life have made me reconsider my sexuality. For the first time ever in my life, I watched Magic Mike, and I think I’ve made a huge mistake. The broad shoulders and abs and of course, the hot dance routine, all woven into a story line of bravery and utter realness have made me think that I might like men after all. I don’t quite know how to tell my girlfriend this yet, since she deserves to know the real me, but I’m not going to tell her unless I know for sure whether or not I want to explore the Y chromosome a bit more. In any case, I’ll keep you guys updated, aka see you in May. Wish me luck!

Laura

Treasurer

/\___/\꒰ ˶• ༝ – ˶꒱./づᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊°.~♡︎ /\___/\꒰ ˶• ༝ – ˶꒱./づᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊°.~♡︎ /\___/\꒰ ˶• ༝ – ˶꒱./づᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊°.~♡︎ /\___/\꒰ ˶• ༝ – ˶꒱./づᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊°.~♡︎

Amadiez

Vice-President

This month was a weird one like always. It started with a rabbitnthat fell down thenstairs. One thing youshould know about me, I don’t have a pet rabbit.So my month started with a quest to find the ownerof the pet. it took me weeks to find its name. Apparently, it had a tattoo on hisskin: “Dog,” it said. So I proceeded to call the rabbit by its name, Dog. Dog and I were walking around, and I was getting some weird looks. I was just taking him for a walk, so nothing out of the ordinary. Some old lady came up to me and asked what I was doing. I responded with: I’m just letting out Dog. She was looking at me like I had said something crazy and threatened me if I fooled her like that again. So I walked along and went to the pet store to buy some stuff for Dog. I asked if they had some food for Dog, but they said that they don’t sell dog food. This was so weird to me as I just wanted some food for Dog and not dog food. Anyways, that same day, as I was walking out of the store, I let go of Dogs leash for 1 second and he jumped in front of a car. I started crying and screaming at the driver that he killed Dog, but the driver looked at me as if I was crazy. So then when I sat down, the helpers finally came with my vitamins. I was feeling so calm again as they escorted me back to my room. My room is pretty nice. It has 4 walls, a door that won’t open, and I always have my friend Rob with me. Rob never leaves my side like Dog. Rob is nice. I wished others were like Rob. When I tell the helpers about Rob, they tell me that he doesn’t exist, but I always talk with him, play with him. He never leaves my side. For some reason no-one knows Rob while I have tried to introduce him for many times. Hahaha its as if he doesn’t exist. But that must be the other people being assholes. Anyway, this is what I have done in my month. I hope to soon get out of this place tho, I’ve been here for way too long. The helpers tell me that they will release me soon but soon never comes. Soon never comes. Soon never comes. Soon never comes. Soon never comes. Soon never comes. Soon never comes.

See you all next time,

Burak

Head of External Affairs

Oh hey there, Monthly Update! Are you ready for the madness that was my month of March? Buckle up, because it’s gonna get wild!First off, I met with our new sponsor, Pornhub, to discuss how we could film content dedicated to people with frog fantasies. We concluded that the Board would record a Boargie, with frog costumes in a pond. Looking forward to that! Keep posted for green sextoys release. And in a truly bizarre turn of events, I attended a meeting with a group of BDSM amateurs who were looking to start their own association. We decided to collaborate on our Berlin trip, a city well-known for its vibrant BDSM scene. Who knows what’s in store for us?Of course, we also had our regular board duties, like attending meetings and events. We hosted a “worshiping Satan party” where everyone showed up in their favorite Pentagram related costumes. It was very fun!Phew, what a month! I can’t wait to see what kind of shenanigans April will bring. Stay tuned for more absurdity!

Alicia

February

President

February was a more relaxed month but exciting nonetheless. We started the month with the wonderful Aprés-ski themed COP IV and the German bangers that came with it (an acquired taste I must say). The second week of the month was busier, with the Board drinks in the Monday, the Valentin’s game quiz on Tuesday with Ouranos and the Half-year GA on Thursday. A lot of interested members came by the board drinks where we had a chance to explain what tasks we carry out as board and saw the interests of potential candidates, Helix will be in good hands next year. The valentine’s day event was a lot of fun, where we had the chance to get to know and compete with law students from the association Ouranos. In the GA we presented our half year report to our members and they had a chance to ask their questions and give us comments on how we have been doing so far. The statuten changes were all voted in so a meeting with the notary is in the horizon and the house rules were updated (with most of the GA being in flavor).
Next to the Helix events I attended several meetings regarding sustainability at UM. On the 28th of February, the second meeting of the Sustainibility network took place, in which we learned about how to use the business model canvas to carry out projects and I got the chance to meet other students working towards a more sustainable FHML. For now, a work group has been created for sustainable projects at FHML and we will collaborate in the organization of the sustainability week within the faculty. Additionally, Alicia and I met with the director of education Jan Theys to discuss how Helix and the educational institutions within FHML will interact in the future. For now I cannot give many details but I can say that I am very pleased with how the meeting went and Jan’s proposals. I will give more information once I have it. A presidents of Randwyck also took place in which Santè’s Placebo’s and Pulse’s presidents were present. We discussed some common issues that we are all having and we started working on a plan to get involved in the university and faculty elections to represent our members in these institutions.

Kind regards,
Javier

June

President

And with this June is over and the summer vacation is getting closer, I’m excited already to go back home and enjoy some rest! Probably the most remarkable days for us as board members, and for me in particular, were the changing GA and the extraordinary GA, the former because we finally became official board members and the latter because it was the first GA I had to fully preside on my own. Things could have gone a bit smoother but of course, there is always room for improvement, we are just getting started.

In terms of events, the activities committee kept themselves busy organizing a COP, the arcade night and the end of the year BBQ, all of them fantastic events. Wellbeing had their picnic with some amazing food choices and an even better company. And last but not least, we had the active members day, in which the Education Committee took home the Battle of Committee’s trophy (excursion did not manage to beat us ;P).

 It is precisely to live months like this that I decided to become a board member, and I am really happy to have been finally voted in as the new President of SA Helix. I’ll see you all around, and enjoy your summer vacation!!

– Javi

Secretary

Hey guys! So… first monthly update as Secretary! Let’s start this little adventure off right with a recap of June. We had the last super fun COP! Then there was the arcade night, where I played skee-ball for the first time in my life. It’s harder than it looks :/. And then the long-awaited Changing GA, where I, for about five minutes, was the only Board Member in SA Helix. I got to use the President’s gavel twice, which doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I was pretty excited about it. Now the next morning we got a little bit of a surprise going into the Helix room as new Board, as we suddenly got a seventh Board Member. A tiny hamster, named Yonis. He was a present from the Old Board, and he’s kind of grown on us, though I don’t believe he functions well on a professional level. Moving on, we had lunch with the Wellbeing Committee, with some amazing food, and even more amazing food on the End-of-Year BBQ at Fun Valley the day after. Finally, some of our lovely Old Board members organized Active members day, where I got shot too many times (with laser guns, don’t worry), and the XXXth Board had our Constitution Drinks! I don’t remember much from that night, but I’m told that’s supposed to happen. We ultimately ended June with what could be the shortest GA Helix has ever had, coming in at 30 minutes. This GA made it possible for us to really start out Board year, as we needed it to have the Budget voted in, which thankfully, we did. Normally, I would start talking about the events for the upcoming month, but seeing as Uni is pretty much done for this year, all I can do is wish everyone the most awesome vacation! Hope to see you next year!

– Laura

Treasurer

Dear Helix Website–yes, I’m starting my monthly updates like this from now on–June has been buuuuuuuuuuuusy. Firstly, we FINALLY got voted in as the XXXth (;D) board of SA Helix, which is a big win :D. So I’m proud to deliver this monthly update as the official treasurer. Other than the big changing GA being a great success, this month has been packed with Helix activities, such as the final COP of this year, the end-of-the-year BBQ, Active Members Day (in which my lovely Education Committee won, HAHA EXCURSION), and an arcade night at the Game Box in Wyck. I’ve also been busy with my treasurer duties, such as planning budgets, paying off invoices, and already starting to train committee treasurers (namely Kirsha for Camp already). Additionally, we also had to do an extraordinary GA since we ran out of time in the changing GA to vote on the budget and the motions 😛 But we may have broken the record for fastest GA of all time with a GA of just under 40 minutes.

That’s it for me this month. I’m looking forward to updating you guys with more! Enjoy your summer holiday!!!

– Amadiez

Vice-President

SO the time has finally come… We are officially the XXXth Board of SA Helix!! Weeks before the changing GA, we had some very fun events, including the last COP, the Arcade event, the MSP Gala, CoBo from our one of our brother assotiations, and the postlockdown festival, busy busy busy. Then we immediately started our first week of being Board with the wellbeing picnic, End of Year BBQ, and Active members day. So again busy busy busy… The events however were a blast and everyone that came had lots of fun at all of them. Then came our CoBo. It was a hassle organising it between all other events, but we managed to do it and it was an amazing experience. We were finally constituted and ready for the upcoming year. Next year is going to be a challenge, but I’m sure that we are going to do our best and have the time of our lifes! That was my update for now, if you want the spicy details feel free to come up to me and ask me about any of these events. Hope you all have an amazing summer and see you all next year!!

– Burak

Head of Education

Hey again everyone, Dion here. The course exams are over and that leaves only the resits. I hope you all make the best out of this. Afterward, you all will have your well-deserved rest and hopefully enjoy some free time! for me the year is now over unless a resit is acquired for period 6 let’s pray that it is not. I am looking forward to seeing you all again in the next academic year and continuing with my responsibilities as head of education. Have a good one yall!!

– Dion

Head of External Affairs

Hello, again, we finally got voted in as the 30th Board of SA Helix!! This month was also very intense for us, filled with lots of events, such as the Arcade event, Post-Lockdown festival, Picnic, End of year BBQ, MSP galas, etc… Combining it with school, especially Systems Biology (hint hint: don’t take this course if you want to have a chill period 6), was very challenging for us but in the end everything went went. Our changing GA was on the 16th, we were very happy to take on this journey and represent the association. Now onto resits for some of us, summer break for others, whatever it may be, we wish everyone an amazing summer ❤️😇.

– Alicia

May

President

It is June already! And that means that this will be my last monthly update. This year went unbelievable fast and was one of the most amazing years ever. However, before we get too emotional, let’s look back at the month May! The 2nd of May I came back from Prague with the Education Committee and the day after we finally went on our trip to Budapest! It was amazing and we had so much fun. Back in the Netherlands, there was no time to lay back, a lot of nice events were planned! Starting with the workshop for Master students organised by the Wellbeing Committee. Now I finally know how to deal with stress so all my future exams will be a success 😉 The 12th of May we got the chance to meet the new Rector Magnificus at the Dies Natalis of the university. That was a whole new experience but it was so much fun to meet all these people. Furthermore we had the trampoline event of the Sports Committee and the Karaoke event organised by the Activities Committee. For both events I think I can say that the participants had so much fun! And we are of course ending this month with the Pubquiz of BBS1005. Although it was a different pubquiz, we are sure that the first years enjoyed it and we hope that it was useful for them as well. 

But May was way more than just the events! May was also the month which was filled with the training of our Candidate Board. Burak is totally ready to take over the position of Head of Activities and is already involved with all the committees. And also Javier is almost done with his training. They both are going to do an amazing job, I promise you! We also went on our Board Changing Weekend which was memorable in different ways. I think this will be a forever secret only known by the 10 of us, and believe me that is for the best!

So that was it. The last monthly update. I am ending this year with mixed feelings, I am going to miss this a lot but I am also looking forward to the free time I will get back. But Helix will still be my favourite hobby so I think I will be at almost all the events. Thank you guys for this year, could not have done it without you! And the association will be in good hands with our 6 successors! 

Treasurer

May was the last full board month and I am ending this month with a lot of mixed feelings. On one hand I am sad that it is almost over and that I will miss everything, on the other hand I am glad that it is almost over since I will have so much time left, and I am really excited (and a bit sad to be honest) to leave Maastricht for Sweden. But I am sure that my successors will do a great job and they don’t have to be scared that I will no longer be around, because when I come back from Sweden I will surely stop by as much as I can.

In May I trained Amadiez and Alicia for their positions and I am sure that they are going to do great. We as a board also finished our Year Report.

But the most exciting thing of the month was our trip to Budapest. After being in the Excursion Committee for two years, we could finally go and we had a blast!

We also went on our changing weekend and for solid reasons I will not say too much about that, but it was a memorable weekend as well.

The Wellbeing committee organised the first master event, but unfortunately I could not  be there, but I heard that it was a successful evening.

Activities organised a Karaoke event which was fun, but maybe not the most convenient event to organise. Nonetheless, everyone had fun and all the songs were beautifully sung.

Last event of the month was the pubquiz of BBS1005, and this was, as always, a success.

In May I fixed some new contracts; namely D’n Hiemel and Basilica! So stay tuned for some discounts and nice events.

Well, I guess this was it. My last monthly update. For those who cannot attend the General Assembly on the 16th of June; I had a blast last year and I could not have done it without you. I love Helix and all the members. Thank you for this year guys, it will be a year that I won’t forget. It was my pleasure. Lots of love, joejoe xoxo

Vice-President

My last monthly update as a Board member of SA Helix. It feels a bit weird to be voted out in a week, but I am also looking forward to more spare time. I am sure the new Board will do great, so our lovely association will be in good hands! At the beginning of May, I finished training Burak for the Vice-President position. In the last training, I mainly discussed the Bachelor graduation with him. We also attended some BIC meetings together, this way he got to know what it is about and he now knows where to start with it once he completely takes it over.  Furthermore, I worked on the year report. I also started introducing Laura to the Promo Committee since she will take over that committee from June on. She is part of the committee now and I taught her about Canva and how we make posters. She is doing great! On May 10th, Wellbeing Committee organised a Master event. This was a lecture about how to deal with stress, especially while doing internships or a PhD. This event was well organised, however, the speaker only wanted to do it online. We did not approve of this and therefore we had to find other speakers very last minute. The speakers we had now were not exactly what the attendees expected, which was a shame. Nevertheless, it was a nice and also informing night. Since Wellbeing has some budget left, we decided to organise a last event on June 20th; a picnic. Furthermore, we also had lots of other events last month. We finally went on an excursion to Budapest, which was a great success. The week after, the Board and CB went on the changing weekend where everyone got to bond with each other and where we made the Board pictures from CB. In the weeks after we had many events such as a trampoline event, karaoke night and the pub quiz from BBS1005. Another busy month for sure. Well, this was my last monthly update I guess. Thank you everyone for making this a year to never forget, lots of love <3  

Head of Education

Hola, this month has been an eventful one! I started with training the candidate head of education, Dion! He is doing really well and has joined my SC meetings and student council. This month I have also arranged the sep compensations and the reports for the fourth period have been sent out. We are currently working on the reports for period 5. We also had the excursion which I really enjoyed! I also organised a little SEP assembly for my SEP members, in which we went to the TREK festival. Furthermore, I am part of organising the BMS post lockdown festival for SC. Which will be on the 14th of June, so I hope to see you all there!☀️ My last reports and weeks are coming up so this will be my last monthly update. I’m really grateful for all the work and experience I got to do and all the people I have met! I’m really proud of our CB and Dion as my successor! I wish you all the good luck, you will do great!

Candidate President

And just like that another month is gone by! May was full of events with a battle of committees, the excursion, the lecture on how to handle stress during a PhD, the first trampoline Olympics, karaoke night and the last pubquiz of the year, and all of them turned out to be a great deal of fun (even if my ankle got a bit torn during the Olympics). For CB and the current board in particular, we had our board changing weekend, a little weekend that served to bond with each other and finish out some details before the changing GA. I cannot believe it is just two weeks before the voting takes place!

With regards to more serious topics, we have been keeping ourselves busy writing our policy plan, which we are very excited to present during the next general assembly. The preliminary committees are now being set up as well and the general planning for next year has begun. I am really looking forward to what’s to come.

Candidate Secretary

So, on to my second monthly update. To recap May, we finally went on our long-awaited excursion <3. Organising it was a blast and it was amazing to see all the beautiful city sights. Right after we got back, I met the CB’s of Pulse and Santé at a nice lunch. We also had the PhD workshop that day. That weekend, we went on our lovely Board Changing weekend in possibly one of the most southern parts of the Netherlands. We went trampoline jumping with sports when we got back to Maastricht, and we had a karaoke night the day after. A week packed full of events as you can tell, especially since I also joined our current board at the gala of Santé. The last full week of May, CB organised our first event, the preliminary committee drinks, and the last pubquiz of this year was organised as well. I guess that means we can start working towards the rest of June. 

June is going to be a very eventful month. At the upcoming changing GA, we will hopefully be voted into our positions, after which we’ll be taking care of the events still underway. I’m very excited for it, and I hope yall are too!

Candidate Treasurer

Dear Diary…aka Dear Helix Website–it’s my first monthly update!

I got accepted into the XXXth board of SA Helix as its Candidate Treasurer back in late April. After finding out the good news, I embarked on nearly two weeks of traveling as I went to Prague with my precious Education Committee for bonding and joined many students on the Helix Excursion to Budapest. We’ve had several events this past month, such as a BoC event, trampoline olympics at Jumpsquare, and karaoke night at Van Bommel. And Education organized their last PubQuiz of the year! Overall, I’m really happy I’ve been able to interact more with the Helix community by talking to so many people during these events. I’m really looking forward to having fun with everyone for the 30th year of Helix (aka a LUSTRUM year with lots of fun in store hehe). 

As the date of the changing GA approaches, these past few weeks have also been packed with (candidate) board meetings. Working together with the current 29th board and the candidate 30th board is really pumping me up for the busy year next year. Next to that, the current treasurer, Anna, has been preparing me well for the Treasurer position with different training sessions looking at the intricacies of accounting work for Helix. 

There aren’t enough words in the English language to express how fired up I am for my board year. With fantastic people on the candidate board and a spicy community of diverse BioMed students, June (and the many months to come) is sure to be jam-packed with unforgettable memories!

Candidate Vice-President

Damn another month has passed again. This month was filled with loads of fun activities. The month already started with the trip to Budapest, which was an amazing experience in itself. I had never gone to Hungary before, so seeing a completely different culture from what I’m used to was amazing. I think my favorite thing I did there was visit the national Art museum :D. Then as we got back from Budapest, we ofcourse didn’t sit still (because why would we need time to recharge from the trip ;-;), we had lunch with the Candidate boards and current Boards of Sante and Pulse which was a lot of fun, met some great new people. That same day there was a Wellbeing event where we learned how to deal with stress, very handy for our boardyear and also later on in life. Then we went on our board changing weekend, which was a lot of fun and we as Candidate Board bonded really well over it. The week after, had some committee meetings, a sports event where we went to an indoor trampoline park, had an karaoke event, and a gala of our brother assotiation Sante. Again a busy busy week, but honestly I loved every second of it, from all the meetings to all the events. Then came the end of the month, we organised the preliminary committee drinks and got some signups for our preliminary committees. This month was one of the most fun and busy months I have had in a while and I can’t wait for upcoming months. Damn it may look as if I was ranting but trust me I love what I do, even tho it may come over as if I don’t hahaha. That was it from me for this month, see you all in the next one!

Candidate Head of Education

Another day, another month gone. So this is my first monthly update:). There were a lot of events I attended such as the jumping square event(sports) and how to deal with stress during your PHD(well-being) among others. For my position as head of education in particular I attended my first MBS and student council meeting. During the student council meeting it was brought to the table that we are still looking for new members so, if you’re interested in joining send your resume to them! Meike organized a very fun SEP assembly at the TREK festival where most SEP members joined in. Currently SEP 1 is in the process of creating the report for BBS1005. If you have any constructive feedback on it I will always be willing to listen:). Now the next period is already starting again, sadly no reflection week for us poor FHML students. I hope this month is going to be great for all of us and see you in the next one XOXO Dion;P 

Candidate Head of External Affairs

Onto my second month as CB!! As it was already said by my lovely fellow candidate board and board members, May has been a very intense month. Firstly, the excursion finally happened and it was amazing to experience it as a committee and a CB member. We also had lots of different events, and I really did not expect to enjoy the trampoline event as much as I did! I also experienced my first onsite pubquiz, in which I was maybe a bit too hyped (we ended up 12 out of 16 groups, despite having passed the course already). I also worked for the first time in the Netherlands, at the TREK festival serving drinks as well as looks ;). Most importantly, I had my training as Candidate Head of External Affairs and started reaching out to our current sponsors. I’m really glad to have bonded so much with CB, during the Board Changing Weekend but also just in everyday life and struggles. I’m so looking forward to the next part of our adventures, but primarily getting voted in on the 16th June!

April

President

Here we go, the 5th month of the year! The weather is getting nicer and a few holidays are approaching. April was, how can it not be, again a busy month which we started with the announcement of our Candidate Board. I am so happy with these enthusiastic people and working together with them is amazing. The training is going well and we have a lot of fun together. With the training of CB, the end of my board year is also coming closer and that is kind of scary, this year went so fast. While training Javier and Burak, I am already thinking about how to fill my free hours next year, probably with Helix again 😉 

A lot of events happened as well in April, we started with an amazing COP in pirate theme. I loved the vibe of this party, the free shots and keg might helped with this. Also we’ve met the people that joining us on the Excursion during the infonight including afterdrinks. We also had the opportunity to meet our Old Boards during the Old Board drinks and ended the month with one of the nicest parties this year during the Neon Party of the Randwyck Committee. One of the biggest events I’ve organized but it was totally worth it. 

Of course we did some serious stuff as well. As Board we got the opportunity to follow a training regarding sexual harassment within association which was really useful. And the second committee GA took place as well. It was a really fast GA in which the committees got the chance to explain what they’ve been doing. The evaluations did also happen this month. We evaluated on the committees, the Board as group and each individual in the Board. So like a said, a busy month!

While I am writing this update in Prague with the Education Committee, I am thinking about all the nice stuff we are going to do in May. Wednesday we leave for the excursion to Budapest, the last Battle of Committees event is coming up as well as the first edition of a master only event! We will also have a karaoke evening and two events from the Education Committee. Oh and not to forget, the integration with our Brother Associations at two galas! Training and activities with CB will also take place of course. So a lot to do, let’s go for another month!

Treasurer

April went by soooo fast! We finally announced our amazing Candidate Board and we could not have been more proud. I am very glad that I don’t have to keep it a secret anymore (and so is Meike ;)) The trainings with Amadiez and Alicia will start soon, since Amadiez was only announced last week. With the announcement of CB and the second committee GA, not a lot of events took place during April. However, we still could experience the annual Family Day which was a lot of fun. Credits to the Family Day Committee for organizing this nice event. Moreover, we had COP V with a pirate theme. Everyone was so nicely dressed up and I believe everyone enjoyed themselves pretty much.

I had a meeting with all the committee treasurers to check upon their budgets and to brain storm about new ideas to fulfil the budget with, and trust me, amazing things are coming!

I also arranged some very exciting new sponsorships this month. I am therefore very happy to call Aethon and D’n Hiemel our new sponsors!

I am still very excited for the last two months, in which we will leave to Budapest with (in my opinion) the best committee (excursion whoopwhoop) and some more exciting events.

We also held the Old Board drinks on the 22th of April, which was a nice opportunity with some of Helix’ fossils 😉

The last two months are going to be very busy, but really exciting. Let’s go!

Vice-President

Another month again, the time goes fast… In April we finally announced our Candidate Board and we recently managed to get a Candidate Board of 6 people which I am really proud of! I started training Burak for the Vice position and I have also shown him an experience day and a BIC meeting already. About the experience day, we were finally allowed to show people our beautiful Helix room again. I noticed that people are way more interested in what we tell them about Helix when we can show them the pictures and the posters which was really nice. Also the BIC finally got a theme: Future Proof Biomedical Sciences. Now we are working on setting up a BIC foundation to make it official. Furthermore we had some very nice events this month and the GA. The GA went pretty well and fast this time. All committees had the opportunity to present themselves again and we had a couple of motions about the HR.  Together with Meike I founded the ski taskforce and this taskforce was introduced during the GA. Also, Family Day finally took place! It was a very successful day and we got a lot of good feedback from different families that they liked the day a lot. We organised it almost the same as previous years but let 1 extra practical out what made the day lengthwise perfect. Lastly, I had evaluations with all of my committees and with the Board. One and a half months left, let’s go!

Head of Education

Another month with again new meetings. I had my evaluations which were good. Something I started working on is making the lectures for the first year’s on campus again, since this is still not the case. Together with members of SEP1 we’ve send out a questionnaire to see how many first year’s would be interested. The SEP reports have been send out. I have been working for the SC on the event organised from the Nederlands Progamma Onderwijs (NPO). We had the GA, in which I got to introduce the ski taskforce, which is an idea of Kim and me and we are really excited about this. We are currently with 7 members, so we’re still in need of more! Signup if you are interested :). I have also been working on the SEP compensations. Furthermore, I’m really excited that we finally found a candidate for Head of Education, Dion! His training is going to start ASAP and I’m really looking forward to it. I think he and the other members of the CB will do great and I’m really excited for them :). In addition, I’m really excited for the events we will have upcoming month and of course the excursion!

Candidate President

Now that April is coming to an end the time has come for our first monthly update as CB. As is the case with most stories, the beginning is filled with excitement but also a lot of stress. Our period as CB started on April 4^th, when we finally knew if we had been selected as candidates and for what position. Although at that stage we were not complete, by now we finally have filled all positions, with an amazing group of people if I may so myself. For the time being we are keeping ourselves busy writing our policy plan, getting used to our new functions and attending the events organized by our great committees. The workload is definitely making itself evident, but we are facing it with a great deal of enthusiasm for the upcoming months.

I hope to see you all in the Helix room or at one of our events!!

Candidate Secretary

My first monthly update! Let’s get started. First and foremost, I got accepted as candidate-secretary of the 30th board of SA Helix (yes, I say the title in full, just to let it sink in). I’m of course super excited for the upcoming year, and I hope our current board isn’t too anxious to hand over custody of Karel at the end of their board year. To prepare myself for my board position, I have been training with Johanne, secretary of the 28th board.

On top of our CB life, our committees were still working hard. For me, that’s the excursion committee. We’ve been dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s in preparation for this year’s excursion to Budapest, for which I really cannot wait :). I’m really happy we got to meet our participants during our info night at van Bommel! I liked being able to get myself familiar with the faces we’ll be seeing a lot more of in May. That of course hasn’t been all we’ve done this past month. We had the lovely pirate COP, where I’m pretty sure some people made out with a skull… nonetheless, it was a blast. Our second committee GA took place, which I believe went smoothly, and we ended this month with the illuminated neon party organised by the Randwyck committee. I loved seeing everyone shine, quite literally, while dancing their hearts off. I’m curious to see what May will bring, so on to the next one!

Candidate Vice-President

Hi everyone reading this! It has already been a few weeks since I became Candidate Vice-president and a lot has already happened. Firstly, my schedule literally blew up with meetings, events, training, etc. I am still kind of getting used to it but I predict that in a few weeks I should be fine. So what have I been up to so far. I started off with a crash course on Helix, where we as Candidate Board got all the information on Helix, from history and things that are currently happening to obligations, preparations etc. This really gave an image of what being in the Board actually is like and I really enjoyed that. After that, my training for Vice-president started where I learned about all the ins and outs of the position, which motivated me even more for next year! On top of that, I got to help during the experience day, where high schoolers came to the helix room where first the current Vice-president Kim gave a small speech about Helix and talked to them, but after that it was my turn to give a speech for these people, explain Helix and answer any questions they had. This was such an amazing insight into the roles of the Vice-president and I enjoyed it very much. I’m not only Candidate Vice-president, but also Candidate Head of Activities, which I am also super excited for! My training for Head of Activities hasn’t started as of now, but that will also commence soon. I know that I still have a lot to learn but I already can’t wait for next year! 🙂

Candidate Head of External Affairs

My first monthly update as Candidate Board Member is very exciting! First of all, even though our CB was not complete at first, I was already very thrilled to start working with Javi, Laura and Burak. With the addition of Dion and Amadiez, we are now a complete Candidate Board and I know for a fact that we are going to be working hard together. We received a very intense crash course on what it meant to be a board member, we started writing our policy plan and we are slowly getting used to the crazy board year that is still ahead of us.  I was selected to become the next Candidate Head of External Affairs and to succeed Anna in her mission to find sponsors. Although my training has not formally started, I already started establishing a list of potential companies that would financially support us to have an amazing and fruitful Lustrum year. I was also busy with excursion, which I am very much looking forward to as we have been preparing for it for a few months now. We will probably see each other in the helix room, hungover from the night before and spilling tea! 

March

President

And as fast as March entered, as fast it ends now. One of the busiest months we had until now and I liked it so much. We came back after our break with fresh new energy, although, fresh new energy on Tuesday because Monday I was exhausted from a night long at London Stansted airport 😉 But we started off with some nice events of which one was the first Brainstorm event organised by Meike. It was a nice opportunity to talk with all the coordinators about things going on and apparently, it worked because some things are already improving! So I am really proud of Meike! That week we also had my favourite event of that month; the Gala. It was so so so special to see everybody dressed up, the music was nice, the people were happy, I really enjoyed that evening. The COP came after so we could all dance in our pyjamas which was a whole new experience. That week was a busy week since we also had the Company Visit at MERLN and the Apenkooien event so all my committees organised one event that week. That makes me a proud Head of Activities. The last event was the Pub quiz and although it is not important for me, I am maybe even more enthusiastic than in the first years. 

The events were exciting but something more happened. We had the interviews for our Candidate Board, whaaaa! I don’t know, it feels so weird and exciting and sad and special at the same time. I am happy that in the next few months we can work with these people and teach them everything they need to know. Furthermore, I’ve had quite some meetings this month with the Randwyck Party Committee but also Presidents Meetings with all the Helix Presidents and the FHML Presidents. And I went with Anna to some locations for potential sponsorships which were really fun to do as well. 

And now it is April already, more events, CB, little trips and fun activities! Hope all your exams went well and that we see you at all the events or in the Helix Room!

Treasurer

The month started off with Meike’s very own brainstorm event, which was super useful (even though we slept at the airport that night). Not long after the that the event that we waited TWO whole years for took place: the annual Helix gala, with a Disney theme. After being part of the committee for 2 years I was super glad it could finally happen and I couldn’t be happier with the end result. What a magical night! I heard everyone had super much (maybe too much ;)) fun! 

The week after that the COP took place, which despite of the unexpected turn in the end, was a lot of fun. Also the MERLIN company visit and the Apenkooien event were much fun.

More exciting news; the Lustrum committee started off and I can promise you; they have very exciting plans for you guys next year, so stay tuned.

Furthermore we have been working on our new CB and boy are we proud of them. We have been preparing the crashcourses and trainings for them. Moreover I was busy preparing all the committee budgets for the committee GA. 

April is full of new and exciting things for which I cannot wait! Hope to see you at one of our events!

Vice-President

Another month is done, the time goes so fast. The month started well with the annual gala! It was a wonderful night and many people showed up regardless of the last-minute promotion and sign up possibility. In the same week we also had the Bachelor Brainstorm Event. This was really an event to be proud of since I feel like our comments were really taken seriously by the coordinators. The next event was the Pyjama party COP. Not many people showed up because of the late promotion and it was just after the gala and mid-course due to Covid restrictions that were happening in February. Furthermore we had the MERLN company visit and 2 other events I could not attend due to Covid:( 

The most exciting thing this month was looking for our CB!!! We did the interviews and formed a brand new Board. I’m really looking forward to working with them next month. 

Stay tuned for many events this month!

Head of Education

This month started off with my first own event! The first brainstorm event was quite successful with nice discussions. Resulting in a meeting with the course coordinators of Sophia and Roger Godschalk, with some students to look into the possibilities to integrate the Sophia courses better into the main program. I also had some coordinator meetings which mainly discussed how to get more students back to on campus education. I also discussed this during BMSO, which mainly focussed on the selection processes at different universities. Furthermore I had my recurring SC meetings and we went for dinner and bowling together. The SEPs had their meetings and will meet next week again to discuss the exam and write the reports. The master specialisations finished their reports earlier, because their tracks have different time schedules. With the NPO taskforce from SC, we’re looking into the possibilities of venues for the event. At the beginning of the month, we had the gala which was really nice, with a lot of dancing! We also had the COP the Tuesday after, which was peculiar because of an incident. For the next COP we hope to have taken enough measurements to prevent this. We also had the MERLN company visit, which was really fascinating and well arranged. On the same day, I went to apenkooien with the sports committee and Terence, which was really funny and refreshing. Coming closer to the exam, I presented the Pubquiz of BBS1004 which was something I really enjoyed doing! This month we also continued with our search for a candidate board. We had interviews and came to a final arrangement together with AC. I’m really excited to start working with them and if you’re interested, you can still apply, we have some spots left!

February

President

March already! The busiest months start right now. But first, lets look back at February! It was an intense month with events, a GA, covid and finally the carnival break. We started with looking for a new board as well which gives me mixed feelings. Looking forward to work together with the new board but it feels weird that my year is already at the end. But lets not move too fast, we have a lot of nice things coming up!

We started of February with an event of the Education Committee which was really nice. We worked on writing skills during the workshop and all students really thought it was helpful. The day after we start dancing with the Activities Committee during the Silent Disco event. Also the Valentines Dinner with the Activities Committee and Pulse was a big success. Unfortunately, a part of the Board got Covid before this event, including me, so that was a shame. So instead of celebrating my birthday and party, I was in my bed. But lucky me, I recovered very fast and after a week, when all the restrictions were gone, we could party again together. And we did that at the Battle of Committees event! Despite the rain, it was a very nice event and everybody was so enthusiastic.

After these weeks, it was finally time for a break which I spend in France and London. Time to rest, have fun and chill and now starting again with fresh energy! Ready for the Gala, COP, Pubquiz and so much more! And of course the next steps in the Board Search! 

Treasurer

February was a really hectic month, with all the changes that have been happening within the association. The search for CB has officially begun, since we organised two board drinks, which were attended by quite a few people. The half year GA took place, which means that I had a meeting with the FSC to check the half year realization and fortunately everything was fine. We had quite a lot of events during February, which I could not all attend, because, just like the rest of the board, I had Covid-19 during two of the events. But the Silent disco was really fun, so getting Covid was worth it.

But the best thing in February was that we decided to go through with the annual Gala!!! I am really excited for this and since I took over this committee, I can promise you; it is going to be a magical night. 

For my basic tasks nothing really changed during February, so I hope to see you all on the 10th of March in Complex!!!

Vice-President

February was a month with some changes within Helix. Unfortunately, our Secretary decided to resign from her position. Therefore we decided that I will take the formal Secretary role for the remainder of our Board year. However, my main tasks will remain the Vice-President tasks since we decided to divide the Secretary tasks among the four of us. My part of this is making the minutes during the Board meetings and the GA’s and I have taken over the DM on Instagram. As Vice-President, I attended the Bachelor Open Day online together with Mara and I had contact with the university about the experience days that are coming up and Helix’ role on those days. I also had an evaluation of the Bachelor Graduation with the organisation from FHML and the Presidents from Pulse and Santé. Moreover, I had a meeting with Board members from other study associations in the Netherlands about the Biomedical Interfaculty Congress which will take place now in Spring 2024 in Utrecht. Furthermore, I have been busy with the Promo Committee and a clear guide where all the steps of promotion are described to get more clarity about this among the committee members as well as for other committees. There is still some improvement needed, but we are getting there. Also, the Family Day committee is working hard on the upcoming Family Day. Everything regarding the food and building is arranged. My other committee, The Wellbeing Committee, is also working on a Master Event that will hopefully take place at Dominicanen in April. About my new Secretary tasks, making minutes is something I still need to improve over time. Especially the GA minutes is something that needs improvement from my side. Talking about the GA, on February 10th the Half-year GA took place. This GA was unfortunately done online. The GA itself went well, however, there is still a motion that could not be voted in because of a wrong formulation therefore we need to revise that.

Head of Education

February was a busy month with changes. The CB search really began by having 2 board drinks. We also held the GA. The SEP completed and send out their reports for the coursed of period 3. SEP 1 also had a meeting with the coordinators of BBS1002 which was fruitful and I hope it will show improvements for next year. Additionally, two new SEPs started working on evaluating the electives. I got new applications for SEP 1 and added two new members. I also had my repeating meetings with Student Council, in which some problems were discussed with MT. I also started working on the podcast together with Anna and organized the second Battle of Committees. I worked out the brainstorm event further. Furthermore, I attended some events, which I really liked and hope our members did as well. I missed out on the valentines dinner and master drinks because of covid-19. I am excited for the upcoming events of March!    

January

President

And here we are, nothing changed except for the numbers of the year 😉 This year I had a new way of starting my year… The year started for me in quarantine, unfortunately. Luckily for me, or not, uni was online as well so not much that I’ve missed. But we are back and next course, we will be at uni again! Let’s see what happened last month. It was not a busy month with events although we had 3 of them. Starting off with the Wellbeing Smoothie Workshop in which we had delicious smoothies and a relaxing yoga workshop. Since online events are harder to organise, I am very proud of the Wellbeing Taskforce. A few days later we walked through the city centre with the Activities Committee, of course with hot chocolate and cookies! It was nice to walk with our members, get to know them and be a little active during this period of lockdown. And then the pool tournament, also here, a lot of new people showed up which I really liked. It is one of the things in my board year that I like the most, meeting new people. 

The fact that there were not as many events, as usual, does not mean we were not busy. This month was filled with evaluations, the Half Year report, Statuten en the Huishoudelijk Regelement. Together with Heleen, I checked the Statuten and the HR and while Heleen was busy with all the adjustments, I could go on with all the evaluations that needed to be done. All the committees are evaluated, as well as the Board as a group and each Board Member individual. Very important to do and we have some new goals to work on! Besides the preparations for the Half Year GA started so time to make the agenda and PowerPoint. 

Oh and one of the most important things! We started looking for our Candidate Board, how exciting! Flashbacks to my own CB period, which was intense but so so so nice. I am looking forward to working together with CB. And to bond together as much as we do with our Old Board with whom we went a weekend to Belgium together. Also, this was so much fun! And last but not least, what an amazing job did the Excursion Committee! Excursion sold out in only 19 minutes. I am looking forward to seeing you all in Budapest. But hope to see you all first in the Helix Room again in February!

Secretary

In the past month, there have not been a lot of events, unfortunately. However, this definitely does not mean that behind the scenes I was not busy. Upcoming General Assembly, we will discuss the Half Year Report, which I had to contribute to and I was responsible for the final product which could be sent to the members. Moreover, I have also been busy reviewing the Huishoudelijke Reglementen and the statuten. As a result, I had to make multiple motions for the upcoming General Assembly and the one after that, for our members to vote on so we can change a few things.

The events that did take place were very fun and successful in my opinion. The Smoothie & Yoga Workshop was very relaxing and the City Walk was cold but fun. The two girls Mara and I were in a group with were very kind and it was fun getting to know them while walking through the city centre! In January, the Sports Committee also organised a new Pool Tournament to finally find out who the SA Helix Pool Champions would be after the first Pool Tournament in November had to be cancelled.

Treasurer

During the last month, not a lot of Helix events took place, unfortunately. We started looking for a candidate board, which is exciting and confronting at the same time. It reminded me of my own time when we were still CB. Speaking of that, in the second week of January, we rented a house in the Belgian mountains with our old board and even two people from our old old board. It was a really fun weekend and we bonded with each other even more. After that our Blue Monday event took place, which for sure brought some light into the day. My god, do I need Spring… Also, the Activities Committee organised a very nice city walk in which we saw some hidden treasures in the city. Moreover, I am looking forward to the Pool tournament the Sports Committee is organising on the last day of this month.

Behind the scenes, I have been busy with some accounting and arranging new sponsors. I arranged one new deal and I am still in contact with a few other companies. 

But now the most exciting news, January is also the month that the tickets for the yearly excursion went up for sale. I was soooo nervous, but in the end, this was not needed at all. Sold out in 19 minutes! Wow. I am very proud of my lovely Excursion Committee. For those who are joining the excursion; my committee can assure you that this is going to be the trip of your life! 

Vice-President

In January we, unfortunately, had to deal with many Covid-19 restrictions again. Because of this, the COP was cancelled and we were not able to organise many in-person events. On Blue Monday a wellbeing event was planned but was moved to online due to the restrictions. Even though it was online, the event was really successful and well prepared by the Wellbeing Taskforce and quite some people signed up for it. 

However, January was a full month filled with writing the half-year report and doing evaluations with the board and all the committees. Also, the Promo Committee had a busy month with making many posters for all upcoming events. The Excursion has finally been promoted, and sold out 20 minutes after! Also in February, bigger events will be announced, so make sure to keep an eye on our social media. Also, the search for our successors has been opened. We presented all board positions on our social media with a post and a day-in-the-life-of vlog on our Instagram stories. In February, the board drinks will take and we hope to welcome a lot of interested people. In January we also went to the Belgian Ardennen with the 28th Board and 2 Board members from the 27th Board. This weekend was lots of fun and we bonded with the old Boards. This is certainly one of the perks of being a Helix Board member! 

Lastly, in January also the online Experience Day took place. I represented Helix on the online platform and informed future students with a short presentation about our association. In February I will attend another Experience Day and the Bachelor Open Day, I hope to make many people enthusiastic about becoming a member. 

Head of Education

January has been the evaluation month. The second set of all SEP reports have been sent out and the evaluations within the SEP took place. You can find these in the Half Year Report. For SEP2 the electives will start and I have planned a meeting to introduce the new members to the working method. Furthermore, I have had coordinator meetings and meetings with the student council. With SC we have started working on events for the NPO budget to improve student wellbeing. I have also been working on the Helix TikTok. I have been working on the finalization of the brainstorm event. Lastly, I have done a really interesting interview for our newsletter and gone to some nice events.

December

President

Well, here we are! 2022, starting in lockdown but full of exciting ideas. December was a weird and very busy month although most of the events were cancelled. Lucky for us, we did some replacement events like the Secret Santa and did the Wellbeing Taskforce try to relieve our exam stress with some cookies and tea. Talking about exams, I really hope your exams went well and that you could enjoy a nice Christmas Break! Find some new energy to start the year and head forward to everything that will come. Looking to January, our Committees could plan some events which are Covid proof so I hope to see you all (online) at the Smoothie Workshop on Blue Monday or in the city during our city walk. Furthermore, a very exciting period will start from now on for the Board because we officially are going to start with looking for a Candidate Board. Say whut?! Did time fly that fast? And of course, January, the month for new resolutions but also for evaluating. And that’s what we are also going to do this month so we can improve ourselves and Helix more. So lots to do! But first of all, I want to wish you all the best for 2022, take a glass of champagne and celebrate all small successes! Cheers guys!

Secretary

Right before December started we received the very sad news that we were going into some kind of lockdown again, meaning we had to cancel a lot of events. However, luckily we had some very creative committees that immediately thought of a plan to make corona proof events. Therefore, we were still able to do the Secret Santa part of the Christmas Dinner and our Wellbeing Taskforce could provide our hard working students with cookies and tea during a well-deserved study break. We were hoping that we could do everything again after the Christmas break, but unfortunately that clearly is not the case. We already had to cancel COPIII and the Randwyck Party before the break properly began. Nevertheless, we are keeping our heads up and are going to do everything we can to still organise some very fun events soon! The events that are already planned are a Blue Monday Smoothie & Yoga workshop organised by the Wellbeing Taskforce and a City Walk organised by the Activities Committee. The past month has been quite calm as to Helix, aside from rearranging the newsletter for the hundredth time and a pretty exciting meeting with our Gala venue, but since I was moving places I was able to keep myself more than busy. I am looking forward to another busy but fun year! Happy 2022 everyone, cheers!

Treasurer

First of all, happy new year to you all and may all your wishes come true this year! Although we are still in lockdown, I am very positive about this upcoming year and hopeful that we can organise our events again. December has been a busy month with the exams and some administrative work for Helix, like our half year report. Despite the fact that we had to cancel most of our events in December (as well as for our events in January) there were still some things happening within Helix. Our lovely wellbeing taskforce reduced a bit of our stress with their cookies and we all got some nice gifts from a secret santa. One of my highlights from December was by far the fact that my Excursion Committee is now in the first place with the Battle of Committees, keep up the good work guys! Speaking of the excursion, January is probably going to be the month that we are going to start promoting the excursion so stay tuned!

As for all the exams, I hope those went well for everyone and that the BBS1002 pubquiz helped our firsties out a lot. 

Then lastly, I hope that you all had a nice Christmas break and I hope to see you (when our lovely government allows it again) at one of our events or in the Helixroom in the new year. That 2022 may be our year. Cheers. 

Vice-President

2022 already, the time goes waaay too fast. I wish you all a happy new year and best wishes! Unfortunately, we were not able to organise many events in December due to Covid-19. One of the events that were still possible was the Wellbeing Cookie event. During this event, people who studied at university during exam week were able to stop by and get free coffee, tea and cookies. We hope that this event made the tough exam week a little bit better. Behind the scenes, I have been busy with starting up the family day committee. The family day will take place (hopefully) in March this year, so make sure to be there! 

In addition, I started organising the BIC (Biomedical interfaculty Congres) together with board members from other study associations from the whole country. This event will hopefully take place in 2023, therefore my successor will eventually organise the event itself. Lastly, as you may have seen on our Instagram page, we had a Helix advent calendar. This was a great success and we got very positive reactions to this idea. During the first 24 days of December, I was busy making the stories and posting them. I hope we can organise lots of events again in 2022 and I wish you all the best;)

Head of Education

First of all, I want to wish you all a happy 2022! I hope you had a nice holiday break :). A lot of our events were cancelled which was very sad. But we gotta stay positive! There are some very nice covid proof events coming up. Right before the holiday started we had a very nice event organized by the Wellbeing taskforce. I very much liked dropping by these kind girls in between my study sessions for some snacks. For the educational part, I had some coordinator meetings and student council. The courses are finished so this means that the SEPs are busy again working on their reports. My hopes are high for our government to open universities ASAP. And if they will. You bet I’ll push uni as hard as possible to open up again! There ain’t no mountain high enough when it comes to this.

November

President

Wow, there we are again! Starting the last month of the year already. A lot of things happened in November starting with the CoBo. I cannot say it was a memoizable evening because I don’t remember anything 😉 but.. I am really happy that we did it and that we never have to do this again! Two days after the CoBo, the graduation took place. This day was so much fun! The organization from our side was perfectly done, people were happy and the collaboration with the university was nice. Doing the speech was exciting, I was a little bit nervous but after all, hanging out with Roger Godschalk and Rory Koenen, doing the speech, talking with old (board)members and everything was so much fun! Nice start of the first week of November.

Then we had a really nice week with more fun. Monday 8 November my Education Committee organized the how to read a paper event which was well received by the first and second-year students. The Education Committee is planning on more of these events so stay tuned for that! The day after my Activities Committee organized the bowling event which I, unfortunately, couldn’t join because of LOBEG. LOBEG is the Landelijk Overleg Bewegings- en Gezondheidswetenschappen and was held in Amsterdam. It was a really nice meeting and I liked to get to know our sister associations a little bit more. And it was very nice to hear that the participants of the bowling event had a lot of fun as well!

And the Battle of Committees has started of course! The first event was the 10^th of November and escalated a little in the club 😉 Sports is going strong with 30 points so for all the other Committees, come on, earn those points!

Furthermore, we had a lot of fun with the Board as well this month, I had a house party where we danced a lot together, we went out too often and had a lot of dinner parties as well. I am really happy with this group of girls around me!

Then something more serious, the first GA took place as well! It was new for a lot of our members and for us as Board as well. This was the first in-person GA we did and although we were a little nervous and there are some improvements possible, I think it was a good opportunity to get to know the committees and to give an update to our members.

Unfortunately, we had to cancel the snooker event and most of the events for December are cancelled as well. But you can participate in the Secret Santa event and for the firsties: the Pub quiz will also take place! So you won’t forget Helix at all!

Okay, guys! That’s it for now. I really want to wish you a nice Christmas break, a very merry Christmas and see you all in 2022 again!

Secretary

The past month a lot of things happened. Of course, on the 2nd of November, our CoBo took place. This, to finally celebrate our constitution, and oh a lot happened that evening. We are still very grateful for everyone who came by to congratulate us! After the CoBo we had one day to recover before we were off to celebrate something else, namely, our graduates! On the 4th of November, the bachelor graduation took place and we were all there to help out and to congratulate the graduates on this amazing achievement. Other events this month were the article reading workshop, which I could not attend unfortunately enough, the bowling event, and the first official Battle of Committees evening! These last two were so much fun! Unfortunately, the rest of the events, the beer tasting, pool tournament and Christmas dinner, had to be cancelled due to the new COVID-19 measurements. Lucky enough for our firsties, we will come up with a solution for the pub quiz, so we can still help them prepare for their exam. 

What did go through was our First Committee General Assembly. This was the first real-life GA in over a year and even though most of us had never experienced a real-life GA, we managed quite well! We finally got to officially vote in Meike as our Head of Education, even though we have never seen her as anything but our very own power woman of a Head of Education. Ever since the GA, I have been busy with making the minutes, so you can expect those somewhere in the upcoming weeks 😉 I have also been busy with making a very special edition of the SA Helix Newsletter! In these turbulent times, we could use some extra warmth and happiness, and what does that better than a healthy dose of Christmas spirit?

Best of luck to those who have exams this month and enjoy your well-deserved break after!

Treasurer

November has been a really busy month for all of us. We started the month off with our CoBo, which is the night that we finally got socially accepted as a board. It was a fun night in which we bonded with a couple of our old boards, but I am really glad that it is over now and we don’t have to do it again. A couple of days after our CoBo it was time for the Bachelor Graduation, for which I give all the credits to Kim, she organised everything very well. It was a fun day, in which we congratulated all the former graduates. We also had a couple of events this month. First, there was the ‘How to read a scientific article workshop’, which I think was a very helpful evening for not only first years, but for second years as well. One of our alumni members gave a very nice lecture on how to read a paper and the students who did attend, thought it was very helpful. We also organised the bowling event, which unfortunately I couldn’t attend, but I’ve heard that it was a lot of fun. We also organised our first Battle of Committees event, so the battle is officially on. Then for all the other nice events that we have planned, but couldn’t happen because of Covid, stay tuned, we’ll get to those later!

We also had our first Committee GA in November, which was a special GA for two reasons, firstly, it was for most of us the first on-site GA, but secondly, and more importantly, Meike finally got voted in! 

Now more for function-specific tasks, this month I gave the Treasurer’s crash course to the committee treasurers and I sensed that they all picked it up very quickly. Furthermore, my excursion committee decided on a destination and we are all going to Budapest, so I am really excited about that! I arranged that all the members of the month get a pair of MedSocks as a gift and at the moment I am working on some new sponsorships.

For December, we, unfortunately, cannot organise much because of Covid, but I am positive for the new year and because I won’t write to you anymore before Christmas, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year! 

Vice-President

 This month the bachelor graduation took place. Because the preparations could only start really late because of Covid-19, I had to make the PowerPoints on short notice. But fortunately, I managed to finish these on time! The day itself went very smoothly with the complete powerpoints, and to spare our voices we switched reading the texts for the graduates among three board members. I also arranged a couple of speakers at the last minute, and their speeches were very well received by everyone, so I am really happy with that! There were some minor catering issues during the day itself, but with enough extra help from the whole Helix board and the graduation committee from FHML, everything turned out fine. In summary, I was very content with how the day went and I am very proud of my board for how much they all helped during this day! Also, the bachelor open day took place that same week. I attended the open day together with Meike. Unfortunately, the open day was not very interesting for us since most people we spoke to wanted to study medicine and were not looking for a study association yet. To go a little bit back in time, our CoBo. Well, that was an evening to never forget, or actually to forget. Also, I attended the scientific reading workshop, the first battle of committees and the Helix bowling night. The last major November project where I was busy with were the new Helix hoodies. I held a pre-sale of those during the GA where we already sold almost half of them. I also have experienced some issues with these hoodies, because we did not pay the “afterpay” yet they were sent much later than what I wished for. Also, the company that delivers them did not properly get the pictures that we wanted on the hoodies and therefore we needed to send those again. And now they have delivery problems with a specific size, so we won’t get them until the beginning of December. I hope they will now be delivered soon! The last big event from this month was our first in-person GA. There is always room for improvement, but since it was for most of us the first in-person GA I think it went fine. I’m looking forward to December with hopefully not that many covid restrictions. I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy 2022!

Head of Education

This month was our first GA and this was extra special for me because I got voted in :)! Furthermore, the first SEP reports were sent out to all the coordinators. We’re already halfway through the course so that means that the SEPs are already working again on the next report. I had my recurring meetings with the student council. The first week of November was a very fun and busy week, we had our CoBo which for me was a really fun night. We also did the graduation which was really cool and special to see how everything went, especially thanks to our Vice-President who worked her ass off for this. I had my first meeting with BMSO, which was really interesting to learn about how other universities are handling their education in these times. And to close the week off, we had the bachelor open day. In the second week, we organized nice events (I can tell because I lost my voice) such as how to read a paper, bowling and the battle of committees. I have also met with the Head of Educational relations from FHML, to discuss important topics our education is facing. Additionally, I have started working on something special which I hope to inform more on soon. To close off this month, I am very sad that the pool tournament and the Christmas dinner could not go through :(. But I am sure that we will catch up next year! 

October

President

Hi guys! Here we are again. Hope your exams went well and that you have had a nice start of the new course. We celebrated the start of this course with the first COP since a really long time ago. And it was so much fun. In secret, I was a little nervous for this COP, how can I organize one if I never experienced one? But everybody liked it and was so happy to party again. A little bit back in time but this month, the first years Pubquiz took place as well. It was funny to see how much I forgot about that course. The first years had a good time I believe and I really hope it was helpful for your exams. During October we’ve finished the interviews for the committees so now I am planning the meeting with all the Presidents. And, a scary thing again for me, the preparations for the GA started this month! A real life GA in which we can proudly present all of our committees. Helix stuff is fun, but doing something with the board is as well! So I took my favorite board and parts of our old board to Uden to celebrate a festival together. We enjoyed our time together and lost not only our soul but also our voice on ABBA. With new and fresh energy, we are going to start November. Again with a lot of new events, the GA, graduation and so much more. See you there?

Secretary

Sooo here we are again, the past month has once again been a very busy month so time really flew. Finally all the committees were formed and I had my first meetings with the Gala and Sports Committees and I already heard so many exciting plans. The events of the past months have been very exciting, we had our Electives Drinks for our second years, where I had to present one of the electives without a voice (Screaming ABBA for 4 hours at Festyland with the Board and some of the old Board members took a toll on me). But we also had the first pubquiz for our firsties and of course the very very successful first COP since 1,5 year! It was so lovely to see all of your happy faces, all dressed up and partying like nothing ever happened! It really felt like I was going back in time to the COPs in my first year, which was the last time I went to one (I feel really old saying this lol). Moreover, I have been busy working on the newsletter, trying to fix the menu and of course I have been reading and sending lots and lots of mails. Now I’m looking forward to all the awesome events that are planned for the upcoming month (stay tuned for this year’s first sports event in the end of November)! Also the first on site GA is something I’m looking forward to, but I have to admit that I’m also a bit nervous. People that know me know that I start shaking when I’m in front of a group of people and this is exactly what will happen there so that is going to be fun. See you soon!

Treasurer

Another month that has passed already and what a busy month it was. During this month we had our first real-life COP!! It was an amazing evening and everyone had a lot of fun. The month started off with our first CoBo ever, and to be honest I was kind of nervous to see how that went so that I could start mentally preparing for our own CoBo. We also had some board bonding activities during October which were also a lot of fun. To prepare the firsties for their first exam week we did the BBS1001 pubquiz, which was a successful evening. I hope all your exams went well and that you can all make a fresh new start for the new block.

For my positions, there were not many changes. The excursion committee started meeting up, so stay tuned for that 🙂 I am busy with some new sponsorships, so you will also hear more from that in the future!

I am really excited for the upcoming month, we have such a busy month, but a really exciting one. We have our own CoBo and the Bachelor Graduation and so much more.

October was in conclusion a very busy month, but we did so many nice things together as a board, so I am really looking forward to the next month. Hope to see you at the 18^th of November, at our first real life General Assembly, in which we can proudly present our committees to you. 

Vice-President

Well, another monthly update already. It feels like I wrote the last one only a week ago. October has been a busy month again. Two of my committees are finally formed and are started up. Wellbeing is already planning some really nice events for December and January and Promo has started making posters and designing new merchandise. Unfortunately, my third committee, family day, is not formed yet. After lots of promotion and asking people personally we still don’t have a full committee. I hope I can still figure something out with this committee, since skipping Family Day would be a big shame. In October, I have also been busy organising the bachelor graduation that will take place in November. I had meetings with the organisation from FHML and I made the PowerPoint, collected information about all graduates, arranged some speakers and I made a planning about what we have to do on the day itself as Helix board. Even though organising this graduation was and is still a lot of work, I am sure it will be a nice day! Next to this, also the bachelor open day will take place and for this day I had contact with the FHML promo team to arrange a stand and some promo on the day itself for Helix. I hope we will make some future students enthusiastic about Helix. Okay, enough about my Vice tasks. I really enjoyed the first COP that took place in October. I never expected that so many people would show up for this. Also, the pub quiz was a great success, it was sold out within a couple of hours!! Lastly, we went to a festival with the whole board and this was a great opportunity to do some board bonding which we needed after working so hard. I am looking forward to an amazing and busy November!! 

Head of Education

The exams have passed which means that the SEPs are meeting up again and writing their reports for the coordinators. Right now that is where my main focus lies.  Furthermore, I have had my recurring meetings with the student council and the coordinators.  I have also had meetings with the student council of FPN to discuss the posters in the toilets of FHML. I have worked on the proposal for the contract with SHAPE. I have also arranged student representatives for coordinators who asked for this. One thing I am still working on is finding more students for the minors of the third year. Besides that, I really enjoyed all the events that we hosted! The elective drinks really helped with choosing which electives I wanted to do. The pub quiz made me realize how much I had already forgotten from last year :). And I loved dancing at our COP. I am looking forward to all the events in November and hope to see you there!

September

President:

So what a month have this been! Not only uni started but the real board stuff started as well. And the kick-off was of course Introweek. It was amazing, it was so nice to meet all new students but also have real life events. I get a little addicted to all the events 😉 Right after Introweek we went to Camp and damn, it was better than expected. Had so much fun, everybody liked it, the games were nice, it was just fun! Back at uni we started with the Committee Drinks and the preliminary committees started. A lot of new active members signed up and with all the interviews, we hope to have all committees in two weeks. Activities Committee started with organising the first real COP and Education Committee has already three events planned! Of course, the Board Meetings are going on weekly and in September I also had a meeting with the other presidents of FHML and the Randwyck party committee. A lot of fun things are coming up! Stay tuned and see you soon!

Secretary:

The past month was definitely one for the books. We started September off with our Introweek and Camp. Our Introweek Committee did an awesome job in organizing amazing events and entertaining our firsties (or “the kids” as we call them). After 5 days of Introweek events, we left for Camp. For me, the Cantus on the first night of Camp was the most memorable event of the weekend (maybe also because I left on Saturday morning but that’s just a small detail). Meeting all the new biomed students and actually getting to know them during this week full of events was a really nice experience for us, as board, as well. After this (very intense) week, a lot of people signed up to become active members, so now we are very busy with planning and conducting the interviews for our committees. Very soon the new committees will be formed, after which we can finally start organizing more fun events for you! Aside from our own committees, Helix also is in a committee together with the other study associations of Randwyck; the Randwyck Party Committee. Mara and I finally had our first meeting with them and now we are busy with finding dates and preparing for the first Randwyck Party. Personally, I am very excited about what the upcoming month has in store for us, so stay tuned and see you soon!

Treasurer:

The month September started of very busy, with uni starting up again and having our Helixweek in the second week. I was part of the Introweek committee, so I was very busy with organising everything in regard to that. In the beginning my biggest struggle was time management, because it was a bit stressful to do all the uni work besides the board work. For the treasurers position I was mainly busy with supervising the Introweek and Camp budget. Moreover, I started having interviews with the new committee members for the Excursion Committee. For the Head of Externals position, I was in contact with quite a few -hopefully- new sponsors. The month September was basically filled with all the things that revolved around the labcoats for the firsties. 

Right now I am busy with setting up the crashcourses for the committee treasurers and with setting up the first meetings with my committees.

Vice-President:

September started with our legendary Helix week. This was a huge success and lots of fun, also for us as the board. We got to know many first years students and made them enthusiastic about Helix and joining committees. Once I started the committee promotion, many first years applied. In the past couple of weeks, I was especially busy with doing interviews to find new committee members and with posting pictures on the website and doing all the promo of all events. Last week I had a meeting with a group from FHML who organises the bachelor graduation together with board members from Pulse and Santé. Because of all the uncertainties around Covid, the organization for the graduation started a bit late this year. For the graduation, I am working on a general presentation from Helix and I am thinking about the flowers and speakers during the ceremony. Next to the things I am working on as Vice, we still have our weekly board meetings and board integration activities. Next month will be a month full of fun activities, so I hope to see you all there! 

Head of Education:

This month, I finished doing interviews and almost completely formed all the SEPs. I have had my first SEP meetings which went well. I am also looking for student representatives. I have attended my first coordinator meetings, student council and SHAPE. A problem right now around students which came up during student council is the housing situation. Therefore Helix is going to help Biomed students find housing via a Facebook page. I have had contact with the BMSO for the first meeting. I have also met with the student council to discuss the posters in the toilets and Helix contribution to this. Besides that, I have had a lot of fun during intro week and camp! And am very excited about the upcoming events :).

June – August

President:

The 17th of June is forever in my memory now. After training a lot, a bumpy CB time for me personally but a time of making a lot of friends as well,  we were finally voted in! We celebrated with the old board the start of our board year and then, pretty fast after the GA, started with the organization of the INKOM, preparing the Helix room for this academic year and planning our Introweek and Camp. A busy summer to say so. While we were organizing the INKOM, FIC, Camp and Introweek, we also had to get used to our new positions and responsibilities. Therefore we had some meetings, hanging outs with the board and a lot of phone calls! Now we are ready to start the new academic year. A lot of new members signed up, people are excited to come to uni (again) so I am looking forward to see you all in the Helix room and please keep an eye on our social media because a lot of new and funny things are coming up! For now, let’s start with Introweek and Camp 🙂 

Secretary:

The past months I have been busy sending emails and typing documents. I hear you asking yourself “what kind of emails and documents?” Well, I will tell you in this update. 

To start, I wrote the minutes of last Changing GA and mailed them to all our members. I had a lot of fun listening to our shaking voices, almost reliving the stress of the moment, but this also meant reliving the happiness and relief when we were officially voted in. Moreover, I emailed our members about the struggle with the discount on the books at Boekhandel Dominicanen and the change of Boards.

Also, my inner computer nerd has awoken and over the past few months I have been working on improving the newsletter. The new newsletter has a completely different layout and I am still working on improving the last few features, especially the layout on the different types of devices. 

During the summer, a lot of people signed up to become a member. This increased even more the last few weeks, especially during the INKOM and the Faculty Introduction Day. For me, this also meant that I had to update our membership list by deleting people who are no longer a member of our Helix family and of course adding our new members. Aside from this, the mailinglists were updated accordingly. We also want to be in contact more with our honorary members, so we are working on strengthening these bonds. Hopefully, we will be able to put our honorary members more into the spotlights.

Moreover, I am one of the board members in the Introweek Committee. Therefore, over the last few weeks I have been busy guiding them with organising the Introweek that will take place in September. It is so nice to see that all the committee members are super motivated to make it a nice week now we can finally organize real events. Aside from this, I was present during all events and I am looking forward to seeing you at our upcoming events!

Treasurer:

After being board for 2 months I finally start getting used to the fact that people come to me when they have questions and not the other way around. I am still getting to know all the small things about our association, but overall I think I got the hang of it.

During the last months the things I did for the Treasurer’s position were not very intense. I made sure all the invoices were paid on time and I kept track of all the invoiced and declaration forms. However, for the Head of External position, I fixed a new old sponsorship with Café Defile and I arranged the labcoats for the first year students. Currently, I am looking for new sponsorships and I am staying in touch with all of our current sponsors. 

During INKOM I was present at the Intromarket on Monday and the College Tour on Tuesday. We did pretty well during the INKOM because quite a lot of people signed up for a membership and also some master students. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there for the FIC, because I had other obligations. I am also in the introweek committee, in which we set up the introweek for the first years. I am really looking forward to the upcoming year!

Vice-President:

The past couple of months I have been busy with organizing the FIC and arranging things around the new Helix website. I had lots of contact with events FHML and promo team FHML about the FIC. For the FIC, I was the one who had to arrange “FIC buddies” from Helix to show the new first years around. I also did a lecture talk during the bachelor FIC about Helix together with Meike. For the Master FIC, I send the introduction video to the organization and kept contact with Events FHML. I regret not being present myself during the Master FIC.

I also made sure that the website is up-to-date again. In fact, the website is fully renewed. Thereby, I fixed the account problem on the website. The accounts were not made automatically and therefore when someone signed up as a member they did not get their account and for me, it was hard to monitor who signed up. Therefore I fixed that the system is automized now and all new members or people who register for a new account will get this almost instantly.

As the only member of the promo committee at this moment, I was responsible for all the promotions regarding events, the association itself and getting new people for the preliminary committees. I hope to find more people soon since I have big plans regarding merch and more creative ways to promote.

Head of Education:

Hey everybody, I was the last one to join the board and am very happy to work with these girls! Since then I have been working on a lot of things to catch up. I have finished my training at the end of the vacation and tried to help the board as much as I could. I joined the camp committee. Since then I have started promoting the Student Evaluation Panels. I started during the FIC with a presentation during the main introduction lecture and in the small talks during the day. I also hope to start promoting the SEPs on social media later this week and via the FHML newsletter. I have contacted all the coordinators for giving lecture talks, which I will be making a short video for, given that the lectures will still remain online. About that, I will also be contacting the coordinators and try to push them to give as many lectures on-site as the possibility of registration. Besides that, I have been working on finding student representatives and arranging the certificates. At last, the vice-president and I will try to organize a masters only event to hopefully get more members for helix and the master SEP. I am looking forward to meeting all of you! If you have questions/interest in SEP, let me know 🙂