Figure 1: The Committee in the elevator. From left to right: Maarten van Meurs, Eric Thijs, Sander Treur, Mike van Gils, Dennis Hülsman, Sabrina van Oerle
Chairman: Sander Treur
Sander Treur is a 5th year student who is best known for his work as treasurer in the 53rd Japie board. In this committee he is our chairman, in this function he controls all work that needs to be done by the other members of the committee. If he wants he also does some small things himself. You will mostly see him as the front man of the committee chatting with everybody and proposing a toast when one is needed. Sander is also active as the financial committee, which controls the cash flow of the current Japie board and he has done his share in the First Year’s Committee. Sander is a passionate fan of Barney Stinson, having the playbook always at hand, and is (just like Barney) renowned for his ability to switch girlfriends at a rapid pace. Although he currently seems to have found someone who might be a keeper (just like Barney as a matter of fact). Besides his girlfriend he also likes to squash with some friends and is always in for a good party, where he usually stays till the early hours.
Secretary: Dennis Hülsman
Dennis is a kind, hard-working 5th year student from Limburg with a ready laugh. Since Dennis is the secretary of the committee, he is in charge of in- and outgoing mail. He writes and adjusts all contracts and takes care of insurance policies. Amongst his tasks are also writing the tour book and the final tour report. He has been active in several commissions, organizing something varying from relatively small, such as the Japie-ball to large events as the Career Events of Eindhoven (Wervingsdagen). His most favorite TV show is South Park, though he watched most movies/series with zombies in them as well. He can found in the F.O.R.T. each Thursday, drinking heavy beers. Since Dennis doesn’t excel in alcohol digestion, his ready laugh and offbeat humor can be heard after the second, maybe third pint. For his professional work and often humorous contributions, he is a valuable member of our committee.
Treasurer: Eric Thijs
Eric is a 4th year student. His major task in this committee is to manage the money for the tour. For student amounts we have quite a large budget. Eric spends a lot of his time during weekends refereeing the best Dutch young soccer players. For a referee it is important to control the game. But in our committee it is important for Eric to control the money. Fortunately Eric already has some experiences with managing the money in Walhalla. Walhalla is a youth society where young people meet each other and drink a beer. Eric has organized 3 big summer festivals with Walhalla before, so he knows how to manage a big group of people. We only have a group of 26 people so that shouldn’t be a problem. Also because he took a course in education last year, where he had to lead almost the same amount of high school students in classes. We hope but assume he is taking good care of our money, so that we can visit a lot of cultural, educational and active places in the United States and in Canada.
Tour Planner: Sabrina van Oerle
This curly haired girl can be considered the mother of the committee. Sabrina is not only the only female member on this committee, she also is the oldest member. She is a 5th year Masters-student from Brabant. Sabrina is living with her boyfriend for several years already. However, she still enjoys her student life, i.e. she likes to ‘party hardy’. Next to studying, partying and loving her boyfriend, she still has time to play sports. In fact she is the captain of her hockey team. There is a lot of organizing pressure on the shoulders of Sabrina, because she is responsible for planning the study tour. Fortunately she is very capable of doing so, because she's got a lot of experience. She is/was a senate member of C.T.D. Kekulé and she was on the ONCS (Open Dutch Chemicale Sportsday) -committee before. So she will most definitely plan an unforgettable study tour for all 26 participants.
Cases & Sponsoring: Maarten van Meurs
Maarten is a 4th year student and responsible for the incoming stream of money. This means taking care of the cases which the participants have to deal with, and at the other hand making sure that lots of companies are willing to sponsor us. He is best known as chairman of the 23rd committee F.O.R.T. ‘Pie Debye’, the student bar of our department. Sometimes you get the impression Maarten is a joker all the time but behind this mask he is actually a very hard worker. Lacrosse is Maarten's sport and that's one of the reasons he is interested in traveling to Canada, since Lacrosse is one of Canada’s national sports. Since Maarten has taken care of almost all cases we are already very happy with his contribution to the committee. It is always nice to speak to Maarten, you feel always happy but still achieve something.
Public Relations: Mike van Gils
Mike, the youngest member of the committee, is a 3rd year bachelor student. In the fall of 2011 he’s busy with his educational minor, where he’ll get his second-degree certificate. His minor has learned him how to keep a large group of people entertained for a longer period, so on our tour he will be the one who has to keep the group of students interested. Having only done the First Year's committee, Mike is the least experienced member of the committee. Because of this, he didn't think the committee would take so much of his time, but he's enjoying it, so this is not an issue anymore. Within the committee he’s responsible for the public relations, which means he’s the editor of our website and newsletter. Also he arranges the pre study tour activities.