My responsibility is to ensure smooth operation of the team

A few questions to Julia Hermann on what it means to be the Secretary of the Board.

What do you work on as the Secretary? What skills are required in these works?

As a Secretary, my responsibility is to ensure smooth operation of the EIT Digital Alumni Board. This includes drafting meeting agendas, keeping minutes, facilitating meetings for both the weekly check-ins and physical meetings twice a year. On a broader scale, I’m also planning the yearly schedule and taking care of our shared calendar. 

At the moment I’m also taking care of tasks related to community management, such as validating new memberships, answering emails in our inbox.

In my view the Secretary should have basic organisation and project management skills, but most of the tasks don’t require specific experience. What’s more important is to facilitate the meetings in a way that’s efficient and enjoyable where the right topics are discussed in a timely manner and everyone gets to share their views. 

I actually choose this position because it has a stable workload and in my opinion most relevant to my career.

What have you achieved in your mandate 2021-2023 as the Secretary?

If done well, my role is sort of invisible. When everything runs smoothly and no one complains that’s a good sign. So I would say I’m proud that I enabled the other  board members to achieve their goals and that we operate as efficiently as possible for a volunteer team while still enjoying the ride. 

I’m glad I was able to help organise grand events like the first ever Alumni Coliving, the Annual Meetings in Stockholm, Athens and now in Madeira. I’m proud that we onboarded almost the group of students who graduated in 2022 and we can hand over to the next Board a more engaged community (even if it’s still not the pre-COVID level).

What could you have done better or differently during your mandate?

I think I should have pursued more of the ideas that we came up with in the beginning of our mandate as side projects. I would also have liked to automate some of the manual processes and become more data driven. 

Hopefully I can share my ideas with the next Secretary and will see some of them implemented in the near future! 

Interested in this position? Apply now to be the next Secretary or ask Julia Hermann for more information!