Board officials descriptions

Chairperson is the warp and woof for all board members, all guild officials and all guild members. Most importantly the chairperson is responsible that everyone enjoys themselves in the guild. The most important task of the chairperson is to support and coordinate the board members who with their committees and officials carry out the practicalities. Yet, some of the practicalities are on chairperson responsibility, such as primary responsibility of the administrative matters, summoning and leading the meetings and cooperation with the university and other stakeholders. 

Chairperson must be aware of everything going on in the guild: what’s happening, where something is happening, when something is happening and who is responsible for doing whatever is happening. Chairperson is the last resort who takes care that the key for facilities are retrieved before four o’clock or that the email on boards list is answered or that the guild room is tidy. Everything doesn’t have to be done by the chairperson, but everything must happen.

The chairperson among other things makes sure that the board works well as a group and also participates in the common tasks for the board. If nobody else takes the responsibility, the chairperson does. The chairperson also acts as official representative for the board and the guild for both members of the guild and other stakeholders.

One key skill for the chairperson is ability to make decisions. During the year there will be many problems for which there is no easy answer. Chairperson must often try to find a fair solution to surprising and difficult problems. Often these decisions don’t have to be made alone, but the chairperson can discuss with the board.

The chairperson is supported by ancient and everlasting chairpersons for the guild. Moreover, the student union has a committee for chairpersons of the special status associations, called the Council that acts as support and a source of ideas throughout the year.

The treasurer is, as the name says, responsible for guilds treasures and even more importantly of all guild finances and monetary transactions. The treasurer sends invoices for guild members and other stakeholders and also pays invoices caused by guilds actions weekly. The treasurer also upholds guilds bookkeeping so that everyone stays on track of the financials. In the beginning of the year treasurer helps the other board in making of the budget that is accepted in the annual meeting. The treasurer is never alone responsible for the tough decisions as all financial decisions are made together with the whole board.

The treasurer must always be on track of the guild financial situation. Another important task is to oversee the board members so that the guild stays within the accepted budget. The treasurer has to cooperate with mony other board members and officials which allows getting familiar with almost every aspect of the guild. Mainly, the treasurers work is very independent which allows you to determine your working times. After the year in the board, the treasurer produces a financial statement for the audition.

The vice chairperson’s task is to oversee and develop the guild together with the chairperson. The vice chairperson acts as a partner for the chairperson and helps to take care of the administrative tasks. The vice chairperson also covers for the chairperson when the chairperson is absent. The tasks of the vice chairperson depend on division of work between the chair and vice chair among others the vice chairperson might be responsible for preparing agendas for the meetings or writing minutes during and after meetings.

The vice chairperson is also responsible for training, motivating and refreshing officials. The vice chairperson makes sure that the officials get the support and guidance to their tasks and that the officials’ refreshing is arranged. Vice chairperson can also develop the use of officials in guild activities and try to enhance the commitment to guild. 

Along with the Master of Leisure, the Vice Chairman also works in the AYY’s Teekkari culture committee (TKTMK), which includes cultural and administrative officials from other guilds and organizations. TKTMK organizes, among other things, Otatarha Grand Prix, Smökki Afterwork and Elonkorjuu.

Besides the aforementioned, the vice chairperson acts as coordinator from the board for more independent projects such as the annual ball or the Physicist spex. The vice chairperson has also primary responsibility for recruiting the officials for the guild and is also responsible for founding new committees if needed. Among all the above, the vice chairperson is responsible for the storage closet, so called the board closet. The vice chairperson is in charge of the condition and lending of the guild’s belongings.

Communications Officer collects and sends guilds weekly newsletter and is responsible for maintaining and developing guilds digital services. Above all, Communications Officer leads the diverse Information Division, which consists of ADs, photographers, guild magazine’s editors and developers of the guilds Tech Support team. Moreover, the Communications Officer is mainly responsible for the visual identity and social media coverage.

Diverse tasks offer the Communications Officer an opportunity to decide which area one would most like to develop throughout the year. Routine tasks consist of the newsletter, updating the website and different board responsibilities, so project-like working take major part of the time.

Abilities to delegate, be independent and self-imposed are a great start, but also knowing other officials in the guild, desire to renew and ability to communicate – both internally with the board and externally to all members of the guild – are virtues for the Communications Officer. Moreover, a healthy interest towards websites and other such technologies is good to have. The Communications Officer works closely with one’s laptop, which allows working when the Communications Officer wants. In the role, one can mostly select what one wants to improve, which make the role one of the most customizable roles in the guild.

According to the name of the role, Master of Corporate Relations, master the corporate relation of the guild and is responsible for developing them. In practise this means arranging excursions to companies, informing guild members about career opportunities and fundraising in the form of sponsorship deals.

Master of Corporate Relations’ tasks include upkeeping the sponsorships and partner network. Moreover, Master of Corporate Relations arranges excursions, that are visits to companies. Shorter excursions are only a couple of hours or a day long and are mostly directed to interesting companies around the Capital region. Longer excursions outside Otaniemi and the semilong and long excursion either in Finland or in some cases even abroad. In arrangements of both shorter and longer excursions, the Master of Excursions helps the Master of Corporate Relations. The Master of Corporate Relations also takes care of other career-related events such as the Career Night and even sends career-related announcements to FK ura (FK Career)-email list and other guild’s info channels. 

Role as the Master of Corporate Relations offers any guild member an excellent chance to create important relationships to companies providing jobs for the guild members. Moreover, the role gives almost daily chance to improve one’s own sales and negotiation skills.

Master of Academic Affairs leads the promotion of interests of the guild in the administrative bodies of the university and coordinates the work of study tutors and our Academic Affairs Division. In addition to the Master of Academic Affairs, the Academic Affairs Division consists of the Academic Affairs Adjutants and the student recruitment committee, which does marketing of our study programmes to upper secondary school students. The Academic Affairs Adjutants in turn act as the right hand of the Master of Academic Affairs acting similarly as student representatives in the administrative bodies of the university. The former year’s Master of Academic Affairs typically takes care of the coordination of study tutors until the end of spring.

Most of the time of the Master of Academic Affairs is spent in administrative meetings of the university where one’s most important task is to convey opinions of students. The views of students and university’s personnel don’t always line up, so it’s beneficial to both parties to have student representatives involved in the discussion. The faculties concerning students of the guild are genuinely interested in developing their teaching and the views of student representatives are appreciated and heard. In the meetings the Master of Academic Affairs gets to hear of all kinds of interesting projects that are acute. The Master of Academic Affairs also gets to see the true life in the ivory tower of university.

The utmost important thing of the Master of Academic Affairs is to represent other students. This requires being well acquainted with other members in the guild. The members include a variety of different people, so there will always be opinions for and against every idea. The task of the Master of Academic Affairs is to gather the general feeling among the students and convey their ideas to the university.  The Master of Academic Affairs is also the most important link in communication from the school to students, as the information of the decisions made by the university don’t always easily reach to ordinary students.

The role of the Master of Academic Affairs requires diplomacity. Many problems are often such that there is no simple solution and different parties might want different things. This is why the Master of Academic Affairs needs good negotiation skills, readiness to compromise and eye for good decision at the moment. Moreover, a bright vision of one’s own opinion and ability to articulate and saddle for compromises are very important virtues in order to achieve one’s own goals.

The International Captain takes care of international affairs of the guild, i.e., arranges excursion outside the Otaniemi and upkeeps the relationships and coordinates collaboration with other associations both inside and outside the Otaniemi. International Captain also takes care that the new exchange students and masters students get all the information concerning the guild and that they feel welcome to the guild. The International Captain also recruits some tutors, for both spring and autumn term, with whom the International Captain helps the international students with practicalities when they arrive in Finland. As do the Fuksi Captains, so does the International Captain, continue in one’s role after the year in the board end. During the spring of the following year the International Captain acts as a guild official supporting the new International Captain.

The International Captain belongs to the International Committee (KvTMK) under Teekkari Section of the AYY. The committee arranges international-minded Teekkari events for the whole Aalto community. The International Captain also co-operates strongly with other International Captains in other guilds of the School of Science, mainly related to the orientation of new students. 

The International Captain is also responsible for arrangements and acting as a contact person regarding participation in the IntegraatioFest. The International Captain leads the Foreign Relations Division. The Foreign Relations Division is mainly responsible for the cooperation with the Alumni of the Guild of Physics. The most important part of the cooperation is the alumni events and mentoring. Furthermore, the International Captain is responsible for upholding the relations to student associations outside of Otaniemi with their Foreign Relation Officials.

Host and Hostess better known as IE (HH in English) are mainly responsible for the events of the Guild of Physics. These two get to be real multitaskers throughout the year as the role of the Host or the Hostess is not merely cooking but also planning, scheduling and budgeting of parties. Moreover, there is decorating, logistics, communicating with various people, upkeeping of storage facilities, leading a committee and many many other things. There is no ready-made division of work between the two people in these roles, but the division is done just how the pair theirself likes it. There are so many different tasks for the Host and the Hostess that there is certainly something for everyone. 

The task force of the Host and the Hostess is called Sisis (the committee of internal affairs) and it consists of butlers. The Sisis acts as the right hand and left foot of the Host-Hostess pair. The butlers are tireless workers that learn with the Host-Hostess pair throughout the year how the events are made in the guild. Sisis is also a tight and cosy group that is fun to work with and easy to get into. The Sisis refreshes themselves a couple of times per year, sometimes with other officials too. Besides the Sisis, the Host-Hostess pair also lead the Event Division consisting of for example the Grandmaster of Malt, DJs of the guild and the song leaders of the guild.

The Host-Hostess pair is also part of AYY’s committee called Hosts and Hostesses, which consists of Hosts and Hostesses of other guilds and associations. The Hosts and Hostesses arrange a couple larger events during the year such as Polin Appro barcrawl, the afterparties of Ota-Orienteering and Winter Day. This congenial group is fun and easy to spend time with, arrange events or get support to one’s own work as a Host or Hostess. The Hosts and Hostesses is led by the IE director of the Teekkari Section.

Working as a Host or Hostess is sometimes consuming but in the end very rewarding. The versatility of the role allows learning loads of new things during the year. After the year as a Host or Hostess one knows a lot more about event planning, budgeting, counting how much food is needed, leading a committee, scheduling and about a dozen other things. New friends and unforgettable moments are to come more than one would expect.

Master of Leisure, together with Hottis (committee of leisure) is in charge of different kinds of past time activities arranged by the guild. The Master of Leisure and the committee of leisure arrange welfare-oriented events, like sauna and movie nights and different kinds of guildroom events. Moreover, the Master of Leisure tries to organize different kinds of possibilities that encourage members of the guild to exercise and take care of their wellbeing. As chair of the committee of leisure the Master of Leisure has also a chance to act as a leader and develop one’s leadership and delegation skills.

Besides the committee of leisure the Master of Leisure also coordinates guild culture and sports selections together with sports and culture coordinators. The Master of Leisure is also in charge of developing upkeeping the guildroom together with the guildroom coordinators and their guildroom committee. Their responsibilities include making sure that the guildroom stays tidy and that there are appropriate refreshments available for the guildmembers. 

All in all, the role of the Master of Leisure reguires spontanity, fresh ideas and ability to motivate others. The year on the board as the Master of Leisure offers good opportunities to do the things one wants considering both the events and other activities as well. Due to one’s role as the Master of Leisure, one gets a chance to participate in activities of the committee of Teekkari culture, and thus takes part in organizing several events under Teekkari Section.

The Fuksi Captains are in charge of raising the guild’s fuksis into proper teekkaris. In this role there is plenty to do under the one-and-a-half year term. During the first year the Fuksi Captains act as members of the Board, and after that they continue as Guild officials to guide their fuksis until the possible Wappu. The main responsibilities of the Fuksi Captains are arranging events, informing and taking care of the fuksis, as well as planning the orientation in collaboration with the School of Science. The Fuksi Captains are in charge of both Engineering Physics and Mathematics fuksis, and the fuksis of the Quantum Technology program. Thus the Fuksi Captains must take internationality into account when planning and arranging activities.

The Fuksi Captains don’t work alone. As their right hand they have the BIG Coordinator, who is in charge of the recruitment, education and activities of the BIGpersons. The BIG Coordinator and the BIGs are the most valuable support for the Fuksi Captains in welcoming the fuksis and introducing them to the university studies, Otaniemi and the teekkari culture.

The Fuksi Captains are also members of the Fuksi Committee of AYY’s Teekkari Section. The Fuksi Committee organizes fuksi education in Otaniemi and acts as an important link between the students, the schools and the student union. Moreover, the Fuksi Committee’s responsibilities include arranging the possible Wappu, if the Fuksi Major leading the Committee decides to arrange one.

The role is very time consuming and demands loads of motivation, but as a reward one gets to see the birth of a new teekkari generation. Moreover, the Fuksi Captains can learn a lot from immediate feedback, and the role also gives a chance to grasp a good view of the whole school as well as the intricacies of the teekkari culture.