Landelijk Overleg Fracties

12:00 Meeting techniques

First, we start with a training in meeting techniques. Here, a trainer will teach you how to hold meetings as effectively and qualitatively as possible, so that you have more time to spend on certain issues. Does your council consist of international people? Then we will also go deeper into effective meetings in multilingualism.

14:00 Rights of the Medezeggenschap

Secondly, after the free lunch, we will have a training regarding your rights as a medezeggenschapper to strengthen your position in the council. During this training we will elaborate on the laws regarding Dutch educational institutions  (the Wet Hoger Onderwijs en Wetenschap).

Afterwards, we will do some fun games and activities while enjoying some refreshments. This is a great opportunity to meet medezeggenschappers from all over the Netherlands. The day will end around 17:00.

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12:00 Lobby training

Do you want to learn how best to convince your board of your opinion? Then this training is perfect for you. During this lobby training, we will further discuss a deliberate strategy of putting pressure on your board, in order to influence them in such a way that the interests of the students (or staff) are heard and granted.

14:00 Media training

After lunch, we will discuss how to present your opinions to the outside world during a media training. The media are often on top of the student world and can make or break your point. It is therefore important to check with yourself what you do and especially what you do NOT want to say. Using a number of examples, we will prepare you for the big screen.

Afterwards, we will do some fun games and activities while enjoying some refreshments. This is a great opportunity to meet medezeggenschappers from all over the Netherlands.  The day will end around 17:00.

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Finance is perhaps a boring subject for many, but still a very important portfolio since money is needed for everything. It is therefore very useful for your council year to understand how money flows within your university so that you can lobby accordingly.

During the year, various standard finance-related papers appear on the agenda, such as the kwartaalreportage (quarterly reports), the begroting (the budget)  and the kaderbrief (framework letter). De begroting is dealt with at the end of the calendar year – pretty soon, in other words. The council has instemmingsrecht (the right of consent) on the main points of the budget. In June, the kaderbrief is on the agenda. This determines the broad outlines of the upcoming budget and also requires instemming (council approval). Here, you as a council member can make a fist towards the Executive Board about topics where you think money should go.

During the training we will go through three important documents: the Universitair Verdeel Model (UVM – University Distribution Model), the kaderbrief and the begroting.

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The availability of menstrual products and whether they should be free of charge has been a hot topic for the past years. In February 2021, the Student Council of the Vrije Universiteit (SRVU) in Amsterdam started self-dispensing free menstrual products to students and staff members. Their approach was mainly that the products should be made available to combat menstrual poverty. 

Around the same time, Utrecht University also started a pilot together with the participation party Lijst VUUR, which made free menstrual products available to staff and students at the service desks. Their approach was slightly different from the one in Amsterdam, seeing that their aim was to help people with an unexpected period.

The pilot in Utrecht was so successful that it will now become a permanent facility. However, there always remain snags in the implementation. For instance, the products could not be collected anonymously, e.g. from a vending machine, but people had to ask for them at a service desk. There were also questions about the price of the products. Should the products be provided free of charge? Is an university as an organization responsible for dispensing such products? What should one pay attention to when running such a pilot?

With our own board member Remi, who was responsible for the pilot at Utrecht University, and some interesting speakers, we will approach the provision of menstrual products at the university from several perspectives. We will also elaborate on the implementation of the pilot at Utrecht University.

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