Dear Reader
One of the hardest parts of many jobs in VSETH is finding a good successor. There are very few positions where there is a contested election. Many parts of VSETH even have the problem that some positions stay vacant for an extended period of time. In that case the work that this position has to do, has to be distributed through the rest of the organization. But even then the problem is that many people aren’t interested in this work, otherwise they might have taken this position themself. Therefore the work gets stuck with the person leading the organization. Therefore having vacancies in board positions, be that in a commission or in the VSETH board itself, will lead to a significant increase in workload for the president of the organization. But what happens if there is no president? Then there needs to be people who step up and take over all the responsibilities of the presidency, if there are multiple people that can each take a part of it then the job can be distributed. But most often than not there will only be one person who steps up to the task. In that case this person might as well be elected to the presidency. If there is no person interested in taking part of the presidency then the organization will fall apart.
You might ask yourself, why am I talking about successors? Well we are currently in this situation in the Polykum commission itself. The Polykum Board is currently incredibly small, with many people who have done this job for an extended period of time and who would like to retire now. Also the current president, Emanuele, will step down from his position at the end of the year. If there are no board members in Polykum for the next year it will get incredibly hard to print Polykum in the spring semester. And most likely we would have to stop the Polykum tradition, which would be incredibly sad.
Taking the position of president of a commission, or of VSETH in my case, isn’t just about doing a job that maybe nobody else wants to do, but it’s also a unique opportunity to learn and grow and to influence the organisation. Being president of an organisation you can influence the direction that it is taking, and you can also put emphasis on things that you want to change. It’s also a unique opportunity to learn many new skills, which come with leading a team of any size.
Therefore if you have interest in leading and influencing Polykum in the future then please reach out to the current team at redaktionsleitung@polykum.ethz.ch.
I’m hoping that this will not be my last präsikolumne in a Polykum.
I wish you a nice holiday period and good luck with the exams.
Clemens
