Do-group Family Tree
During the start of every Kick-in you perhaps make one of the most important choices of your student career. You don’t just choose a fun time, but also a group of people that join you during this fun time and that can become your best friends for the rest of your (student) life. They are introduced with a few shy words by the parents, silly movies and some lame text in a booklet. Based on that information you are supposed to make the choice on which do-group to join…
Worry not, in most cases this information is sufficient. In fact, do-groups usually turn out to be a group of likeminded Electrical Engineering students that fit surprisingly well together. The mentality of these groups is passed on from parents to children, generation after generation. Hence, you are not just choosing about what you see now, but also the mentality that has been built up in the years before.
You might wonder where all of these do-groups come from. You might also wonder how it is possible for a do-group to turn 30, you could call it strong genes. One would guess that Annie might be the common ancestor of all do-groups, but there you are wrong. The Vonk editorial team dove into the archives to dig up as much do-group history as possible. All of this was compiled in an exhaustive do-group family tree:
An exhaustive family tree of the do-groups of the Bachelor Electrical Engineering from 2003 to 2019.
The tree shows that Annie is not the sole ancestor of all do-groups. In fact, three strong families can be identified. Unfortunately, Delirium did not make it into the next decade. Fortunately, the other two family-lines continued right up until now. Since then, these families have multiplied and produced a lot of offspring. Obviously, each generation of every do-group has stories of its own, but some details are worth mentioning.
A picture of Delirium 6 do-group sitting in the Educafe in 2008.
It is rather obvious, but the tree fans out as time progresses. This is directly tied to the influx of new Electrical Engineering Bachelor students, of which more than 100 started in 2019. The do-groups for all of these students have to come from somewhere, and the tree shows how they are related to the parent branches of Annie and Elco. You might be thrown off by the rainbow of colours, these represent the do-group clothing of each do-group. And yes, Annie didn’t always wear pink shirts!
Picture from 2007 of Annie 17 in the Hogekamp, that year they wore green shirts with the text “always sharp”.
In fact, you can see that besides Delirium all other do-groups had difficulties to stay consistent with their do-group cloting. But why would they, when you’re around for many years you might want to switch up your style to stay modern. There is one group that did not try to be modern. Do-group Elvis, based on the Rock and Roll legend with his stunning outfits, sported white shirts with golden stars and yes the glasses were included too. One wonders why they only have four generations…
A do-group presentation by the parents of Elvis I in 2009 in the Hogekamp.
The fall of Elvis meant that another do-group was needed to accomodate the new students. After one year of hiatus, Perry was there to fill the void. Soon thereafter another new do-group appeared: the Electrocuteers, better known by their nickname the electrocuties. One year later another appeared: No Name Yet, but their legacy was short lived.
The disaster of ‘18
After this, more do-groups slowly started to appear with a big increase in 2018. Special efforts were made to gather as many new do-groups as possible, as a large growth in new students was expected. From the Electrocuteers branch several do-groups appeared. There is also a colaboration between Annie and Lecarud–the descendant of Duracell–to form Hop Hop. Unfortunately, all of these new do-groups were canceled that year. This was caused, on the one hand, by the fact that fewer students started studying than was originally expected. Secondly, students were divided such that do-group sizes were rather large. This eliminated the need for all of these new do-groups. This sad story has also been recorded in the family tree as a commemoration of our fallen do-groups.
The year after, Hop Hop made another attempt to start a family and this time with success. This was achieved with influences from yet another do-group, Perry, making Hop Hop very culturally diverse. From the same Perry branch, another group appeared: High Potential, with fitting warning sign colours.
The bastards
Next to the strong family-lines there are also some do-groups without any seeming connection to other do-groups. These do-groups: SoepEL, BubEL and AantrekkELijk date back quite some time, because of this it is difficult to find many details. In the archives, there are sporadic pictures of people wearing actual do-group shirts and still it is difficult to make out any names. The only real evidence is a surprisingly clear picture of a very attractive do-group. Judging by the gap between these one-day-fly do-groups in 2004, there might have been more do-groups.
A rare picture of do-group AantrekkELijk from 2006 in the Hogekamp.
As the bachelor of Electrical Engineering keeps growing, there will be room for even more do-groups. If they are needed, then it would be great if another attempt were made to connect the genepools (similar ot EExcelsius) of the two strong families to create, at least genetically, the best do-group. Regardless, there are plenty of do-groups to keep the lineage alive, so look forward to many other Kick-in adventures until that time.
The Vonk has made an attempt to dig up as much history as possible, but (photo) archives are incomplete and only go back so far. If you have any improvements or additions to this overview, especially from before 2003, please contact us!
