Presidential Note

Dear Vonk reader, You may have heard, or you may have even been there, that the 90th board has made way for the amazing, new, and fresh 91st board of E.T.S.V. Scintilla. Well, fresh may not be the smartest choice of words since I am finishing this presidential note as I am sitting at the service desk in Educafé a little ‘brakjes’ from the amazing drink that happened after the general meeting. But on the other hand, the Scintilla room smells a little bit fresher again since we have mopped the floor. And looking at the color of the water that was in the bucket, I think that has not been done in ages…

While the cleaning of the floor was needed, it was just an addition to the reorganization of the Scintilla room. You may have heard that with a certain virus going around that there are restrictions on the amount of people working in the University. And sadly, also the Scintilla room must adhere to these rules. With only six people allowed to work in the room and of course keeping the one-and-a-half-meter distance rule in mind we went on the mission to find the sweet spot in the formation of tables.

The previous board already cleaned up a lot of the tables in the Scintilla room as preparation for the new air-cooling system. Which is now in place and does a good job in keeping the room cool, but this will sadly eliminate the need for the epic fan banks in the windows. It does hurt me a bit that there will be a time that the background hum will slowly become more of a memory than a reality. I find the sound on the one hand always a little bit annoying but also a sound that has more of a meditative component to it. After a little while of working the sound slowly fades to the background and becomes more of a motivation that their hard-working presence sets an example of how you are supposed to be behaving. You could put in another way and say that their work for flow is very beneficial to your flow of work. For now, I do not have to miss the sound yet because the windows need to stay open as a measure against COVID-19.

You could put in another way and say that their work for flow is very beneficial to your flow of work.

—Wouter Nijenhuis, President 91st Board E.T.S.V. Scintilla

With the soothing sounds of the fans we cleaned the tables of a little more of electronics and after some discussion found a compromise for a new work setup. We chose to put a couple of tables in a u-shaped arrangement, or if you look at it from another direction you could say they are in a n-shaped arrangement. With two people sitting at each leg and one person at the short bottom of the u, or the top of the n, we can provide a workspace for 5 people in the Scintilla room. But the keen eye of you maybe have noticed that we have a board of six people that maybe want to work in the Scintilla room all at once. But that works all out if we count the new service desk in the Educafe where one board member will sit with study materials and answers to your questions.

With one person extra allowed in the room beside the board members I hope that in the near future we can open up the balcony again and provide you with the SWIPED items you all desire. For now, I wish you the best of luck getting into your workflow (maybe buy a fan or two to help you). Stay safe and I hope to meet you one way or another during the coming year!

Dames en Heren, op de koningin, op Scintilla!