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Mitrany
General Members Meeting 3rd of June 2016
Members present: 10
Opening of the meeting: 17.30
Announcements:
-

As all members present at the meeting are Dutch, we will do the meeting in Dutch. The
minutes will be in English.
The agenda is approved.
David Shim will not be present.
The New board still needs to be chosen, therefore they will not be present during the meeting
apart from Esme, the successor of Claire as Clio representative and Claire, who will remain
part of the board.

Ella Sebamalai: We will proceed with the year report consisting out of a summary of all activities
that have taken place this year and advices for next year, which have been thoroughly discussed with
the Advisory Council. This is the result of a vision document that has been set up at the start of the
year. Second part is the financial year report.
The summary of all activities of this year can be found on the first page, including the network drinks
in Amsterdam, reunion in Brussels combined with the Clio excursion, the drinks after the Bachelor
ceremony at the van Swinderen Huys, Clio career days drinks, bachelor ceremony in January, a career
event from IB/IO where Annieke presented the research report which has been published by Mitrny,
the Mitrany Symposium. The conclusion is that it remains difficult to find people who regularly show
up at these activities, especially among the older generations of alumni. This will be discussed more in
depth under the point Membership.
Our goal with regard to these activities as been to reach alumni from different generations and
different working disciplines. Even though this has worked out very well during the symposium, this
issue continues to be a structural problem for Mitrany. This can be explained by the fact that Mitrany
is run from Groningen.
It remains important to organize activities in the main cities in the Randstad. Apart from the Hague,
Mitrany has organized activities in each of the big cities this year. While we wanted to organize todays
General Members Meeting in The Hague, the statutes say explicitly that the General Members meeting
must take place in the City where the association was established.
Arnold Bloem: Since it is very expensive to change the statutes, Mitrany should take a look at the
Bylaws in order to create more flexibility for the board with regard to the location of the General
Members Meeting.
Ella Sebamalai: Thank you for your advice. Even though the number of visitors have been
disappointing, we will present a PR plan later on.

PR and Communication
Annieke Mossel: In general, this years PR went well, meaning that for each activity posters have
been made which have been spread online and at the IR/IO department. Also, a lot of promotion via

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Social Media has been done and for some activities, a targeted informative email has been spread
which has been experienced as very positive.
In order to make Mitrany more known, a banner has been made which can be used as a general
promotion tool for Mitrany at different activities, presentations and ceremonies.
This year, we have created a very clear and structured promotion schedule responding the size of the
activities. Two new strategies have been used this year. Firstly, we have used layered promotion before
the symposium by giving away small pieces of information at each time. Secondly, we made use of
targeted promotion by making a regional selection of alumni for example for the drinks in Utrecht,
Amsterdam and Brussels.
Also, Mitrany has published the research report written in cooperation with the IR/IO department
about alumnis career path and presented this during the second Years mentor meeting. Also, every
two months, an update will be published on the website with new publications by the department.
There are two advices that will be passed on to the next board. The first one is the creation of focus
groups in the big cities in order to make alumni enthousiastic for activities in their city, specifically for
small scale activities. The second advice is to start on a newsletter as emails appear to be more effective
than promotion on social media. We advise to send a newsletter once every two months, in order to be
able to gather enough material, such as research output by the department, personal stories by alumni
or department members, drinks and activities. A template for the newsletter has already been made.
Arnold Bloem: Try to make the newsletter as informative as possible and do not send it out more
often than once every two months.
Annieke Mossel: Thank you for your advice. The last thing that should be addressed is that the flyer
which is handed out during the graduation should be looked into. The flyer could be made more
attractive, for example by adding a recommendation by a department member.
Tim Huiskes: I have been following the promotion of the activities by Mitrany on social media and I
have been willing to visit some of them. Unfortunately, I have not been able to attend any of these
activities due to a full agenda. I believe this might be a problem that more alumni are experiencing.
Annieke Mossel: The fact that alumni have full agendas is the immediate reason why we set up a
strict promotion schedule this year which indicates when the promotion for different activities should
start. This will also be a framework for the upcoming years. It is important to start of promotion on
time, since alumni are not as flexible as students.
Arnold Bloem: I agree with Tim. I have noticed the layered promotion before the Mitrany
Symposium, which was good to see. Unfortunately, I heard that participant numbers were still
unsatisfactory due to the high level of no-show.
Annieke Mossel: This was indeed a problem as we had a high number of sign-ups. We have
considered asking a participation fee but this
Arnold Bloem: I would advise to set up a no-show fee for these kinds of activities, in order to
encourage people to either show up, or to officially cancel their sign-up. This is a common thing to do
for bigger event, where they ask 50 up to 200 euros for no-show. This could be an option for Mitrany
as you can cover the costs you make when people do not show up.
Ella Sebamalai: Thank you for your advice. This is an option we havent considered before but it
could be a good option to try out and see if it works. We will certainly pass it on to the next board.
Emi Vischer: Have you considered a reason why people have signed up but did not come?

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Roos Venema: We have thought about it. Some people signed up but cancelled on the day of the
event, other people did not come without any notice while we send a few reminders on beforehand. It
might have been the good weather or the fact that it was organized on a Friday. Out of about 40 signups, only 20 showed up.
Emi Visser: There seems to be a large different between the activities that were organized last year,
where participant numbers reached up to 30. Would you advise not to organize a symposium again?
Ella Sebamalai: There is a large discrepancy between the sign-ups and the people who actually
showed up. As they did not informed us, the reasons why some people did not come remain unclear.
However, a no-show fee might solve this problem. However, we would definitely advise to organize a
symposium again next year.
Emi Visser: I do not agree. A large part of the budget is being used for the Symposium, yet
participant numbers are low. These kinds of activities as lectures or symposia are being offered to
alumni all the time via their work or friends.
Ella Sebamalai: We, as well as the Advisory Council, would recommend to keep organizing an
annual symposium but maybe rather in the form of a reunion or workshop in order to make it both
social and informative.
Emi Visser: Do focus on more drinks in the different cities. This year, there were no drinks organized
in The Hague while The Hague can be seen the hotspot for alumni. Therefore
Ella Sebamalai: We agree that we should keep the financial aspect in mind, but since Alumni
indicated that they would like to see a combination of both social and informative activities, we would
advise to continue to organize the symposium
Marieke van der Westen: We have also seen that the reactions after the symposium were really
different from the reactions after the drinks. People were very positively surprised and inclined to tell
their friends about it.
Claire Defossez: Also, I would not say that the participant numbers would have been much higher if
the same event would have been organized in The Hague instead of Amsterdam.
Ella Sebamalai: Another reason why we decided to organize the symposium in The Hague is a very
pragmatic one, namely that most of the speakers came from Amsterdam.
Emi Visser: Do you reckon that the symposium was a success? Are you satisfied with the outcome?
Ella Sebamalai: We did not set a quotum in advance. The success is not only dependent on the
number of participants but also on the overall ambiance which was very inspiring, and the reactions
which were more than positive. I think the whole board would agree to say that the Symposium has
been a great success.
Arnold Bloem: I understand that the Board wants to convey the message to the next board to change
the content of the symposium to make it more attractive for alumni.
Claire Defossez: We could say these kinds of activities are a test, as we want to find out which ones
are received the most positive by alumni and continue with those activities which are well received.
Arnold Bloem: Even though big, well-known names attract a lot more visitors to these kinds of
events, I would prefer people to come for the content of an activity, rather than for the names.
Ella Sebamalai: I agree, but nevertheless the participant numbers were low despite the big names.
Jan van Betten is senior in business and sustainability and one of our own alumni who is supply chain
manager at Tonys Chocoloney.

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Tim Huiskes: I agree that names, especially such as Tonys Chocolonely, in general work incredibly
well to attract visitors. However, this was not the reason for me to visit the symposium. I think that we
can conclude from the large amount of sign-ups that there is a lot of interest for these kinds of
activities, but we should not make it too complicated. It could have been the weather or the busy
schedules why people did not show up. However, we see a trend nowadays that symposia and
workshops are being broadcasted online. This could be a way for alumni to see what it was about and
what they missed. Also, it is a way for Mitrany to promote the upcoming symposium.
Annieke Mossel: We made use of a livesteam on Twitter via Periscope. Unfortunately, due to some
technical problems, we havent been able to broadcast all of it and people cannot watch it back. This
was also because we have an unpaid account on Periscope.
Emi Visser: Mitrany needs to keep in mind that its main service is providing a network. If it appears
that visitor numbers are low again at the next symposium, it cannot be ignored and it needs to have
consequences.
Ella Sebamalai: I agree, however, we have to remember that Mitrany has only been established quite
recently. During a meeting with a staff person in charge of alumni associations, it became clear that
alumni associations have to exist at least for 5 years in order to be able to function fully independently.
Mitrany does not have a permanent staff and members do not pay a fee so everything is very low key. If
the network will grow in size and if there is more support from the university in the form of financial
support, I believe that Mitrany will be more able to make use of its network for activities. If there are
still too few participants after that point, Mitrany seriously needs to think about the consequences.
Tim Huiskes: I think we should not intend to criticize this years policy, but merely to give advices
for the upcoming year. I think recently graduated alumni who know about the Mitrany drinks, just
moved to The Hague and find out that this year, no drinks are organized in The Hague, might feel
disappointed. Therefore, some continuity is very important.
Arnold Bloem: Just like the 3rd Tuesday of September is very important in Dutch politics, Mitrany
should have set dates during the year where the drinks take place so members can anticipate.
Mail account and archive
Roos Venema: The mail account is being checked regularly and all emails are being responded to as
soon as possible. I would advise my successor to reorganize the mailbox since there are still many old
spam emails, to move important email to an external drive in order to make it easier to find them back
and to start the year with an empty mailbox. Also, try to work more with labels.
I have put some important documents from the establishment of Mitrany on the Drive, so there are
easy to access for the board.
As our commissioner database moved abroad, I took over the task of maintaining the database. We
also advise to combine these positions for the next years as it did not costs a lot of extra work. On
average, Mitrany receives about 1 new membership application each week. After the Mitrany
symposium, we received a lot of new applications as the symposium was open to members and nonmembers.
When I changed the database to alphabetical order, it became clear that many names were in there two
times, while others, who did get an confirmation email, were not in there at all. I therefore plan to
clean out the database in the summer. The estimation is that Mitrany has currently about 900
members.
Arnold Bloem: How do you assure that you have the right contact details of all alumni?

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Roos Venema: We have opened a new option on the website where alumni can fill in a form to
change their contact details, employment position or city. We have actively promoted this amongst
alumni and so far, the form has been used a few times. This option will have to be promoted again
more regularly in the next year. Also, when sending out emails to our alumni, we receive a lot delivery
failure messages which can be used to look up alumni on social media and inform them about this.
Ella Sebamalai: We found it remarkable that there are so many flaws in the database with regard to
the contact details and the amount of members. Fortunately, we set up a system to correct these flaws.
There was a large discrepancy between the number in the last year report and the actual amount of
members. Our estimation is that the real amount of members lies between 800 and 900.
Tim Huiskes: I want to give my compliments about how you have and how you are planning to solve
this problem. The database is virtually the foundation of your association.
Annieke Mossel: With regard to the database, I am going to meet up with Henny de Boer from the
department to compare the Mitrany database and the archives with graduates from the department in
order to find people who are no member yet and invite them to sign up.
Ella Sebamalai: We have had very good contact with Henny de Boer during the past year. She is very
willing to meet up and dive into the databases and archives from the department with us.
Unfortunately, this is a time consuming task and it was not easy to find a date for it. However, we have
found a date now, which is great as Henny the Boer is the institutional memory of the department.
Arnold Bloem: She was and she is.
Ella Sebamalai: She knows every name of each year. Call a name, and she remembers them. At the
symposium, there were some people wondering how she was and surprised that she was still working
at the department. I think many people would really like to hear from her. Therefore, we could ask her
to write a small piece for in the newsletter. We were certainly pass that advice on to the next board.
Emi Visser: Well done on the database. I was wondering what the alternative methods attract
members, as described in the year report, include?
Roos Venema: We have noticed that recent graduates are not difficult to reach as they usually
subscribe at the graduation ceremonies. The alumni who graduated before 2005 are harder to reach.
In order to reach these alumni, we have placed an advertisement in Broerstraat 5, the Alumni
magazine of the RUG. Also, I will meet up with Bob Deen, who is also an alumni, to brainstorm about
ideas to reach more alumni from older generations.
Ella Sebamalai: This is actually the most effective way to reach older alumni which we cannot reach
by social media. By appointing alumni ambassadors from different generations and creating focus
groups, we can reach out to a much wider range of alumni.
Arnold Bloem: You have to remember that if someone visits e.g. the symposium and does not meet
anyone from his own generation, the chances are bigger that he will not come the next time. People do
not only come for the content but most importantly, to meet up with old friends from their student
time.

Cooperation with Clio

Claire Defossez: Similar to last year, Mitrany organized a few events in cooperation with Clio. The
first one this year was the Career Days in Utrecht, were students could meet up with Mitrany alumni
afterwards at the drinks. Unfortunately, the event did not go through as it took place in the exam
period. As every year, we organized drinks in Brussels in combination the Brussels excursion by Clio.
At both events, the amount of alumni was not satisfactory. We communicated this with the Advisory

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Council, and concluded that Clio might have a more active role in this, especially with regard to the
name of the activities. Some activities could be named Clio Reunion e.g. in order for younger alumni to
recognize the event. Additionally, we could send an email to all old Clio board members before an
event to encourage them to spread the word. We did this before the Mitrany symposium which has
worked out quite well. We advise to continue this more personal approach. As the cooperation between
Mitrany and Clio is very useful for both parties, we strongly advise to continue this. Both parties can
make use of each others network, in which Clio could have a more active role to promote Mitrany.
Emi Visser: During the first GMM, the advice of the Advisory Council was to emphasize the
difference between Clio and Mitrany. Have you thought about that? With regard to the emails to old
board members of Clio, keep in mind that people might experience an overload when they receive
emails as an old board member and as a Mitrany member.
Claire Defossez: We have spoken about that, but we agreed that we should try it in another way. At
the event itself, we can explain the difference but we want to use the name to attract people to the
event.
Ella Sebamalai: During the events we organized with Clio, both logos were used in order to indicate
that they are both related to the event, but not the same.
Arnold Bloem: I also think that it is very clear that there is a difference: Clio is for students and
Mitrany for Alumni.
Emi Visser: Some alumni I speak with in The Hague cant really tell the difference between Clio and
Mitrany.
Ella Sebamalai: I understand your point. It is a fact that the name Clio still speaks to wider public
than Mitrany, at least for the upcoming five years.
Claire Defossez: That is why we want to use Clios name now until Mitrany has become known
enough. Right now, the Clio network is a very useful tool for Mitrany. With regard to the double
emails, we will make sure this will not happen again.
Tim Huiskes: Alumni associations are a big subject nowadays in the RUG. Most career related
activities have been transferred to NEXT. As the university had unsatisfactory scores with regard to
career support, they want to offer more career related activities which were previously offered by
study- and alumni associations. The RUG also uses the names of study associations to promote
activities. Even though this is a controversial subject among study associations, Mitrany also needs
Clio to promote its activities. More support from the department is necessary to maintain Mitrany
without the help of the study association, but as they do not offer sufficient resources and they want to
decrease the funds even more, Mitrany needs the help and the name of Clio.
Emi Visser: I want to add that there are also people who do not have a positive feeling about Clio, so
it might not always have the desired effect to use Clios name.
Claire Defossez: We will primarily use Clios name to reach old active members and board members.
Marieke: The other option is to use the name of IR/IO reunion, in order to indicate that it is not only
for old Clio members.
Tim Huiskes: It is also very good to notice that the cooperation with SIB has intensified.
Ella Sebamalai: Yes, they reminded us that Bob Deen will come to speak in Groningen.
Roos Venema: Bob Deen gave a lecture at SIB. He was also willing to speak to students about career
perspectives, which is interesting but most of the Mitrany members already have jobs and might not be

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interested in this. Therefore, the idea was put forward to the department. However, we will still have a
private meeting with him to speak about his view on alumni associations and his ideas.
Emi Visser: It can be useful however for Mitrany to attach its name to various professional events in
Groningen so people will recognize the name later on.
Ella Sebamalai: Unfortunately, most professional events in Groningen target students and the
activities are generally not attractive for alumni. It is however great to hear that SIB wants to intensify
the cooperation with Mitrany.
Tim Huiskes: It might not be interesting for alumni to attend these activities, but Mitrany could
become a platform to offer a summary of a lecture like this. Even though the information about career
prospects might not be relevant for alumni, they might still be interested in the subject.
Ella Sebamalai: I think that we have to focus specifically on activities that are actually relevant for
alumni. Career lectures are not a part of that, as we agreed to with the Advisory Council.
Charles Drapers: Yesterday, our president Mark Rutte posted something on Twitter about one of
our alumni. He was called one of the most successful start-ups as he started with a small company and
now, he has about 70 employees. Things like this do not often happen.
Ella Sebamalai: A problem is that it is hard to keep track of the alumni that are very successful in
their business.
Charles Drapers: There are many alumni who are very successful but they dont speak about the fact
that they studied IR/IO.
Tim Huiskes: I have to leave, but I would like to mention that I would advise you to protest against
the decision of the department to lower the funds for Mitrany.
Finances and acquisition
Marieke van der Westen: As in the previous year, the department covered this years costs that
were made by Mitrany. The education coordinator has changed from Wim Slik to Sanna Buurke, which
has been experienced as positive. The cooperation with her went very well. However, in April, we
received the news that the department is in deficit, which means that there will be a cut in the funds
for Mitrany as well. She proposed that this year, we will receive 100% of last years budget, the year
after 75% and the year after, we will receive 50% and so on. She mentioned to look into the Ubbo
Emmius fund for alumni associations to receive more more.
Arnold Bloem: Do you have any authority to defend your position, as this plan was forced upon you
by the department?
Marieke van der Westen: No, because it concerns overall budget cuts by the department and we
dont have a say in this. We discussed with the board how to proceed and what to advice for next year.
Firstly, we want to introduce Friends of Mitrany. Members can choose to donate money and to thank
them, Mitrany could give them an annual present. Secondly, we want to extend the position of
treasurer with the task of acquisition. It might be difficult, but still possible to receive acquisition
money for Mitrany. Thirdly, we discussed the option to ask for a membership fee. However, we think
Mitrany is too young and the network is yet too small to ask for a fee. Charles indicated that it might be
justifiable to ask for a fee if we make personal details insightful for others. There are a few problems,
for example the alternative of LinkedIn. Secondly, privacy laws could be an issue in this. Alumni will
actively have to agree to publish their details.
Arnold Bloem: In order to set this up, you could ask the help of the faculty.

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Ella Sebamalai: The question is whether alumni would be willing to pay for a service that is already
offered by other online platforms such as LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, you can search very specifically and
growing
Arnold Bloem: I think that, with the help of the faculty, you could come to an agreement with regard
to the info which can be made public.
Ella Sebamalai: What kind of info, which cannot be found online, can be published by the faculty?
Arnold Bloem: Things such as theses, research material and publications. I would be very eager to
read the graduation thesis of somebody who studied the same discipline as me.
Roos Venema: We will face competition from thesis platforms where you can find these things.
Claire: The combination of personal data and research data could be interesting for alumni.
Emi Visser: Are you convinced that other alumni might be interested in this? If all this information
can be found online for free, why would an alumni pay for it?
Ella Sebamalai: University staff do get a lot of questions from alumni if they have contact details of
people who have a specialization in a certain research field, e.g. water management or law. Alumni
associations could facilitate this search for people who are active in a certain field.
Roos Venema: It is a very complicated process to get permission from all alumni to participate and
agree to this.
(..): Do we have the right software to facilitate this?
Marieke van de Westen: We will need an extended version from what we have now, but it is
possible.
Ella Sebamalai: There are possibilities, also by Wordpress or a premium account from the
University. The costs of this are around 2000 euros. Above that, there will be costs for the maintained
and if there are technical issues.
Roos Venema: We could ask the university to support us in this, since they also have an interest in
the information provision. If they want to get access to the data we have, we can demand their
financial support to set
Emi Visser: Make sure not to give up to push them in that direction. If the university needs Mitrany,
they cannot continuously deny you the money to develop Mitrany.
Arnold Bloem: Maybe somebody from the Advisory Council would be willing to take part to one of
these conversations with the department board.
Emi Visser: Talk to someone who has a lot of authority in the department, such as Jaap de Wilde.
Ella Sebamalai: This is not an issue that is only touching our department. The budget cuts are very
substantial and affect all departments and therefore all alumni associations. We should therefore not
yet make a decision with regard to the membership fee but wait for a period with somewhat more
stability for the faculty, for example in 5 years.
Emi Visser: What is the policy of the faculty with regard to alumni associations?
Ella Sebamalai: The faculty policy is that alumni need to be involved in the advisory council, which
is all they do for career support. Also, they want to support alumni associations but IR/IO is a
forerunner with regard to that. Together with Ubbo Emmius, we are the only alumni association in the
Faculty of Arts.

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Charles Drapers: I would radically change the way things are done. For example, I have recently
spoken with the new chairman of the Ubbo Emmius fund, who organized drinks in Hongkong for
alumni from Groningen. He got the chance to talk and ask people to donate to the Ubbo Emmius
Fund. Mitrany should try to obtain a similar position. Ubbo Emmius has a new chairman at the
moment. The department can afford to ignore the interests of Mitrany, but Ubbo Emmius cannot. If
the faculty does not have interest in its alumni, we should find another party which can be of help.
Goodwill is important in this.

Board and Positions

Ella Sebamalai: The following part is a result of meetings with the Mitrany board and the
department. Last year, we have had one chairman in the board, an alumni, which was me, there was
one department member, which was David Shim who could not be present tonight and five students of
IR/IO. According to the statutes, at least one board member should be an alumni. We want to increase
this amount for the coming years. We have a few suggestions to combine certain positions in the
board. Firstly, the department member of the board could automatically be the chairman. The primary
reason for this is that department members get paid for this work, and as a member of the department,
they can have more influence than an outsider. Secondly, we would like to appoint a Commissioner of
External Affairs, who is responsible for the focus groups and the alumni ambassadors. This person will
be in charge of maintaining contact with alumni in the Netherlands or elsewhere in Europe and
expanding the network. The position of treasurer will be extended with the task of acquisition, partially
due to the financial position of the faculty. The Clio Representative and the PR Commissioner will
remain the same. Both the department and members with whom we discussed out plans were positive
about them.
Emi Visser: I think it is very good to change the division of the positions in the board. It could even
be smart to move Mitrany to the Randstad and work from there. I do have a big problem with the
combination of staff member and chairman. At the time, I have made sure that these positions were
separate. I think it is undemocratic to make the position of chairman dependent of the department,
while Mitrany wants to distinguish itself from the department. Secondly, Mitrany has always been seen
as a side issue, and for some it was less than a part-time board. This is problematic because Mitrany
can only work if enough people contribute a sufficient amount of effort. Maybe for the next Board, you
could put more emphasis on the fact that it is a part-time board which takes at least one day a week.
Roos Venema: I think it is hard to find an alumni who has time to devote one per week to Mitrany.
Perople have a commitment to their job as well. A student would be willing to do this though.
Ella Sebamalai: It is hard to find people who are willing to do that while Mitrany is not yet very
known.
Arnold Bloem: People who might be interested to do this, are often already involved in other board
as well and wont be able to find a whole day to spend on Mitrany.
Emi Visser: I think that the attitude with regard to Mitrany should change. People want to do the
Board, only if it does not take too much time. If you say that it will only take three hours per week,
people will never be willing to do more than that.
Ella Sebamalai: I agree that it would be best to find people who can afford to put a lot of time in
Mitrany, but we have a lot of constraints, especially the fact that the department will cut our funds. But
this contributed to the suggestion to appoint someone who is paid for by the department to do this.
This person will be able to have more influence with regard to the departments budget.
Emi Visser: I think this is not the way to do it. You have to change your attitude with regard to the
department and make sure to

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Ella Sebamalai: The point is that, at the moment, the staff member in the Mitrany board does not
have any responsibility to plan meetings or to attend those. If the department member would have
more responsibility, the relationship with the department will be closer. The last couple of years, we
have experienced that the department member does not have the time to fulfill his task to represent
Mitrany at the department. We believe that the appointment of a department member as chairman will
lead to more commitment from the department. We do want to make sure that this person also
completed the study IR/IO. We suggest to try this out for one or two years in order to see what kind of
influence this has on the Mitrany.
Emi Visser: This will not be the solution to the problem. Both Jaap de Wilde and Nienke de Deugd
are very enthusiastic about Mitrany. These are the people you need to influence the department, but
that is possible without being the chairman.
Ella Sebamalai: We have looked into the possibility to give the chairman position to someone who
holds a professorship, but they are often too occupied. The same goes for the names that you put
forward. Most people have already a coordinator task within the department. There are only a few
people left, about 18, who work and the department and have completed IR/IO. Unfortunately, people
who have a professorship cannot afford to put this time into Mitrany, due to conferences and
sabbaticals, which is a big problem since these people who also need to be deeply involved with
Charles Drapers: I understand this is a really striking problem. We are present here with eight
people for an annual members meeting, while the study has about 1000 graduates. I think that this is a
great problem. I traveled quite some kilometers to be present here. I have to conclude that something
is fundamentally wrong with this association.
Arnold Bloem: On the other hand, if there are many members at a General Members Meeting,
something might also be wrong.
(Laughter)
Charles Drapers: We have to reconsider what we stand for. To come back to the discussion about
board positions, there is also something wrong at the department. There are 60 department members.
If only 6% would show up at the meeting tonight, there would be 6 department members here but I see
none. That means that the whole department is not interested in Mitrany or their alumni.
Arnold Bloem: I agree and that surprises me.
Charles Drapers: This is about priorities. I have attended another meeting in Groningen last week
where there were 200 people and it was made into very attractive event. This indicates that there are
students who are actually motivated to set this up, but this lacks at Mitrany.
Arnold Bloem: As teacher at IR/IO, you should be highly interested in your study direction and,
apart from showing up at the General Members Meeting, at least show some interest in Mitrany.
Ella Sebamalai: Mitrany is often seen as a side-business for the department. Mitrany needs to give
explain the Alumni report of organize the graduation drinks, but there is not a real interest.
Arnold Bloem: There is a striking arrogance from the department that they are not interested in
their Alumni. Therefore, you need to take a stance against the faculty.
Ella Sebamalai: We must do that. But we have to return to the discussion about the board positions.
Emi Visser: If they main point is to change the relationship with the department, I think it would
make a bigger difference to pick an enthusiastic alumni as chairman than to appoint a department
member. Therefore, pick a motivated alumni as chairman.

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Ella Sebamalai: I see your point and we will not take this decision if it is against the consent of the
GMM.
Roos Venema: With regard to the alumni report, the department is very interested in this and wants
us to write another report within a couple of years.
Emi Vissers: The relationship with the department is therefore very remarkable.
Arnold Bloem: The appointment of a department member as chairman is, in my opinion, not the
best solution. () It will also be costly to change the statutes.
Ella Sebamalai: The statutes will not be changed fortunately, but we will definitely not decide this
without the approval of the GMM.
(Short break)
Emi Visser: On the way here, I was thinking that it might be wise to appoint a motivated alumni and
pick a master student who actually executes the task. This master student will effectively be vicepresident, which looks nice on their CV and is actually fun to do.
Roos Venema: From own experience, I can tell that especially the first months of the master are very
tough and time consuming. It might therefore might not be the best choice to appoint a master
student.
Ella Sebamalai: Concluding from this, I think we need to start the conversation again with the
department about the interests and the cooperation.
Arnold Bloem: Again, do ask someone from the Advisory Council to join this discussion with the
department.
Ella Sebamalai: We will certainly do that and we might ask one or two alumni to join as well to put
some extra weight to the discussion.

Financial Report
Marieke Van der Westen: This year we changed the bank account. Last year, we used Rabobank
but as the costs were quite high, we made the switch to SNS Bank. Sanna Buurke told me that we were
sometimes in deficit last year, so she made sure that the costs for one year were transferred to the
account already in order to prevent this from happening. In the report you can read the budget and the
profit and loss statement according to the activities. The symposium has been the most expensive
event, but it could not anymore be part of the financial year as it ends in March and the event was in
May. We therefore suggest that the financial year should start and end with the board year, so from the
1st of September to the 31st of August. However, in the statutes it says that the financial year runs from
the 1st of January to the 31st of December. Previous board have therefore already derived from this.
With the approval of the GMM, we want to change the financial year officially to the 1 st of September to
the 1st of January.
Arnold Bloem: What are the costs of such a change in statutes?
Emi Visser: It is very costly, about 300 euros. I would say that it should not really matter. Everything
that happened within this year you can present in the year report, and things that fall outside of the
financial year, you can write down as expected costs.
Marieke van der Westen: It would however be nice to have one responsible treasurer for each
financial year.

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Ella Sebamalai: We can do a voting procedure and then we will have a look at the costs. If those are
too high, we will find another way. We can do the change together with the GMM locations.
Roos Venema: According to the statutes, the GMM now needs to take place in Groningen. If you
would organize this in The Hague and combine it with drinks, it would attract more alumni.
Ella Sebamalai: We would therefore change the location of the GMM and the
Arnold Bloem: So you want to change the board year from an actual year starting in January, to an
academic year starting in September. I see why that would make sense for a students organization but
not so much for an alumni organization.
Ella Sebamalai: This is because of the summer holidays. From June to August or even September, it
does not make sense to organize activities for alumni as there turn up would be very low.
Arnold Bloem: I want to make a general remark. () If we see costs that need to be made, we need
more responsibility from the faculty.
Emi Visser: A few years ago, the subject alumni was a really big thing within the faculty.
Ella Sebamalai: That is true. This was because of the fact that the faculty wanted to create a link with
the labor market.
Arnold Bloem: I have a practical question. If a department member would have to take up the task
of chairman, what would be the amount of time that this person needs to spend on Mitrany?
Ella Sebamalai: On paper, 16 hours. The FTEs are something like 0,01. According to the statutes,
we need to involve a staff member in the board and as it is already hard to find departmental support, I
think this
Emi Visser: I would ask the department what their idea behind this is.
Ella Sebamalai: Actually, the work for Mitrany is supposed to be a daily, standardized task of the
department member assigned as Mitrany representative. It should not take extra time next to daily
business. We could ask the department whether the amount of money that is assigned to the staff
member to become a part of the Mitrany board can be added to the budget for Alumni, but I dont
think this will solve anything.
Arnold Bloem: If there is in general no real interest from the department, I dont see why a
department member should still be a part of the board.
Ella Sebamalai: It is a statutory issue.
Charles Drapers: You cannot force anything upon the department.
Emi Visser: I think this construction is not ideal but necessary. If the department does not show
interest, you need this involvement of a staff member in order to still keep the links. Otherwise, the
department and Mitrany will grow apart.
Roos Venema: There are actually teachers who are very much involved in their students and who
would definitely be interested in the career paths of the students. They might just not know enough
about Mitrany and what Mitrany does.
Emi Visser: I think there is definitely support from the department. For example, Jan van der Harst
also addressed it to his students in class. We need this involvement from the department and we need
to make the teachers enthusiastic.

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Closing
Charles Drapers: With regard to the voting procedure, you can change the Rules of Procedure but
the text needs to be approved by the GMM. Only the finances need to be approved. The amount of ()
will be covered by the faculty?
Marieke van der Westen: Yes.
Charles Drapers: I propose to approve the profit and loss statement.
The profit and loss statement is approved
Ella Sebamalai: With regard to the next board, one of our current board members will take up the
task of secretary/vice chairman. The open positions are described in the year report. With regard to
the staff member as chairman position, we can conclude from this GMM that this will not happen.
Therefore, the positions are chairman, staff member, secretary, commissioner external affairs, Clio
representative and commissioner PR. The handover will happen by during the summer by personal
contact with our successors. They will therefore not be hammered in during the next GMM.
Charles Drapers: I understand that there are different candidates for the position of secretary. How
will you make a decision?
Ella Sebamalai: By interview. The first letters have been received last week. Also, the position of Clio
representative is already set. Are there any other questions?
Esmee Raamakers: If you would want to have more alumni in the board, would this mean there
would be new positions in the board?
Claire Defossez: The current positions will hopefully be taken up by alumni.
Ella Sebamalai: With regard to the Advisory Council, these positions will remain the same until
somebody denounces. If there are no other questions, I would hereby like to close the meeting.
End of meeting: 19.14

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