Association

There are more than 90 different associations in Tilburg. These association can be divided in:

• Student associations
• Study association
• Sport associations
• Cultural association
• Various

In Tilburg there are five student associations. Every student that studies at HBO or university level can become a member of a student association. In a student association, there are fraternities/sororities, year clubs and committees which you can join. A fraternity/sorority is a group of friends of about 15-25 people. Every year new people join the fraternity/sorority and every year members will graduate and become old-members in the dispute. This way you have a group of friends with students of different ages. This is also called a vertical connection. A year club is also a group of friends but this club consists of students from the same year. In some cases a year club exists for one year but there are also associations where you can stay in the year club forever. A year club is a horizontal connection.

For every student from the university or HBO there are study association. Only students from the same study can join these associations. There are (almost) no disputes and year clubs within study associations. There are mainly committees which you can join. Below is explained what a committee is.

Next to that there are more than twenty different sport association where students can become a member. There is a big hockey association, but also a badminton, tennis, soccer, swim and korfball association. Furthermore, there is a dance association, an association for training in the sports center, for cyclists and for people with a passion for climbing. For almost every sport there is an association for students, which not only focuses on practicing the sport but also on having fun with each other.

In Tilburg there are different cultural associations. Examples are: student theatre, a debate club, improvisation theatre, a pop choir and a music association. There is also a group of students that organizes Night University in Tilburg. This is an event with science, music, theatre, literature, workshops and night colleges.

There are also a lot of associations and organizations which focus on a specific purpose. For example: representing students in the university council, organizing a student dorm festival, associations that focus on ‘social entrepreneurship’ and a lot more.

Committees

In associations there are committees. A committee consists of a group of students that focus on a specific purpose. Examples are: an introduction committee (organizes activities in the first period of the academic year), camp committee, acquisition committee (looking for partnerships with organizations for the association), committee for job duties and a Dies committee (‘Dies’ is the birthday of an association). Depending on the size of associations there are several to dozens of committees within an association. The time that it takes you to work in committee varies with every committee.

Board year

You can do a board year at an association or organization. This can be full time or part time, it depends on the association. Within a board there are generally the following functions: chairman, secretary and treasurer. As a chairman you have leadership tasks that you have to perform. The secretary is among other things responsible to write the minutes (notes) at meeting and maintaining the member register. The treasurer is responsible for the finance. The time that it takes you to do a board year varies with every association/board.

Do you have more questions concerning ‘becoming active’? Please contact us!