Committees
What is a committee?
A student association cannot operate without it’s committees and the SPIL is no different. The SPIL offers the opportunity to experience new things by participating in committees. This will give you the option to become active in whatever area you might find interesting. There isn’t only the opportunity to organize activities, one could experience writing for a semi-scientific magazine or even work in an international atmosphere. Here you can find out which committees there are, what those committees do and who are in these committees.
Committees are a key part of the operation of any student association, and the SPIL is no different. The committees that the SPIL offers can give you the opportunity to experience something completely new, or participate in an area that you are already passionate about. There is also variety of ways that you can participate in your area of interest, from organising activities and events, to writing for a magazine, to working as part of an international group. As you can see committees encompass a wide range of possibilities for ways students to get involved. Here you can find out what committees are provided, what they do, and how to join a committee.
Why participate in a committee?
It is important to develop your academic skills during your studies, it is also crucially important to acquire professional skills as well. This is where the SPIL can provide extra-curricular opportunities to gain knowledge and experience in a variety of skills outside of the academic. For students of Political Science and Political Science – International Relations and Organizations the SPIL is the ideal environment to develop these extracurricular skills through participating in a committee.
What does committee membership consist of?
The SPIL is an association which is sustained by the contributions of students. The day-to-day tasks of the association are performed by the board, a group of seven students. The board also works in tandem with committees. These committees organize activities, social events, study trips and write articles for DEBAT, the association magazine. Committees are typically chaired by a committee chair and also have a secretary, treasurer and general members.
How do I join a committee?
At the beginning of each school year the board sets up interview rounds during which students can apply for a position in a committee. Each board member decides upon his or her own interview procedure for the committees which they’ll be guiding that year. Normally this will take the form of an application letter or an interview.
The applications are now open! You can sign up via this link
The audit committee is a special committee that is assigned by the general assembly. It is assigned every year in September during the general assembly in which the old board gets replaced with the new one. The main difference between this committee and the others is that the audit committee doesn’t organize any actual activities. The responsibilities of the audit committee is written down in the statutes of the SPIL, but to summarize: this committee checks the work of the finance commissioner and advises the general assembly. Two weeks before the half year general assembly the audit committee checks the income statement, the cash flow and the balance on accounting accuracy. The audit committee then provides advice to the general assembly about the performance of the finance commissioner.
Committee members
Jurgen van der Zwet
Jette Boonstra
The Acquisitions Committee is responsible for creating and maintaining connections with organisations outsite of the SPIL. The SPIL is composed of over a thousand students and maintains multiple means of promotion (the monthly newsletter, DEBAT, social media). Because of this, SPIL is an attractive opportunities for companies and organisations from a variety of sectors. The Acquisitions Committee tries to discover new possibilities to cooperate with these companies and organisations in order to bring the benefits or expertise tha the groups offer and vice versa. They also bring out two merchandise items per year. Previously we have seen a SPIL water bottle, a SPIL umbrella, a SPIL bicycle package and the SPIL card holder.
Commissioner
Margot Ammerlaan
Committee Members
Sybrich Zeinstra
Arno Vos
Amy Steinbacher
Nienke Uittenhout
Zsombor Györfi-Tóth
Le Nguyen Khan
This Committee organises the yearly excursion to Brussels, which has beek taking place for as long as our SPIL-memory goes back. During this 2-day trip, excursions are organised such as a visit to the EU commission, hearing about the World Bank, meeting with members of a think thank and talking to delegates of the Dutch Embassy in Brussels. This trip is one of the cornerstones of the SPIL calendar!
Commissioner
Anna Gruber
Committee Members
Evaelle Dhainaut
Nefeli Vonno
Karolina Panko
Csongor Gyorivanyi
Mats Bouman
The Congress Committee is responsible for attending or organizing a congress. It has two options, either it organizes the SPIL congress in Leiden or The Hague (as has been done in the past two years), or whether it coordinates a trip to visit a congress abroad. The Congress has to be political science related but the spectrum of the subject that can be covered is pretty large. This year, we chose migration as the main focus and we explore its different perspective such as history, law, advocacy, global governance, gender studies and environment.
Commissioner
Anna Gruber
Committee members
Salome de Bona
Olga Churilina
Rosie Reed
Mathilda Minakova
Camila Cecconi
The association has its own quarterly magazine, ‘DEBAT’. This political science magazine is released four times per year and, most importantly is written ‘for’ and ‘by’ students. On top of that, DEBAT also has it’s own website, on which weekly articles are published. The magazine is composed of a variety of articles, from opinion-pieces to columns to book reviews. It also features regular interviews with high-profile people in the acadmic or political world. The magazine also keeps you up-to-date on the various committee activities through articles written by the committee members themselves. DEBAT offers the ideal opportunity for SPIL members to improve their writing and those that may have journalistic ambitions. By writing articles, taking interviews and editing, committee members can gain the experience required for such ambitions.
Commissioner
Marvin Lamers
Committee members
Jelle Kooij
Georgia Canura
Lyuba Nicheva
Thirze Wiegers
Jokin Karlosena
Ana Dadu
Daria Aron
Gijs Verhoeff
Soley Aspelund
Benedek Sipocz
Rosie Reed
Rik Manuel
Kristina Vidrova
Sjors de Natris
Simen Yazdan
Philip Hilen
Ines Freyre
Elliot Underhill
Valentina Petrucci
Joost Glas
Veerle van Onzenoort
Alexander Kaslyovski
Alexia Teodora Matei
Johanna Welk
Ruben Stift
Rokus Hoogendoorn
Olivier Kik
Livi van Overdam
The Dies Committee is the committee that organises all the activities in the week of November 8. This in honour of the birthday of the SPIL! This year we will be celbrating our 41st birthday. In may you can sign up to be in the Dies committee of next year.
Commissioner
Annabelle Jung
Committee members
Yesim Benli
Sheno Djamshidi
Niels Bosman
Noor Stuijt
Gijs Verhoeff
Dante Renes
The Education Committee, chaired by the commissioner of Education & Politics, helps the students of Political Science – International Relations and organisations in making sure that they receive satisfactory education throughout the duration of their course. One of the ways it does this is by ensuring that the student book sale is carried out competently and without issues. Due to the fact that this book sale happens online, it can be managed solely by the commissioner. The whole committee will focus mostly on the evalutaiton of the bachelor courses. These findings will then be forwarded to the department of Political Science. Furthermore the committee organises education related trainings and career prospective events.
Commissioner
Elena van der Klok
Committee member
Puck Oldebergs
Pieter Mauritz
Clara Kretschmar
Alexandra Drugescu Radulescu
Vera van Klink
Diana Chaban
The Excursions Committee organises formal excursions. Examples are the yearly excursions to the Parliament (Tweede Kamer) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an Embassy hop (including the Embassy of Austria, Brazil and Mexico), Amnesty International and visits to the ICC and the Peace Palace. This is a great way to get students involved with their field of studies outside of the university!
Commissioner
Elena van der Klok
Committee member
Noor Stuijt
Ahn Linh
Luna van Tol
Björn Kühn
Nienke Uittenhout
Rokus Hogendoorn
Thomas Meijer
Contact
Committee.excursions@spilplaats.nl
This committee organises all the parties, borrels and other social activities of SPIL. There is a monthly SPIL borrel in Leiden and a as well as in The Hague, where our members can drink a beer and catch up with each other, which this committee organises. Moreover, this committee organises all the (themed) parties that the SPIL has to offer! To top it all off, the committee organises the annual SPIL Gala, which takes place at a beautiful location, everyone gets dressed up nicely and where there is an unlimited amount of alcohol.
Commissioner
Marvin Lamers
Committee member
Daan de Vries
Emma Breed
Fince van Kampen
Donna Dekker
Svea Drose
Khang Le
Jakub Šťastný
Soizic van den Berck
Toma Giachi
This committee is formed at the beginning of the academic year with the sole purpose of making first year students feel at home at the SPIL and university. The committee organises ‘borrels’, gatherings, lectures, speed dating events, parents day (you name it) for first year students. By the end of the year, the committee organises the cherry on top: Fresmen Weekend where the upcoming first years can meet each other!
Commissioner
Margot Ammerlaan
Committee members
Milena Schmidt
Adriana Porras
Tatjana Buehring
Olga Churilina
Diana Chaban
Frederika Togtema
Next to the Short Trip, the SPIL also organises a yearly Long Trip of two weeks to a destination outside of Europe. In the past years, SPIL has travelled to Seoul, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires and Washington DC. During these two weeks, similar activities as during the Short Trip will be organised, such as visiting an embassy, the parliament, newspapers and ministries. Of course during these two weeks, there is also more time to explore the city we are visiting. If you are enthusiastic about planning such an important trip, this is the perfect committee for you!
Commissioner
Anna Gruber
Committee Members
This committee is put together every 5 years and celebrates the SPIL’s birthday on a larger scale. It has a special budget and committee and organizes even bigger parties, lectures and activities. The celebrations take place throughout the whole year, with a special week usually in the spring. The previous lustrum took place in 2021-2022, meaning that the upcoming lustrum will be in 2025-2026.
Commissioner
Josephine Bensdorp
Committee members
Thomas Groenink
Frits Weyne
Kamiel Neeleman
Rosie Reed
Marjolein Nieuwenhuijsen
Lara Akande
This committee focuses on activities specifically for master students of political science. They are often more specialised and have more knowledge about certain topics. The committee organises lectures and activities that go more into depth than our regular activities. Think about lectures by proffessors, talks by representatives of a certain deparment or institution. The committee consists of mostly master students, so if you have good ideas, don’t hesitate to apply!
Commissioner
Elena van der Klok
Committee member
Rosan Speek
Otso Pekonen
Delfina Pérez Monsalvo
Shakki Bhat
Gabriel Deazy
The PiP committee stands for ‘Politicologen in Perspectief’ which roughly translates to ‘Political Science Students in Perspective’. This committee consists of eight people in total, two from each sister association of other Political Science Associations in the Netherlands (UvA, VU and Radboudt University). The committee organises a congress for political science students from all four universities. With the committee you will have to find a location, a theme, guestspeakers and organise a borrel afterwards.
Commissioner
Annabelle Jung
Committee members
Rik Manuel
Dema Elya
Contact
secretary@spilplaats.nl
The SPIL organises numerous activities and parties, and it is the responsibility of the promotion committee to make sure that these receive high turnout rates. In this committee you’ll be working closely with other related committees and you’ll be involved in organizing these activities. But the committee also covers the planning of promoting guest lectures, excursions, study-book sales and study trips. These activities are promoted in a wide variety of ways. As a member of this committee you can use harness your creativity in desing and arrangement of event-posters, photography of said events and maintain the committees social media presence so that everyone knows about SPIL events.
Commissioner
Margot Ammerlaan
Committee members
Yva Kapashi
Chiara Heemskerk
Suna Can
Patrick Tobies
In this committee you will help organise the yearly Short Trip. This week-long trip goes to a location within Europe. Some past destinations have been Prague, Madrid, London and Edinbrough. On this trip the committee organises excursions such as visits to a newspaper, ministries, the parliament and embassies. Of course, it wouldn’t be a SPIL trip if this wouldn’t be accompanied by cultural events and evenings out!
Commissioner
Anna Gruber
Committee members
Evaelle Dhainaut
Martyna Chumura
Kostantin Pfaff
Lena Zentai
Kasya Hilhorst
Leonie Fiebach
Jan Tarczynski
Stairs Affairs is a new collaboration between the SPIL, B.I.L. (study association for public administration) and the university, consisting of members of both SPIL and B.I.L.. The goal of the committee is to organise critical interviews with political relevant guests on the stairs of Wijnhaven. Although plans for this committee already exist for a number of years, this is the first time these will be implemented. Therefore, the committee will also lay the groundwork to ensure further development next years.
Commissioner
Robin Buijs (SPIL)
Isabelle Tunnissen (B.I.L.)
Committee Members
Jens Mekking (B.I.L.)
Fince van Kampen
Haitske Pottinga
Vincent van Duijn (B.I.L.)
Joanne Verkerk
Every year, the SPIL hosts a SPIL-weekend. This is a weekend with informal activities, just like the Freshmen weekend, but for SPIL’ers in every year of their studies. The committee is responsible for finding a location, organizing activities, organizing a night out and organizing a dinner. This makes the SPIL-weekend committee a challenging and fun committee!
Commissioner
Lara Akande
Committee members
Every year the SPIL releases a yearbook, the ‘Almanak’, which provides an overview of the events and achievements of the past year. The almanak is the summation of the work that the board and the committees and the members have carried out in that year. The members of the Almanak Committee, headed by the commissioner of Internal Relations, compile material throughout hte whole year to present in the almanak. This involves creating a fitting theme, developing and appropriate lay out and gathering texts and interviews for it. These texts are not only written by SPIL members but also by board members of other Student Associations and renowed acamedic and political individuals.
Commissioner
Marvin Lamers
Committee members
Rosalie van Gilst
Ruchi van Zoelen
Lucille Saïsse
Thijmen Zuiderwijk
Sybrich Zeinstra
Samuel Lozi
Suna Can
Stijn Westerhof
Contact
committee.yearbook@spilplaats.nl