Ada is a lawyer both professionally and in the ESN. No one knows the Articles of Association better than her. Although she’s been active in ESN for 7 years, she still has a motivation and willingness to work. She always notices things to improve and what’s more, she aims to do it!
How does ESN help you in your working life?
Being in ESN has an influence on my professional career, especially on the soft skills, such as planning ability, time management, working under time pressure or multitasking. All of them are helpful in all kind of jobs, actually. But perhaps the most important abilities which I’ve developed in our organization are communication and teamwork skills allowing me to successfully cooperate with all kinds of people. Apart from that, there's also a wide range of contacts and connections that one can develop thanks to ESN.
Could you tell me which post you've hold so far brings up the best memories and why?
It’s hard to choose only one, because each of them has taught me something valuable and gave me a lot of satisfaction. If I had to point it out, I think if I had to point out just one, I would say that it's always the first things you do which give you the best memories. In my case, it was being a Mentor for an Erasmus exchange student and a Travel Coordinator in my local section because at the time I could be close to Erasmus students and I was able to help them directly. On the other hand, on ESN Poland level, my best experience is being the Vice President of the National Board. It was the most intense time of my life. My last academic year was also amazing, as I was in the Audit Committee, where the atmosphere was really good. (Greetings for Gabi and Magda :) )
It’s the third time when you are in the Audit Committee of ESN Poland. In your opinion, from of all the tasks,what is the essential task of the committee?
I believe that the most important tasks is to keep on improving the activity of the Association, for example by carrying out controls, presenting proposals and paying attention to the irregularities up to date. In general, the control authority should evaluate the completed tasks, and that’s why it might look like we are only pointing out the mistakes, but it doesn’t work like that. Our comments and suggestions must be constructive, so that our actions may create the desired effects.
Is being part of the Audit Committee difficult? How much time do you have to spend on it? Is writing reports a laborious or a pleasant task?
It might sound a bit trivial, but each position in our Association is difficult in one way or another, which is good, because this way the members are given an opportunity to learn new things. In the Audit Committee, one of the most difficult things to do is to separate your responsibilities from private relations. On the one hand we should care for our good relationship with with the National Board, but on the other hand, we have to be as objective as possible.
As the time we need to spend on our tasks, it could be limited to the statutory duties only, but we can also do more than that. How much time the Audit Committee spends on a given task depends solely on its members. Being in the Audit Committee is far less absorbing than being in the National Board. How much time do I spend on my duties? As much as it takes. One day, it could be only a few easy contracts to evaluate, which takes about 10 minutes; but the next day I might have to write a report, which obviously requires some more time.
I wouldn't say that writing reports is the best thing I've ever done. You certainly need to get through a lot of documents before you start writing a report. Yet, WHEN the atmosphere between the members of Audit Committee is good, and WHEN we support each other, it's not that bad , though.
Would you say that being a member of the Audit Committee requires any special experience?
The background from ESN Poland Board helps for sure, however it isn’t essential. It’s helpful when the Audit Committee members have an experience on both the local and national level, or on the international level, as controlling the Board requires general knowledge about ESN. Nevertheless, individual skills, educational background, and professional experience of the candidates could be of importance too.