My name is Bris Nevalainen, which may not immediately ring a bell at first since I started my studies in August as a fuksi in the new Computer Engineering major. I’ve only recently joined this fantAStic guild, which I’ve decided to make my permanent home guild (already received my AStounding violet overalls !) after having spent my first month at Aalto alternating between different guilds’ events, unsure where I really belong before I became an aASi.
Don’t worry though, you will all surely get to know me well over the next few weeks at ASki and events that you organise. In my month here I’ve already become a huge fan of all guild activities and it’s impossible not to see me around.
In spite of my relatively short time here, I want to give something back as a volunteer and be actively involved in the guild already in my fuksi year, hence this application for the position of vice chair. It’s not necessarily impossible to serve on the board as a fuksi and there have been fuksis on the board before in the guild’s history. I thus don’t see being a fuksi as a reason not to apply.
I’ve already participated in several guild board meetings at Otaniemi. Some of you might remember me being present in the AS board meeting that took place on 1 October. Ever before that I participated in board meetings in my previous guild. My deep interest in board and guild activities is natural given that I was a member of the student council board for all of my middle school years but then fell ill the day before the election meeting to elect the student council board in high school and as a result I was unable to be participate. But that passion has now returned to me upon starting university studies. I’m therefore not completely new to minute-keeping and other administrative tasks.
The role of vice chair involves close collaboration with the chairperson, which combined with my eagerness to learn and my existing base of some experience from my earlier school years and the board meetings I have participated in here at Aalto would make certain that I learn the ins and outs of this and get comfortable in my role quickly without any issues despite being a fuksi. I’d be ready to take over the chairperson’s responsibilities any time there is a need and be the chair’s right hand and closest partner, ensuring that the workload and responsibilities are split clearly and equally. I’d be more than glad to work in collaboration with the chair and other board members to keep the board and the whole guild running smoothly. As the vice chair I would also have a vital role in supporting the wellbeing of the board members and keeping up a positive and supportive team spirit so that the board remains a great place to work where members can focus on what matters - our lovely guild and the amazing and hardworking people that make it possible.
I’m a native speaker of English, which is my main language and also the language I study in. However, I can, in addition, speak Finnish well, albeit with a slight accent. It wouldn’t in any way impede my ability to participate in and transcribe board meetings in Finnish. Conversely, having at least one board member be from an English-language major would help guarantee that the English-speaking side of the guild is also represented on the board. Especially in the role of vice chair, whose responsibility it is to document and preserve the communications of the board, being able to produce English version of documents such as board meeting agendas and minutes (which has already been happening to some extent, and which is work I’d love to continue) in addition to the Finnish ones would make the important work that the board does more accessible and transparent to the international side of the guild, opening more doors for non-Finnish speakers in the guild. It’s something that the board of '25 has already begun working on and that the board of next year should continue to work on.
Looking forward to working together with the board of '26!
Minun nimeni on Bris Nevalainen. Se ei kuitenkaan varmasti kuulosta tutulta, sillä aloitin juuri minun englanninkielisen uuden Computer Engineering-pääaineen fuksivuoden opinnot elokuussa. Olen siis vasta liittynyt tähän fantAStiseen kiltaan, jonka olen nyt päättänyt määritellä minun pysyväksi rakkaaksi kotikillaksi (sain jo minun loistavan violetit haalarit !) seilailtua minun ensimmäisen kuukauden Aallosa eri kiltojen välillä ilman ideaa siitä minne todella kuulun ennen kuin minusta tuli aASi.
Ei kuitenkaan kannata huolestua, sillä tulette varmasti tutustumaan minuun seuraavien viikkojen aikana ASkissa ja killan tapahtumissa. Minusta on tullut jo kaikkien kilta-aktiviteettien suuri fani ja on mahdotonta olla näkemätta minua mukana.
Vaikka olen ollut täällä vain vähän aikaa, haluan tarjota jo takaisin vapaaehtoisena ja olla aktiivisesti mukana killan toiminnassa jo minun fuksivuotena. Siispä olen hakemassa killan varapuheenjohtajaksi. En koe että fuksina killan hallituksessa toimiminen olisi mikään täysi mahdottomuus ja killan historiasta löytyy vuosia, jolloin fuksi on ollut mukana hallituksessa. En täten siis näe fuksina olemista esteenä tälle hakemukselle.
Olen jo ehtinyt osallistua moneen killan hallituksen kokoukseen täällä Otaniemessa ollessani. Jotkin ehkä voivat muistaa minut tämän kuun ensimmäisen päivän AS:n hallituksen kokouksesta. Jo ennen tätä osallistuin hallituksen kokouksiin edellisessä killassani. Minun syvä kinnostus killan hallintoa kohtaan on luontaista, olinhan koko yläkouluajan oppilaskunnan hallituksen jäsen. Lukiossa kuitenkin sairaus iski päivää ennen oppilaskunnan hallituksen vaaleja enkä siis voinut osallistua. Mutta nyt yliopistoon siirryttyä into hallitushommia kohtaan on taas herännyt. En siis ole täysin uusi pöytäkirjan pitoon ja muihin hallitusasioihin.
Varapuheenjohtajan rooli vaatii tiivistä yhteistyötä puheenjohtajan kanssa, mikä minun oppimisinnon ja minun aikasempina kouluvuosina hankitun kokemuksen ja hallitusten kokouksien seuraamisen kautta saadun vähäisen kokemuksen kanssa varmistaisi sen että opin hallituksen tavat nopeasti ilman mitään ongelmia, vaikka olenkin fuksi. Olisin valmis ottamaan puheenjohtahan vastuun milloin vain kun tilanne sitä vaatii ja olemaan puheenjohtajan lähin yhteistyökumppani, pitäen huolen että tehtävät ja vastuu on jaettu selkeästi ja tasapuolisesti. Olisin innoissani valmis työskentelemään yhteistyössä sekä puheenjohtajan että muiden hallituslaisten kanssa pitämässä hallituksen ja killan tominnan sujuvana. Varapuheenjohtajana minulla olisi myös tärkeä rooli hallituksen jäsenten hyvinvoinnin ja positiivisen ja tukevan yhteishenkisen ilmapiirin luomisessa, jotta hallitustyö pysyisi mukavana ja hallituslaiset voisivat keskittyä siihen mikä on ensisijaisen täkeää - meidän rakas kiltamme ja kaikki ne mahtavat ja ahkerat ihmiset jotka mahdollistavat sen.
Äidinkieleltäni olen englanninkielinen, joka on minun pää- ja opiskelukieli. Kuten voikin jo tästä lukea, osaan kuitenkin suomea hyvin, vaikkakin minulla saattaa olla hieman englanninkielinen aksentti. Kieli ei tule olemaan este minun osallistumiselle suomenkielisiin kokouksiin ja niiden pöytäkirjojen pitoon. Päinvastoin, ainakin yhden hallituksen jäsenen tuleminen englanninkielisestä pääaineesta auttaisi varmistamaan että killan englanninkielinen puoli olisi myös edustettuna hallituksessa. Etenkin varapuheenjohtajan pestissä, johon kuuluu hallituksen päätöksien ja kommunikaation dokumentoiminen ja arkistointi, se että voin tuottaa dokumenteista saataville englanninkieliset versiot (mitä on jo jonkun verran tapahtunut ja jota mielelläni jatkaisin) suomenkielisten lisäksi toisi killan hallituksen tärkeän työn myös killan kansainvälisten jäsenten saataville. Tämä avaisi killassa enemmän ovia muun kuin suomenkielisille, mitä vuoden '25 hallitus on alkanut jo tehdä ja mitä seuraavan vuoden hallituksen tulisi jatkaa.
Odotan innolla vuoden '26 hallituksen kanssa työskentelemistä!
Hey Bris. It’s amazing that you decided so quickly to jump into guild life and apply for the vice-chair. Your application is really nice and extensive, but I would like to clarify a few things:
In a few months, you changed guild twice, so what made you stick with AS and not others?
You also mentioned that your vital role will be supporting the wellbeing of the board members, so how exactly will you do that? As an example, will you constantly organise refresher events, and if so, what kind of events will those be?
Fuksi year is also really busy as university life in general is fully new, and there also are a lot of events specifically designed for fuksis: How will you make sure that with this role your fuksi year experience will not suffer and at the same time you yourself will not burn out from constant workload?
Lastly: If you are not selected as a Vice-Chair are there any other roles in the board that you would like to be considered for?
At the moment, those are all my questions, and I’m looking forward to reading your answers.
Thank you for your questions Mikhail! I’ll get straight to the point and answer your questions:
Yes, it’s true that I went through two different guilds during my first month at Aalto before deciding that AS would be my home for as long as I’m here. My major is Computer Engineering so I started out in SIK like the other Computer Engineering fuksis but ended up leaving after the orientation week with my main frustration being the lack of many other students, especially older ones, from an English-language bachelor’s program (which I do understand since Computer Engineering is brand-new major but it bothered me nonetheless). From there I went to DG drawn by the prospect of finding more international students there. While I did enjoy my time there and found older English bachelor’s majors who could tell me about their experiences with the various courses, I quickly ran into something else I did not like: I wasn’t given a fuksi point card and wasn’t allowed to participate in the fuksi year events as a DG member despite being a fuksi. I was told in DG it’s a university-wide policy that fuksi events are only open to those who are with their “native“ guild, which I had recently left. For a while I simply accepted it as fact and focused on other things besides events and the Teekkari cap until the Otatarha Grand Prix. After the race, I was asked by Joel whether I wanted to buy the AS overalls since on that morning I had purchased the AS membership and Stimulaatio + Stillis tickets on Kide.app. But the turning point came after he mentioned that I could become an AS fuksi, which I had thought was impossible due to what I had been told in DG. I already knew a few older DSD students and fuksis from the Aalto Discord server and I therefore figured I’d fit in perfectly among them and accepted Joel’s offer, swapping guilds for the second and final time. I’ve already made friends with several people from AS, both fuksis and older students, and I’ve enjoyed my time here more than in my two previous guilds. Basically, AS had everything that I found awesome about a guild and student life and I therefore decided to stick with AS over the other guilds.
Indeed. I consider the vice chair to have a major role in ensuring the wellbeing of the board. This would range from routine everyday things like making sure that there’s some snacks for everyone at board meetings, regularly having lunch together with the rest of the board, hanging out and playing games, and studying together to bigger regular refreshers like participating in student events together as a group. It’s important for the team to get to know each other well and bond not just through sitting round a board meeting table but also relaxed and casual activities, which the vice chair should have a role in coordinating and promoting to the rest of the board. After all, it’s much more enjoyable and less stressful to work on the guild with a group of close friends. I’d also love to organise a summer days event for the board as the biggest refresher before the next academic year starts (I’d already have a potential place for that in mind not too far away provided that my mum doesn’t mind lending my childhood home with a summer cottage, sauna, and barbecue by a lake to a group of violet overalls + Teekkari cap wearers for a day or two, which she shouldn’t mind).
I took my fuksi year into consideration in a couple of ways when applying for this role. Firstly, I considered the workload that comes with being the vice chair combined with the fuksi events. I understand that being the vice chair is no light task and it involves a lot of work from board meeting minutes to honouring guild members for their work that goes above and beyond. I concluded that it is a workload that I’m ready to handle and that I have adequate time for in my schedule even with the fuksi events and rest time factored in. I like to stay organised and I already put a lot of effort into maintaining a clear schedule in my Google Calendar with colour-coded calendars for lectures, exams, events, and possibly board-related events and deadlines if I get this role to avoid burning out. Secondly, I took into consideration how being in a board position might impact my fuksi year in other ways, such as spoiling potential fuksi events that the board may be planning. On that front I also concluded that it’s not an impediment to being on the board. Of course I wouldn’t pass on the information to other fuksis, I’m not in the business of ruining the fun for others, there is no fun in that. So then it just boils down to how I myself want to experience my fuksi year and I feel I can still experience the fuksi events and have fun even if I already know some insider information about them. It also impacted my choice of role since the vice chair isn’t the one whose core responsibilities include events for fuksis so as vice chair I wouldn’t be exposed to such information as extensively as say, the IE, to name an example.
Yes, there are. I did consider applying for the position of treasurer but ultimately chose not to seeing as there are many applicants with backgrounds in BIZ who’d be more qualified than me to handle the guild’s finances. However, Master of Communications is a role that I would like to be considered for and that I’d consider myself to be fit for since it involves maintaining the guild’s website and other communication channels, which is something that shouldn’t interfere too much with my fuksi year. Plus website design and maintenance and photography are things that I’d feel comfortable with. I’ve also thought of applying for ASkiMaster as a non-board option if I can’t make it to the board since looking after the guild room is something I could easily do without it interfering with my fuksi year. I spend a lot of time in ASki studying and relaxing either way so I’d already be there most of the time to maintain it without having to make any significant adjustments to my schedule. All in all, my top 3 list of roles I have thought of and that I’d like to be considered for in this order is:
Vice Chair
Master of Communications
ASkiMaster
I hope this answers your questions. If you have any further questions to ask, I’d be glad to hear them and answer.
Best Regards,
Bris
Applicant for the position of Vice Chair
first, in 
in the reply
first, in 
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!) after having spent my first month at Aalto alternating between different guilds’ events, unsure where I really belong before I became an aASi.
!) seilailtua minun ensimmäisen kuukauden Aallosa eri kiltojen välillä ilman ideaa siitä minne todella kuulun ennen kuin minusta tuli aASi.