What is MSV Incognito?

MSV Incognito is the study association of the Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering, the University that I am currently studying in.

MSV Incognito organizes events, like:

• drinks
• study sessions
• business days
• game lans
• educational talks
• and many more…
  

MSV Incognito also organizes private tutoring sessions for students of the Department, handles logistics for university related events and they are the student representatives for decisions regarding the Department and the University.

How I got to know about MSV Incognito

I got to know about Incognito during the intro day of the University.
During the introduction day, the new students got served barbecue and beer by Incognito.
We got a tour of the city of Maastricht from staff members of Incognito and did fun group activities.
One of the activities that we did were consisting of making fun group pictures with monuments and buildings in the city.

Everything was fun, I ended up joining the association, but I never thought of joining one of Incognito’s committees.
I was reluctant to join committees, because I didn’t know any active member from the association at a personal level, and I didn’t know how the association was structured, what the committee member task were and whether I would be of any help.
Also at the time, I didn’t like events with a lot of people, but I would rather have dinners or evenings with closer friends.

How MSV Incognito is structured

MSV Incognito is composed of one board and several committees. The possible board roles are:

• President
• Vice-president
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Internal commissioner
• External commissioner
• IT-commissioner

And currently the committees are:

• AKtiE (Activities Committee)
• EduKatiE (Educational Committee)
• HacKErs (IT Committee)
• RedaKtiE (Media/PR Committee)
• TasKE (Bar Committee)
• Financial Committee

I would love to explain you every role of each board member and committees, but I think it would be too boring and tedious to explain them here, but if you want to, you can read them up on the official MSV Incognito website.

How I joined MSV Incognito active members

I would join sometime Incognito events, but those were not the main driver for me to become an active member. I think one of the first instances that made me appreciate more the association were because of the following occurrences.

My first experience as a tutor for Incognito

EduKatiE sometime organizes study sessions for struggling or eager to learn first years students. One of the most popular study sessions are the Computer Science study sessions. I don’t define myself as a programming guru, but because I knew already how to program before I started University, I was more experience than average in programming in my first and second year (I am good right now as well, don’t get me wrong). Because of my capabilities in programming, and because of my passion in teaching, I was invited to be a tutor in a Computer Science study session. The session made me realize that my contribution to the association is useful and appreciated, that people of the association are very welcoming and friendly.

My close friend being part of the board

One of my close friend, Ryan (the second guy from the left), became part of the board, as the treasurer. At the same time, Albert, also one of my close friends, became an active member of AKtiE. Having two of my close friend begin active members of Incognito, obligated me to at least hear some of the operations and activities happening.

Distributed database project

I was also attending a blockchain seminar in Maastricht, which also the president of the board, Andrew was attending (the guy in the middle of the picture).
Andrew and I were discussing about developing a distributed database system for Incognito, to keep track of the members of Incognito. It had to be distributed between multiple devices (members’ cellphone or laptops), because Incognito does not own a central server, and using one of the members server, does not guarantee that the database would be still available after the member left Incognito.
The project was too ambitious, but never the less, it was a good enough excuse to join HacKErs, the IT committee 😊.

How I joined the board

Bobby, the vice-president of the ²⁰¹⁷⁄₂₀₁₈ board (the second guy from the right), was one of the prospective president for the ²⁰¹⁸⁄₂₀₁₉ board. He was seeking a board composed of members from all the committees, preferably the head of the committee. I was interested in being part of the board, and Thomas, the head of HacKErs, was proposed to be part of the board, but declined. Therefore, I was accepted to be part of the board of Incognito as an IT commissioner!🎉!🎊!.
Ultimately, the board composition ended up being:

• Sarah (External Commissioner)
• Arrnuld (Treasurer)
• Silvia (Vice-president and Internal Commissioner)
• Bobby (President)
• Evelina (Secretary)
• Andrea (IT Commissioner)
  

And in the following picture you can see the members in the same order from left to right.

What have I been doing as the IT commissioner

Inkoffito

My first task as an IT commissioner was to revive InKoffito, a committee that is responsible for organizeing coffee sessions, to serve coffee to the stressed students at the Department 😊. The first service might be done in the second week of February, and I am exited to how it will go!!!.

Internal regulations

But before that, at one of the HacKErs meeting, I was told that in the General Assembly at which the board was elected, that it was decided that the Internal Regulations needed to be changed on regards to the official voting that happened in the previous General Assemblies. Nobody of the board remembered that decision beeing made, there was only two weeks before the deadline of the task and everybody else in the board was busy 😱. I was assigned the task, the changes in the internal regulations were barley made in time, but members were happy of the cleaning of the Internal Regulations.

What will come

Hope I will have fun with the board members, Incognito events and I will strive to keep Incognito a great community🤗.

See also

• Trip to Poland