In the last two months I visited, together with our managing director Brahim Ait Mellouk, all Faculty groups. The goal of these eight meetings with colleagues was to inform everyone about what is on the agenda of the Faculty Board (FB) and to get input. A lot is going on in the Faculty and it is essential for the FB to hear about wishes colleagues have and problems they encounter. This does not mean it is always possible to take these wishes into account or immediately solve these problems, but we do try to explain why decisions are taken as they are taken. The FB also gets input in many other ways: through our official participatory bodies Faculty Council and Programme Committees, through our permanent committees and working groups, and of course also informally, at the coffee machine nd other places. All FB-members have their doors wide open. Meanwhile the FB asked our Marketing & Communications department to make a plan for internal communication within the Faculty. This will soon be discussed in the MT and distributed.

In the meetings the FB paid attention to teaching (the reform of the Bachelor Dutch Law, introduction of a mentor system for first year’s students and of Continuous Professional Development and the putting into place pf a Working Group Masters), research (Sectorplan and the upcoming midterm review) and housing (move to the Kapoenstraat in Summer). Input we received was, among others, about communication, (a priority for the FB, but we can always do better), the need for a staff common room (now provisionally in place in the Salon) and the implementation of the Quality Agreements for the bachelors European Law School and Tax Law (plans will be made with input by, among others, the course coordinators). Questions were also asked about professional development of support staff. The names of the tutorial groups will be added to the schedules.