X marks the spot: in search for the treasury

Today we call with… the quaestor of the NKIR! Julien Ruhl has been a member of the organization since 2018 and is responsible for the finance and sponsorships.

I am curious, what are your responsibilities as ‘quaestor’?
In the Roman Empire, a quaestor was a public figure who kept an eye on the money. Why we still call it quaestor I do not know, I guess it has to do something with student tradition. In Dutch it is actually called ‘treasurer’. My task is simple. I have to make sure that an estimate is made of all expenses and incomes, so we do not face any surprises. As the event comes closer, I have to make sure that all bills are paid. Sometimes, we make some profit which we can invest the year after. This year, that is different. Every last penny we raise goes to World Child Cancer NL. It might sound odd, but I am even more motivated to make sure all costs are as low as possible and we have as many as possible participants, so more money goes to our great charity World Child Cancer NL!

But… expenses, how does that work? The event is online, right?
Haha, yes, that might sound weird. But, we don’t have dinner with our organization committee from the registration fees and sponsor money. Normally, we have large expenses renting the location, the technicians and materials, and services such as Time Team and Live Video Commissie. Although we do not rent a location, the expenses for technicians and materials, as well as services remain the same. Of course, we want to organize an event that stands out: otherwise you might as well row in your living room and not pay any subscription fee. We try to stand out by making the livestream with live commentary in which we give participants the opportunity to be featured in. Besides, we try to make sure everyone can compete as fun and fair as possible, either ‘submit’ or ‘live’. For this, our partner Time Team is top of the bill. 

Allright. And the subscription fees, don’t you think these are too expensive?
I understand why people think that. On the other hand, you have to realise that all raising goes to our charity. By subscribing, you indirectly donate a small fee to World Child Cancer NL. I can not say for sure what exact percentage this will be, this depends on the expenses and the number of participants. By making these expenses we can organize a worthy NKIR, that is exciting to watch. By the publicity the livestream will yield and a lot of participants we raise even more money.

Why did you choose for a charity? You could have reinvested this years raisings.
We want to be attractive to a new category of participants. The athlete that is not on the erg that often, but who likes a challenge and also likes the challenge of raising money for a charity. The past few years we have seen very nice initiatives of (mostly) recreational rowers who raised money for a charity by rowing the Ringvaart Regatta. Besides, male rowers of Laga raised money for 3FM Serious Request during last year’s NKIR. Naturally, these kinds of initiatives are great. Since we are not able to organize the event in our usual location, we hope that this charity will add just that little bit extra to our event. Rowers who would compete anyway have an extra opportunity to be the best at something!

And why World Child Cancer NL?
I personally spoke to the people of World Child Cancer NL and the work they do is really outstanding. They make a case for better health care for children with cancer in developing countries, while also investing in research that benefits both Dutch patients as well as foreign patients. 

Apart from that, it is important to mention that one can be sure every last penny will be used well, since World Child Cancer has the ‘ANBI status’, the Dutch quality mark for charities. Companies that want to make donations should also know that the donations can be subtracted from their income taxes! So far, we have raised already more than €8000,-, so it is going great.

Thank you for your answers.
You are most welcome! See you on december 12th.