What are your plans and how did you get the idea?
‘I think it’s sad that so many people live in this building, but nobody knows their neighbours. Besides that, for many Dutch and German students here, it is easy to make friends but for other internationals it can be a bit difficult and we want to change that.’
How would that work?
‘We want people to get to know each other through events or activities and maybe people even become friends. Our vision is having several committees or groups, like any other association. If people want to play football, do yoga or things like that just for fun without joining an association and pay, they can do it together and almost literally at home. The plan is to have some ‘responsibles’ for every group. So in case the board will keep consisting out of only us three, it won’t get too much out of hand. So far, we think about organizing a get-to-know-each-other-party for residents of the entire building.’
What is the difference between doing fun activities with the Hogekamp association than with for instance a sport association?
‘If you join an association, you usually have to pay and are always expected to show up. We want to stay free of that and rather casual.’
Do you also plan to be a voice for rentals when it comes to complaints?
‘So far, we want to focus more on the fun aspect but if students have any troubles with Camelot, we would like to hear about it and see what we can do. However, we don’t want to be too official yet and first see where it goes.’
