I have drafted a preliminary timeline and roadmap of the key milestones I will work with my team and our communities across NUS to put into effect.

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IMMEDIATE

13 Sep 2020 to 22 Dec 2020 (The first 100 days)

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Introduce committee (Phase 1 of Connect)

 ✅ onboard new EXCO-elects and discuss direction

 ✅ make sense of context faced by predecessors

 ✅ each Cell to set visions, concrete plans for 2021

 ✅ conduct recruitment for organizing committee

 ✅ consolidate overall workflow and timeline

 ✅ President and VPs to introduce new EXCO to student body

 ✅ draft, refine, and finalize budget for the year

 ✅ pilot MutualAid@NUS network to meet needs

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Initiate interactions (Phase 1 of Represent)

 ✅ arrange to meet NUS Offices, 42nd NUSSU EXCO, Yale-NUS Student Government, postgrad class committees, alumni networks, professional interest groups

 ✅ consult on best practices for accessibility

 ✅ touch base with local universities’ and overseas universities’ GSS counterparts

 ✅ first GSS meeting with MOE with follow-ups

 ✅ reach out to prospective event partners

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Assemble coalition (Phase 1 of Organize)

 ✅ conceptualize NUS Students’ Solidarity Coalition

 ✅ arrange first check-ins and follow-ups with intended Coalition student organizations to pitch collaboration

 ✅ identify gaps in GSS’s current base and membership

 ✅ identify structural-institutional limits on GSS’s role and possible options to enhance GSS’s execution of function

 ✅ review critical issues surfaced in 34th AGM Report and Welfare Pack Survey from AY 2019/2020

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SHORT-TERM

23 Dec 2020 to 8 May 2021 (The next semester)

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Curate deliverables (Phase 2 of Connect)

 ✅ pilot university-wide access guidelines for all classes, meetings, spaces, events, student opportunities

 ✅ curate events calendar for both semesters

 ✅ oversee projects planned by organizing committee

 ✅ propose openly-unconditional relief and review of student debt, expenses in crisis, income precarity

 ✅ welfare packs with revised Student Life Survey

 ✅ monthly public updates of GSS’s work to student body

 

Engage communities (Phase 2 of Represent)

 ✅ jointly hold open-to-all student life meetings in partnership with postgrad class committees

 ✅ pilot Fireside Chats with President and VPs to open fresh conversations on student aspirations, anxieties

 ✅ meetings with ground-up representatives from diverse-yet-underrepresented communities

 ✅ invite unrepresented communities to self-represent at key NUS Senior Management meetings alongside GSS

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Identify strategies (Phase 2 of Organize)

 ✅ crowdsource input on problems and recommendations to be tabled on open-source Students’ Agenda

 ✅ initiate open-to-all Crisis Action Roundtables including interested Coalition groups for sense-making purposes

 ✅ co-host inaugural Coalition Summit for member groups to come together to form Strategy Plans on each crisis

 ✅ form a comprehensive common vision with clear short and long-term goals, benchmarks for stock-taking

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MEDIUM-TERM

9 May 2021 to 13 Sep 2021 (The summer break)

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Co-create transition (Phase 3 of Represent)

 ✅ GSS to publicly recognize the significance and severity of the crises and to state its official positions on them

 ✅ public report on aspirations and anxieties surfaced from ongoing engagement with students in Semester 2

 ✅ President and VPs to announce to student body which Offices GSS will be working with to ensure equitable transition

 ✅ open nominations for a Transition Monitoring Board to involve students in tracking each Offices' progress

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Document experiences (Phase 3 of Connect)

 ✅ share, evaluate, and learn from process of organizing across projects, event-based and non-event-based

 ✅ check-ins and check-outs before and after any event

 ✅ consolidate Reports for 35th AGM and handover

 ✅ President and VPs to guide EXCO and organizing committee to situate planning experience within broader role of GSS

 ✅ introduce organizing committee to different EXCO work

 ✅ hold succession conversations inside and outside GSS

 

Formulate actions (Phase 3 of Organize)

 ✅ follow-up on Strategy Plans with discussions on how to operationalize them through respective Action Plans

 ✅ each community group within Coalition to profile their members’ preferred roles in the organizing process

 ✅ speak to and consult experienced civil society counterparts to learn from their experiences

 ✅ craft clear, publicly-accessible timelines for the implementation of Action Plans in AY 2021/2022

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LONG-TERM

after 13 Sep 2021 (The handover)

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Develop organizers (Phase 4 of Organize)

 ✅ develop peer-to-peer-facilitation skills amongst workgroups, collectives, Coalition groups, GSS EXCO

 ✅ capacity-building via exposure, shadowing, mentorship

guide 36th EXCO to craft a Base-Building Roadmap to involve more students beyond those already engaged

 ✅ 36th EXCO to take charge of enactment of Action Plans

 ✅ curate teach-ins on organizing skills and techniques

 ✅ operationalize changes to GSS structure and processes

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Reaffirm commitments (Phase 4 of Represent)

 ✅ centre the core commitments of GSS to the student body in post-crisis transition during handover process

 ✅ link up 36th EXCO-elects with each Office to confirm timelines and ensure continuity of transition oversight

 ✅ outgoing President and VPs to share and explain purpose of these commitments in final address to student body where 36th EXCO-elects will be formally introduced

 ✅ guide 36th EXCO through the evaluation process

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Cultivate collectives (Phase 4 of Connect)

 ✅ link up 36th EXCO-elects with Intercultural Engagement at Yale-NUS to consult on operationalization timeline

 ✅ advise 36th EXCO on integrating such elements into events and spaces to support continued dialogue and interaction across students of different backgrounds

 ✅ co-devise framework for GSS to support the organic formation of intentional communities post-events

 ✅ explore funding system for GSS ground-up collectives

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The tasks ahead of our 35th GSS EXCO cannot all be completed solely within our one-year term. We have to lay the groundwork for the next EXCOs to "cari on" from us after our term ends.