Our last weeks have been in the light of the current CoViD-19 virus. A couple of weeks ago the Australian government annoucned their upcoming strategy in the combat against the CoViD-19 virus. The idea is to have the borders closed up to the very end of 2021 and if that would become reality, we would not be able to visit Australia. Of course the arose the uncertainty within the SSA. In this montly update, we inform you on our decision of the continuation of the SSA, the decision making process and the effects on the rest of the organization.
The options and its results
In order to make a decision on the continuation of the trip, 4 options were presented to the participants. First of all, continuation of the current trip since the government announcement of Australia is still depending on
the development of the pandemic. The second option was to choose a new second country instead of Australia next to Singapore. As new countries, Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia were discussed. The third option was to
delay it, either by a half year and go during the Christmas break (2021-2022) or by an entire year to go in the summer of 2022. And the fourth option was total cancellation of the trip.
The main outcome from a research among all participants showed the amino for either, changing the destina-
tion of the trip or delaying the trip and then especially by an entire year. The main doubt of the change of destinations are the present corona measurements in the country to visit. Although we might be able to enter
the country, there are concerns about the excursions and company visits during the trip. On the other hand, by delaying the trip, not all of our participants would be able to continue on the trip anymore, due to a differ-
ent planning for the next academic year.
The decision
In all of the options, at least 6 students were planning to withdraw from the SSA. Therefore it has been decided that new members have to be appointed and since this procedure will take time it is decided to delay the trip
by an entire year. In this process a lot of enthusiasm from our participants came to the other destinations and therefore we have decided to leave the second destination, next to Singapore, open. As a board we are very sorry for our withdrawing participants but we are also convinced that this is the best decision at this moment.
How to proceed
In the coming period we will be in contact with all of our participants to discuss all concerns and questions related to the SSA. Moreover, we will make a plan on how to continue on the trip for the upcoming period.
What we already can say is that we have decided to continue with the acquisition and execution of all the cases. In this way we can spread our cases over a bigger timeframe and are able to cover extra unforeseen
costs for example due to Corona.
Besides the cases, we have decided to quit on the non-urgent committee work. We think it will be more effi-
cient to do all the committee work and the related course work within one year instead of spreading it out
over two years. Main reason to quit this for now is that we first have to find new members for the trip and that we hope to have a better idea of the CoViD-19 status in half a year. In the upcoming weeks we hope to get an overview on who are withdrawing from the SSA and who are continuing. With them we are going to make a new timeline and continuation plan