GSCA End-term Review

SUMMARY

To put it extremely briefly, this has certainly been a very happening tenure, with several points being covered both within and beyond the manifesto. There has been an appreciable expansion in cultural activities, with the conversion of Vaani into the broader-minded Indian Languages Club, the rebranding of Cult Week as Arcade, developments in PG activities (with a week-long PG Cult phase II) and in the Lifestyle Club.

We have seen a sizeable increase in the number of workshops held across most genres, with professionals being brought in frequently. Cult school classes have also been expanded with a greater number of sub-genres within each club being explored. A lot of effort has gone into expanding the digital outreach and online functionality from the increased video publicity, to the launch of a resume verification portal. An integrated website containing new portals, including one for the issuance of E-Certificates, a merchandise portal, and a central payment portal, has been completed, but is yet to be released at the time of writing this review.

Considerable efforts were put into participation and practise for the 2nd Inter IIT Culturals Meet. Note must be made of the role the contingent leaders played in making the Culturals Meet a flagship competition for IIT Bombay students, thus bringing in a lot of talent into the cultural sphere. This culminated in IIT Bombay coming 2nd in the Meet, losing out to IIT Delhi by a margin of just five points out of an overall tally of 1400 points.

Overall, 27 out of the 43 manifesto points have been completed, with the other 16 remaining incomplete (though significant advances/efforts have been made on several of them – but more on that later)

BROKEN POINTS

Several of the points concerning the purchase of new infrastructure remain incomplete. Proposals were made to the Dean, and SAC incharges for the installation of permanent lights, the establishment of a common equipment room, installation of air conditioners in the music and film rooms, but no onground changes took place during the tenure.

Work was done on the web series, with calls being made for actors, script-writers etc. A script was even prepared. But the web series, eventually did not see the light of day. Similarly, work has been done on an Institute Events App, but we don’t hope to see it released this semester at least.

No major changes were made to the Cult Yatras as were promised, with the standard three, for dance, dramatics, and PFA being made. Similarly, no Public Speaking boot camp was conducted. Genre reports were released, but a bi-monthly frequency as promised in the manifesto, demanded six reports per genre in the duration of the tenure, which did not materialise. Informal club sessions and meets were held within some genres, but did not happen for the performing arts genres.

BEYOND THE MANIFESTO

Several points/initiatives were taken up beyond the manifesto.

1. SAC Refresh Project: An informative website has been developed to provide information about SAC renovation to alumni who wish to donate for the cause [https://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/~cultural/sacrefresh/]
2. After a successful 1st Inter IIT Meet at IIT Bombay, ground needed to be established for the proper conduction and nurturing of the still fledgling competition. The GSCA mentored the host IIT for rules formation and execution and documented proposal to be put up in pan IIT Directors’ meet as a SPAN IIT Representative for officiating the meet. Along the same lines, help was provided in drafting a new constitution for SPAN IIT (for those of you who don’t know: IIT SPAN is a student body to foster collaboration between different IIT’s and thereby enhance IIT brand on a global scale.)
3. As has been mentioned before, a new website has been developed with SSO login and user friendly interface including important portals like Resume Verification Portal (reducing burden on Dean SA for individual verification after graduation), certificate generation portal, merchandise and cult school portal (for central online payments), a central blog – Muntazir on wordpress platform allowing anyone to write a blog. (we are told that the website will be launched on 1st April 2018)
4. Proposals were made to set up IITB Wireless in the SAC. Funding has been approved for FY 18-19 by Computer Centre for the same. Tentatively, it should be set up before the next semester begins.

FOLLOW UPS/FUTURE PLANS

Continuity needs to be maintained on the initiatives that are still in progress. Plans to improve the overall quality of NSO Culturals based on a separate NCO structure are being laid down, which need to be completed in the next tenure. The IITB App should be released by the start of the next semester at the latest. This, when coupled with the digital publicity measures initiated in the current tenure can reduce the burden of print publicity for all councils. A new website is expected to make accessing information and conducting certain operations easier for institute folks. As always, an increasing focus on the Inter IIT Cultural Meet, as it gains prominence, is expected, and there is the hope that we can win it next year.