ARISTA Executive Board Undergoes Organizational Reforms

ARISTA’s executive council for the 2018-2019 year, which will officially be inducted on May 30, is made up of President Julia Arancio, Vice President of Events and Services Lucy Zhang, Vice President of Operations Crystal Wang, and Vice President of Web Development Ivan Zhang. This new board will be the first to implement a number of new reforms pushed for by the outgoing Executive Council.

One of the major changes the last board pushed for was the removal of the positions of Vice President of Tutoring and Executive Vice President. “Throughout the course of this year, both the old and new Executive Council noticed that many of the old Tutoring Committee functions were obsolete, especially as we continued to shift much of our operations online,” Wang said. “As a result, we formed the new Operations Committee, which would assume these ‘outlier’ responsibilities and would work more closely with Web Development.”

According to Sophie Feng, a graduating board member, “Not all of those positions were necessary [...] especially because a smaller group tends to better delegate tasks and work more closely.”

These changes will be put to the test as ARISTA bids farewell to its graduating members and begins its application process in search of new ones. Around the first week of May, ARISTA announced that it was beginning to accept applications for 2018-2019 board members. According to Feng, this process was a rigorous one. “We interviewed them all really closely, there was a pretty strenuous application which had a written portion, interviews, and teacher recommendations [considered] before their selection,” she said.

The new board is excited for the next year and to lead ARISTA toward success. “A large focus of the new Executive Council is to optimize how we run the organization and to ensure that ARISTA is fulfilling its purpose to the fullest extent,” Wang said. To this end, ARISTA members are now allowed to apply to more than one committee, allowing the Executive Council more flexibility in delegating responsibilities to their members.

The new executive council is already thinking of their goals and hopes for the 2018-2019 year. “Our biggest focus this year is to streamline everything. In the past few years of ARISTA, we are [sic] using the website a lot more, we have these new positions, and they’re really great and effective. We’re just here to make sure they get implemented in the best way possible,” Arancio said.

The new board emphasizes that they aren’t looking to make drastic changes to ARISTA. Their focus is on improving what they already have. “We’re not trying to alter the face of ARISTA because we feel that what we have is really strong and works really well—we’re just trying to take out all the bugs,” Arancio said.