Roadmap to the 2020 Plenary

Roadmap to the 2020 Plenary

Dear YSI Core,

Thanks to our collective efforts we’ve experienced a tremendous amount of growth in the past years. Thank you!

With currently over 8000 members in 125 countries, and about 120 coordinators and organizers across 20 working groups we are no longer a small, close knit community. We, however, remain committed to an intimate environment of collaboration and joint exploration of new economic thinking. To accommodate our growth, clear structures, as well as defined roles and responsibilities are required to help new and existing members to flourish inside the community.

We started this effort at our first plenary (Oct 2016), at which we elected the Community Report Committee (CRC). We now present you with some of the key deliverables from an elaborate process of studying the community led by the CRC in order to set ourselves up for success in the future. The goal is to have coherent structures, improved transparency and smooth administration and workflows ahead of the next YSI plenary, which we’d like to host in the first half of 2020.

Today, we are introducing the YSI Standard of Operations and CRC Advisory Teams on ‘Early Career Challenges’, ‘Inclusiveness and Diversity’, and ‘New Academic Formats’. Furthermore, we are beginning a process of drafting a comprehensive list of guides, How-To’s, resources and support documents ahead of the plenary.

YSI Standard of Operations

The YSI Standard of Operations is the outcome of many months of the CRC’s work to provide ground rules for how the community is to be run. We’d like to thank you all for the invaluable input and feedback that you’ve provided in this process. The final version has been edited by YSI Management to reflect recent updates on the project feature and project funding rules. It will serve as key reference document that outlines our basic operating structures, and the roles and responsibilities in the administration of our community:

  • Role of coordinators and organizers
  • Outline of responsibilities, and decision-making
  • Coordinator term limits and nomination process
  • Working Group mandates
  • Funding criteria for projects

Please refer to this document if you have any concerns or doubts concerning operational procedures, decision-making in the community, and working group governance.

Next steps: Over the next months, we’ll schedule individual meetings with each working group to develop an annual mandate. The mandate outlines basic objectives, strategic opportunities and partnerships, and key projects, parts of which will be published on each working group page to help new members identify the basic trajectory of the working groups (see a mock mandate here).

Many have expressed the need to clarify the coordinator replacement process, which the YSI Standard of Operations now regulates. For the interim: If the existing coordinators have served more than two years to date, you may continue to serve until the next plenary in 2020. We will discuss a potential coordinator turnover with your working group directly.

The meetings will be scheduled according this timeline (click here); if you would like to change the rough timing of the meetings, please notify us.

Launch of Community Report Committee Advisory Teams

The CRC Advisory Teams over the next months will examine issues critical to our community’s development and long-term health. They are tasked with studying the given issues critically and comprehensively, and compile evidence that will inform us how to improve our structures and guidelines.

  • Early Career Challenges: Danilo Spinola, Cecilia Rikap (Launch: May 2019, prospective conclusion: October 2019)
  • Inclusiveness and Diversity: Magali Brosio / Economia Feminista (Launch: June 2019, prospective conclusion November 2019)
  • Innovative Academic Formats: Peter Bent (Launch May 2019, prospective conclusion November 2019)

Next steps: The CRC Advisory Teams will follow the General Framework for Addressing Community-Wide Concerns. As their work begins you will hear from the advisory teams directly. Also, feel free to get in touch with them at any time.The progress of the CRC Advisory Teams will be shared on a dedicated page on the YSD.

YSD Developments

Our YSD platform is also undergoing many updates and improvements. Since we launched our project feature in October, we now have about 70 projects active in YSI. We know that we are still going through growing pains, but rest assured that we are focused on making the platform as user friendly and pleasant to use as possible. Ahead of our upcoming plenary, we would like to invite the community (and YSI Core in particular) to help drive the next generation of features and enhance user engagement. To achieve this, we’ll soon be conducting a series of interviews, surveys from the full spectrum of the community. We count on you to provide ideas and feedback in this process!

Development of Guides and How-To’s

Ahead of the plenary, we will be developing resources and guidelines for the community. You can expect for instance a newcomers package, organizers handbooks, and project guidelines.

We are looking forward to taking the nexts steps with you!

All the best,

Maria (CRC)
Melissa (CRC)
Asgeir (Chair CRC)
Danilo (CRC)
Marcos (CRC)

Heske (YSI Management)
Thomas (YSI Management)
Jay (YSI Management)