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<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:0in">
<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Dear Student Group Leaders,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Please take note of the following announcements:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">-> </span><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">COVID-19 update and financial support<br>
-> GBM virtualization and rescheduling</span></i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">
<br>
<i>-> Student organization outreach to admitted students</i></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~//</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">COVID-19 update and financial support</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">As you may have seen in the email from SOLE yesterday, the administration has handed down the decision to SOLE and the ASA that any student
organization activity on campus after this Friday at 5 PM must be cancelled. SOLE has set up an FAQ here <https://studentlife.mit.edu/content/covid-19-student-organizations> to help answer questions, and are working with many groups already to address the
effects of the new Institute policies. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">We understand the financial hardship this places on many groups, and encourage any group that has been burdened with unrecoverable losses to
fill out this form <</span><a href="https://engage.mit.edu/submitter/form/start/393416"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">https://engage.mit.edu/submitter/form/start/393416</span></a><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">>.
We will be using that information to understand the scope of how groups are being affected by the new policies, and both SOLE and the ASA have committed reserve funding to help groups to the best of our abilities with these financial losses. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Groups that applied to the ASA for LEF and/or ARCADE funding received an email from the ASA Treasurer: winter cycle groups will not have their
allocations reversed due to the sudden nature of these decisions, and no spring cycle applications will be funded. As mentioned above, the funding that would have gone to LEF and ARCADE allocations this semester is being dedicated to alleviate the financial
losses groups are sustaining with the sudden cancellation of their events. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~//</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">GBM virtualization and rescheduling</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">The ASA is currently discussing how to best handle our General Body Meeting, which was scheduled to take place on April 6th and during which
the new ASA board will be elected. We value the conversations and feedback that take place during these meetings, and are exploring how to best virtualize this experience, whether with an extended format of presenting our changes and collecting feedback and
questions over a week and then presenting our responses and voting for members at the end, or with a virtual platform like Zoom. More information on those processes will be distributed as we decide what the best format would be. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">If you or anyone you know is interested in joining the board to help coordinate student group activities on campus, please reach out to the
ASA board at <asa-exec@mit.edu>!</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~//</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Student organization outreach to admitted students</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">With the cancellation of CPW, the ASA has begun to explore methods of allowing groups to still virtually reach out to admitted students through
a variety of methods - we are still determining the feasibility of some of our ideas, but are dedicated to ensuring that student groups can still advertise and interact with admitted students. Stay tuned for more information as those plans develop!</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~//</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:0in">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Please take care of yourself and those around you during these times: we all are experiencing how stressful and sudden these changes are, and both the ASA and SOLE are here to support
student groups in any way we can as the situation develops. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Best regards,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">The ASA Executive Board</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:0in">
<a href="http://asa.mit.edu/about-asa/board-members"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#954F72">http://asa.mit.edu/about-asa/board-members</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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