For each Skype Meeting Activity, the following will occur:

    1.  GIN Student Admin Team Members will sign up for a Facilitation Role next to the far right column (ideally one they have not yet tried) if applicable. 

         a)  GIN Student Admin Team Meeting Facilitation: There are four facilitation roles. Youth Directors will act as GIN Student Admin Team Meeting Lead Facilitators initially and ask GIN Student Admin Team Members to sign up for remaining facilitator roles. Youth Directors will encourage GIN Student Admin Team Members to build skills in each Facilitation area. They will delegate GIN Student Admin Team Meeting Leadership to GIN Student Admin Team Members once all members have a clear understanding of GIN Student Admin Team Meeting Facilitation expectations.

    2.  A Slack Meeting Group Chat will be initiated by the Youth Directors or Meeting Facilitator(s) to discuss and determine availability and finally agree on a shared meeting date and time.

    3.  Youth Directors or Meeting Facilitator(s) will create and share a Google Survey for members to vote on the best time and date. A consensus is reached based on the option with the most votes. 

    4.  After coming to consensus, Youth Directors will send a Google Calendar Invitation for the agreed date and time to all meeting attendees.

         a)  Students, in their personal calendar, will maintain an organized Google Calendar that marks all running time commitments such as extracurricular activities or family time. If you are unsure what dates you are unavailable, ask your teachers, coaches, and parents/ legal guardians who do know. This will make it a lot easier for students to keep track of their time commitments and understand when they will be available and when they are not.

    5.  In case the student who signed-up as the Meeting Facilitator will not be able to attend the meeting, they will be responsible for asking another student to fulfill this role.

If a team member has a pre-existing conflict and is aware of it prior to the meeting, they are required to communicate their situation with GIN Staff as soon as possible. You will be expected to make GIN Directors aware of your planned absence by:

    •   Advocating with direct and timely communication of your needs, challenges and availability on the GIN Student Admin Meeting Group WhatsApp Group OR contacting GIN Directors preferably 48 hours prior to the meeting.

What does this mean? 

    •   Direct Language: Finding Solutions – If you know you will not be available during the proposed meeting day and time, share as many alternative days and timeframes as needed until your team can come to a consensus. Using direct and solution-oriented language will help your team find the best solution available. For example:

        ○   “I can meet Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays between 3:00-8:00 PM GMT or 8:00-9:00 AM GMT. What time would work best for everyone?”

    •   Timely Communication: Please advocate for your needs and challenges as soon as they arise. Communicating honestly and in a timely manner shows that we value the time and contributions of our fellow GIN Student Admin Team Members and GIN Staff.

    •   Finally, we do not need to know what you have scheduled or what kind of commitments you have. Do not feel obliged to share personal information. We respect your judgment, time and privacy and know that you will do your best to support your team given your commitments.

We have developed what we believe is a fair and supportive strategy that meets the needs of the student as well as the team. GIN Student Admin Team Members who 1) are not able to attend a meeting due to a pre-existing conflict 2) communicated and have tried to find an alternative time with the meeting group and 3) were not able to find a time that worked with their schedule, will follow the following protocol:

    1.  Record your voice responses to the discussion question(s) given in the Activity instructions (what you would have contributed in the Skype meeting). If you are unsure how to do this, see the tutorials below:

         a)  Macbook (Quicktime): Wikihow

         b)  Windows (Sound Recorder): Wikihow

         c)  IOS (Voice Memos): Apple Support

    2.  Upload this recording to Google Drive, enable link sharing, and send the link to your Meeting Group by copying and pasting the link to your voice recording in the Skype Meeting Group Chat.

         a)  If you are unsure as to how to upload a voice recording from a smartphone to Google Drive, please contact one of the Youth Directors.

    3.  Your team will play this recording after the meeting and respond to your ideas. These discussions will be recorded in the Notes section of the Meeting Agenda.

    4.  Read the Meeting Agenda and respond to the discussion through Google Comments.

Last minute absences are usually the result of last minute events that are not within our control. If you find yourself in an emergency, unexpected, or last-minute time conflict, please indicate that you will not be able to attend the meeting by either:

    •   Immediately communicating this through the WhatsApp Meeting Group OR to the Meeting Facilitator.

    •   Declining the GIN Google Calendar Invitation to the scheduled GIN GAP Meeting.

Then, follow the steps below to make up your work:

    1.  Follow Steps 1 & 2 from the GIN Student Admin Team Absentee Protocol, except that you will send the link to the Youth Directors.

    2.  The Youth Directors will listen to your comments. Occasionally these audios will be shared on the GIN Student Admin Team WhatsApp Group.

    3.  If the audio is shared on the WhatsApp Group, anyone who would like to respond will offer their comments. You will then summarize these responses in the Notes section of the GIN Student Admin Team Meeting Agenda.

GIN Student Admin Team Members are expected to attend all scheduled GIN Student Admin Team Skype meetings and communicate situations of scheduling conflicts. In general, team members who have more than two uncommunicated absences or have shown a pattern of absenteeism will be asked whether or not the GIN Student Admin Team is a priority. Upon sincere reflection and solution-oriented discussion, we will decide together whether it is best for the student to continue, with clear expectations and renewed accountability, or whether it is best for the student to step down from their position as a GIN Student Admin Team Member.

Of course, this will be handled on a case-by-case basis. We do realize that in the real world, emergencies and unexpected circumstances occur. We respect your choices and know that you are doing the best you can. We also want to support you in your endeavours. We expect that team members do their best to honor their GIN Student Admin Team commitment, roles, and responsibilities as local-global team members, leaders, and global citizens. That said, we work as a team, we have organizational objectives that must be met and depend on team members’ efforts. Everyone on our team must be dedicated and committed to making time to accomplish our joint goals as a global team. If you cannot find the time to participate fully as a GIN Student Admin Team member it may not be the best fit for you at this time, but we hope you will continue to grow your local-global impact as a GIN Project Leader or Conference Organizers.

In the case that a student is not a making GIN Student Admin a priority and demonstrates a clear lack of commitment with such behaviors as multiple unannounced and/or unexcused absences (2 or more absences), lack of follow up or follow through on teamwork and their responsibilities, we will share the following protocol below, ask the student to review and complete the reflection process and finally share their availability to meet for us to discuss their role on the team. The resource shown below helps students reflect on their behavior and thinking patterns, their past successes and strengths and potential solutions given their personal challenges. Along with the Youth Director and GIN Executive Director, the student will find solutions to ensure that they participate and contribute fully or will be asked to step down and pass the torch to a student who is ready to take over this student’s responsibilities. We do this with no judgment. We do this to ensure that the student and our team are finding the best way forward given our respective goals and needs.

We have developed what we believe is a fair and supportive strategy that meets the needs of the student as well as the team. GIN Student Admin Team Members who are not able to attend an Office Hours session will follow the following protocol:

    1.  Decline the GIN Student Admin Google Calendar Invitation to the scheduled GIN Student Admin Office Hours session.

    2.  Complete the Office Hours Form (https://forms.gle/pSpHznvQ61hPEqk4A) prior to the Office Hours session you will miss.

    3.  Follow up with the YDs via either WhatsApp or Email on any issues not mentioned in the form or that are time-sensitive.

Last minute absences are usually the result of last minute events that are not within our control. If you find yourself in an emergency, unexpected, or last-minute time conflict, please indicate that you will not be able to attend the meeting by:

    •   Declining the GIN Student Admin Google Calendar Invitation to the scheduled GIN Student Admin Office Hours Session.

Then, follow the steps below to make up your work as soon as possible:

    1.  Complete the Office Hours Form (https://forms.gle/pSpHznvQ61hPEqk4A) prior to the Office Hours session you will miss.

    2.  Follow up with the YDs via either WhatsApp or Email on any issues not mentioned in the form or that are time-sensitive

GIN Student Admin Team Members are expected to attend all mandatory Office Hours sessions and communicate situations of scheduling conflicts. In general, team members who have more than two uncommunicated absences or have shown a pattern of absenteeism will be asked to attend one of the next weekend’s Office Hours session in its entirety and use that time to check in with the OH’s facilitator as well as complete GIN Student Admin – related assignments and tasks.

If the student also misses this Office Hours session and/or returns to the pattern of absenteeism, they will be asked whether or not the GIN Student Admin Team is a priority. Upon sincere reflection and solution-oriented discussion, we will decide together whether it is best for the student to continue, with clear expectations and renewed accountability, or whether it is best for the student to step down from their position as a GIN Student Admin Team Member.

Of course, this will be handled on a case-by-case basis. We do realize that in the real world, emergencies and unexpected circumstances occur. We respect your choices and know that you are doing the best you can. We also want to support you in your endeavours. We expect that team members do their best to honor their GIN Student Admin Team commitment, roles, and responsibilities as local-global team members, leaders, and global citizens. That said, we work as a team, we have organizational objectives that must be met and depend on team members’ efforts. Everyone on our team must be dedicated and committed to making time to accomplish our joint goals as a global team. If you cannot find the time to participate fully as a GIN Student Admin Team member it may not be the best fit for you at this time, but we hope you will continue to grow your local-global impact as a GIN Project Leader or Conference Organizers.

In the case that a student is not a making GIN Student Admin a priority and demonstrates a clear lack of commitment with such behaviors as multiple unannounced and/or unexcused absences (2 or more absences), lack of follow up or follow through on teamwork and their responsibilities, we will share the following protocol below, ask the student to review and complete the reflection process and finally share their availability to meet for us to discuss their role on the team. The resource shown below helps students reflect on their behavior and thinking patterns, their past successes and strengths and potential solutions given their personal challenges. With the Youth Directors and the GIN Executive Director, the student will find solutions to ensure that they participate and contribute fully or will be asked to step down and pass the torch to a student who is willing and able to take on the responsibilities of a GIN Student Admin Team Member responsibilities. We do this with no judgment. We do this to ensure that the student and our team are finding the best way forward given our respective goals and needs.

The GIN Club leader(s) should determine the level of commitment that should be demonstrated by the club members. Setting a minimum time commitment or maximum number of absences is often problematic as students may face unexpected difficulties or situations that may hinder their commitment, but should not discourage them from participating in the club. When a student is not attending a considerable amount of meetings or is consistently demonstrating a lack of effort we do not judge their person or diminish their contributions.

We are not here to pass judgment, we are here to empower each other.

    •   We ask what we can do to support them in meeting their goals.

    •   We ask them what they see as their challenges and needs.

    •   We ask them to come up with a solution that meets these self-identified challenges and needs given the very real time constraints.

    •   Simply put, we learn from what has been done in the past to figure out how to make it work in the future.

    •   We ask them to be honest about where they are within the project process, whether this is a priority and lastly, if they realistically have the time to ensure they can successfully meet their goals.

    •   Ask to speak with the student when it is convenient. When asking the student for the problem-solving interview, clarify that it is for you (the club leaders) to better understand the student’s situation and how to support them best in the near future.

Solution-Oriented Problem-Solving Interview

This interview must be friendly and not interrogation-like.

    •   Is this a priority for you and will it be in the future?

    •   Do you have the time to manage your responsibilities?

        •   This is where we ask the student to open up their schedule and show where they have set aside time to fulfill their roles, responsibilities and expectations or discuss where they could schedule time to fulfill their roles, responsibilities and expectations.

If the answer is no to either or both of these questions, please see the switch roles and pass the torch below the interviews.

Exit Interview: Solution-Oriented Problem-Solving

We learn from all cases of a student exiting the GIN Student Admin Program prior to their completion of the learning process by conducting an Exit Interview to learn why this occurred and come up with systems or structures to prevent it from happening again.

Switching Roles: Solution-Oriented Problem-Solving

It may also be that the student who is opting out does not want to stop being involved but would be better suited as a team member and potentially, down the road, a lead support. We recommend that students try stepping down to a less intensive role and see if, as a team member, they feel that they can meet the expectations, roles and responsibilities asked of them.

Pass the Torch Exit Strategy: Solution-Oriented Problem-Solving

If this is not a priority for them, we do not cast judgment. We, simply, ask them to create a sustainable exit strategy that allows them to pass the torch to another student who wishes to take on this leadership role and is certain this is a priority. The student is then responsible for training and bringing the incoming lead up to date with the responsibilities of their role, the action plan, progress, challenges and next steps.

If the Student Determines That GIN IS a Priority

We ask the following questions to problem-solve a new way forward

GIN Student Admin Team Member Expectations

    •  GIN Student Admin Team Members are expected to attend all scheduled GIN Student Admin Team Skype meetings and communicate situations of scheduling conflict.

    •   In general, team members who have more than two uncommunicated absences will be asked whether or not the GIN Student Admin Team is a priority.

    •   Upon sincere reflection and solution-oriented discussion, we will decide together whether it is best for the student to continue, with clear expectations and renewed accountability, or whether it is best for the student to step down from their position as a GIN Student Admin Team Member.