GIN Student Admin Team Code of Conduct
Team Core Values
– Each individual is working to build their individual skills as leaders, team members, learners, educators, and community organizers.
– We are all committed to developing and strengthening a solution-oriented mindset.
– We are committed to the practice of lifelong learning for the purpose of bettering ourselves and empowering our local-global community.
– Everyone’s voice is valued and encouraged.
– We are all activated, empathetic global citizens.
– We have zero tolerance for discriminatory, hateful and harmful language and behavior on our team.
– We trust that everyone on the team will respect the thoughts, feelings and ideas of others.
– We trust our team to share when and how we consider learning more to expand our understanding and strengthen our ability to empathize and problem-solve.
– Each individual is working to support their team members in developing their personal goals and skills as leaders, team members, learners, educators, and community organizers. Each individual commits to respectfully communicating and problem-solving in support of their team member’s individual and team needs.
– Each individual commits to respectfully self-advocating and communicating their needs and challenges in a timely manner. Each individual is communicating what learning goals and skills they want to support with and how.
– By committing to your role as a GIN Student Admin Team Member, you have agreed to make GIN Student Admin a priority and fulfill the time expectation for GIN Student Admin Team listed above.
– You will be expected to work independently and outside of team meetings to ensure that you meet deadlines. This can look like reviewing and giving feedback to materials before meetings.
– Professionalism is a reflection of how we value our work and the time and contributions of our fellow GIN Student Admin Team members and GIN Staff.
– Respect: GIN Student Admin Team members are expected to treat one another with respect.
– Honoring the time of others
– Add all newly shared documents into a shared folder with editing permissions for the whole team
– Commit to centralizing and organizing all GIN Student Admin Team materials in the aforementioned folder, unless otherwise stated.
– Students are expected to actively check and respond to their Gmail email address.
– In addition, students will be required to join a GIN Student Admin Slack Group. As this is a communal digital space, it is important to ensure that we are using appropriate and supportive language with one another.
– To a lesser extent, students will also be expected to use a Skype account for group calls and collaborative assignments.
– Determine as individuals and as a team, what dates/periods of time one will be unavailable.
– You will be expected to communicate needs and challenges as they arise to ensure we are solution-oriented and support each other in meeting our goals successfully.
– If you miss two consecutive deadlines without explanation or approval of an extension, then we will ask to have a Natural Consequences Meeting with you where we clarify expectations and make agreements.
– If you have two Natural Consequences Meeting for the same project within 6 months, you may be asked to step down into a lesser role.
– If in the process of examining and mapping out your time you discover that you do not realistically have the time to commit to the GIN Student Admin Team, or if being a GIN Student Admin Team Member is not a priority, you need to communicate this and let another student take ownership. Being part of a team takes time and hard work. There are no shortcuts, and your efforts have a real impact so please take your commitment seriously as many people are counting on you.
– There are times where life happens and you are not able to continue, if this is the case, you will be expected to pass the torch and train another student who is interested in the role.
Team Behaviors
Hold a belief in their team as capable with respect and trust; actively lead from behind. Encouraging personal strengths and supporting personal challenges.
Actively communicate clarifications, concerns, ideas, and difficulties.
Driven to rise to the challenge.
Interest in critical feedback, suggestions for improvement, and collaborative problem-solving.
Passion to create, develop and foster sustainable solutions at a local-global level.
Lifelong commitment and drive to learn and grow your knowledge and understanding of self and the world around you.
How Do You Make Sure to Contribute Equally?
Extensions and Absences
The restorative justice model is a method of conflict resolution popularized by Howard Zehr and Ali Gohar using the thinking and cultural practices of the indigenous First Nations and Maori together with Albert Elgash, an American psychologist. The term restorative justice, along with the similar conflict resolution methods of retributive and distributive justice, was first coined by Elgash as methods of creative restitution in his 1958 article titled “Creative Restitution: Its Roots in Psychiatry, Religion and Law.”
Zehr’s book, Changing Lenses – A New Focus for Crime and Justice, published in 1990, was one of the first to contextualize the restorative justice model. The book explored the positive results Howard Zehr, Mark Umbreit, and Ron Claassen made when they pioneered victim-offender mediation, which worked in a similar way to the restorative justice model developed earlier by Elgash. After the book was published, the restorative justice model grew in popularity and a 2007 study showed that using the restorative justice model ensures more satisfaction from those victimized, more accountability from those who offended, and fewer of potential reoffending. Today the restorative justice model is an integral part of organizations such as GIN, which wish to approach conflicts in ways that put empathy at the front, restore harmony, and encourage growth and healing in those who offend and those who were harmed. We do this by aiming to help those who offend take responsibility for their actions, empathetically understand why and how they have caused harm, and most importantly, offer an opportunity for self-reflection and growth to prevent them from causing harm in the future. For those who have been victimized, our goal is to support and meet their needs during the healing process and make sure that the steps we take in resolving the conflict reduce possible feelings of powerlessness, anxiety, fear, confusion, and any other negative feelings associated with being harmed. We empower by providing a platform and an opportunity for those who were victimized to be a part of the solution and consequence-building process. We ask both those who offend and those who were harmed to focus on what will prevent, address, and heal the harm done to regain community or team trust.
– If students are traveling or unable to fulfill their roles and responsibilities during an extended period of time, they are required to communicate their plans with GIN Staff as soon as possible to create a sound and supportive exit and entry strategy that meets the needs of the student as well as the team.
– If the role of the students requires ongoing participation, then the student will employ project management best practices by onboarding, training and collaborating with students willing to take on and share their responsibilities.
– Students will maintain an organized Google Calendar that marks all running time commitments to other roles or extracurricular activities. It is important to inform us of times, dates or time frames as you become aware of them where you will be unable to contribute fully for any of the following reasons including but not limited to: exam dates, travel, or extracurricular activities that conflict with regular team meetings. If you are unsure what dates you are unavailable, ask your teachers, coaches, and parents/ legal guardians in order to help you figure this out.
– This is extremely important to the success of the team, so make sure to track this information down as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
– Keep your calendar updated for the purposes of communicating conflicting dates with the team when necessary.
– If the student believes that they will not be able to complete an assignment on time they must contact their Department Head and may request an extension. Students must request extensions at least 48 hours prior to the deadlines of assignments.
We ask what we can do to support our team members in meeting their goals, we also ask students what they see as their challenges and needs. We suggest them to come up with solutions that meet these self-identified challenges and needs, given the very real time constraints. 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. If this is not a priority for them, we do not cast judgment. We suggest 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. 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 GIN Intern-Special Projects Member. We recommend that students try this role on and see if as a GIN Intern-Special Projects Member they feel that they can meet the expectations, roles, and responsibilities asked of them.
The Natural Consequences Protocol uses restorative justice approaches to creating empathetic action plans that empower team members to contribute fully. The accountability agreement protocol aims to help our team constructively discuss what expectations are not being met, next best steps to taking individual responsibility for our actions to restore trust within our team, building support systems for accountability and an action plan that determines how we will overcome challenges.
GIN Student Admin Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities
WE ARE A TRANSGENERATIONAL GLOBAL VOLUNTEER-POWERD TEAM
GIN Volunteer opportunities empower GIN students to co-create the world they wish to live in as leaders of today. GIN Volunteers understand that when they join the Global Issues Network, they join a transgenerational global team made up of volunteers of all ages, working to create a global culture of collaboration and shared learning that builds shared solutions and grows our global impact. Each GIN Volunteer shares their knowledge and expertise as members of a global community committed to fostering a global culture of inclusive problem-solving. GIN Volunteers understand that their donation of time, energy and what they create, empowers the GINetwork to learn from, utilize and build off of their contributions. Each GIN Student is asked to recognize and honor the fact that this opportunity was afforded to them because of the efforts of GIN Volunteers who came before them. We invite GIN Volunteers to contribute in this fashion to create access to free and ongoing learning for the purpose of inclusive and sustainable progress.
VOLUNTEERING AS A GIN ADMIN VOLUNTEER
GIN Volunteers understand that they are volunteering to share and contribute their work:
You understand that everything that you create is seeded from GIN community identified needs and challenges and will be coordinated and created at the direction of GIN Staff, in collaboration with, under the guidance and supervision of GIN Staff in support of GINetworks, for the purpose of supporting GIN Programs and empowering GIN Students.
GIN Student Admin Volunteers work directly with or under the supervision of GIN Staff and experts to create resources, materials, and systems that support global programs.
GIN Admin Volunteer Team Members share their expertise and donate their body of GIN work while volunteering on teams that are directly building GIN programs, materials, resources and systems of support that empower our global Network.
GIN Volunteers contribute to our shared GINstory and legacy so that future generations of GIN Students may learn and build their own GIN legacy.
You understand that GIN has created an opportunity for you to lead, co-create and co-develop GIN programs and resources for students and volunteers like yourself who wish to make a difference and empower changemakers.
GIN Admin and Program Volunteers create space for, facilitate, lead and manage Network programs that inspire and nurture collaboration within our local-global communities.
WHY DO WE DONATE AS GIN ADMIN VOLUNTEERS
Why do GIN Volunteers who work directly with us donate their work to GIN?
GIN Admin Volunteers are granted the ability to have their voice heard, lead and shape our organization. As an outcome of this desire and opportunity, GIN Admin Volunteers understand their duty to donate their contribution to GIN if they wish to see their work and energies utilized and embedded into future operations as recognized GIN Org Leaders; freedom to learn from our past to empower progress, evolve and partner in ways that value multiperspectivity with student as thought and impact leaders.
Creates the ability for GIN to continue to offer GIN Leadership positions to young GIN Volunteers; enables new GIN Volunteer Leaders to learn from each evolution of the GIN Admin Team; access to learning from past students enriches and enables the success of present GIN Student leaders with no time or energy wasted on “recreating the wheel.”
Continued GINnovation; if GIN holds ownership rights of all created GIN Materials, all GIN Students are free to access, learn from, utilize, reiterate/contextualize past materials to create relevant and current resources for the purpose of growing empowerment; the freedom to use individual and team contributions to continue to empower GIN Changemakers around the world.
GIN Volunteers donate their work for the greater benefit and purpose of the GIN Community as learners and changemakers so that we may individually and collectively learn from the changemakers who came before us; what worked, what didn’t, what potentials we have yet to try and innovate.
Volunteers understand that their donation of time, innovation and work product contributes to the sustainability and efficacy of GIN programs as each volunteer’s contribution creates a foundation of learning and potential for development of next steps or further innovation.
Volunteers understand that their contribution will be used directly or as a starting point for students that come after them to utilize for the purpose of learning how to best build GIN materials, learning processes, systems, policies, frameworks, projects, community teams, clubs, networks, and protocols to empower youth around the world.
By taking up this Volunteer and or Internship Position you acknowledge that you are donating your time and work to Global Issues Network to ensure students who volunteer after you exit who will build upon what you create and develop to empower students around the world, as you did when you came onboard.
GIN Student Admin Volunteers donate time and expertise to refining and formulating new ways to empower from ideation to delivery of programs, services and resources. We ask our GIN Student Admin Volunteers to help us reimagine what is possible; to revisit and reexamine the thinking, strategies and methodologies we use to formulate, develop and organize our ideas and changemaker programs. GIN Members who are invited to volunteer to further the GINetwork mission on global, regional and local administrative levels are trusted to safeguard and challenge our learning process as an organization. We see GIN Student Admin Volunteers as leaders of our global community who support and empower local, regional and global networks and impact.
– GIN Student Admin Volunteers who learn from and lead a variety of GIN Programs and Activities to include but are not limited to: GIN Global Program Admin Teams, Activities, Projects, Classes, Conferences and Networks.
– GIN students, educators, administrators and experts in their field who contribute in service of GIN’s mission to share their expertise and experience with our GINetwork of learners and changemakers to increase capacity, deepen understandings, and share effective strategies to grow our individual and collective impact.
All work created on GIN administrative and programmatic levels, by GIN Admin Volunteers will be expected to be left with and owned by GIN. GIN Admin Volunteers understand that as GIN Volunteer Team Members, upon creation and submission they are donating their work and its ownership to the Global Issues Network. GIN Admin Volunteers understand that they have volunteered to directly contribute and build GIN Resources for the purpose of directly serving GIN organizational purposes and stakeholders. GIN Admin Volunteers understand that they are not only furthering GIN’s Mission in their time as volunteers but that they are gifting their work and sharing their expertise for the benefit of future GIN Leaders who will undoubtedly learn from and build off of the foundations and scaffolding created from one year to the next.
GIN School Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities
Every GIN Volunteer around the world is working to further the GINetwork Mission by stepping up to the challenge of building local, regional, global teams and networks that are all collaborating on solutions to our shared global issues. Youth-led and educator-mentored GIN Projects and School Communities succeed because they collaborate and rely on the passion, the combined energies of stakeholders, and the learning gained and shared from year to year. GIN School Program Volunteers understand that they publish their body of work to share their GIN learning and legacy with their local-global community and a network of GIN changemakers. GIN Volunteers contribute their GIN legacy so that future generations of GIN Students may learn and build their own legacy.
GIN School Programs, Project, Club and School learning processes are published and shared to ensure that individual, team and community learning can continue to be accessible to the greater GINetwork. GIN School Program Volunteers who learn from and lead a variety of GIN Activities: GIN Projects, Clubs, Classes, Conferences and Networks.
GIN-School Admin, Projects and Activities Student Team Volunteers (Volunteer Category 4) understand that they have a responsibility to:
– nurture and empower our GINetwork to grow our impact locally, regionally and globally;
– use GIN Best Practices to ensure shared purpose, action with integrity and the safety of all their volunteers
– publish their learning process, outcomes and impact as a result of each GIN Project Team’s directive described in GIN’s mission and benefiting from the use of GIN Programs and Materials; “to create project-based sustainable and inclusive solutions for our shared global issues.”
– *IMPORTANT:* We do NOT seek to own GIN Project Team solutions created by our GIN Project Teams. Rather, we seek to publish and share solutions. This means that upon submission you have released the contents of the submission for publication on the GIN Platform. We ask GIN Members to understand that sharing solutions and their learning process are one of the many responsibilities and expectations we hold of all of our GIN Members; to engage as collaborative global citizens who share their learning process to inspire their local-global community and generate greater impact with each challenge overcome and each success celebrated.
GIN Schools and GIN Mentors (Volunteer Category 5) nurture, empower and safeguard our young changemakers as GIN School Program Volunteers. We see GIN School Communities as epicenters for catalyzing change.
– GIN Schools support learning how to engage as actively global citizens through empathetic action within their local-global community.
– GIN Schools create space for change models to be studied, implemented, measured, innovated and replicated in collaboration with our local-global communities.