Regular Tasks
These are the tasks that do not have specific deadlines, but rather recur regularly throughout the semester
Lectures/Classes
There are several key topics to cover in every lecture: assignments, schedule, updates. Always write out a list of announcements for every lecture that include what each team member should already know from reading the syllabus (what's due soon, what days you're having class in the upcoming week, etc). You will also get occasional emails about events and opportunities that might interest the team, and class announcements are the perfect time to share those. Also give a brief update on the progress being made in Honduras whenever possible. The AguaClara engineers in Honduras post AguaClara Engineer Progress Reports approximately every week, which are great to summarize for the class.
Wiki Clean-Up
Check the wiki home page occasionally and make sure it does not get out-dated or too busy.
Forums
The team needs to have occasional forums. These are discussion class periods. You should bring a list of discussion questions to the forum to help steer it. Always bring more questions than you need to make sure time isn't wasted. Forums are a great opportunity for the leaders to get together and figure out how they can better fit their teams together. Every team overlaps in some way with at least one other team, and forum is the time to explore those connections.
Sample Forum Prompts
- What's something as a leader that you're proud of? i.e. team wasn't doing x, you changed y, now it's working well...
- What's something you're frustrated with?
- What is your team working on right now? 2 minute update, include any breakthroughs, etc
- Questions about assignments?
- Suggestions for making things work better
- What are the other teams that might have overlapping ideas or projects with yours?
- What questions do you have for other teams?
- What information do you need from other teams?
- What training exercised helped you the most (for new members)
- What was something successful that your team did to help train new members?
- What would help your team become more successful?
- Where should we be going in the next 5 years?
- What contacts do you think would help us the most right now, assuming we could get in touch with any person or group in the world?
Pictures
Try to take pictures regularly throughout the semester of class, students working, presentations, etc. They are good to have for posters, PR, etc. Post them on the cuaguaclara Picasa account.