MODULE 3 - Section 5

Creating a Schedule

15 Minutes to complete section and related assignments

In this section you will learn:

The basics of creating a schedule for a short-term team
Tips for starting to create a schedule
How to incorporate rest into the schedule

The goal of creating a team schedule is to maximize the potential impact of a team while in the community. By giving a structure to their time, we create intentional spaces for the team to connect with locals, invest in community development and experience where God is at work.

In this module, you have already covered all the key elements that will create the basis for a team schedule:

Lodging
Meals
Transportation
Orientation
Final Debrief

Daily Debrief
Community Engagement Activities
Rest Days/Times
Cultural Activities

This section will be devoted to creating a schedule. Below is a sample schedule to get you started. You will see that it contains the major elements of a short-term team.

The Goal of a Team Schedule

Creating a Schedule

Imagine a short-term team and the time they spend in the community like a glass jar. Their engagement, much like the glass jar, has limits and is contained within a finite period of time.

The foundational aspects of a short-term team are like larger rocks put into the jar. Start with these when creating your schedule. Complimentary activities are like pebbles that naturally fill in the remaining space.

When building out the team schedule, we recommend starting with the “non-negotiables” such as arrival/departure times and meals. Based on a team’s arrival time, schedule in an appropriate time for introductions and an orientation. Prior to a team’s departure, be sure to build in time for their final debrief. Within the other spaces provided, build in community engagement activities, meal locations, periods of rest and daily team debrief time.

tips to consider

Use a schedule format that is easy for you to navigate, read, and edit.
If a team arrives late at night/early in the morning after a red eye flight, build in time to rest and become acclimated before jumping into orientation and activities.
When building in any type of activity/event, calculate time for transportation to and from the event.
If the culture of your community is “event-oriented”, build in extra time for delayed start times of activities or projects. Don’t overschedule the day.
If possible, alternate light and heavy days to converse the team’s energy and your own
Only share the full schedule with the team leader, and let them decide whether to share it with the rest of the team

Consider any activities your community/team participates in on a weekly basis and how a short-term team might participate in those pre-existing activities.
Consider alternative events/projects and record them somewhere. Just as we ask teams to be flexible, part of the ability to be a flexible host-coordinator is to be prepared if something forces a change to the schedule.
If you expect other staff to participate in an activity, make sure they are available before scheduling it.
If the short-term team includes returners from a previous team, include things that would be new for them.
Each section of this module contains additional insights into each of the key schedule elements above.

Rest Time

It is important that teams have adequate time to process what they are seeing and experiencing in order to be fully present. Rest periods or even full rest days allow team members rejuvenation from travel, adapting to another environment and processing what they are experiencing. Team members are experiencing high visual, auditory, and physical loads as they enter into a new culture and experience.

Just as a daily debrief does this for the heart and mind, times of rest incorporate the body into this process. The way you choose to incorporate rest times/days into a team schedule will look different depending on the length of a team stay, but should always be present in some form.

Building Rhythms of Rest into the Schedule

Rest and reflection are vital elements of rhythms each day
Reflect for the team what healthy rhythms look like in your context
Model how to process new things through conversation and daily debrief
Reflect the value of relationship and partnership by pacing each day. “Doing” does not equal “Accomplishing.”
Intentionally schedule times of rest for you and the team and monitor if additional rest is needed as you progress through their visit.