rwalker54 – BLT

Elements of Teamwork

1. Teamwork has to be well-managed

A Basque Leadership Team needs a Team Leader—a person who guides or directs the group. Remember, he/she points a group in a specific direction; focuses them on a goal. A leader not only monitors progress but escorts the group to the finish line. The leader knows they way.

2. A balanced team structure is essential

Qualified leadership
Succinct directions to achieve and understanding of stated goal
Clearly defined roles and responsibilities
Team members with the skills to achieve the roles
Scheduled team assessments

3. A full range of knowledge and skills are necessary

Clearly defined responsibilities and qualifications provide the particular structure necessary to achieve the purpose/goal. Diversity in skills is never so essential than on a team. For example, who can oversee the Picasa site? Who will train the interns? Who knows if we have any money left? Who was supposed to buy the food? These questions can be most efficiently accomplished from a team approach.

4. Team members must be committed to the mission

What IS the mission? Has it clearly been stated and defined?
Is the team committed? Do we possess a consistent devotion?
Does the team trust the means? In this case, do they trust the program?
Team members must work hard at “team.”

An efficient Basque Leadership Team will be a group of people with a full set of complementary skills necessary to complete the JOY TEEN standardized program. They will operate with a high degree of interdependence, share authority and responsibility for self-management, and will be accountable for the collective performance. An effective BLT will work toward the common goal and shared rewards, generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of an individual member.

Who pays for what during the Summer Program

During the interview of the Basque student and parents, our goal is to set clear expectations of what is included in the cost of the program and what is not. It is important for the reputation of the JOY TEEN English immersion program that American host families and coordinators, as well as the Basque families are of the same understanding and expectations.

This is how we explain it to our Basque families:

 Most of the planned activities and outings that the student will participate in will be free, as they are covered under the cost of the program. These activities have the objective of creating relationships between the American families and the Basque students, and may include: BBQ’s, water sports day at the lake, bike rides, hikes, trips to a shopping mall, etc.

 Some group activities are not included in the cost of the program, such as paintball, bowling, movies, etc. These activities will be optional but if the student chooses to participate they will need to pay.

 The planned group outing to the city will be at the cost of the student: transportation costs, food and any activities such as museums, ferris wheel, etc. Some of the activities available, such as the Duck Tour or a baseball game, is expensive and will be optional and the coordinators/monitors will help provide other chaperoned opportunities in lieu of the costly activity. For example, if the group is in Seattle for the city day, and half the group wants to pay to go on the Duck Ride but half the group doesn’t, there will be an American adult that will go with the group on the Duck Ride, and another American adult that will go with the other group to a less costly or free activity.

 As far as housing and food, when the student is with the family, everything is included: housing, transportation, activities, and food, including eating at restaurants. Basically, the Basque student IS one of the family members and is included free of charge in whatever the family is doing.

Exception: personal items or gifts will be the financial responsibility of the student.

 If the student participates in an outing or activity without the host family, they will be responsible for paying. For example, if the student goes by himself with friends, with the monitors, etc, the cost of that outing will be at his expense.

 We tell the parents to send with the student $300 more or less , depending on the amount of shopping they plan to do. We say that $100 should be sufficient to cover any activities/outings that they will need to pay for, and the rest can be used for spending money. For this reason, expensive outings should not be offered since the Basque families are only planning on spending $100 for additional activities.

** At the orientation meeting in the USA, the coordinators should tell the students that $100 of their money needs to be saved for costs of activities throughout the month.

It is important to help the student understand the costs of the outings that will be offered in that HBC throughout the month. Although the idea is to have surprises, and therefore not share the calendar with them, the students do need to have an idea of what the upcoming costs may be. This way the students can budget and save the money for activities planned later in the month. If not, the student will spend all their money up front and be frustrated at the end that they cannot participate in optional group activities.

Maybe the students can vote on outings they want to accomplish/do during the month that would be outside of the planned, family activities.

** Also, before every activity, the student needs to be told whether the activity is required or optional, whether it is free or at the expense of the student. If the event is required, it should be free.

Cell Phone Use Policy

Because cell phone usage by Basque students have been a problem in the past we have created an Electronic Use Policy.

Having said this, coordinators and interns need to monitor the American teens and interns use of their cell phones and devices during their time with students. We do not want to have double standards.

Please communicate with American’s to carefully assess whether a student is abusing the policy or just using the device as a camera or contacting their American family. Teach them not to jump to conclusions, Ask questions first. Be sure to download the policy and have a discussion with your helpers on this subject.

The Basque students and their parents have read this policy and agree to abide by its content.

Contact Rick Walker if you have any questions or help in enforcing the policy.

Here is a video you could download and use for Orientation Meeting:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u3BRY2RF5I]

SUMMER FLOW

Summer activities have a flow.

Required activities would be: Click on the hyperlinks to get more information.

Airport arrival. Have a sign with Kaixo and their first name painted on it.
The Orientation on the first full day
The Welcome dinner on the first or second full day
The camp preparation
Camp Experience
The Basque dinner close to the end of the month.

The beginning of the month is highly programmed. This is to help families and students through the awkwardness of the first days. Inviting interns to help make the transition is encouraged. Families can participate or not in the non-required activities but there are opportunities for them. Participation by families depends on the individual family relational comfort level. Besides easing the getting acquainted time, activities are also designed to develop relationships and a sense of team among the kids going to camp.

How students get placed

To help you better understand how we get students to:

Home Bases

All our students are placed in what we call a home base. A home base consists of 8 to 10 students but at times we include 12 people. There is a coordinator at each home base. This person is responsible for finding wonderful families for each student and for planning a summer program.

Student USA Arrival Dates

The best way for a summer program to work is to have the students at each home base to arrive on the same flight. All the the families from each home base are at the airport to greet the students. They all feel like a team so it is wonderful to have the families from each home base together at the airport

Program

Each home base provides a program for the students. It really starts the minute the student gets off the plane. All the families from each home base are together and cheering for the students. Usually the next day, there is an orientation to the summer and a big welcome dinner. That is why it is important for each home base to arrive together. This will help you explain to students who have friends on different flights how we arrange the flights and why friends could possibly not fly together. One thing about the program is that we only have 4 required activities. We do provide other things to do BUT the American parents decide what they will do. Some parents have other activities planned.

Student Placements

We try to place students in home bases with great care. Some of our principles are:

1. With very few exceptions, students return to the same families. (With the family’s permission)

2. Relatives of students usually go to the same home base as their relative (sister/cousin) but not necessarily the same family

3. If a friend was at formerly at a home base, we try to place that student at the same home base

4. If there is some compelling (to compel is the verb) reason to place a student at a specific home base (for example the student is allergic to dogs or the student has very specific food needs) we look for a family who can take care of those needs and the student is placed in that home base.

5. We try NOT to put friends together because it makes it more difficult for them to speak English. When some kids only talk to each other in Spanish or Basque, it gives permission for all students to not speak in English.

This does three things:

1. It wastes their parents’ money. The parents are sending students for an English fluency experience

2. It frustrates the Americans who are trying to honor the wishes of the Basque parents

3. It makes the American teens who are a part of our program feel left out.

The Aaron and Hur Prayer Team

Purpose

The Prayer Team is to serve as the power tool to hold up Basque ministry people in prayer. Exodus 17:8-13 describes a battle between the children of Israel and the Philistines in which Moses was instructed to sit over the battlefield with his arms raised. When his arms were pointed upwards to heaven, the Israelites would win, when he lowered his arms to earth, the Israelites would begin to lose. Aaron and Hur served as Moses’ support team, to keep his arms raised upwards to God, the source of strength and help.

The Prayer Team is structured with this concept in mind. The Bible clearly teaches that “the battle is the Lord’s” (I Samuel 17:47, II Chronicles 20:15-17, Zechariah 4:6,Romans 8:31, 37). In that sense, the battle is a spiritual one between the forces of heaven and the forces of evil. Our Basque ministry people are like Moses, called to preside over the battle and point men towards Jesus Christ who is the only source of help and hope. The Prayer Team is like Aaron and Hur, committed to support them in practical ways so they may raise up God’s standard in their area of ministry to the Basque.

Objective

The Prayer Team is to attempt to fulfill the following to the glory of God along with the help of the Basque Leadership Team.
Select one person to be the coordinator for the Prayer Team. This person should be designated as the Prayer Coordinator on the Basque Leadership Team.
Select seven or more members to form the Prayer Team for the duration of the year. Each member of the Prayer Team is to select a day of the week on which they will pray for the Basque mission team and those involved in the ministry to the Basque. This will insure that Basque Ministry people are consistently held up in their area of ministry to the Basque.
The Prayer Team should begin meeting together regularly on a monthly basis.
The Prayer Team coordinator should convene the monthly prayer times and serve as the communication link between the Basque Leadership Team and the Prayer Team throughout the year.
The Prayer Coordinator and Prayer Team members should find replacements if it is necessary to leave the team so there is no weakness in the Prayer Team’s ministry.
The Prayer Team coordinator should serve as a liaison to the greater church body with special prayer requests, praises, needs, etc. Prayer requests and praises should also be called into the church office or communicated to the Home Base Congregation in the appropriate manner.

Activities must promote English

Whole Family, Members of a Family, intern or American Koadrilla

The principle in all activities is to keep English as the spoken language. For that reason, there always must be Americans at any activity. These native English speakers are willing to interject themselves into a Basque, Spanish, French speaking circle to encourage English. It is out of respect and relationship that the kids will switch languages.

Sometimes activities are whole family activities. As such, they need to be highly structured to include from the oldest to the youngest and to keep the family together as a unit. Examples of this are the Welcome Dinner and the Basque Dinner. Whole family activities are an important part of the summer experience but take a lot of thought.

Sometimes an activity is not appropriate for the whole family. In that case, we always include those parts of the family who can participate. An example would be a trip to Seattle; we believe a trip like this would be appropriate for all kids in a family who could do extensive walking. Another example might be a slumber party – any same sex teens from the family should be made welcome. If an activity is appropriate for a member of a family, that member should come knowing people want them to feel a part of what is happening.

Sometimes an activity is more appropriate for just teens and not all families have teens. In this case, we include the Intern or American Koadrilla (see American koadrilla) who are at all activities but in this type of activity they take a leading role. Examples of this would be a trip to a Drive-In? movie; late night bowling or a game night in someone’s home.

How to find successful families?

Successful families defined

A successful family is one that understands the call and executes it under the Lordship of Christ. Some successful families make a fantastic connection with its Basque child. Some successful families never make the connection. The success of a family is not determined by the connection made with the child. A successful family believes that this experience is God’s will and faithfully experiences all that He offers in that call.

Successful families have similar gifts

As believers God blesses us all with gifts to use in ministering to the world. The gifts and family characteristics that work best in this program are:

Flexibility: the ability to go with the flow; the ability to listen to different opinions; the ability to accept a broad range of people.
Hospitality: by this we do not mean the ability to entertain but the ability to invite others in and make them feel welcome.
Missional: by this we mean families accept that what they are doing is part of a greater whole. They are not participating in an independent one-time getting to know someone from another culture but are desirous of seeing their faith work out in the summer relationship with the Basque student.

Successful families cannot be categorized

Do not let economic status, family status or theology limit your choices.
Families do not necessarily have kids. Some of the best families we have had have been grandparents or childless.
Families do not have to have teens. While teens can be a great asset if they understand the mission, if they don’t or are uncomfortable participating, it makes for a long month. Often the best “at-home” kids are elementary age as the Basque student feels comfortable socially and linguistically and someone from another place fascinates the elementary age student.

Also, empty-nest couples, especially with young adult children or extended family, work well.

Families do not have to have all the bells and whistles. A Basque kid needs a family that has a place in their heart for him or her. They need a bed in a room that can be shared; they don’t need a swimming pool, a vacation house or to be escorted in a fancy car.
Families are theologically defined by the following: unity on the essentials (there is a God; Christ is the son of god who died and was resurrected for the sins of individuals) freedom on the non-essentials (how to baptize, how to worship etc) and love over all.