TEAM MEMBER SKILL INVENTORY

(Areas individual members can contribute/want to develop. Provide specific details)

I would love to contribute by creating a space where all ideas and thoughts are welcome and we play on each other’s strengths. I would love to keep cultivating the skill of communication as this is very pertinent to our group’s wellbeing. I also would love to develop a deeper understanding of economics since I come from a science-based background.

I agree with focusing on each other’s strengths. For the week 2 discussion: If someone can find quality articles the assignment’s criteria for me, then I am skilled at taking notes on the articles. If someone else can put the notes together into a written composition for me, I can do the final edit. I can also write or edit the introduction for us. Our communication is stellar so far. Let’s keep that up.

I have an economics and philosophy background rather than a science one. My academic background is political philosophy and then I have some work experience in the residential renewable energy sector. I also have international travel and education practicum experience. I want these to be the lenses I provide comments on when reviewing our group’s written pieces. (-MF)

TEAM GOALS

(May include grade goal, project assignment goals, group process goals, quality level goals, etc.)

Ideally obtain best possible grade by fulfilling guidelines outlined in the rubric for each assignment. (We can achieve this by delegating someone to go through the rubric before we turn each assignment in to ensure we didn’t miss anything – MF) Blue group seems to come from different educational backgrounds with varying work experiences. We should utilize our diversity by providing different perspectives in our discussions and assignment problem solving. (We can have each group member declare the lenses it’s going to bring to the table. Then, each of our written pieces can have an aspect of each lens in it. – MF)

Staying efficient on our quality control and making sure we can provide each other with the best possible information when we need it. (When we read each other’s contributions to the group draft forum, let’s constantly be posting an edited version of what we just read. That way, we’re never reading with complacency and always improving. Make sure to follow the criteria for acceptable articles so we don’t end up producing something and having to delete it because our sources aren’t valid. Also, timeliness is important. Make sure if someone asks for something, do it right after reading the request so we don’t have to compromise our quality due to rushing at the end. – MF)

I think it will be great to have an email thread to discuss what Connor said above about bringing together our best perspectives throughout our varying backgrounds. (Instead, I’m proposing we stay efficient with putting our chatting in the minimum amount of forums as possible. Unless we need to send something that the canvas chat doesn’t allow, let’s put everything in the canvas group thread we are posting the charter edits into. That way, we can make it easier on ourselves in terms of staying organized. – MF)

Develop a stimulating discussion by finding articles about topics that are particularly interesting to the students in this course. – MF

Clearly outline a process of getting the week 2 discussion done at the beginning. For example, identify which group members are going to do what tasks) so that the rest of the time we’ll just be fulfilling the initial plan. – MF

What are potential barriers to the achievement of these goals? How will the barriers be minimized? Also Identify personal barriers for each team member, such as work conflicts, known absences, child care or other family member’s needs, etc.

Blue group is spread out around the country in different time zones. Establishing an agreed upon communication method with an emergency method seems necessary. Ideally email being the primary means of communication with a texting/calling being for immediate needs. We need to be ahead of deadlines, so we are not rushing into finishing our group projects. (I agree we need to establish a group universal time zone. Let’s just do Denver’s time zone since it goes along with when our assignments are due. We definitely need to stay ahead especially considering our deadlines the first out of all the groups – MF)

Another potential barrier would be that we are all in different parts of our lives and we all have to take that into consideration. I personally will be working full time, potentially 50 hours a week, so I will do my best to be at my group’s disposal. Like Connor said above, we need to start early and have efficient communication while we work on projects.

Make sure we are not putting off our group obligations to complete other individual assignments or work commitments throughout the quarter. Each team member needs to take accountability to the group seriously knowing if one person doesn’t get a task done then it’s an issue because someone may need that missing content to do the next task. – MF

I enjoy going on road trips and camping. I am going to be taking a weeklong road trip around Oregon sometime this quarter and am probably going to travel during the 4th of July. So, I need to make sure I take care of my group obligations before embarking on those journeys or I set aside a specific time to get group tasks done during the trips. – MF

We must make sure we are not rushing to produce the content insofar as the final written pieces are not intriguing or well-developed. Although we are busy, we need to make sure our quality is not compromised. – MF

Wanting to edit our group’s process midway through the quarter could get us off track in terms of being efficient. A potential barrier is a team member committing to more than he/she can handle. Let’s minimize that by making sure no one commits to excessive amounts of work. – MF

GROUND RULES AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Meeting schedule, locations, attendance expectations, agenda, assignment completion, communication methods, roles, etc.

Our schedules will be varying and depend on each individual. I think if we could set a certain time to do some collective work every week would make working together more efficient and easier. I would expect everyone to show up to these collaborative meetings and if someone cannot, be communicative to the group. (Considering we are all on different outside-of-school schedules, the collective workshop times won’t be unreasonably frequent. That being said, they need to be very efficient in terms of being productive when they do occur. Not showing up to a collaborative meeting without any advanced notice is unacceptable. Establishing that now makes it so there’s no room for a second chance on that one. – MF) Everyone will have different roles for different projects, but I think assigning someone to turn it in and someone to format the information will be helpful. We all should be leaders in our specific areas that we are assigned, so we can teach each other the information. (We definitely need to assign someone to do the final edit/formatting and then someone to turn it in. Let’s always plan to turn assignments in at least half a day early so we can address any potential unforeseen emergencies or add tasks as needed – MF)

Since I am a full-time student, my availability for the meeting schedule is open. I just need to plan it ahead of time so that I make sure to show up. – MF

I recommend we do phone call conferences for our meetings. Hopefully, there’s a way to allow four or more people to talk on the phone at one time. Does anybody have insight about that? Connor said he only wants to communicate through text/call if completely necessary. So, I want to respect that and only use that method with him for our conference calls and emergencies. It makes sense because he frequently does overnight shifts. Based on the Canvas groups, it looks like everybody else can be contacted through any method at any time, obviously with common sense in mind. – MF

One assignment completion we need to make sure we’re on top of is our team’s final draft in the “Final Articles Review” discussion thread if due June 20th for ST to edit before posting in the course’s week 2 discussion thread. – MF

I want my role to be the team charter writer, week 2 discussion introduction writer, and week 2 discussion “final article review” editor. – MF

Remaining roles for people to claim are: team charter editor, person who reviews the team charter rubric (not certain there is a rubric for it) and turns our final team charter document in, week 2 discussion introduction editor, week 2 discussion “final article review” writer #1, week 2 discussion “final article review” writer #2, week 2 discussion “final article review” writer #3, person who reviews the “final article review” discussion leader rubric and submits all our content into the week 2 discussion thread, any other roles I left out? – MF

Let’s put our initials after we write/comment on anything so it’s clear who did what and we can see equal competition of work at the end of it all – MF

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

What are potential conflicts that might arise among or between team members during this course? How will team members deal with these and other conflicts? Be specific about how team member performance issues will be addressed. The article “Hitchhikers and Couch Potatoes” will provide useful guidance for managing class teams effectively and dealing with performance issues.

Potential conflicts have to do with time issues and therefore work load balance. I think that the way we try to squash these problems are with early, clear and effective communication. If someone has a busy week in their personal life, it is better to communicate that beforehand. I want this group to work well but not hinder their personal life too much.

How to spend one’s time is a major conflict. Let’s have a healthy balance between academic and leisure time which involves getting tasks done early so we can have fun outside of school. – MF

We need to always communicate clearly so that someone who drops the ball on work cannot say something was unclear. Also, it’ll create less work for ourselves if we communicate clearly because our processes will be more efficient. – MF

Let’s put our initials after we write/comment on anything so it’s clear who did what at the end of it all. That way, there’s non-biased proof. – MF

Also, it’s important to not interpret things in a personally sensitive way. We all just want to get the work done, have a good experience and get a good grade. So, refrain from making reactive comments in order to not create bickering. – MF Make sure when you do turn in your group task, it is fully complete. Imagine there’s no team member editing your work. In order to do so, it’s important to devote enough time in your schedule to do the task. Don’t just spend enough time to scribble something down. – MF

If you make a mistake, communicate it. Don’t think nobody will notice. A mistake is not a big deal if you let people know it happened. It’s not worth taking the risk of not telling anybody in hope that no one will notice. At the end of the day, we all want to help each other out so that our final product is stellar. – MF

Ask if you want group members to confirm they saw a post. In the case the writer asks for confirmation, please cooperate with that. Even if you don’t have anything to say about a message, just let us know that you saw it by saying “received”. That way, we’ll know who has seen which posts. Also, everyone will feel very listened to. – MF

Don’t blame things on other people. If you care a lot about something, talk to the person directly. Let the person learn from his/her mistakes. Don’t necessarily do it yourself to avoid the confrontation because then the problem keeps going. – MF Set firm expectations with everybody and stick to it. That way, couch potatoes won’t be an issue. – MF