Regional Assistant Manual 2011

IFMSA Standing Committee

Regional Assistant Manual March 2011

IFMSA

was founded in May 1951 and is run by medical students, for medical students, on a non-profit basis. IFMSA is officially recognised as a nongovernmental organisation within the United Nations’ system and has official relations with the World Health Organisation. It is the international forum for medical students, and one of the largest student organisations in the world.

Imprint Contributors Geneviève Bois, Canada-Québec Ioana Goganau, Romania Caline Mattar, Lebanon Christopher Pleyer, Austria Pablo Vega R., Chile Editors Christopher Pleyer, Austria Anny Huang, Australia Design/Layout Anny Huang, Australia

The mission of IFMSA

Publisher

is to offer future physicians a comprehensive introduction to global health issues. Through our programs and opportunities, we develop culturally sensitive students of medicine, intent on influencing the transnational inequalities that shape the health of our planet.

International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations General Secretariat: IFMSA c/o WMA B.P. 63 01212 Ferney-Voltaire, France Phone: +33 450 404 759 Fax: +33 450 405 937 Email: gs@ifmsa.org Homepage: www.ifmsa.org

Contacts

publications@ifmsa.org April 2011

Introduction Message from the Regional Coordinators

Message from the Committee Directors

Dear Regional Assistant,

Dear Regional Assistant,

Working for the IFMSA, for most people who have experienced it, is a tremendous experience that brings us many skills and empowers us in general. By deciding to be a Regional Assistant, I can only congratulate you, because you have signed up to do this... for others! Not only will this position entitle you to work closely with great people and learn a lot, but also you will be in a position to help people around you in IFMSA develop.

First let us congratulate you for being appointed to this wonderful position. We, as Directors really appreciate your help and assistance throughout this whole term.

Your position is absolutely vital for the health of our Federation: being such a large organization, with over 100 NMOs and working in various areas (all the committees, and the support divisions, and much more!), it is hard for us to make sure that we are always close to members and in contact with all the National Officers of our NMOs. By being a Regional Assistant for a specific committee and a specific Region, you get the chance to know the National Officers of «your» NMOs very well, and sometimes also the Local Officers. You will also have a unique perspective on the situation of your committee in the region, and its strengths and its weaknesses.

It is through your work that we get to be close to everyone, in all NMOs around the world, and that we can empower Regions in IFMSA, thank you for the job you are taking on!

IFMSA Regional Coordinators 2010/11

Standing

As Regional Assistant, one of your biggest tasks is to take care of the sessions at the regional meetings. As we will not be able to attend all Regional Meetings during this year, your help and assistance are really necessary in this instance. Since many Local Officers tend to attend the RMs instead of the GAs, your work towards this meeting is of even greater value. The local officers are a great potential in our committee and in the whole IFMSA. Of course we will be helping you to set up the sessions but you are going to be the one mainly in charge and facilitating. We are aware that this is a great responsibility we put upon you, but we are more than confident in your skills and hope, above all you have a lot of fun!

Contents 3.

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Introduction Timeline of Year Basic Checklist Setting Agendas Facilitation 101 Minimum Requirements Evaluation Games

We hope this manual will help you during this term, especially to organize the sessions in the RM, and also set some guideliness that might be useful for the GAs. If you have any questions just let us know! Together we’ll keep our Standing Committees rocking this year!

And one last thing, we wish you all the best for your regional meeting sessions!

IFMSA Standing Committee Directors 2010/11

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Timeline of the Year The timeline of the year will vary greatly depending on the committee, but mostly on the Region: if your Regional Meeting is one or two months after the beginning of your term, your year will be quite different than if it’s five or six months in!

The general timeline needs to follow the big events in IFMSA and your Region: the GAs (March Meeting and August Meeting), where you get to meet people face to face, and the Regional Meeting, where you get to meet as a Region. It also needs to take into account the special days your committee celebrates, or any big conferences that have an impact on your work. Make sure to set yourself a calendar and timeline! Note all the important dates: the meetings, the deadlines, the events, so that you can plan your work and time accordingly. The first steps, no matter when your RM is, are to make sure that the communication is working (see the “Checklist” section): make sure you have introduced yourself to everyone you need, that you are comfortable with the roles and responsibilities of everyone, that you have the contact information of everything you need, etc. Ideally, all the “settling” in of the position happens fairly quickly: in the first 2-4 weeks. Then you have to see what the priorities are: how far away is the Regional Meeting, and what events are coming up soon. Focus on your first meetings and your first tasks on these things. By the end of the first month (that would the end of October, if you were appointed around Oct 1st!), you should have settled in your position and have had one meeting with your National Officers (NOs), or be about to do so.

Since one of your biggest tasks as an RA is to facilitate the sessions at the Regional Meeting and to prepare the agenda for them, this should be your main focus at the beginning of the term, especially if your RM is quite early in the year.

To prepare the agenda, make sure you have discussed it with your Standing Committee Director and that you involve the NOs and LOs of your Region as much as possible. It’s important to communicate properly with the RC and the OC to make sure you don’t plan things that are not logistically possible and are aware of some specifics. You may want to drop a line to the other RAs to see what they are planning, if they have externals and if there would be a reason to do a joint session! For the RM make sure to start things fairly in advance: from the begining of your term, you should start to make a timeline before the RM. One month before the RM, almost everything should be under control, and a draft agenda should be ready.

So working backwards, your sessions need to

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start taking form at the latest 2 months before the Regional Meeting. Three months before the Regional Meeting is a good time for brainstorming about the themes people want to see and to check with your Director and the LOs if there are any potential externals. It’s important to have some facilitators ready (one designated per activity), and to have all the material that you need in advance. Make sure to have one or two extra activities as a “plan B” if something falls through. You can never be too careful! It’s also possible that some facilitators will have to cancel their attendance, so make sure not to have only one or two! It can be interesting to discuss your agenda with the other RAs, to see what direction they are going in. It’s also more interesting for the participants to try to balance activities, with some more interactive ones alternating with some more academic items. And don’t forget to make an evaluation of your session. It’s something crucial to pass on to your successor! (See evaluation section) Once the RM is under control, you need to see what the main topics you will work on for the rest of your term are. That depends very much on so many factors; it’s difficult to generalize. But it’s important to see what your Region needs and what the plans of the Director internationally are. If some NMOs don’t have your committee, you might want to work mainly on helping them start and supporting the other NMOs. If your NMOs have great projects in your committee, you might want to encourage and support them to apply for the project

fair or presentation. If your Region would like to celebrate a special day together (AIDS day, TB day, Diabetes Day, etc), you might want to work on that! There are as many possibilities as there are RAs =).

Key milestones Start of term: • • • •

Settle in; make contact with RC and SC-D Obtain handover, find out relevant information Meet with National Officers Begin planning for Regional Meeting

Three months before RM: • •

Start brainstorming for RM Talk to SC-D and LO about RM

One month before RM: •

Draft agenda for RM should be ready

Rest of term: • • • •

Talk to region about needs Support NMO projects Talk to SC-D about regional plans Use your intiative!

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

Basic Checklist for the Year and the Regional Meeting The year of every RA is different, depending on the region, the committee, some specific events that may be happening and the current status of the committee in the region ... but there are definitely some things that really need to be done. So here’s a non-exhaustive checklist of some of the main tasks:

First steps • • •

Take a minute to introduce yourself on the regional server Then do the same on the committee server Make sure that you are on all the necessary servers and groups: your committee, your region, the IFMSA general server and any other server you might need to be on

Communication • •

Make contact with your predecessor to receive some handover Make sure you introduce yourself to the Regional Coordinator of your region, as the new RA, whether you know that person or not (although you are primarly the assistant of the Standing Comittee Direc-

•

•

•

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tor, you will need to work with the RC a lot) Get the contact information of all the NOs of your committee and region: if the RC or SC-Director can’t provide it for you, it should all be on ifmsa.net While making sure you have the contact information of all NOs, it’s a great moment to see if your committee is active in all the NMOs or your region, and if not, why.

Make sure you get your “ra.sc.region@ gmail” address. It passes from RA to RA, so it’s a nice way to have a “email handover” from your predecessor ... and a great chance to leave things nicely ordered for your sucessor!

Make sure your new email is known by everyone who needs to communicate with you and that you check it often Change your signature on your RA gmail account so it has all the necessary information Get a Skype account if you don’t have one yet!

Keeping in touch •

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

Make sure all those NOs are on your re-

• •

• • • •

gional server and on your committee’s server Email all the NOs to make sure they know who you are and how to contact you Have a meeting with your SC-D as soon as possible and make sure you are on the same page for the year to come: roles and responsibilities of each of the parties, for example Have a first meeting with NOs of your region, and make sure to have meetings regularly through the term For every meeting, make sure to set the date and time clearly, and how it will be held (on Skype for example) Make sure there’s a clear agenda before the meeting and that everyone is aware of it Don’t forget to send the minutes to the appropriate server after regional online meetings

Regional Meetings •

Clarify the dates, the place and any specifics of the Regional Meeting with the RC at the beginning of the term

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• • • •

• • • • • •

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Make sure you know the theme of the RM, and see how much it can be incorporated within the agenda Call for input to the agenda Update the National Officer DVD or Dropbox them (and all the documents that need to be updated) Coordinate the preliminary agenda with the Standing Committee Directors, with the other Regional Assistant, and with your Liaison Officer for externals. And if you need anybody else who is present at the Regional Meeting, just tell them in advance, so they can manage to be in your sessions when you want.

Make a call for facilitators (and maybe presenters too, if you need some), and try to have at least a few Send out the preliminary agenda in the regional group and share it also in the yahoo! group of your Standing Committee Communicate your logistics needs to the OC, and keep the RC in the loop Finalize the agenda Make sure that the OC gets a copy of the agenda and specify what you will be needing for each session.

Send out an email telling the National Officers what to prepare for the meeting (what to bring, what you want them to read before coming etc) Find out who will be present (which NMOs, which Officers, etc.)

Print all the things needed – it is really nice if you can prepare a folder where they can get all the information and documents needed for the meeting and give it to them on the first day of the meeting.

A powerpoint for each session (if needed) Your director report or any information he/ she would like to share with the Local and National Officers Try to collect any presentations at least one day before they are on the agenda in order to avoid losing time during the sessions.

Prepare some kind of an evaluation form for the end of the RM (the last session of the RM you’ll be with your delegates) in order to reflect on the sessions, and see what people liked the most or think should be different Always have a “Plan B”: an extra activity, an extra energizer, an extra facilitator, etc.

Make sure to have everything you need before the meeting begins (and do the same for each day - have everything ready before the beginning of the day): presentations, lists, agendas, tools (and if

• •

the OC needs to supply you with anything, double-check when things will be ready and set up) Involve people during the RM: the main goal is that all members feel they learned something and got empowered Although it’s not specifically your task, it’s always good to set an example, so during the RM, go to the training sessions, go to the theme events, encourage people to present at the project fair, etc.

• •

thing else they would like to see you work on or if there’s areas they are specially interested in Try to break your Plan of Action into specific tasks For every task, match it with a preliminary deadline or time of the year this needs to be done by. Try to follow your Plan of Action and/or to adapt it!

Plan for the year • •

Discuss your plan of action with your SCDirector, see what the input he/she has for you includes You can send your Plan of Action to the NOs of your Region to see if there’s any-

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

Setting Agendas Setting agendas for your sessions is one of the most important and exciting parts of the whole process. A well prepared and balanced agenda that fits the needs of your audience is vital in order to have good sessions. In the following you can find a sample agenda and some basics to keep in mind when creating an agenda: Go over the agenda several times and ask people for feedback. Choose your facilitators carefully.

Always think about the needs of others.Good luck!

Set Aims – When creating an agenda, the first thing to think of is what you want participants to gain. Once you know the aims of your workshop or sessions, you will be able to create agenda points based on them. Based on your goals you can also prioritize how much time you allot to each section. If you take anything out of this article, then it is to think about aims first, then create agenda points.

Balance – Think of ways to make your sessions interesting and stimulating. Try to include

many different methods (presentations, activities, discussions, icebreakers) and techniques to keep the attention level up. Don’t spend too much time on one activity; have a good mix.

Coordinate & Communicate – Keep both your facilitators and your participants up to date, especially about agenda changes. Give your facilitators feedback on their parts of the session and also consider to ask them for input.

breaks. Even if you are running behind on the agenda, don’t cut into the breaks too much. It is better to have a break and ask participants if they are ok with working a bit longer afterwards.

Plan at least 15 minutes break every 2 hours.

Don’t be reluctant to use icebreakers at virtually any time. There are many icebreakers that only take 30 seconds but revive the whole group.

Prepare – Prepare for the sessions long enough beforehand! Even if you are not facilitating, you will have enough to manage behind the scenes, so don’t think you will have a lot of time to prepare during sessions. Have all materials (flipcharts, post-its, projector, etc.) ready before the sessions start. Ideally also have prewritten flipcharts prepared. It is also a good idea to go over the agenda of the day the evening before, just to go over everything in your mind again.

Breaks & Icebreakers – Don’t forget to plan

ALWAYS think of aims first!

Example of an agenda

Time

Duration

Topic

Method

Aim

9:00

10

Welcome

Presentation

Welcome participants, introduce the team

9:10

20

Get to know each other

Group activity

Break the ice and get familiar with each other

9:30

10

Ground rules

Discussion

Agree on ways of working together

Sara

9:40

30

Topic 1

Presentation

Introduce par- Confirm time ticipants to this with Dr Locke topic

Dr Locke

10:10

20

Discussion on topic 1

Discussion

How does this topic relate to our work and how can we work on it

Lisa

10:30

10

Break

...

...

...

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

...

Comments Facilitator Sara

Chair game.

Prepare speakers

Gather new energy

Distribute handouts

...

...

Mark

...

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Facilitation 101 As Regional Assistant, you will have to manage different situations in which facilitation skills are needed. Here some useful tips on facilitation to keep in mind:

What are facilitation skills?

These are essential for anyone who is looking to guide a group of people through a process of learning. The essence of facilitation is to think that you, as facilitator, are the one who extracts information and knowledge from the group. Most of the time when you are leading a session on a certain topic, all the knowledge is already in the audience and your job will be to guide this process to achieve the goals of the meeting; the all-encompassing idea is to empower the participants.

Good facilitators see and hear not only the obvious, but are tuned in to what else that might be going on that isn’t quite so apparent. They are skilled in interpreting the difficulties, resolving conflict, cutting through time wasting and, most importantly, enabling people to reach agreements and develop new practices that will work out for them.

Two things are usually true when a group of people gets together: • Everyone sees the world differently, no matter how similar their points of view may be.

• Everyone thinks their view is the right one.

Probably the most important insight and skill to acquire if you want to be a good facilitator is that you must work with what other people present or bring into a meeting, not what you would like to have happen. You need the ability to craft how a meeting runs rather than imposing your will and your point of view on the participants.

Preparation

If you have a chance to prepare before the meeting, take advantage of it!

Preparation involves deciding what methods and tools to use/provide. The following questions will aid you in making this decision.

•

•

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Why?? Why is the meeting being held?

What tasks are planned? What is the overall goal of the meeting? Is this meeting only a part of a larger goal?

Who?? Who is invited? If decisions need to be made, are the right people going to be present? Who is going to be there?

How does attendance affect successful completion of tasks? Who cannot come?

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•

•

Who is not invited? Why? When?? When is the meeting scheduled?

How long should it be? Is there enough time? Are there enough coffee breaks between the sessions? How much time can be allotted for each agenda item?

Where?? Where is the meeting to be held? Do you and the participants need directions to get to the room? Is it close to the main venue? Are there adequate resources (overheads, flip charts, white boards) available? How is the room arranged? Is the room appropriate for the task? You might decide it would be better to have one part of the meeting outside on the lawn or near the pool to keep the spirit and motivation up.

What?? Consider possible group dynamics. Do the participants know each other?

How well? What is the history of the participants? How long have they been meeting? Have they had specific problems working together in the past? What are potential problems with this meeting? Can they be mitigated or eliminated before the meeting begins?

After you gather all this information, you can start planning your meeting. You could come up with a draft agenda that you might want to share with the participants or with other people who might be assisting you in the meeting. It is good to share the final version of the agenda some days before the meeting, so everyone knows what to expect as outcomes of the meeting. Remember that before you start the whole meeting you should show the agenda again, so everyone can have those topics in their minds.

After that, you should build a good environment for the meeting. For this purpose, you can ask the participants for ground rules that will be followed during the sessions. This will make everything run more smoothly and it also lets the meeting start off with the interaction that is needed for a good meeting. If nobody is willing to take the lead and speak up, you might start with an example of a ground rule and then the people might be more eager to participate.

After doing this, it is good if you start with addressing group dynamics and breaking the ice: it could be a get to know each other game (see energizer section) or maybe if the people know each other well already, it can just be a question asking for the expectations of the meeting. Also a good warm up game/energizer is generally well received, especially if the meeting is held early in the morning, right after lunch or late in the evening.

Something to keep in mind is that the human mind is only set to keep attention up to 45 minutes the most, with a peak at 20 minutes. For this reason if you want to give important information you should do it then and try to see if the people are actually paying attention, because it might be time for an energizer to get their attention again.

A theoretical concept to keep in mind when you hold a meeting: •

Induction: is the time of the session in which you build the environment of the

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

•

•

•

meeting - present the agenda, ground rules and initial dynamics Input: It is when the main information of the meeting is given. The idea is that with this information the participants are able to do something with it.

Implementation: in line with the information that was given, the participants are able to take it to the next level. For example if the meeting is about “How to establish a project” the participants could work on a checklist built on how to establish a project.

Integration: This is something that extends way beyond the end of the meeting and

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

marks the ultimate goal of each meeting. This is when the participants start to incorporate the knowledge they gained into their everyday work. It is hard to keep track of this process, you can however ask the participants at the end of the meeting if they think that the outcomes were achieved and the sessions were useful for them (see evaluation section)

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Minimum Requirements and Standards of SC Sessions set the goals for the working group. It is nice to have working groups where the outcome is a little more concrete and some, where it is more about the process and discussion in order to please everyone and to have everyone involved. It is good to get the moderators beforehand. You can send personal emails to people you think could be interested and do a good job.

These meetings are a big part of the job as a Regional Assistant and there are a lot of them throughout the year!

The Regional Assistant is not only responsible for the Regional Meetings, but is also involved in other IFMSA meetings throughout the year, such as: • Attending and/or facilitating Sub-Regional Training workshops • Helping the SC Director during the March Meeting and August Meeting sessions It is good to make a list of all the meetings at the beginning of the year - this way you can start planning the trips early and get the cheapest price, and you will also be able to see if there are meetings where you can’t attend and you can try to find someone to fill in for you.

General Assemblies

Plenaries: You should be present during the plenaries, to be informed of any changes in the status of the NMOs of your region, and to support the director when needed, for example advertising the SC within new NMOs. Regional Meetings at General Assemblies: During the General Assembly, the Regional Coordinator will organize 2 sessions (2 hours each) specific to his/her own region, and it is important for you to participate in these. You should be present to support the RC, but most of importantly to get in touch with the National Officers and offer your help. You will decide with the RC if you will have an active role within the sessions or if you just need to be there to attend the sessions.

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Welcome Sessions: During the past year the welcome sessions on the arrival day of the GA were divided into a general part and a standing committee specific part. The specific welcome session will be held directly after the general part and the Director will need your help to escort the participants to where the session is going to be. You will also be of great help to the Director during the preparation and the facilitation of the welcome sessions and the general standing committee sessions.

Regional Meeting Sessions

Generally the sessions include 6 major pillars: small working groups, project presentations, small discussion groups, external presentations, joint sessions with the other Standing Committees, and training.

Training Sessions: In case you put training into the sessions, you should make sure that they are specific and that the same topic is not going to be given as a general training during the meeting.

You can also do “buddy training” where you group more experienced standing committee members with members that are fairly new to the standing committee. This will not be a typical training but it will be very good for the new people to get basic information and tips for their tasks and for the more experienced maybe it can be a moment to help or to meet other members.

Discussions: Discussions can be a little difficult if you are confronted with a very big group.

This can be avoided by dividing the group into smaller discussion groups or holding ideas cafés. It is important to know from the start where you want the discussion to head or else it is easy to get stuck and you might spend too much time on one topic. If the goal of the discussions is to come to a decision (i.e. in SCOPE/ SCORE sessions) it is important to let the small discussion groups present their points, but then move on with the decision in order not to lose too much time.

NMO Presentations: There are always a lot of NMOs that would like to present during the sessions. You should give the priority to the new NMOs as they should have the chance to present themselves to the members. A lot of motivation is needed, especially for new NMOs. It’s really nice to include presentations from past and upcoming Sub Regional Trainings (SRTs), to make them better known, to show their outcome and to share ideas.

Basic Equipment needed for the Sessions • • • • • • • •

Powerpoint projector Extension cord Flip-chart Pens Paper (A4) Chairs for participants arranged so that everyone can hear Speakers Table for you and for the minute taker or for the person taking notes

Small Working Groups: The small working groups usually work great. It is important to have moderators/facilitators for all the groups and to have the moderators work with you to

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

Evaluation “Evaluation is assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness.”

What does it mean in the context of IFMSA meetings?

As the organizers and the participants prepare for the meeting, they all set their expectations, as well as their own standards. The organizer has to do their best so that he/she meets the expectations of the participants as much as possible. It is essential to make use of evaluation techniques to have a successful meeting and a good follow-up for future meetings.

As stated earlier in this manual, it is extremely important to set goals before the meeting. In order to get an idea of participants’ expectations you might do a brainstorm with the participants at the beginning of the meeting. By comparing the planned and expected goals with the end results, you reach the core of what evaluation is about.

When should you do it?

Simply knowing people’s opinions and expectations only at the end of the meeting does not improve too many things for the meeting that is already going on, and while we have to think about the long term (future meetings), it is very useful to also have the opportunity respond directly to situations. Thus the ideal way is to have both partial and final evaluations. Partial evaluations, for example, can be made at the end of each day of the meeting. Do not leave it for later; analyze it immediately afterwards and try to change/improve the issues mentioned and keep up the good work for the next days.

The aim of the partial evaluation is that people have a chance of expressing opinions on general issues like: poor time management, too many discussions on a particular subject while neglecting others, too few breaks, not enough energizers, not having clear outcomes and so on. These can easily be approached and dealt with for the next days and the participants will appreciate having their input taken into consideration. The final evaluation has to focus more on the content, for example if a particular subject was useful and whether the participants would like to know more.

Whose opinion matters?

Everybody’s! If somebody said that something should be improved it means that at least five other people feel the same. Not everyone expresses their opinion openly, even in written evaluations. Of course this does not exclude

the possibility that somebody might be overreacting or is just being very picky. Do not ignore other people’s opinions, talk with others, ask for feedback and be open to suggestions.

How to evaluate?

An evaluation can be formal or informal, public or anonymous. Here are some examples of ways to perform an evaluation:

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

Circle talk Everybody is asked to say what they liked, what could be improved or just to talk in general; it can be free talk or structured. An example of a structured evaluation is the 5 fingers method Thumb: What was OK, Index: What I learned, Middle finger: What was not OK or can be improved, Ring finger: What friendships I made,

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Little finger: What was too short. This is an informal and public method and has both advantages and disadvantages. To mention only a few aspects: it’s time consuming depending on the size of the group, people could refrain from saying negative opinions because it is in public.

On the other hand it does give everybody the chance to speak and creates a nice feel within the group. Think of these advantages and disadvantages before choosing and try to improve the outcomes by adding a few other rules like: do not repeat, if it has already been said; not everybody has to speak; only if you have things to add.

Post-it evaluation Ask everyone to write on 2 post-its (preferably different colors) good things and things that can be improved. Get a flipchart paper, draw a line in the middle and put “-” on one side and “+” on the other and ask the participants to stick on it. It’s quick and you can read the notes after the participants are gone. Depending on the case you can specify a fixed number of good/ bad things to be mentioned (1, 2, and so on).

People usually feel confident to write negative things because it’s anonymous, and because it’s limited to a few things, they only mention the most important ones, which might be exactly what you want to find out.

Bull’s-eye or wheel chart Draw a circle and split it in slices and write on each slice an aspect of the meeting (facilitation, content, if it met expectations, and so on, but preferably not more than 4. Ask the participants to take a marker and put a dot somewhere in each slice, closer to the middle, meaning it was good (bull’s-eye), and further away from the center, meaning was not good. It looks nice it gives you a quick overview of the meeting, but for example, if one aspect is wrong it does not really clarify what went wrong. It’s semi-anonymous, because you don’t write your name on the dot but you do have the feeling that people are watching you.

Survey/Form This can be on paper or online. You design it easily by putting the topics in the agenda and making a 1 to 5 scale for each of them and a clear question like: Overall quality of each session session? / How useful has each session been for you? Also add general questions that refer to the whole meeting/sessions: facilitation, the time management and so on. Also it is very useful to use open-ended questions like: what sessions did you like best? / which sessions would you like to get to know more about in the future? These can be very useful

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as guidance for preparing meetings in the future and for handover. These are anonymous but usually a bit time consuming for the participants and you have to find ways of convincing them to complete them, especially if they are performed online.

Feedback This is a personal way of evaluating the meeting. Connect with the participants and do not hesitate to ask for their opinions. The best feedback is given when it is face to face and in private, so try to find the time to chat with participants, for example during coffee breaks.

Act casual and ask for their honest opinion without seeming too affected whatever they say. Do not comment or make excuses when receiving negative feedback, take it as it is. You can engage in a discussion on how to improve the things mentioned, but try not to seem offended in any way so that the person giving you feedback can be as honest as possible. Try to make participants feel confident in sharing their opinion and feel responsible towards the well going of the sessions/meeting. Feedback is essentially a gift. Participants are giving you the opportunity to improve yourself, based on their opinion.

Summary

For partial evaluation, the aim is to have people stating the things that can be improved for the current meeting, which gives you the opportunity to act on it as soon as possible. You might not want to spend too much time on this, and for example, having all people talk in a circle can be time consuming. However at least once during the meeting everybody should have the chance to speak out, otherwise they will leave with some frustrations. For partial evaluations you can use post-its or a similar anonymous, fast method. For the final evaluation you might want to choose to have an evaluation form. Try to also make time for a short group discussion, so that you maintain the nice feeling of group work and everybody can express their feelings.

You can also have group evaluation as a team building experience. Overall be creative and adapt it to your needs, but have it clear to yourself what you want to achieve / find out when you plan the evaluation of the sessions. Always connect your evaluation to the goals you set for the meeting and ask specifically if your goals were reached.

Do not hesitate to be creative concerning evaluation, you can set up games and energizers and evaluate the sessions at the same time.

For example split the room in two and ask participants to go furthest to the right based on how much they liked something or in the left, if they didn’t. Then state a few things and see them moving. Then you can have the people that are more on one side briefly explain why. Or you can state things and make “thumbs up” if it was ok or “thumbs down” if not, and again have 1, maximum 2 people explain why.

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

Games to get to know each other, Energizers and Icebreakers Here are few games for getting to know each other, as well as some energizers you can use during your session.

Getting to know each other/ Name Games: Name and adjective In a circle, each participant says his/her name and an adjective starting with the same letter as his/her first name (example Joyful John), and the person on his/her right in the circle has to repeat all the names and adjectives for everyone on his/her left. The same game can be done with the name.

Juggling ball game Everyone stands in a close circle. (If the group is very large, it may be necessary to split the group into two circles.) The facilitator starts by throwing the ball to someone in the circle, saying their name as they throw it. Continue catching and throwing the ball, establishing a pattern

for the group. (Each person must remember who they receive the ball from and who they have thrown it to.) Once everyone has received the ball and a pattern is established, introduce one or two more balls, so that there are always several balls being thrown at the same time, following the same pattern.

Howdy Howdy Participants stand in a circle. One person walks around the outside of the circle and taps someone on the shoulder. That person walks the opposite way around the circle, until the two people meet. They greet each other three times by name, in their own language. The two people then race back, continuing in opposite directions around the circle, to take the empty place.

Whoever loses walks around the outside of the circle again and the game continues.

The journalist Participants are paired and are asked each to “write a newspaper article” about the other person. After that, each participant presents the

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

article about his/her partner to the group.

Space on my right Participants are seated in a circle. The facilitator arranges for the space on the right of one participant to remain empty. They then ask a member of the group to come and sit in the empty space; for example, “I would like Lili to come and sit on my right”. Lili moves and there is now a space on the right of another participant. The participant who is sitting next to the empty space calls the name of someone different to sit on his or her right. Continue until the entire group has moved once.

Energizers Killer wink Before the game starts, ask someone to be the ‘the killer’ and ask them to keep their identity a secret. Explain that one person among the group is the killer and they can kill people by winking at them. Everyone then walks around

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the room in different directions, keeping eye contact with everyone they pass. If the killer winks at you, you have to play dead. Everyone has to try and guess who the killer is.

Banana game A banana or another object such as a bunch of keys is selected. The participants stand in a circle with their hands behind their backs. One person volunteers to stand in the middle. The facilitator walks around the outside of the circle and secretly slips the banana into someone’s hand. The banana is then secretly passed round the circle behind the participant’s backs.

The job of the volunteer in the middle is to study people’s faces and work out who has the banana. When successful, the volunteer takes that place in the circle and the game continues with a new person in the middle.

Connecting eyes Participants stand in a circle. Each person makes eye contact with another person across the circle. The two walk across the circle and exchange positions, while maintaining eye contact. Many pairs can exchange at the same time, and the group should try to make sure that everyone in the circle is included in the exchange. Begin by trying this in silence and then exchange greetings in the middle of the circle.

Who is the leader?

Participants sit in a circle. One person volunteers to leave the room. After they leave, the rest of the group chooses a ‘leader’. The leader must perform a series of actions, such as clapping, tapping a foot, etc, that are copied by the whole group. The volunteer comes back into the room, stands in the middle and tries to guess who is leading the actions. The group protects the leader by not looking at him/her.

The leader must change the actions at regular intervals, without getting caught. When the volunteer spots the leader, they join the circle, and the person who was the leader leaves the room to allow the group to choose a new leader.

Big Cold wind blows on...

Participants sit or stand in a tight circle with one person in the middle. The person in the middle shouts out “big cold wind blows on...” and names a color or articles of clothing that some people in the group possess. For example, “big cold wind blows on all those wearing blue” or “big cold wind blows on all those wearing socks” or “big cold wind blows on all those with brown eyes”. All the participants who have that attribute must change places with one another.

The person in the middle tries to take one of their places as they move, so that there is an-

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other person left in the middle without a place.

The new person in the middle shouts out “big cold wind blows...” and names a different characteristic.

Robots Divide the participants into groups of three. One person in each group is the robot controller and the other two are the robots.

them to the left. The facilitator begins the game by telling the robots to walk in a specific direction. The controller must try to stop the robots from crashing into obstacles such as chairs and tables. Ask participants to swap roles so that everyone has a chance to be the controller.

Each controller must manage the movements of their two robots. The controller touches a robot on the right shoulder to move them to the right, and touches them on the left shoulder to move

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

Notes

Acknowledgements: Thank you very much to the authors of this manual. Most of all, thank you for the amazing work you do as Regional Assistant every day.

Authors: Geneviève Bois, Ioana Goganau, Caline Mattar, Christopher Pleyer, Pablo Vega Editors: Anny Huang, Christopher Pleyer

IFMSA REGIONAL ASSISTANT MANUAL

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