Especially for Team Leaders
Team leaders are the unsung heroes of UMVIM, so a word of thanks to
you. Here’s a list of
items that the team leader should be on top of.
Delegate when possible to lighten the load.
Review
this Website
UMVIM Honduras
requires that team leaders review the team information on this
website, and pass on relevant information to team members in
orientation meetings. Please review
and share
the information off the website, especially from the page:
Preparing
and Orienting your Mission Team.
Remember, some of your team members don’t have easy internet
access.
Acquiring
Passports and Immunizations
Don’t forget
that each team member should be working on getting both passports
and immunizations
as soon as possible. Both
of these can involve a long process, and can involve a significant
cost to team members.
Passports
must be valid for at least 6 months after your departure date from the
US.
Forms
The UMVIM
coordinators in Honduras will send a blank Data
Form to the team leader to fill out and return. Team leaders
should be able to fill out the form when airline tickets are
purchased, months ahead of the arrival date.
It is very helpful to the UMVIM coordinators and to the local
hosts in preparing for your arrival in an efficient way.
Please fill out each part of the form, leaving no blanks.
The UMVIM head office in the
US also offers other
forms that are helpful to team leaders.
The leader will
receive an Evaluation
Form after you arrive in Honduras.
Please have each team member fill this out at the end of your
stay. Evaluation forms
should be returned to UMVIM staff in country.
Accident
Insurance
Each team member
is
required to purchase short-term UMVIM Travel Insurance that is
available from the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) and some
Jurisdictional Conferences. It
covers the cost of medical evacuations, medical injuries, and life
insurance coverage. The insurance
form is available
on the internet.
Passport Copies
Two complete
copies should be made of each team member’s passport.
Have each team member carry one copy of their passport
separately from the original passport (like tucked in a piece of
luggage), and the team leader should carry the other copy of
everyone’s passports—in their carry-on.
Alcohol and Smoking Policy
It is better to
clearly inform team members sooner than later about the Honduras UMVIM
policy of no smoking or drinking alcohol at any time during the
mission team’s stay in Honduras.
Please remind each
team member that ANY
alcohol use or cigarette-smoking by any team member at ANY time during
your stay in Honduras damages the church's reputation in the
communities in a very real way, and is strictly prohibited.
Drinking alcohol and smoking, even in moderation, are not Christian
activities in Honduras. This
is a cultural reality in Honduras, and UMVIM teams must take this
reality seriously.
If
a team member cannot follow this rule, he or she should not
participate in the mission to Honduras.
Team leaders
should decide if they will extend this rule to the travel times to and
from Honduras, to the team’s conduct in airports.
The head UMVIM
office in the US has a no-smoking, no-drinking alcohol contract for
UMVIM team members to sign.
U.S. Embassy Information
Each team member should register with the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa. It is
very easy to do this on line and only takes a few minutes.
Use the
following link:
http://honduras.usembassy.gov/
Then:
1. Under "Citizen Services" click on "Information for Travelers"
2. In the short document "Internet based Registration System (IBRS)"
click on the second highlighted "this link" in the second paragraph.
3. Using your existing User ID and Password connect to register or
create an initial User ID and Password to enter the system. Team
leaders can create organizational accounts for their team.
Emergency Contact Information
The team leader should obtain from each team member the following:
1. At least 2 emergency contact phone numbers of family members
2. The details of any medical condition that might require emergency treatment
or transport to a hospital
3. The names of any prescription medications that the team member takes
regularly
This information, a copy of each passport, and all the emergency phone numbers
for Honduras (in
Travel Tips) should be
carried by the team leader at all times.
First Aid Kit
Each team should prepare and carry at all times a basic first aid kit
Travel Tips
Click
here for a very helpful set of travel
tips that will provide suggested items for packing, suggestions for
carry-ons, fanny pack recommendation, arrival and departure
information, dollars and money exchange, information and insurance
reminders, information specific to construction teams, and emergency
phone contacts while in-country.
Roles
for Team Members
Assign specific
roles and jobs to individual team members on the mission team.
Here are some team roles that have worked well in the past:
§
Team
medical advisor.
Someone who is prepared to give first aid during the trip.
She or he should create and carry the team’s first
aid kit, remind team to take malaria prophylaxis, to drink
water, use sunblock, etc.
§
Daily
devotional leader. Or
someone to organize a schedule so that different team members
lead daily devotionals.
§
Luggage
coordinator.
Knows total number of checked bags, carries all claim check
tickets, creates and carries general inventory list of bags.
§
Other
roles include:
Money-Manager or Treasurer, T-shirt acquirer (see section on team
t-shirts below), Team photographer, Team journal-keeper, Air-travel
coordinator, Donations coordinator (includes gathering used suitcases
to pack donated items in, and the actual packing of the donations).
Practice
Spanish
The experience
of each team member will be enriched by even a minimal knowledge of
Spanish. We encourage
each person to explore ways to learn, or review, some basic Spanish
before you leave for
Honduras
.
§
On this website, you
can find a list of some
Spanish
Words and Phrases. Go
over the pronunciation of this list with someone who knows Spanish.
§
Please actively
recruit Spanish speakers to be team members.
The more Spanish-speakers on a team, the more opportunity for
deeper connections with your Honduran brothers and sisters.
§
The Data Form for the
team has a place to mark the Spanish ability of team members.
Please consult the team members for this information and
don’t guess or assume.
Team T-Shirts
Consider
creating a team t-shirt that you can wear on your trip to Honduras.
It is not absolutely necessary, but does help make team members
easily recognizable as you move through airports, and helps make going
through customs in Honduras quicker and easier.
Leadership
§
Please encourage less
emphasis on the tasks, and more emphasis on
relationships with locals. It
is always helpful to reiterate with team members that the actual
construction work may be the task of the group, but is not
the most important reason a team is in Honduras.
It is tempting for North Americans to forget the importance of
relating, of listening, of taking opportunities to show the love of
Christ
, because the task gets in the way.
§
The team leaders who
model flexibility generally have the most flexible, easy-going teams.
(This is true for many team characteristics, not just
flexibility.) Practice
recognizing that an unexpected (potentially frustrating) pause in the
work is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to work—in a
conversation, in spontaneous playing or singing fun songs.
Unexpected pauses are a great opportunity to have a
conversation with a local person.
The teams that connect
with Hondurans are the ones remembered most fondly—not the team who
laid the most bricks.