SCORP Camp THE MANUAL. The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.

Transcription

1 SCORP Camp THE MANUAL The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.

2 A BIT ABOUT THE ORIGIN The SCORP Camp international training youth summer event was created during one of the national board meetings of SloMSA the Slovak Medical Students Association in January At that time, Treasurer of SloMSA and also at the same time the Regional Assistant for Human Rights and Peace in Europe of IFMSA International Federation of Medical Students Associations, Monika Szamosová proposed her vision about creating a dream and team that will turn her idea about humanity into reality. It has been voted in the national board of SloMSA that they want to set up for this new adventure and they accepted the challenge of forming an event that will last for decades bringing together people from all over the globe to serve them with the opportunity to understand why do human rights matter to medical students. The first SCORP Camp took place in the capital city of Slovak Republic Bratislava in August Among the dates of 25 th to 30 th August, Bratislava hosted 70 medical students from 31 countries coming to experience the first happening of this event. The Organizing Committee received many valuable thanks and credits, and it will not be a lie if we admit that many of the skilled and older trainers and externals who had the chance to attend many international events admitted that there is nothing that compares to the SCORP Camp in its greatness and quality. The rumor about the success and exceptionality of the SCORP Camp s essence has spread and many of the National Member Organizations were asking if there will be another volume of the SCORP Camp event. As the creator of the SCORP Camp could not be gladder to hear about the fruits of this event, a call has been sent out for the host for the next SCORP Camp. In 2014, it was a country of wonders Jordan that hosted this international training youth event. Again from 25 th to 30 th August, this time Amman bloomed with the presence of many gifted medical students from many world countries. It was not a surprise that this happening strengthened the name of SCORP Camp for the upcoming years. Now comes the time of the year when we are giving a chance to become the next host of this event to another country that is willing to share the special spirit of SCORP Camp with another group of medical students that will eagerly apply to be part of it. With a dream and team there is nothing that can stop you. We wish the next selected host the best of luck and we hope that this manual will be a kind of helping hand and organizing such a unique international event as SCORP Camp became. The next pages will preset to you the vision, pillars and goals of the SCORP Camp that are annually kept and spread among the participants. They create our training core. After the short introduction this simple manual also contains explanation on what kind of questions you need to ask yourself and what are the checkpoints you should make sure not to forget about in order to become the best Organizing Committee of all times. As we believe that no manual can be as helpful as direct contact with people who know what SCORP Camp is from their personal experience, never hesitate to contact for more information and answers: Monika Szamosová szamosova.monika@gmail.com and Matthew Valentino matthew.valentino@gmail.com.

3 VISION SCORP camp, the place where seeds are planted and ideas grow. Medical students are the future healthcare professionals. Future healthcare professionals are the future of the healthcare systems in the world and thus directly and indirectly influencing numerous amount of human lives. It is not only our belief that the present time creates loads of pressure and stressful moments not only to the patients but also to the doctors who tend to burn out. The requirements for the medical care are increasing and we see the need to empower medical students with the core stones that will enable them to become responsible, openminded and culturally sensitive leaders in their field. With this initiative, we believe to show young professionals and students their personal directions and thus create a network of people who will be able to initiate and handle changes that are needed for the future healthcare system by discovering and realizing their capacities, abilities and limits. We believe to train medical students that will not be ignorant to human rights and global issues, being well informed and educated on the rights of the patients and having the right skills to express their voice through advocacy. PILLARS First Pillar: Self-discovery Leadership and Management Throughout the ages there has been a small group of people that have striven for greatness in their fields of interest, whether they were leading the field of the healthcare, the sciences, human relationships or others. This small group of people have always been the main driving force in the evolution of humanity. Self-actualization in our eyes means to be the drive for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for the individual to become actualized in their potential. This is the progressive realization of being everything that one is capable of being. Everyone has a vision or dream they are here to fulfill. Not everyone realizes it at the moment because it takes courage to set out onto this journey. Self-actualized doctors are happier, more fulfilled, more ambitious, tend to have better relationships and live life in love, joy, bliss, spiritual

4 connection. Burn out syndrome does not mean a threat to them. They handle life with more confidence and capability. Every medical student has this innate drive and capacity within them to attain greatness, to become more of themselves and realize their unique potential and purpose. Everyone longs to make a difference to live a life of valuable contribution. We, the SCORP camp organizers and trainers believe that this is one of the key elements for future healthcare professionals. Self-discovering and setting their limits. Second pillar: Values Ethics, Community work and Teambuilding Quite a significant number of people put the stress on continuous education process of medical students concentrating onto the hard facts and soft values. It is said that we need to learn how to examine, treat and cure the patient, speak and act like moral authorities reciting medical terminology. We believe that future medical healthcare professionals need not to forget about values. Values should have the core inside their minds not only because they are needed for a productive therapeutic relationship, but we should reflect to them also as a part of psychological hygiene of a doctor. We think, that values must have the same weight as knowledge or skills, because we also need to learn how to live. In our everyday lives we can observe how knowledge can be fatal without values. We aim for unity of words and deeds at our SCORP camp; We want to walk our talk Third pillar: Innovation Motivation, Development and Sustainability The principle of continuous improvement means that one never reaches a perfect state that is absolutely satisfactory. But also each improvement is a precondition for further improvement. The foundation of such an improvement cycle is an innovative approach and a testing of new things or the testing of existing things in a new way. Innovation plays an important role in various fields of the healthcare organization, from overcoming the traditional paradigm that a doctor knows everything, to productive healthcare team and group work, experiential learning and the

5 emphasis on volunteering and community service, informal education, the contact with personalities from the out-of-medicine setting or providing space for new subjects, intersubjects and activities. GOALS To enable young people and future youth leaders to learn how to develop new effective ways of working and training using innovative peer education methods. To find the source of their motivation for future cooperation and inspiration to cooperate internationally. To explore areas of common interests, exchange of experience and good practice among participants. To empower and develop the competence of medical students and future health professionals in designing and implementing projects based on social cohesion. To make participants aware of their own identity and potential as an individual thanks to the self-realization workshops. To make participants aware of their commitment to the future role as key figures in their societies, not only relevant to the healthcare environment. To broaden participants perspective on the importance of values To give medical students skills in change and time management, productivity, cooperation and others. To create a community of medical students sharing a vision on healthcare believing and practicing that human rights issues are highly relevant. To explore possible ways how to support and promote minority rights from the local level to the national and international level. To enable participants to address issues of relevance to the course such as cultural identity, global issues, discrimination, social exclusion, cultural diversity, right to health and majority-minority relations with their relevance for the future healthcare professionals. To develop practical approaches and methods for translating citizenship, social cohesion, intercultural learning and human rights education into youth volunteering practice. To provide information and facilitate contacts with the nongovernmental institutions and youth policies relevant to the vision of the project. To motivate and enable participants to share their acquired knowledge and experience and to act as multipliers after the meeting. To discuss various human rights topics including the vision of peace locally, nationally and internationally. To acquire basic training skills and knowledge on how to be a successful leader.

6 AFTER THE DECISION After making the first step towards becoming the next host of the SCORP Camp your decision there are couple of things you need to make clear in order to get to the successful end. The better you organize yourself at these fields, the higher is the chance that you will never have to use your plan B in the process. We believe that you should start by setting up your dream first with diving the parts of the dream as specific tasks and responsibilities to your team members (the OC), then working out how to make your dream come true, that means getting the budget and resources that will be able to cover your dream. Of course, there is a way also that takes it completely from the opposite side where you have to fit your dream into the budget. Our advice is to dream it and then live it.

7 Step nu.1: Set the date. From our past experience the end of August proved to be a good choice. Majority of medical students have holidays, they are not stressed from the burden that comes with the exam period. There is no requirement for the participants to be approved by their National Member Organization (NMO) President, what is more important for us, is the quality of their application. Participants are selected based upon their application forms. It can be either a letter of motivation or our approved method is a set of online questions that they need to answer. There are questions common for all participants formulated by the OC and also the specific part related to the training they are applying for within the SCORP Camp. It is highly advised to give the responsibility of choosing the participants to the relevant trainer of the workshop as that is the person who will be working with the trainees. Do not forget to have a person within the Organizing Committee (OC) who will be dealing with all the needs of the trainers, this person can also be part of the selection process for the participants. It unfortunately happens that the capacity of the hosting country is lower that the number of interested participants. Which is from one hand sad because we are not able to accept all but on the other hand, there is a chance for substitutions and replacements in the case of cancelations. Step nu. 2: Theme, workshops, participants and trainers. Everyone knows that SCORP Camp event opens many different workshops that participants attend during morning and some afternoon hours accordingly to the selected workshop and their field of interest but they always meet during social program, breaks, lunches, etc. with other participants. It is not only those occasions during the duration of SCORP Camp that unite them. It is the theme events and vision of the SCORP Camp which always stress why are human rights important to medical students. For example, the theme event of the SCORP Camp 2014 in Jordan was Refugees when all participants were given a chance to attend a visit to one of the national refugee camps. Also during the opening ceremony the theme event was initially presented by an interesting artistic presentation and the spirit of it was kept all the time during breakfasts,

8 lunches, dinners and free time programs. The selection of the theme event is the choice of the OC, it just needs to be in the harmony of the vision, pillars and goals of SCORP Camp. The selection and number of workshops is again the choice of the OC. After making the decision about the total number of participants they can host, they have to split the numbers into the workshops. We do not advise to host more than 100 participants in total as one of the characteristics of the SCORP Camp is the family atmosphere where every participants has the chance to meet and talk to every other one not regarding the workshop attending. TNHRT Training New Human Rights Trainers is always the headline workshop as to the human rights education spirit of the SCORP Camp, it can unfortunately accept not more than 30 participants for 2 trainers. TNT Training New Trainers is always a very popular choice especially for trainees without any background experience who are seeking training on basic soft skills such as time management, communication skills, etc., it s capacity is also limited to about 15 to 20 participants. IPET International Peer Education Training is the third basic choice that you should give space to because peer education is part of any other workshop and it is not a secret that participants of this workshop have very special insight on the world and humanity; it can accept around maximum 20 participants per workshop. Every year IFMSA has a coordinator or person responsible for the general requirements of these workshops, you will be provided with the contacts of these people by the SCORP Director when selected for being the host, to assist you and your trainers in meeting the expectations that every of these workshops has and also to provide you with t-shirt templates and certificates, so that once they complete their trainings they can be added to the database of official IFMSA trainers in their field. THINK OUTSIDE.

9 NO BOX REQUIRED. You cannot forget that it is not only participants that you are accommodating and taking care of, but also your trainers without whom the team and dream would not be complete. Try to invite at least 2 trainers per each workshop. There is no rule that says that you cannot open two TNHRTs or other workshops. You will be able to work with your final decision and splitting during the registration process where you will see what has higher interest than your original plan. When selecting the participants or trainers, always have back up and replacement lists. It can happen that there will be some personal complications from their side and you will have to be assertive, flexible and prepared at any time to substitute their place. A special tip is to invite an external special trainer or a speaker that will align with your theme event. Such people usually accept the invitation to deliver a few hours long training for free and it will also increase the credibility and attractiveness of your event. Step nu. 3: The venue. When thinking about the venue and choosing the best candidate, never go for the most luxurious option, even if you would have budget that would be able to cover it. Why? Simply because this is not the point. Secondly, all your participants will be medical students or youth and let s face it, there will be moments when things might get wilder than planned. Accommodation, boarding and meeting facilities can be all at one place however this is not the must. Students can be accommodated in a hotel or student house or any other feasible option you find, have meals in the university or hospital cantina and the meeting facilities can be part of the university. If choosing this option always think about the means of transportation of

10 participants from the place A to the place B. This is the same with the social program and other activities that you will plan. They always have to get to the point where you want them by the safest and most affordable possible way. Never forget that they came to enjoy it, so if the solutions are a bit unusual and crazy, do not worry, they are young and fun will not harm them. It is very important to make sure that the meeting facilities that will represent also the training rooms are big enough for the needs of trainers. Participants will be spending lots of time with their trainings, so please, make this your priority. Create the lists of rooming beforehand and try to mix different people from different workshops. That way you will increase their possibility of interacting with more participants. If you feel brave enough to prepare some meals yourself from the ingredients you buy, try not to poison them. Just kidding, every creative idea is better than none. By boarding we have in mind breakfast, lunch and dinner as three important parts of the day. If you are stressed with the idea of what kind of food will do, calm down, because they will be hungry and eat anything you give them. If there is any market nearby, those who have special requirements might go and hunt on their own. On the other hand, if you give them food that will taste them, believe us, all will be well. As the proverb says love goes through stomach. Most probably exactly this is the step which might consume a lot of your time and especially because of the budget part. Therefore if you know you will not be able to fundraise so much, try asking your university or any other youth nongovernmental activity centers to support you by providing you the meeting facilities during the certain times as their form of sponsorship. Or if this will not be possible because there is no such space, they might be willing to pay for the expenses for the meeting facilities because universities budgets are accommodated to used that way and it should be a problem for them to provide you with the money for this purpose if they have them. One more tip we almost forgot

11 and you definitely should not are coffee breaks with biscuits or something glucose containing once during their training. It can do miracles with the level of productivity! Step nu. 4: Fee and travel. Yes, they have to get to the spot and in most of the cases have to pay their participation fees because not many OCs are able to fundraise so much that they would be able to cover the whole amount of the participation fee. When it comes to deciding about the certain amount of the fee, remember that the first goal is to remain on 0; that means no minuses are the priority. Secondly it is an unwritten rule that you should be able to pay for trainers and your OC fees. You can call it generosity, but we call it etiquette and good manners, those people will be doing their best to serve the participants 24/7, so it is the least you can do for them. If possible, try to assist trainers with their travel expenses. Decide what everything you want the participants fee to cover. There must be considered accommodation, boarding, social program, elective parts are t-shirts, pins, stickers, etc. For sure you have heard sometime before that first impression makes up 90% of their future attitude and excitement. If you will prepare an invitation packages for them, make nice registration process with smiling faces and invitation drink and photos, they will know from the first moment they are in a good hands. And actually SCORP Camp is all about good hands and small acts of kindness. Try to extend your OC team and find volunteers for welcoming and picking up your participants from the spot they arrive to and make sure they are safely and quickly transported to the venue. The same shall be done during their departure day. Do not forget about this and do not leave organizing of the departure day to the last minute because the last day will be the most difficult one, not only because of your rapidly decreasing energy level. As one of the goals is to welcome variety of cultures and some might need assistance with VISA, make sure you have a team member responsible for this too. Prepare an official invitation letter for your participants that they will be able to present to their embassies, deans or supervisors, and be prepared that the contact name and number you include might be really contacted from the

12 embassy, yes, it happens and you have to remain calm and make sure you persuade the person to issue them the VISA. Step nu. 5: Budget and resources. Let s imagine now that you have built up you dream and also the organizing committee team where every member has a certain role and responsibility according to what they are capable of doing. If it seems to you that your dream is big enough - that is good. Every great dream has to be a bit scary to become a true adventure. If it seems to you that there is no door that might lead you to the successful end, then build one. Your budget needs to remain realistic. Do not underestimate and do not overestimate. What can be very helpful with starting to write your budget down and very few people do it is to create an excel sheet document where you will step after step write down everything you need. For example, you want to organize National Food and Drinking Party as part of your social program during your event, which is an awesome idea, so open one excel sheet and write down everything you need: table how many how can you get them, paper glasses how many how can you get them how much does want cost how much do all cost. Go from simple and basic and multiply. This way nothing will be lost. Imagine everything, like it would be happening in a movie and you will not be able to forget everything. Resources do mean oil, gold, diamonds and others oil are the people that keep everything running, gold is the money you will need to pay things that cannot be gained other ways and diamonds are all other types of sponsorship materials that can make your event shine like ray of sunlight. Make sure you have a group of team members dedicated to sponsorship and fundraising. They will need to write down sponsorship requests and also offers that means for anything you ask provide something in return, whether it is an advertisement or other kind of returning service. Always ask for more and even if you ask for something and you are offered something else, accept it if you think it can be a good use. Be polite, but if they throw you out of the door, come back few days later with , call, personal meeting again. Never take refusal personally and do not let it get you down. This is a part where the greatest artists and project managers can lose hope and motivation because they take things personally. So do not make this mistake too. For everything you will be able to receive, be thankful and show it to the relevant people by thank you notes or small gifts of appreciation. This might not be the last time you cooperate with those people. A tip: try getting food and good for consummation that are few days before expiration, big companies usually give them for free as a sponsorship gift and do not make a drama around it. This point needs to start as soon as possible; if you got selected to be the host of the SCORP Camp in February, and you host it in August, you send out your fundraising requests in March. Never underestimate the power of personal meeting with your potential sponsor. Step nu. 6: Agenda and promotion. Make a promotional teaser video, leaflets, and posters, create your own page for this annual SCORP Camp event, get creative and free with expression. Make everyone desire to come and be

13 part of this experience. Every country and every SCORP Camp is unique, build up your promotion upon your strengths and typical causalities. As soon as you have previous steps completed, set up the general agenda. We are offering you an example from the first SCORP Camp. At first it might seem you have plenty of time, but the contrary is the reality. The worst problem usually are the breakfast and social program. No one likes to wake up early and no one likes to go to sleep if they are enjoying themselves. It is the OC s responsibility to ensure that people keep the time schedule. Your timing is the priority. Step nu. 7: Keeping up the tempo. Meet. Meet. Meet. Time flies by really quickly. Make sure you have a person who is really great with planning and time management. Usually it is the OC head that makes sure every bit of detail is taken care of and nothing and no one is forgotten. It is never a bad idea to organize a day long teambuilding for the members of the OC. You have to meet on regular basis. Not just to make sure everyone is fulfilling their tasks, but because you are a team. It does not mean that if your job is registration and fees payment, you will not get involved in other tasks too. There is no border, only the ones you agree upon. Use this opportunity to organize this event to become more skilled in what you know you can do but also learn from other team members about other aspects of organizing such an event. You might learn more than you expect. And this is not just a phrase. Be prepared to be mind blown if you give it the best of you. Step nu. 8: everything else.

14 Create space for more volunteers DJ, photographer, pick up, etc. Give chance to every reliable person who wishes to be involved. Build and use your contacts. Do not take things personally. Get enough rest and relax. Invite important people. Use media to promote your organization and country. Do not be shy. Create ground rules. Make friends with people you usually would not tend to. Do not keep prejudices. It cannot be done does not exist. Stay optimistic. Believing you can is half of the success. Have healthy self-confidence. Report back to the IFMSA officers. Do not be an asshole. Stick to the original spirit of the SCORP Camp. Find time to sit back and enjoy it. Take lots and lots of pictures. Please do not keep them to yourself. Have fun! (while you learn a lot) Evaluate. Monitor. Evaluate. Monitor. Ask for feedback. Do not panic. Be flexible. Have plan B. Details matter. Now is the time to make real your every crazy dream. Make sure every team member gets enough hugs. What happens at SCORP Camp, stays at SCORP Camp. Check your s daily. Your purpose is to serve your participants. Smile, do not frown. Do not be afraid to ask for advice, information or help. Repeat to yourself, this SCORP Camp will be legendary.

15 It always seems impossible until it is done.