- Global coordinators: (Evangelyn Alocilja and Chelsie Boodoo) (alocilja@msu.edu;boodooch@msu.edu) oversee the rest of the members, help organize GARD events, provide support with all aspects. They also oversee the general format and schedule of the events.
- Whova design team: this team would report to Chelsie and help design the Whova platform. Templates from previous symposia can be used as baseline.
- Special issues: people to help coordinate and recruit papers to be submitted to the papers that are special issues for GARD.
- Fundraising team: this team will help raise money for GARD so that we can support our symposium platform, awards, translators, sign language interpreters, etc. We already have a template fundraising document to email people but need help sharing it and speaking to potential donors.
- Regional Coordinators: oversee the members and organization of their region/countries.
- Graphics/social media coordinators and Team: create graphics (if they do not know how Chelsie can do a tutorial of Canva. Work can also be shared with her who can help). Post graphics on social media. For example, promoting an upcoming event, a speaker or talks by GARD members.
- Advertisement/recruitment coordinators and Team: Although social media is a great way to recruit, not everyone has social media. The flyers can be distributed through different university email systems within each country. The advertisement team can also reach out to news outlets to spread the word about the event and can get creative on ways that they advertise. It is also important to continue to promote and grow the GARD community. Recruit as much as you can and spread the word!
- Translation teams: people to help translate the graphics to other languages.
- Speaker recruitment and organizers and Team: people who recruit speakers from their region on the topics being covered. After recruitment, they schedule the speakers, then follow up with them. Also assure that they have registered so that we have their biographies and information. If the speaker cannot speak live, they can do a pre-recorded session and coordinate with the pre-recorded session organizers to submit a video of their talks.
- Format/schedule organizers and Team: Scheduling entails: creating a calendar that people can download like on google or outlook, creating a program that people can see as a flyer (create with the graphics/social media coordinators), and confirming with the speaker recruitment that the speakers will be speaking. The formatting and schedule of the events entails organizing the sessions of that region. It does not mean that you schedule every region. The scheduling of all the regions would be done by the global coordinators. For example, if Asia has a 3 hour planned schedule and Africa has a 4 hour planned schedule, the global coordinators will decide when Asia and Africa will have those planned sessions.
- Moderators organizers and Team: sessions can be organized in different ways. For example, there can be a round table discussion, a panel, a talk block (speakers at different times that are about the same topics), question and answer sessions etc that need moderators. It is preferable that the moderator has some questions ready to help the conversation get started in case people are shy. It is also preferable that the moderator is knowledgeable in the topic. The moderators should also know how to use the platform that the presentations are occurring in, just in case the speakers are having technical difficulties. Moderators should also give warnings when people are running out of time to keep on schedule. It is also nice if moderators can give a shout out to sponsors such as “thank you to our sponsors such as…”
- Posters and pre-recorded session organizers and Team: people who recruit poster submissions/pre-recorded talks, assure they are in the right format, and coordinate with graphics/social media coordinators to promote and create a program. This team will also help vote on the winning posters for undergraduate and graduate students
Innovation challenge organizers and Team: Recruit and organize the teams and topics for the challenge. Also recruit judges to determine the winning teams. Schedule the event and come up with the topics for the challenge with the global coordinators and regional coordinators. Refer to the graphics team and advertisement team to help recruit, advertise and create a program