March 2020: Adapting and Growing as a Team

First of all, on behalf of the team, allow us to sincerely thank you for finding your way to this month’s blog post. We know it is a crazy time, and that the news is changing every day---no, every hour---and we appreciate the time and brainspace you devoted to arriving here. (Both literally, arriving at this page, and in a broader sense, navigating these uncertain times…perseverance is truly a virtue, keep up the good work, friend.) In the following post, we will be discussing our team’s progress for the month of March, with all the changes and unknowns that it has brought with it. We hope you find it a bit of a more relaxing read than the news that seems to always be breaking, and most of all we hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. 

March Accomplishments

In early March, the team left for spring break and returned to a very different national reality: online classes, social distancing, and all the other continually developing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these rapid changes, we are proud to say that not only have we been very adaptive as a team, transitioning to Zoom meetings and rethinking project plans, but we have achieved many of our goals, even amidst the changes and uncertainty!

• Tested radio system from TCC. Before Arizona’s shelter in place policy took effect, we were able to demo the encrypted radio systems TCC so generously let us borrow. We may have had to stay 6 feet apart, but at least we could communicate securely over the radios! During this demo, we were on a video call with several TCC representatives, who explained the finer details of these state-of-the-art devices. The capabilities of this system are exciting and promising!
• Met with a local automotive professor. In order to more effectively begin the development of the curriculum for the Mobile Repair kits, we are looking to the experts -  automotive instructors! Dr. _ Skroch of Mesa Community College’s Automotive Service program generously met with us during a team meeting this month, bringing inspirational enthusiasm and ideas! Through our conversation, we have determined a more ideal structuring of the curriculum than we had initially considered.
• Changed direction due to COVID-19. With the effects of COVID-19 truly starting to take hold in the U.S., as a team we have dedicated a good portion of time this month to changing gears and modifying plans. Our discussions on project changes have been critical to help us maintain morale as a team, and our quickness to adapt and openness to change have helped our team continue to set and more importantly, meet, goals in this uncertain time. Within the GlobalResolve community, we have met with several mentors not typically working with us on this project, and these discussions have aided us in understanding the new challenges to our project, as well as areas for exciting new growth. Read on to learn how we are adapting to these new changes!

​TCC Encrypted Radio System:








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​April Goals

With big changes being made to our semester due to COVID-19, our goals have slightly changed for the end of the Spring 2020 semester. We have halted our efforts to fundraise and no longer will be focusing on planning for a summer trip to Kenya. With this being said, our momentum has not been slowed! Our team is considering moving the Kenya trip to December of 2020. In the meantime we plan to stay busy with the following goals:

1. Develop Curriculum: One of the largest parts of our mission is to implement a curriculum plan so Maasai Tour guides can be self sufficient with vehicle repair and maintenance. With our focus being turned away from travel and fundraising, we can now dive deeper into curriculum planning. Throughout April we plan on meeting with professionals and educators from the Automotive sector to help us create a comprehensive and effective curriculum plan. In addition to this, the team is considering ways to implement this curriculum via technology or some sort of written plan so the Maasai people can be exposed to the content earlier than our potential travel date of next December.
2. Develop Communication Plan: As an ongoing sub-project of the Maasai Automotive Education Center, the communication implementation led by Kelly Anderson now has a bigger role in our future plans. Over the month of April our team plans on exploring more options for communication solutions in the Mara. Recently we were fortunate to receive some demo Encryption units from TCC to look at and consider for our project. These encryption radios were very high quality and met the requirements of the project. While it is uncertain whether we will be moving forward with the radios from TCC, they give us a good direction for the future!

    

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