Base Camp Support

Pathways Guides across the world perform a unique leadership role – they guide their clubs, members and Base Camp managers through the many paths in Base Camp. The prescribed Pathways Guide tasks are as follows:

1. Deliver the Pathways Learning Experience presentation and rollout kit to each assigned club
2. Follow up with vice presidents education (VPEs) to ensure they and their club members are comfortable operating in Pathways and Base Camp
3. Access Base Camp as a member to view all tutorials in the system.
4. Take the assessment, select a path, login to Base Camp and begin completing your path, as soon as Pathways launches in your district
5. Collect questions from VPEs and address during your regular virtual support sessions
6. Attend webinars hosted by World Headquarters, as needed
7. Provide your VPEs with answers received at World Headquarters webinars

My suggested Pathways Guide tasks are complementary to the list above and take each one to a new level with a new perspective:

1. Fine tune the Pathways Learning Experience presentation to suit the clubs you are assigned
2. Provide supportive emails and posts in social media to VPEs and their assistants to keep their skills current
3. Highlight specific tutorials and reference material and send directly to the Base Camp Managers
4. Analyse the process of selecting a Path and provide helpful hints on how to select wisely
5. Include segments of Q&A in each Virtual Support Session – those sent prior to session and new ones after discussion of processes in Base Camp
6. Access the Master Q&A Log from your Pathways Guide Tasks curriculum frequently – before and after WHQ webinar sessions
7. Include a segment of FAQ and the WHQ answers in your Virtual Support Sessions.

Scoping the Virtual Support Sessions

Guides are asked to conduct virtual support sessions via a technological platform. It’s possible that your assigned clubs are spread out over a large geographical area, making it difficult for all VPEs to meet at a central location. Hosting your support sessions virtually will maximize attendance and participation.

Guides are now communicating about ‘how’ they plan to scope their virtual support sessions in many social media spaces.

Recently I shared my preferred ‘scope’ with Guides in other Districts and in doing so it helped me consolidate what I had been doing and what I plan to do in the next two months. My plan is to schedule the VSS consistently from week to week. One on a Thursday evening and in the following week, one on a Saturday morning.

My approach was to scope the VSS in three distinct stages:
Stage 1: VSS 1-5 Learning about Base Camp and Paths

In each of these sessions the emphasis is on ‘helping yourself’ as a member new to Pathways.

• VSS 1: Exploring Base Camp
• VSS 2: Following your path
• VSS 3: Its All about Evaluation
• VSS 4: Completing a Level
• VSS 5: Deeper Learning in your Path

Stage 2: VSS 6-10 Learning your Role as a Base Camp Manager

In each of these sessions the emphasis is on ‘understanding your role as a BCM’

• VSS 6: Feedback, Badges & Eportfolios
• VSS 7: Practical Tips for BCMs
• VSS 8: Support your members from the Cloud
• VSS 9: Enthuse Pathways Champions at Club Meetings
• VSS 10: Coordinating the work of VPE & BCM

Stage 3: VSS 11-15 Learning how to embed Pathways in your Club

In each of these sessions the emphasis is on ’embedding Pathways in your club’ as a VPE

• VSS 11: How to include Pathways in the Business segment of meetings
• VSS 12: How to build a team of Club Pathways Champions
• VSS 13: Implementing the Pathways Mentoring system in your club
• VSS 14: Implementing Pathways Planners for members
• VSS 15: Fine Tuning the Completions and Awards

See sample slide decks here:
https://www.slideshare.net/CoachCarole

Structure Within a VSS

Plan to include:

1. Round Robin introductions
2. Training Topics or Questions from FAQ
3. Demonstration and discussion of a process
4. Optional: Guest presenter (a Pathways Champion)
5. Q & A and What’s Next?

• Be early to your online venue and help others become comfortable in the environment with 5 minutes of technical assistance.
• Ask each attendee to introduce themselves in a round robin style – 1 minute each – and ask them to include their answer to: Where are you up to in Pathways?
• Provide an overview of the latest FAQ from the WHQ and discussion forums in social media. Ask the attendees to add a question for discussion in the chat panel. Attend to those in the final segment.
• Demonstrate a live process in Base Camp that illustrates the current FAQ or a topic of interest to the attendees. Discuss the tips and tricks you’ve learned along the way.
• Invite a guest presenter, a Pathways Champion from your clubs, to give a 5 minute overview of their own progress, within a Path, and in supporting others in their clubs. This enables them to build another skill of speaking to inform, online.
• Read out the Questions from the Chat Panel and ask for suggestions from the audience or answer yourself. Remind them of the resources they can access from the Tutorials and Resources library in Base Camp.
• Introduce the next session date and time and ask for specific discussion topics.

If you need help in facilitating a virtual session you can find more detailed information here:

Six Critical Success Factors for Running a Successful Virtual Meeting – training with Julia Young

How to Facilitate an Online Meeting – training with Coach Carole

9 Global trends – rethink your webinar program strategy with Roger Courville

Segue to Chapter 10: Embedding Pathways

There are some simple steps you can do now to embed Pathways into your Meetings.  Join me here next week for my thoughts on this strategy.