NFTY-STR

Programming Vice President

Network Packet 2016-2017

(Best Network)

Created by Ryan Marks

NFTY-STR PVP 5776-5777

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Table of Contents

1. Who are we?

2. Board member first

3. Network

4. Working with your advisor

5. Programming Format

6. Understanding by Design (Ryan Marks Interpretation)

7. Program Ideas

8. Group Leading

9. Feedback/Debrief

10.Subregional

11.Niche Programming

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Who is Ryan Marks?

Name: Ryan Marks

Birthday: June 16, 1998

Born: Dallas, Texas

Temple youth group: PARTY

Social Media:

Instagram: Rmarks_

Finsta: RyanTheDweeb (not run by me… it’s complicated)

Twitter: No one likes twitter

Contact Me: Ryanmarks13@gmail.com and (954) 461-8300

*After June 1st use Str-pvp@nfty.org*

Favorites

Food: Anything that is edible, but chips are great

Movie: Anchorman 2 or Blind Side

Water: Zephyrhills... It just tastes good

Sports team: Cowboys, Spurs, Heat... bandwagon every other sport

Hobbies: DECA, playing sports, eating, and doing the NFTY

Music: Country. It’s great, you should try it.

Tv shows: Gold rush, America’s got talent, and anything food network

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Your Whys

Why are you here? What is your why statement?

How did you get here? Whose shoulders do you stand upon?

What makes a leader?

What makes you a leader?

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Who are we?

Everyone in this room is an elected or appointed leader.

What you do from this point on

proves you as a leader. Anyone can hold a

title, but passionate leaders create change,

bolster their youth groups, and inspire future

leaders. Each of us has an opportunity and a

responsibility to enact and create positive change. This positive change can and

should occur in the region, your Temple Youth Groups (TYGs), temples, NFTY,

other Jewish organizations, and the world. Make the most of the opportunity of being

at LLTI and being on your board this upcoming year. This is a once in a lifetime

opportunity.

It is crucial to the integrity of your TYG, board, and NFTY-STR to

acknowledge one thing. We are members first, board members second, and our

position last. This one idea can empower your youth group to grow, inspire your

peers, lead the future generation, leave your mark on your youth group, and set up

your next year for success. Have humility. Know and understand where you came

from. No one is entitled to the respect of those around them; respect is something

that you earn by leading with integrity, authenticity, and character.

How will you prove yourself as a leader this year?

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Network You are not alone. Look around you. See all of those pretty faces (Especially

mine)? Well, everyone in this room is here to help each other. Do not be afraid to ask

questions. No one comes up with their best ideas on their own; use the resources

around you to make this upcoming year as effective, stress free, and impactful as you

can. Utilize each other! Utilize me, I’m helpful… I think :)

My engagement

Phone calls: On these phone calls I want you to be able to just talk with me. I want

to know your favorite color and how last night’s basketball game went. I want to

know what programs you’ve recently done and how they went, good or bad, you can

give helpful advice to the network! I want to have a personal as well as working

relationship with all of you, so don’t be afraid to reach out to me out of the blue. I

will always make myself available, be flexible, and help collaborate on anything you are

working on.

Facebook: The oh so infamous facebook group. I will tell you one thing for sure

right now, this is the best and most exciting group of people in this room. Our

network will NOT be boring! Throughout the year I will post in the page about any

new programs you want to share, who went to the Jason Aldean or Tay Swift concert,

and questions that allow all of us to get to know each other. However, I want y’all to

post as well. It is not a network if I’m the only one posting and asking the questions!

We won’t be able to grow as a network if we don’t talk like normal people, get to

know each other, and collaborate with each other.

Video chat: Oovoo, skype, and google hangouts. Download them as soon as

possible! We will be using them A LOT. This is a nice way for me to get to talk with

all of you face to face and have collaborative group calls where we can all bounce

ideas off of each other and build connections within the network. I will always be

flexible with my time so if you have to reschedule, don’t worry!

My Commitment to You

I will call a minimum of three people in our network each week.

I will try and utilize group calls to effectively collaborate and grow connections

within our network.

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I will send out monthly network emails.

I will make myself available to you whenever you need me.

I will make our network as fun as possible!

I will make a conscious effort to use our facebook group to engage our

network throughout the year.

Your Commitment to our Network

Communicate, this is SO important. We cannot have an effective network

without transparent communication between all of us.

Collaborate with everyone around you, you’re not alone.

Remember to enjoy yourself and have fun!!

Hold everyone in our network accountable.

Reflect the interests of your TYG

Working with Your Advisor

Like peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookies, police and doughnuts, ice cream and pie, chipotle and the world, NFTY and NFTYites, pen and pencil, sun and moon, you and your advisor should be on this list.

Like PVP and advisor… The next new saying according to the New York Times. It is essential to maintain a healthy and communicative relationship with your advisor! Your advisor, new or seasoned, will be your number one throughout this year. They are your advisor, cheerleader, role model, collaborator, and supporter. Be sure to keep the following in mind throughout this year:

Communicate: Cultivate this strength! Communication is what fosters accessible opportunities and encourages growth for many people. This not only includes NFTY but also for life in general. Keep open communication with your advisor, let her know what’s going on in your life, when you need help with a program, have something you want to talk about, or are having a rough month. Advisors play the role of anyone and everything whether it be a disciplinarian, mentor, and backbone!

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Collaborate: Use your advisor, they are an invaluable resource to you and your board. Talk through a program with them and brainstorm new and innovative ideas. Your advisor often has access to information you don’t have, and you often have ideas they wouldn’t think of, so when you collaborate with them, the end result is better than if either of you had worked alone.

Professionalism: Remember that at the end of the day, your advisor is a youth professional and adult staff at your temple. Learn the boundaries of your fun and goofy relationship with your advisor and be sure to create and maintain an appropriate relationship with them as well. This is essential to a sacred and meaningful bond with your advisor throughout your term. Remember there is always a time for each relationship, for example at a board meeting, you tend to portray a more serious relationship rather than goofy.

Respect: Your advisor does so much for you. They will go to the moon and back just to help you reach your goals. Appreciate this, admire this, and respect this. Your advisors are people too. Tell them how meaningful they are to you and compliment them, they’ll appreciate it more than you know. When I say respect your advisor, obviously I mean use your manners and show the blatant definition of respect to them, but be sure you go the extra mile and show how much you appreciate them.

Programming Format (ProFo)

How does one remember proFo?

TGOMPSTDA

-Touchstone text -Goals

-Objectives

-Materials

-People

-Space

-Time table

-Detailed procedures

-Appendices

Remember: You want to be as detailed as possible. The purpose of programming format is to have any person fully understand and be able to lead the program as well as give other temples and regions resources to replicate and enhance programs. Also, advertise. If no one knows about the program, then no one will come!

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JAFCO Program

Ryan Marks (PARTY SAVP)

Monday Night Program

Touchstone Text: “I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: so choose life for yourselves and for your descendants.” -Deuteronomy, 30:19

The touchstone text will be forgotten NO MORE! Use this section as a basis of your program. Do not head off into a program without any direction. We are a Jewish youth movement after all, so connect your programs to Judaism! Do not forget that the Touchstone text must be used in the program.

Goals: (immeasurable, intangible ideas)

Participants will understand the importance of JAFCO. Participants will aim to help and support JAFCO.

Your big ideas. What abstract concepts, concrete understandings, or material do you want your participants to learn? Your goals should be your main guideline when writing a program and should be written FIRST.

Objectives: (Measurable, what you want your participants to get out of the program)

At the end of the program, PPs will know the work that JAFCO does and make informed decisions about whether they want to support the organization.

At the end of the program, PPs will be able to understand the situations these teens are in.

Your objectives should be achieved in order to reach the goals. Objectives tend to be specific and should be obtainable after a program or in the near future. You can find out if your PPs have learned information about JAFCO.

Materials: (Any and all items needed)

JAFCO Pamphlets DVD Player Slips of Paper numbered 1-5 to be put under the chairs of the PPs Large signs that are numbered 1-5

EVERYTHING YOU COULD POSSIBLY NEED. These items range from DVDs, DVD player, computers, pencils, juke boxes, and afro combs. Oh, and

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please don’t forget to print your program and your appendices, that would be important.

People: (Group leaders, program leaders, expected amount of participants, advisors etc.)

PPs-approximately 50 JAFCO Speaker (Bella-Teen JAFCO President) 5 GLs 2 PLs (Evan and Ryan)

Include everyone involved to ensure everyone knows their responsibilities and attend the program. Space Needed: (Any space needed ranging from breakout spaces, rain out locations, and room setups)

Ballroom

You write an amazing program, have a backup plan, awesome group leaders, BUT you forgot to write a space request form for your temple’s sanctuary! You arrive to your program devastated, just to find out you weren’t invited to your own cousin’s bar mitzvah. Awk...

Time Table: (Exact order of the program) 00:00-00:20 Introduction/Speaker/Video 00:20-00:25 Break into Groups 00:25-00:50 Situation Discussions 00:50-00:52 Return to Dance Floor 00:52-01:00 Closing

Your ever beautiful timeline to make sure your program/event runs on time, and the carline doesn’t get backed up!

Detailed Procedure: (An explanation even a rock can understand) 00:00-00:20 Introduction/Speaker/Video PPs will walk into the ballroom and will be asked to sit down. Once PPs are quiet, the program will begin. PL’s will read script (see appendix A for script). The speaker will talk about their experience in JAFCO, how it affects teens lives everywhere, but not how to help the cause. Speaker will show a video to show how JAFCO affects underprivileged teens lives. Lauren “LaLa” Oback will be responsible for starting and stopping the video. Teen representative from JAFCO will follow the first speaker.

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00:20-00:25 Break into Groups Groups move to their four locations. The program leader will give everyone a number ranging one through four, and ask them to hold it above their head. Once everyone has received a number, they will be asked to go to their location. Group One will stay on the dance floor, Group Two will go near the double doors, Group Three will go to the left of the stage, and Group Four will go to the right of the stage. (GL’s in appendix B) 00:25-00:50 Situation Discussions Each GL will be given a life situation to read to their group’s participants (See appendix C) that will explain their life up until this point. There will be four situations. The group leader will lead a group discussion starting with everyone’s opinion on the situation and how they would feel if this indeed was their actual life situation. Allow the group discussion to go where the group’s PPs take it for it to allow for an in depth discussion. If the group has time, they can do the other situations. 00:50-00:52 Return to the Dance Floor GLs will quickly and efficiently get everyone to sit down on the dance floor quietly to prepare for the skit. 00:52-01:00 Skit & Closing

The Skit will begin when everyone is quiet and sitting. (See Appendix B)

Make the detailed procedure as detailed as possible. People who will group lead or review the program may not know what you have in your mind (if they do, they are the next Skywalker), SO WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER!

Appendix A: (Any document, questions, videos, or extraneous information that will be used in the program.) P.S. Page break all appendices I just wanted to save space. Evan: Welcome everybody to PARTY! Tonight we have a special program planned to raise awareness on JAFCO.

Ryan: JAFCO stands for Jewish Adoption & Family Care Options. We have two guests with us here tonight representing JAFCO. Please join me in welcoming, from JAFCO, Linda Sachs and Bella Polley the Co-President of the JAFCO teen board.

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Understanding by Design

The Ryan Marks Way

Understanding how and why we do everything in a program is essential to the

integrity of the process of creating a program. If you write a program with the proper

tools, resources, and people around you, then you have the opportunity to turn a

good program into a great program. Everyone wants to write, create, experience, and

be a part of an impactful and memorable program, but it is easier said than

done. Here are some tips to make the program writing process as fluid and effective

as possible:

1. Have a brainstorm partner Find someone, a group of people, or a parent to bounce ideas off of. This

should be a person who pushes back, makes you think, and forces you to think through your ideas.

Use this tool to empower those around you. You do not need a title to be a leader, and having youth group members help in the programming process is a great empowerment tool.

2. Identify your broad topic and/or genre of program Start off with a general area, don’t just say, “Let's have a fun program.” Have a

designated direction to go in whether it be a program geared towards Social Action, Judaism, or the importance of setting goals.

3. Define your goals for the program What abstract ideas do you want your program to teach or have participants

experience? This is crucial because you need to be able to build your program off of a solid base.

4. Choose the type/genre of program It is important to understand how you want to get your point across or execute

a program. It completely changes the effect the program has on the participants and the overall program.

5. Know your audience This is imperative to run a good program. If you are writing a program for an

energetic group of freshmen, you most likely will not write a serious program for them.

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6. Start planning Start laying out the rough draft of the program. This contains the main

components of the program which includes a complete time table (the primary activities), essentially the bare bones of what is soon to become an amazing program.

7. Details After you’ve gone through this entire process, you have created the basis of

your program through a sense of understanding. Now you will write up the details that need to be written in order to successfully run the program such as any skits, directions, rules, appendices, and the detailed procedures. BE DETAILED! You made everything with a purpose in order to reach your overall goals.

8. Review Read your program over several times and ensure that all of the activities

in the program have purpose and are done with intention. If you have a program with no purpose, then why write it? Have an outsider read it, a fresh set of eyes will help point out any disconnects, and make the program better!

9. Execute The day has come! All of your hard work you and everyone that has helped is

going to come into fruition!

Serious, fun, engaging, experiential, religious, etc. The point is, through this system a program is written with intention and has clear and obtainable goals. Keep these goals in the forefront of your mind, so group leaders and participants will experience the program the way you intended and learn what you attempted to teach. Many participants come to local and regional events to have fun, learn new things, and meet new people, which is an important thing to remember when writing programs. They want to feel engaged, but not over engaged; they want to have fun, but have meaningful experiences; they want to learn new things, but create their own perspective; they want to have serious programs, but not be bored. It’s important to keep a balance and make everything in the program have a purpose.

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Matt Kessler’s Lovely List of Program Ideas! This list of possible components to include in your programs is helpful if you are stumped on what to include in your program. I am separating the categories into two groups according to whether they are more serious or social. This is just my suggestion and should not limit you! You can ultimately use any of these in either a serious or social situation. p.s. You can have more than one of these in a program! You want these two reflect the goals you have for the program. For example, if you want PP’s to work as a team, have them do activities together.

SERIOUS

-Panel Discussion: Create/ Include a panel of “experts” (can be real or just PL’s with extensive knowledge on the subject at hand) -Speaker: If you ask a speaker to come to your TYG, make sure that what he/she plans to speak about is appropriate for your group. Also tell the speaker his/her time limitations and the goals that you are hoping to achieve. -Discussion: Have PP’s discuss a few pre-written questions (usually found in appendices). DO NOT use this for the whole program. A few minutes of discussion is good, while too much can bore the group. GL’s are not restricted to these questions and can come up with their own! -Hike Through History: Program that is a tour of historic occurrences (simulation sort of deal) -Four Corners: Have 4 corners on a certain issues, in which each corner represent a specific opinion on the issue (Ex: Agree, Disagree, Somewhat Agree, Neutral…). The PP’s will have a choice of which corner to go to and the ramifications of their actions. -Trial: Programs run like a courtroom, formal debate, or town meeting. -Using 5 Senses: PP’s will be subject to an activity that will arouse/ stifle one or more of their senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling…OR art, music, cooking, drama, meditation)

SOCIAL

-Competition: PP’s will perform a certain task with the motivation derived from competition

-Skit: Divide PP’s into groups. Give them a situation for them to act out. It can be a competition or just for fun!

-Games: Have an underlying principle for each game that you play. For example, have a program on integrity and ethics by playing simple games that have rules that can easily be broken.

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IN THE MIDDLE

-Carousel: Rotation program. It allows for many topics to be addressed -Parallel Universe: The Parallel universe splits PP’s into two or more groups. It’s useful with large groups because it’s the same program run in two different locations. -Fishbowl: Ask questions of an inside group. The outside group listens, but does not answer. The groups can swap at a certain point. -Choose Your Own Adventure: PP’s are given a choice of 2 or more actions to take. Their choices affect how they will proceed through a program (stations). This requires extra planning (you must create stations to compensate for each choice they MAY take). However, PP’s enjoy being able to make their own choices in the program

-Simulation: PP’s are put through a situation, as it would happen in real life (such as a family trip to NYC). Since the PP’s actions are predetermined, it is important to notice the participant’s emotions and responses to the actions they are put through. Other Ideas: Sports, challenge, role-play, exercise, extended metaphor

Group Leading

Hopefully… we will all be leading a program in our TYG, school, regional event, or any other organization, so be prepared to be the best group leader you can be:

Be excited. It is a program, not an interrogation! Be friendly. Ask people their names, their favorite color, and ask them their

name again when you forget (the struggle). Be aware. Body language and a smile go a long way when leading a group of

people. Be an equal. Make sure you are on the same level as everyone. If everyone is

standing, stand. If everyone is asked to then sit, sit. Be respected. Create a safe environment through a mutual respect between

everyone in the room. If someone is being disrespectful make eye contact, get their attention, or kindly ask them to stop.

Be prepared! Nothing can ensure a great group leader than knowing your program inside and out.

Be creative. No program will ever run exactly how it is written. Don’t feel the need to change the topic of conversation if your program is productive and healthy, participants are here to have fun!

Be flexible. Have a backup plan, a ten minute mixer, and a story to tell just in case your group ends early.

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Be timely. Try your best to make it through the program, but if you don’t, it’s not the end of the world! If your group enjoyed what they experienced, then it was a great program.

Gauge the group. Sometimes the group you have can handle more in depth discussion/topics, however, other times you may want to alter the program so it applies to the group at hand.

Be confident. Don’t be nervous, this is your time to shine!

Feedback

As previously said in the

packet, the idea is that everyone in this

room will run at least one program

throughout this year. The size,

functionality, and stability of each of our

TYGs varies greatly. With this being said,

we each have different definitions of what a

successful program looks like, therefore a

program that was wildly successful for one

TYG may not be or may not be seen as successful by another TYG simply because

we are all different. How we gauge our own success within our TYG is essential for

growing as a youth group.

SO, let’s say we were halfway through our year right now and you just ran an

amazing program, how do you grow from that? The feedback process is such an

important process of growing as a PVP and youth group.Effective ways to receive

and keep feedback include but are not limited to:

Informal: Have a quick ten minute debrief after each program. This creates

open dialogue between the advisor, program writers and leaders, and

participants.

Formal: Create a survey or questionnaire for your participants to fill out. This

helps get feedback and learn what your participants want to engage in. Try not

to seem robotic! This is an effective way to get real feedback, however you

want to ensure those who fill out the survey know that you truly value their

opinion. You want to come off as authentic as to why you want their feedback!

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Online: Create a google docs folder where you save all of your programs that

you write. Not only does this give you the opportunity to reflect on past

programs, but you can help other TYGs around you by providing resources to

them. With regard to receiving feedback, you can create surveys on both twitter

and facebook that allow you to receive quick and honest feedback regarding a

program’s success.

Be Organized: Create a binder that contains all of the programs you write. On

top of this, talk to your advisor and those involved in the program and make a

sheet of notes that says what could have gone better, planned differently, and

what worked really well.

Subregional Events

NFTY-STR is one of the largest regions in NFTY in terms of population. One

of the best advantages of having a geographically small yet dense region is the

possibility of subregional events. We are going to take a few minutes now to meet

with the people who are here from your subregion and exchange contact information.

I highly encourage you to consider subregional programming when you plan your

calendar. It can encourage regionally active members to attend local events so they

can see their out-of-town friends, while it can motivate locally active members to

engage in regional events since they had already met people outside of their TYG.

I do not plan on dividing our region into subregions, however I will strongly

encourage regional participation at local events. What does this mean? For example,

if my TYG, PARTY, is hosting a lock-in on one shabbat and we open the event to the

region on a first come first serve basis for registration, then we would encourage

NFTY-STRites from other TYGs in the area and around the region to come and

attend the event. This is my vision of subregional events.

However, I have one more vision! This is to have at least TWO major

subregional events in our region. These events would have similar programmatic

aspects as a regular NFTY-STR regional event. There will be a small havdallah, name

tags, shirts, advisors, and the whole shebang! There will be a fun, engaging, and

exciting program for the entire subregional event. Examples include a color war, limo

scavenger hunt, or mystery bus ride, but I cannot do these events without you! These

two major events will be planned, organized, and executed by you, your boards, your

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advisors, me, my board, and ANYONE who wants to help. These events provide a

perfect way to empower our region and successfully provide a buffer between events

to allow our region to experience the magic of NFTY.

Niche Programming

Have you ever been unengaged in a program? What components of program

help engage participants who may have been unengaged before?

Niche programming minimizes the amount of unengaged participants. The idea

is to write a program to give the participant as many options as possible. Niche

programming allows the participants to choose discussions or activities to engage in

that they are most interested in, out of an array of options. For example, after a full

group discussion about homelessness, give participants different options on how they

want to help, like making blessing bags, or writing letters to congresspeople, or even

just continue the discussion. Through this, participants are more likely to participate

in programs because they are in a program which relates to their interests.

Now, creating programs that reflects everyone’s opinion is near impossible.

Everyone has their own opinion, and they are entitled to that opinion. It is important

to always value each and every opinion because that is how you receive feedback and

improve future programs. Keep in mind that not everyone will like or appreciate the

programs you write, but that is OKAY! The moral of the story is to ALWAYS keep in

mind the interests of your participants. If you know the participants you are writing

the program for are expecting a day full of social action, then you don’t want to write

a program that is only geared towards serious discussion and not tangible actions to

better our community.

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Resource Page

Final thoughts: “There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in

something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept

no excuses; only results.” -Kenneth Blanchard

Contact Information: (Just in case you’re lazy and don’t like flipping pages)

Email: Ryanmarks13@gmail.com (str-pvp@nfty.org after June 1st)

Cell: (954) 461-8300

Oovoo: 0RyanMarks0

Touchstone Text: Jewish-Wisdom.com

Chabad.org

Quotationspage.com/quotes/The_Talmud

NFTY Contact: North American Program Bank- www.nfty.org/resources/programbank/

Guide to Groupleading- www.nfty.org/resources/programming/group_leading/

NFTY Glossary- www.nfty.org/leadership/references/glossary/

NFTY’s 13 Principles- www.nfty.org/about/13principles/

Getting Feedback- www.nfty.org/resources/programming/prog_eval_questions/

More Resources- www.nfty.org/str/resources/

Social Media: Facebook: NFTY STR | Southern Tropical Region

Twitter: @nfty_str

Instagram: @nfty_str

NFTY-STR Contact Information: Julie Marsh, Regional Advisor: nftystr@urj.org

President: str-president@nfty.org

Programming Vice President: str-pvp@nfty.org

Social Action Vice President: str-savp@nfty.org

Religious and Cultural Vice President: str-rcvp@nfty.org

Communications Vice President: str-cvp@nfty.org

Membership Vice President: str-mvp@nfty.org