[JaneYoung]

This is an example of things I would be thinking about. We have a very diverse team this year on 418. We have been meeting, preparing for BEST, and we had a back to school bar-b-que for the team - students, parents, mentors. I am already noticing that we will have to work at communication to make sure all of us are together on the same page this year, working with various cultures and languages. Knowing this, I'm including the parents along with the mentors and the sponsors when thinking about this thread.

I'm also thinking that the members of our team all have jobs from the time they arrive at the venue until the time they leave. Any type of gathering would have to be well organized and publicized and our team members would have had to discuss this with our lead teacher and the parents. We would have to have a full understanding of the gathering well in advance of the regional and the participants' jobs would have to be covered by someone else during that time.