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NAMIWalks Business Teams

NAMIWalks For The Mind Of America
Position Description

Position Title: Business Team Captain

Work With: NAMI Walk Staff and/or Volunteer Walk Committee members in charge of working with business-based Walk teams

Position Summary: Responsible for recruiting employees and employee family members to represent a company or business in Walk. Most businesses use their participation in the Walk to publicly demonstrate their strong commitment to the mental health of their employees and their community.

Major Responsibilities:

Get a Team Captain’s Instruction Folder and follow the team building instructions in it.
Select a name for your team (the team name is generally the name of the company or business) and return the Team Registration Form that will be in the Team Captain Instruction Folder.
Set walker and fundraising goals for your team. (Business team captains are encouraged to set a walker recruitment goal of between 10 and 20% of the local workforce for the company, with a fundraising average of $100 per walker.)
Approach the president of the company (or the local senior manager), tell him or her what you are doing (and why you are doing it), and ask for their support.
Try to recruit a committee of assistant team captains that includes a representative from every department in the company to help you in your walker recruitment campaign. (Ask the president if you can send a memo to department heads asking them to designate a team captain for their area. Stress the fact that some departments may have an employee who is touched by mental illness in some way and that this person may make a good team captain.)
Meet with your assistant team captains and develop a walker recruitment campaign plan. Key components of this plan might include:
- Developing an internal publicity campaign to make sure every employee is aware of the company’s participation in the Walk
- Recruiting senior managers to sign up for the Walk first then publicizing the fact that they are supporting the event
- Holding a series of informational meetings for employees where a NAMI representative speaks and helps you recruit walkers
- Distributing walker fundraising pledge brochures to every employee with their paychecks or with a memo encouraging them to take part in the Walk
- Having the company go over incentives prizes for the walkers or departments that raise the most money for the Walk
- Giving every walker who signs up for the Walk a company team T-shirt that they can wear the day of the Walk
Keep track of all the walkers that sign up for the Walk by collecting their registration forms (these forms are part the fundraising pledge brochures) and keeping a master list of the employees and family members who will be walking as members of the company team.
Plan activities (food, games, entertainment, etc.) for the day of the Walk that will make the day a truly special one for the employees and their families.

BUSINESS TEAM CAPTAIN “TO DO” TIMELINE

7 TO 9 WEEKS BEFORE THE WALK

Attend the Walk Event for Team Captains and get your Team Captains’ instruction folder
Complete the Team Registration/Goal Form in the team captain’s instruction folder and mail it in to the local NAMI office after the event. Start working closely with the staff person & volunteers coordinating the Walk to build your team
Be the first in your company to sign up (register) for the Walk
Schedule a meeting with the highest level manager you can reach (ideally the president or CEO!) and ask him or her sign up for the team and support your efforts to recruit employees (and their families) to participate in the Walk
Send a memo to department heads (over the senior executive’s name, if possible) asking them to designate an Assistant Team Captain to work with you on the project. (We will draft this memo for you!)
Hold a meeting for the Team Captains you recruit and develop a walker recruitment game-plan that includes departmental challenges, incentive prizes for top money raising walkers and departments, and an employee Walk awareness PR campaign
Make sure all the Assistant Team Captains you recruit join you in signing up for the Walk

4 TO 6 WEEKS BEFORE THE WALK

Schedule a team building event for employees and have an NAMI staff person or volunteer join you in presenting the program
Send a team building announcement memo with a NAMIWalks for the Mind Of America walker sponsor brochure to all employees
Get permission from the senior manager who is supporting your efforts to buy team T-shirts for everyone on the team
Sponsor a team a T-shirt design contest and invite all employees to participate
Begin collecting walker registration forms and mail or fax them to the NAMIWalks for the Mind Of America headquarters on a regular basis. (You can also register your walkers online.) Keep copies of the registration forms so that you know who has (and who hasn’t) signed up yet
Begin sending team building progress reports to all your Assistant Team Captains and the employees who have signed up for the Walk

2 TO 4 WEEKS BEFORE THE WALK

Continue to collect and fax in the walker registration forms for your team
Select the winning team T-shirt design and order enough team T-shirts for all of your walkers (You will probably have to estimate the number of shirts needed since walkers will continue to pre-register even after the shirts are ordered.)
Continue to promote the Walk through memos, e-mails and newsletters
Hold a special sign up day in the cafeteria with all employees registering for the Walk getting a free lunch or ice cream sundae

1 TO 2 WEEKS BEFORE THE WALK

Have final recruitment drive
Continue to collect and send in walker registration forms
Distribute team T-shirts to your walkers either a day or two before the Walk or at the Walk
Send final reminder to all your walkers about the Walk
RELAX AND ENJOY THE WALK WITH YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS AND CO-WORKERS!

CORE TEAM BUILDING STRATEGIES
FOR BUSINESS-BASED TEAMS

SET WALKER & FUNDRAISING GOALS FOR TEAM

Recommended team building goal: 10 - 20% of total number of employees
This team goal should include family and friends as well as employees
The fundraising goal should be based on a $100 per-walker average. (Be sure to emphasize the fundraising effectiveness of writing letters and e-mails to family, friends and co-workers.)

RECRUIT AS MANY TEAM CAPTAINS AS POSSIBLE

Start by helping the company identify or appoint an overall team captain to lead the team building effort. This person will serve as the main liaison with the NAMI staff and volunteers running the program. Try to recruit someone who has a special interest in mental illness as your overall team captain
Encourage (and help!) this team captain to recruit assistant team captains in every department or on every floor (use the United Way model and see team captain recruitment strategy below)
Have as many team captains as possible attend the pre-Walk Team Captains’ Meeting that will be held approximately 8 weeks prior to the Walk

RECRUITING TEAM CAPTAINS AND WALKERS

Try to use a “top down approach” to team building whenever possible. Draft a memo from the president or another top executive to all department heads asking them to appoint a team captain for their department or area and organize a meeting for these team captains
Send a memo from president or other top executive to all employees telling them about the Walk and encouraging them to join the company team or to sponsor a co-worker
Always try to “make the Walk personal” by highlighting the fact that many employees are likely touched by mental illness and will benefit from the company’s participation in the Walk

INTERNAL TEAM BUILDING MEETINGS

Arrange for a 10 to 15 minute presentation on the Walk at a regular management staff meeting
Try to schedule a special 15 to 30 minute presentation about the Walk to as many employees as possible. Always have a team captain or volunteer touched by mental illness speak at these presentations and be sure to show the national NAMIWalks video at it.
Meet with your team captains before or after the Walk to help them develop a team building game-plan
Always distribute NAMI literature as part of any Walk related meetings you have with employees, team captains and senior managers. Always try to sign walkers up at the conclusion of any presentation on the Walk

EFFECTIVE INTERNAL TEAM BUILDING INCENTIVES

A team T-shirt (designed and paid for by the company) for every walker
Incentive prizes (selected and paid for by the company) for top walkers and/or departments
Competitions between divisions, departments, sites or branches of the company
Special recognition (plaques, letter of commendation in personnel file, lunch with the CEO, etc) for top performing walkers or team captains
Offering a full or half day off for walkers that raise $250 or $500 or more
Offering use of the CEO’s parking space for a month to the top fundraiser
Publishing a “thank you” list of all the walkers who raise $100 or more in the company newsletter, or in a special thank you memo to employees

HAVING A TEAM T-SHIRT WILL HELP
MAKE YOUR NAMIWalks TEAM!

More than any other single factor, team T-shirts help build a team prior to a
Walk, and unite a team the day of a Walk. Here are some key tips
to keep in mind regarding team T-shirts…

1. They should be bright and colorful so the team wearing them STANDS OUT as much as possible on the day of the Walk.

2. The designs, logos and slogans on them should be as creative and unique as possible so
they are a conversation piece both during and after the Walk. Team T-shirts are (in effect)
walking billboards for your company, organization or family team.

3. A great way for a company team of any type to develop creative and unique designs for its team T-shirt is to sponsor a T-shirt design contest for its employees or team members.

4. Another great way is to tap the talents of the company’s PR department staff, or the family’s in-house “artist”.

5. Good team T-shirt designs almost always include both the company or family’s name and
the name and logo of the Walk (NAMIWalks for the Mind of America)..

6. THERE WILL BE A BEST TEAM T-SHIRT CONTEST WITH THE WINNER
SELECTED AT THE WALK! WATCH FOR MORE INFO ON THE PRIZE THAT WILL BE AWARDED TO THE WINNING TEAM!

7. An especially key point to remember is that team T-shirts are paid for by the team so that
every dollar raised in the Walk will go to support NAMI and its programs.

8. Another important thing to remember about team T-shirts is that they are a very effective
WALKER RECRUITMENT TOOL if publicized and promoted by the team captain prior
to the Walk. PEOPLE LOVE T-SHIRTS, ESPECIALLY COOL ONES!

9. Although creative, unique team T-shirts are best, having a bland, uncreative T-shirt is almost always better than having no team T-shirt at all. Most teams usually get better at designing their T-shirts as the years go by. Get started with a team T- shirt this year, and get good at designing it next year!

10. NEED HELP DESIGNING OR ORDERING YOUR TEAM T-SHIRT? CONTACT THE NAMI PENNSYLVANIA OFFICE AT 717-238-1514 or 800-223-0500

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