Onboarding!!!

Hello, friends! 

Last weekend we welcomed the 5 new hires into our Region to Omaha for our first ever New Staff Onboarding Weekend (NSOW)! 

NSOW used to be called MPD 101, which was when the new staff would come to Omaha (or be online) and I'd get them set up to do good MPD throughout the summer, wit hopes that they'd be fully funded by the beginning of the next school year. This year's class was bigger than I was going to be able to manage, so we decided to enroll them in the National training program. However, we still wanted them to have some good community building time and learn more about the Region. 

When Megan took on her new role as Assistant Regional Director for Training and Development, one of her roles was onboarding the new staff and making sure they got acclimated well to Regional and National policies. We realized that we could use this weekend as a two-fer, and NSOW was born. 

Megan and I decided that the best way to schedule things, both from a content and a childcare standpoint, was to do an onboarding sandwich of sorts. Megan started things off Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I took over Saturday in the late morning (after what was supposed to be Ezra's soccer match) and then we'd work together on Sunday morning. We covered some of the nitty gritty of staff life (policies, expense reports, etc.) while also doing some reflection and community building (axe throwing, anyone?). We also had a great dinner with some amazing ministry partners who have been advocates of ours for a long time with their church and a friend of ours came and gave a great talk on faith and power in ministry. 

Things didn't go totally according to plan. We had two of our 5 staff need to leave early Saturday morning because of illness. Ezra's soccer match was cancelled due to cold weather (the right call but still a bummer). We also didn't see that the AirBnB where the staff were staying had a full dishwasher, so I bought some bowls when I didn't need. But, those were all minor compared to the great experience everyone had, including us. 

Friends, please be praying for Hannah, Alison, James, Jaqui, and Steven as they begin their InterVarsity staff journeys. We'd love it if they were in it for the long haul and had a good staff experience. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam