A few folks from other institutions have reached out to ask about how we built @CRAC_Teams and how it is structured. It started with a postdoc (Alvaro), a google form, and an email distributed to the postdoc association listserv. 1/

150 responses later (mine included), Alvaro reached out to me and recruited me as a faculty advisor. What started as a plan to help with diagnostic testing morphed into a much larger plan to help out with all needs related to the pandemic response at CUIMC. 2/

A key point: we do not RUN projects ourselves. Each project supports an existing faculty or administrative director who has appropriate expertise, administrative oversight, and infrastructure. This keeps our volunteers safe and aligns us with the activities of the University.

In the first week we went through 3 different organizational structures before finally developing a scalable workflow and architecture. I’m sharing our solution here in case it is helpful to others. The key bit: find LEADERS. Everything else flows from that. 3/

A few other guiding principles. 1) Volunteers must get permission from their PI/manager. 2) We strove for (and achieved) gender balance from the inception. 3) We do not deploy students to projects that involve working with or around infectious materials. 4/

Our structure: Operations & Projects. Ops manages the organization and includes: a Comms team that oversees Slack, shared data, social media, and web development; and Personnel, which finds candidates for positions/projects and also oversees safety. 5/ https://columbiacovid.weebly.com/team.html 

For any projects that involve in-person activities, we have a check-in/check-out system that logs volunteer movements so that if anyone becomes ill, we can do contact tracing. Grateful we have not had need to utilize this resource yet! 6/

A note on finding personnel. Don’t just rely on people you know. We put out calls to our volunteer listserv for almost every position, describing the expertise needed for each position. Personnel Officers follow up with brief phone interviews. 7/

Projects group handles activities from inception to completion. It oversees a structured workflow shown here. https://columbiacovid.weebly.com/projects.html  We start by collecting project ideas from an inbox, from within the group, and from University administrators. 8/

Projects are prioritized by a Project Development group and launched by the Launch Group, which designates a member to oversee the launch phase and find a Project Manager. This is a key step. What you are looking for is LEADERS. 9/

Once the Project Manager is on board, they interact with the Faculty Director for the project, figure out team composition, and oversee daily activities. They run the show, which lets our management team focus on building out more projects. 10/

Buy-in from University administration has been critical. @ColumbiaMed has been extremely supportive. There have been MANY administrative questions to address with them, which is why it is critical to have some faculty advisers who can interface on behalf of the group.11/

This is just how our group is organized, and there may still be some tweaking. So last piece of advice - don't be afraid to reorganize to fit your needs. Keep what's working, fix what's broken. Be nimble and move forward. 12/12