Destination ImagiNation^® (DI) is a great program for teaching kids to be creative, work as a team, and think “outside the box.” It can be a little overwhelming at first, but taking it one step at a time can help you enjoy your role as Team Manager. Your team can’t do it without you!

 

1. Talk with your school coordinator about what to expect.

Destination ImagiNation is a lot more fun if adult questions are answered early and everybody knows the answers. Here are some questions to ask:

• Who is registering my team at the national and state (“affiliate”) level?
• Who is registering my team for Tournaments?
• How much does DI cost and who collects the money?
• How does the team get money to spend on their challenge?
• Will there be fundraisers for DI?
• Where will my team meet?

The answers will be different for each school. If your school's or organization's Coordinator is new to DI, then he/she may not know the answers. All of you can get advice by asking your Region Director or the Affiliate Director.  Go to the Contact Us section to submit any questions.

2. Get on the Destination ImagiNation website and DIAL Online (this site)

Learn as much as you can about DI from both the Global and Alabama perspectives via their websites. There are great resources for parents, team members, Team Managers, and volunteers to be found. Sign up as a Team Manager in the Resources Area of the IDODI website to gain access to a magnitude of resources from Destination ImagiNation, Inc.

3. Read the Team Manager Guide.

This guide is about 30 pages long, but there are wide margins and lots of great information, so it’s not as overwhelming as it sounds. The guide lists all the other manuals and resources that you will need, but don’t worry about reading them until you’ve finished reading the entire Team Manager Guide.  As the numbers of resources are too vast right at first, this guide is good at describing the stages of challenge solving, and it also gives you great advice about how to structure the first five team meetings, so that the team gets off to a good start. After you read the Team Manager Guide, you will probably have more questions for your school coordinator. Do your best to get your questions answered. Stay in close contact with your school coordinator, so he/she can help you get started and help resolve any issues that crop up along the way. You can find the Team Manager Guide in the Resources Area of the IDODI Website.

4. Set up a parent’s meeting.

It’s a good idea to work with your school's Coordinator to set this meeting at a time when you can both be there. Parents will have a lot of questions, and many of their questions will be the same questions you have had. In addition to answering questions:

• Make sure that the parents know when all of the Tournaments are, so they can deal with event conflicts right away.
• Have your Coordinator discuss costs and fundraising.
• Find out the best days and times for team meetings. Ask the parents to volunteer to help with meetings. If you think you’ll need an Assistant Team Manager, this is a good group to ask.
• Introduce the concept of Interference and how to avoid it.
• Get everyone’s email addresses and cell phone numbers. Keeping in touch is extremely important as things move along.

The Team Manager Guide suggests that the first meeting be with both team members and parents, and that’s fine, but often somewhat chaotic.

5. Set up the first meeting with your team.

Use the recommendations from the Team Manager Guide to structure the first meeting (these start on page 23). The meeting planner on page 25 is also helpful for getting meetings organized. Try to make these first meetings as fun as possible. During these first meetings, the team members will get to know each other. Do team building activities and/or practice Instant Challenges suggested in the Team Manager Guide. You can be guiding them toward positive interactions and teaching basic problem solving skills. They may or may not have picked their Team Challenge. If they haven’t, you and the team can get familiar with the five Challenges during these early meetings. The team should hopefully pick their Challenge by the end of the third meeting, if they haven’t already, so that they can start brainstorming and working on their solution.

6. Over the first several weeks, read the Rules of the Road.

This is a 55 page document that reviews all the rules about the Challenges, Tournaments, paperwork, Interference, and about anything else you can think of. It may seem like a lot, but if you are very familiar with these rules, then you can save yourself and your team from some pitfalls in creating and performing their solution. Encourage one of the team members to be a Rules of the Road expert!  The Rules of the Road can be downloaded from the Resources Area of IDODI.org.

7. Get to know your team’s Team Challenge backwards and forwards.

You will find it very helpful to be extremely familiar with your team's Team Challenge yourself.  Likewise, encourage the team to know and understand every single instruction. If they have a question or don't understand something about their Challenge, have them to ask for a Team Clarification (see the Team Manager Guide). Remember: The purpose of DI is to stretch the limits, so as long as the rules don't say the team can't do something, then they can! If you or your team are unsure if the rules say they can't do something, that's what Team Clarifications are for!

8. Stay connected with your Coordinator, Regional Director, and other Team Managers.

You all will need each other’s support throughout the year! Keep email addresses for people who can answer your questions handy, and use this site and IDODI.org as much as you can!