Logistics Coordinator
While on the race, I held the leadership position of Logistics Coordinator for the duration of our nine months abroad. This was a very high-demanding job and required me to execute a variety of skills. This page is an overview of the main tasks that I had to complete while on the field.
Group Travel
One of my main tasks was arranging and supervising the travel for my group of 53 at the end of our time in each country. This entailed:
Navigating travel to/from airport for each flight that took place.
Supervising the squad and making sure everyone gets off and on our next flight during the course of layovers.
Communication with foreign agencies and businesses to arrange group travel via bus.
Negotiating
During our travels, we stayed in a multitude of hotels and hostels, as well as used a lot of public and private transportation. This required me to communicate and coordinate with foreign business and also negotiate prices so that we could accomplish everything we needed to while staying within our tight budget.
I also had to write proposals to my higher up back in the main office to get things approved that I felt my squad needed. Part of my job was observing and taking into consideration the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual health of my squad mates and making sure that their needs were taken care of during our three debriefs and two leadership development weekends.
Budget Management
Everyone who participated on the World Race Gap Year had to fundraise money in order to leave. This meant that all of the money that we used while on the field was donated to the participants. Because of this, it was very important to steward the use of our money well and make sure that every penny was spent wisely and in the correct category of the budget that it was allocated to.
Each month I had to oversee the budget that was assigned to the squad per country and per location of each team (there were 8 teams total) and then make sure that everyone's budget was being followed correctly and they were recording their expenses in a timely manner.
I was responsible for keeping and recording receipts and submitting a monthly expense report. This was done in each country we lived in, meaning that I was required to navigate and keep track of our budget and expenses in 5 different currencies: American Dollars, Cambodian Riel, Thai Baht, Malawian Kwacha, and Guatemalan Quetzal.
Debrief Planning
Over our nine months on the field, we had a 1 month debrief, 5 month debrief and a final debrief. The vision for a debrief was to bring the whole squad together after being split up by team across the country we were staying in and providing a place to physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually refresh.
These debrief weeks required me to plan and coordinate:
A location for our whole squad to stay at within budget;
Splitting up our meal budget for the five days we were together and planning how meals would be eaten (ie. together, hand out money separately to each person, mixture of both, etc.);
Planning events and organizing a debrief schedule for the squad;
Coordinating with our Squad Mentor and Squad Coaches who would be flying in from America to be with us and
organizing their transportation to/from airport;
preparing a welcome gift for them when they arrived;
booking a separate space for them to stay in;
proving anything that they needed to successfully serve and pour into our squad.