Site-leaders are faculty/staff/graduate students who have a seemingly ambiguous but very important role. The actual phrase "site-leader" is misleading, as they are encouraged to step back and let the students take the responsibility. Site leaders are responsible for the seed money for the day, recording donations, van-driving, and generally just being a good team player and making sure the students are having a positive experience.

One thing to keep in mind, and to pass along to your campus' site leaders:
While we certainly want the students to make decisions and lead the brainstorming, if you (the site leader) know something that could help (if you have a skill saw at your house & you need one), you can certainly offer it. We
just encourage site-leaders to make sure students are the ones in charge.

To keep in mind:

• You'll need 1 site leader per group

• For the first year, doing some personal recruiting of faculty to volunteer on their day off might be necessary. Soon, they'll be asking in October if they can be a part of the next year's event though!
• Having a site-leader orientation the week before MLK Day is a great way of making sure everyone's on the same page & understands the basic structure of the day.
  

See the attached site leader meeting PowerPoint from ASU's orientation meeting for 2008. In general, an idea for a basic agenda for such meetings is:
1. Welcome & introductions
2. MLK Challenge overview (what is it? why are we doing it?)
3. Review day-of-event agenda
4. Brief description of projects (reminder, site leaders don't get to choose their projects, and they're told not to leak out the secret projects)
5. Role of the site leader

What makes a great site leader?

• Encourages their group to go above and beyond
• Offers support & guidance where they can
• Maintains a positive attitude throughout the day
• Makes sure donations get recorded!
• Engages students who seem quiet or disengaged
• Leads an icebreaker at the beginning of the day
  
• Faciliates reflection (sometimes during lunch, sometimes on van ride back to campus at the end of the day)