Here are some tips to help with team building:

Active Team's Social Media
Improve your FPS team's social media platforms to ensure you are able to keep them active. The time spent at home and during social-distancing are good opportunities to tackle improvement projects you haven't had the opportunity to previously. These improvements may include efforts to clean-up or streamline the team brand: logo, slogans, and photos. Use the graphic editing softwares such as Canva, a graphic design website, or Adobe Photoshop to produce digital materials that boost your posts. An improved social media effort will help team members remain engaged and connect over a shared passion for FPS. It is also essential to remain active on those platforms because inactive social media platforms often fail to bring team members into the loop.

Recurring Video Conference Calls
When education is conducted remotely, remaining in touch is important. The simplest way to connect with your teammates is through video conferences. Organize video meetings in a structured and recurring schedule. Be sure to coordinate times and avoid time conflicts to encourage attendance. Helpful video conferencing tools include Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, as well as many other platforms. These meetings will allow your team to brainstorm new ideas and maintain team cohesion.

Fun Icebreakers
Have fun icebreaker activities at the start of virtual meetings to ensure that newer members feel included and members get to better bond. Some ideas for icebreakers include Desert Island, Two Truths & One Lie, Pictionary Game, Charades Game, Blobs & Lines, and Six-Word Stories. A team must be comfortable with one another to be effective.

Team Personality Tests
Have members of your team take personality tests. Utilizing assessments can aid in leadership development, team building, conflict resolution, and personnel selection for an effective team. The personality tests will help determine whether the personalities within your team work well as well as provide a roadmap for members to understand how to manage dynamics within the team. Understanding can often lead to less conflict and a better bond between teammates. It can also reveal whether some team members are a better fit with another team, so don't hesitate to move members around to achieve the best combination for team effectiveness. This is also very important when assessing the upcoming student leadership team and how they should understand how to work together in running your FPS team/club. Personality tests may be used as an icebreaker at the beginning of a virtual meeting or just a fun team bonding activity.

New Events Or Activities
Generate buzz for a new event or activity that is virtual. Get your entire team excited by organizing a few virtual events or activities. Survey your team to discover what they think want to add to the team's calendar and analyze the feedback to create new offerings. Here are some ideas for additions to your team's offerings:

Club Collaboration - Reach out to other clubs or teams in your school to brainstorm events that be co-hosted. This will allow students to work with a different group and build a unique experience. A collaboration will allow FPS to be exposed to a bigger audience and allow your teammates to work together to share about how FPS is important to your team. By working together, your clubs can achieve a common goal.

Community Service Event - FPS celebrates helping solve issues identified in your local community. Giving back is an excellent way to make a difference and bond with your members. Identify an issue that needs addressing in your community (virtual or in-person). Then, create an event or activity to help address the issue. This is typically appropriate for CmPS teams, but it can also serve as an effective team building excercise for the broader FPS team. Additionally, such service events may serve as bridges to collaborate with other service focused clubs at your school.

Mentorship - Survey your teammates on their FPS strengths, weaknesses, goals, and etc. Then, use the results to match teammates to other teammates based on the areas where they can improve each other. If you want to further leverage the benefits of virtual mentorship, then you can coordinate collaborations with FPSers from other schools in New York or even FPSers from other states. You can conduct video conferences to have knowledge exchanges.