Responsibilities of a FOP Leader
The following are the expectations of you as a Harvard FOP Leader:
- Follow FOP policies during all FOP events and activities (including Fall trips, TT’s, and pre-FOP)
- Properly manage physical and emotional risks
- Be open, honest, and trustworthy
- Act as a mature role model and representative of Harvard
- Exhibit respect and patience
- Recognize your strengths and limitations as a leader
- Make sound and appropriate decisions
- Effectively plan and organize
- Maintain self-confidence and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances
- Facilitate group interaction and communication
- Provide motivation and support
- Encourage participation
- Understand and be sensitive to the needs of FOPpers
- Be punctual to FOP events and with FOP paperwork
- Follow the full value/no discount protocol
- Be in good standing with Harvard College
A Note on Judgment
Judgment, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is “the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions.” As a FOP leader, judgment is one of your most prized and powerful skills in the woods. While the policies and procedures contained in this section are designed to help you manage risk, developing judgment and sound decision-making are essential to your growth as a leader. The experiences that you bring the program, as well as the training you will receive, will nurture your ability to reason and use judgment to lead a safe, productive, and fun FOP trip.
In FOP jargon, the phrase “Use your judgment,” or “UYJ” (pronounced, yoo-zh) often gets thrown around among leaders. By this, we mean that in some situations, you will have to make tough choices given the limited access to information that you possess at a given moment. In these cases, FOP leaders are encouraged to exercise their discretion. But the exercise of proper judgment is only possible when FOP leaders fully understand their responsibilities and the policies and procedures described in the following section. Remember, that as a leader, you have an obligation to uphold FOP’s values and policies, even if they are different than what you are otherwise used to outside the program.