ENGL297 Team Charter

Cameron Smith
Nick Keppler
Molly Menapace
Jlon Flippens

Broad Team Goals

● For our ethnography, we plan on gathering information on sports journalism, primarily
around the College Park, D.C. Metro area. Because of the interests of our group and
valuable connections that our group has we decided that we will be focusing on hockey,
either within UMD or the surrounding area such as D.C.

Specific Team Goals

● Observe and interview credible individuals, and conduct background research on hockey
in the D.C. Metro area or UMD.
● Split the assignments up equally among our group members
● Meet every deadline
● Earn an above average grade on this assignment

Team Member Goals:

● Cameron: It would be a pleasure to learn useful skills, such as efficiently gathering data
through research and compiling it through the writing I would complete in a professional
environment.

● Molly: I would like to enhance my research skills and learn more about what it takes to
become a successful sports writer.

● Nick: I would like to learn how to improve my interview skills and professional writing
skills through research and group work. I would also like to learn more about the specific
tasks that sports writers deal with.

● Jlon: I would like to discover new skills that are appropriate for this professional
environment, hopefully it’s useful for other settings.

Individual level of commitment

● Cameron: I’m looking to get an A on this project so I’m willing to give what I can.
 ● Molly: I am looking to get an A on this project, being a team player, and am willing to
put in however much work is necessary to get the grade that I want.

● Nick: I’m committed to doing my fair share of the workload and ensuring we receive a
good grade.

● Jlon: I committed to being a team player and working hard to receive a good grade.

Other information about team members that may affect the project:
Each member of our team is taking a full course-load this semester and is involved with multiple
activities outside of the classroom. With so much going on in each of our lives it may be hard to
meet with each other to collaborate or meet deadlines, but the team will work to put as much
effort into the project as possible.

How the team will resolve impasses:

While every member’s opinions and suggestions should be considered for any final decisions for
the project, there are chances that the team will be split on some, being that there are four people
in the team. To avoid this, and to maintain progress on the project, small sacrifices will have to
be made.

How the team will handle missed deadlines:

So far, there is no plan to miss deadlines; all members are almost entirely committed. However if
a deadline is to be missed, the group will work together as a team to resolve the issue and have
the report submitted as soon as possible. For example, we will all converge in some way,
whether that be in person or google docs, to complete the missing assignment.

What constitutes unacceptable work and how the team will handle it:
Any signs of little to no effort in fieldwork assignments are undoubtedly unacceptable, and also
any work that seems incomplete by anyone should be reviewed. For individual work, other team
members should not be held responsible.