e. Detailed project planning: team-building in the spotlight

One of the most difficult and important jobs that the coordinators and the advisory group face in the course of project planning is the selection of individuals and groups who will be asked to take part in the project.
The planners have to determine who will carry out individual tasks. However, we feel that it is essential to approach the matter from a more global, non-compartmentalized perspective. That is to say, rather than reflecting on and then approaching individuals and groups with a view to exploring the possibility of their limited, ad hoc participation in one given project phase, the Scenarios planners should consider them full partners in the entire project. An ongoing dialogue with as many project partners as possible should be started well before the contest is launched (even if a given partner is not set to intervene until, say, the phase of audio-visual post-production) and maintained throughout the project (even if a particular partner's concrete role is to be limited to involvement in implementing the contest).
This ongoing dialogue fosters the development of a broad-based team spirit, bolsters the partners' sense of ownership of the project in general, and optimizes opportunities for the creation of synergies among the project partners. It demonstrates to all stakeholders that the project is indeed conceived as an integrated process and that long-term objectives have not been lost sight of in the heat of attending to immediate priorities. It helps maintain momentum, motivation and a coalition of support.

Brainstorming on team selection
We recommend that the planners sit down together for a few full days of brainstorming and discussion on the issue of team selection. Individual sessions could be devoted to the following:
Funders and sponsors.
Project planners share information on potential sources of support, as well as contacts that could facilitate the development of partnerships with those funders and sponsors.
Each project activity.
Individuals/groups who will be responsible for execution (or otherwise involved) are discussed.
Here, just as in the case of the selection of the advisory group, it is a good idea to a keep a lookout for multi-purpose organizations that could be involved at many stages of the project. Scenarios from the Sahel has benefited a great deal from the continuity bestowed upon the project by the ongoing, highly professional involvement of the Dakar-based NGO Africa Consultants International in practically all project activities.
Media coverage of the project.
(A tactical note: planners should bear in mind that certain magazines and journals make final decisions on the content of a given issue several months in advance.)
Special focus: audio-visual production team leaders.
Fundraising efforts can be given a powerful boost if big-name artists give their agreement in principle to participate in the project early on.
Another reason to contact your filmmakers of choice very early is to sound out their anticipated availability at the moment when you would like to start audio-visual
production. If they are set to make a feature film, their availability could be extremely limited for many months.
Your Scenarios team has a number of strong arguments to use in order to secure the involvement of wish-list filmmakers and other artists:
a) Scenarios is an outstanding way for them to make a significant contribution to putting an end to the epidemic.

b) Scenarios is non-profit. Our experience tells us that this is an important reason why some of West Africa's biggest stars agreed to participate in the project here. They are keen to strike out against an epidemic that has claimed millions of lives _ including friends of theirs, in some cases _ but want to do so in a genuine fashion, i.e. in a way that will not feel or be perceived as opportunistic.
c) Assuming you have succeeded in drawing up an effective distribution strategy (an important priority), the artists can be assured that their work will indeed be shown widely and repeatedly. Here in West Africa, it is sadly the case that the region's filmmakers produce magnificent films that subsequently tend to disappear into oblivion and are rarely shown anywhere, least of all in this region. Scenarios from the Sahel is able to assure its filmmakers that their works will be seen and appreciated repeatedly _ across the continent on national and international television, on a compilation video dubbed into several languages and used by hundreds of grass-roots structures, in cinemas as trailers to feature films_.
d) In the case of Scenarios from the Sahel, artists appreciate the fact that they are involved in a collaborative endeavor with peers whom they enjoy and respect. One of the first questions you can expect them to ask when approached is: who else is involved? Often, they in turn will help mobilize their celebrity friends.
e) The Scenarios from the Sahel films are being shown at international film festivals, where directors have the opportunity to enhance their professional visibility on an international scale.
The involvement of young people: an idea
It is possible to provide a group of dynamic, talented young people with roughly half-time employment throughout the duration of the project. They would end up well trained in a number of areas and highly visible to potential employers.
The group would be hired to carry out the following tasks:

C Serve as advisors during the planning stage
C Assist in discussions with funders
C Assist before and during the (labor-intensive) contest launch
C Assist in the execution of the contest
C Serve at each stage of the selection process as jurors
C After receiving the requisite training, assist in data entry and analysis, as well as qualitative text analysis
C After receiving training in focus-group facilitation and survey-style data collection, assist in various evaluation components

C Play leading roles in the pre-testing of the films
C Interface with the media
C Assist in distribution efforts

Dangers to be avoided during the team selection process
Danger: Wasting too much time and energy chasing a reluctant partner.
If you know that the individual or group in question is indeed informed about your project and has made you chase them around and allowed you to leave repeated phone and e-mail messages without giving you an answer, drop the idea without hesitation or regret. Through their actions, they have given you some valuable information: it is clear that their attitude does not correspond to that of a Scenarios team.
Danger: Entering into a commitment with someone for a particular project task without knowing them extremely well first.
This point is especially important for coordinators who are inherently trusting.
During the planning stage, you will be asking colleagues for their advice with regard to candidates who could take on a given task. That is to say, people will be making recommendations. Our experience tells us that it is essential not simply to take those recommendations on board automatically, but rather to seek out an extensive, personal dialogue with the candidate with a view to determining:

C their real track record on a substantive level;
C their level of commitment to solving the macro problem at hand;
C and their attitude toward working in a collaborative, team setting.

Repeatedly in the course of Scenarios from the Sahel, we have been able to overcome unexpected setbacks easily and fluidly if, for a given phase, the primary project partners were team players with a strong, genuine commitment to stopping the epidemic and alleviating its many consequences. Nothing can stop people like that. However, we ran into trouble if the individuals or groups in question were territorialist in nature and / or motivated above all by personal prestige or power.
In short, we encountered problems on those occasions because we had made bad decisions during the planning stage.
In those negative circumstances, some argued the Scenarios process should be seized upon precisely to bring territorialists into the fold and to introduce them to a model of teamwork and partnership. That same argument was made with regard to Scenarios' potential to blunt the harsh, damning views of certain religious traditionalists.

We recommend that you address this issue head-on and reach a strategic consensus within your team as to how much time and energy you want to devote to this kind of behavior-change exercise.

f. Costing

Because of the radically different contexts in which a replication might take place and the different forms it might take, it is extremely difficult for us to provide advice on costing. The following are a few considerations you may want to bear in mind. More than anything they illustrate the fact that costing is an individual matter for each project. There really is no alternative to sitting down and figuring out in exhaustive detail, element by element, what you are going to need and what it is likely to cost. It is likely that much of this process will take place in tandem with your conceptualization of the project, as the one will directly influence the other.
How will the contest be implemented? What form will contest publicity take (television, radio, interpersonal_)? Who might be willing to offer what _ including their time _ for free? How many scenarios are you likely to receive (as far as it is possible to predict) and how will the selection be implemented? How long will the whole project take?_..
These questions are likely to find answers in the course of your dialogues with potential project partners from a range of different fields. As you establish relationships with them, you will also feel comfortable asking their advice on the costing of the project elements with which they would be familiar.
Apart from obvious decisions about the scale of the project, the one decision that is likely to have the most determining impact on the size of your budget is the number and quality of films you want to produce. The range of possibilities and qualities for film and video production (35mm, 16mm, digital BETA, analogue BETA, VHS_) and editing is bewildering to the non-specialist. Different types of film/video have different advantages. As a general rule, the higher the image quality, the higher the price. A decision one way or the other could affect your project budget by many degrees of magnitude.
You will need to decide what quality would be adequate to your objectives. You will also need to ask yourself _ and the people you are considering as potential directors and producers _ at what quality standard the filmmakers are willing to work.
Aside from film, another key question the planning team will need to answer in relation to costing is: will partners be paid for their participation? Do you _ and will they _ see involvement in the project as a complement to their own activities that does not necessitate a financial transaction; will the non-material benefits they will draw from participation far outweigh the time they invest? You will probably have an intuitive answer that corresponds to your own context and the situation of your prospective partners. It is likely to vary for different kinds of partners in the project and for different activities. The essential thing is that nothing should undermine the spirit of partnership on which the project depends: the question of remuneration can play both ways and it_s essential to find a balance as best you can.