Three jobs, rotating
Source classes are two to three volunteers. If you do not name jobs, you get three performers. Name them: voice (talks to the group), materials (hands, board, cards), scan (watches the edges, the stuck child, the door). Rotate each block. Write the rotation on the brief so it survives adrenaline.
Add a fourth job if a school chaperone is present: they are not voice. They are safeguarding and time. Hosts are not a fifth volunteer; they are the authority. Roles include how you stop when the host speaks.
When a teammate freezes
Scan steps in as voice with the backup activity. Do not film the freeze. Debrief later, not in front of children. Teams that mock a freeze will get quieter teammates and louder mistakes.
Community-center day needs the same roles with more scan, because mixed ages produce more edges. Closing day needs a gift manager so the exchange is not a scrum. Put both on the role sheet.
Role cards
Physical cards in pockets: VOICE, MATERIALS, SCAN. Swap at the break. It feels theatrical. It prevents three voices. Put the stop-the-game signal on the scan card. Put the host-handover sentence on the voice card. Cards survive adrenaline better than a memory of a meeting.
When there are only two
Voice plus scan; materials is shared. Do not drop scan. The edge of the room is where harm and confusion hide. Two-person teams from the source range still need eyes at the back.
Roles outside the classroom
Teams also need a documents person (copies), a time person (breakfast), and a sign-out person (leisure). Those are not the same as voice, materials, scan, but the same idea: if it is everyone’s job, it is no one’s. Write them on the same card set. A team that only roles the 09:30 block will still lose a passport at a money changer because “I thought you had it.”
Rotate chores in the volunteer house so the same girl is not cleaning while the same boy practices his opening. Gendered labor is a cultural lesson you can fail at home as easily as in Bali. Mentors should notice. Roles are ethics with nametags.
If a teammate is ill, do not heroically teach alone behind a closed door. Combine with another pair or sit the block out with staff knowledge. Source team size exists for pedagogy and for safeguarding. Undercutting it to be brave is not brave.
Roles when a host wants only one guest talking
Then one talks, and the others scan and material. Do not negotiate for stage time. Host preference outranks your rotation. Write it as a branch. Students who need equal airtime for their own resume should hear that the resume is not the room’s problem. The room is the room’s problem.
After, debrief the disappointment. Disappointment is allowed. Pushing a host is not. Roles include the role of assistant. Assistant is not a lesser volunteer. It is often a more useful one.
If all three of you are asked to wait outside, you wait. That is a team success in restraint. Log it. It still counts as showing up.
Roles at the gift exchange
One person holds the bag, one watches that gifts stay identical, one thanks the host. If all three rush forward, the exchange becomes a scrum. Scrum is how children get knocked and phones come out. Roles do not end when the game ends. They end when the room is reset.