One of the first things a team should do when it first gets together is to develop and distribute a list of contact information for each team member (phone, email).  That’s the start of the team’s communication plan.

Other elements of the communications plan should include:

• An agreement on software to be used
• An agreement on times and places for team work sessions
• Development of a location for the placement of team documents
• Communications expectations for each team member

Software in this case would refer to word processing, database, and analysis applications.  Increasingly students opt to use Skype or other online meeting systems.  You might also want to discuss these.  Team documents can be kept in places such as Google Documents.

Also, there is the matter of communications expectations.  Outlined below are some representative expectations you might want to adopt:

• We will notify each team member of any work session we miss and the reason for missing.
• We will notify each team member when we will be delayed in doing an assignment, when we expect to have the assignment done, and the reason for being late.
• We will notify the team when we have posted any work on our group site.
• We will speak up to the entire team whenever we think there is an issue that needs discussed.

Finally, some teams create a Facebook site for their team as a way of creating a sense of team belonging.  More will be said about this on the topic: Getting to Know Your Project Teammates..