After the Mandatory Kick Off, you’ll have a good sense of how many women are engaged with your Squad. If anyone misses the Kick Off, send a follow-up message afterwards to see if they're still planning to participate in the Squad (you never know when someone had a last minute schedule change). If they continue to miss meetings without communicating, you can remove them from the Squad.
At the end of the Kickoff Meeting, the Squad Mod (with the rest of the Squad's input) should agree upon the Hot Topic that you'll discuss during Week 2 of the program. The Squad Mod should also start to (if possible) finalize the Hot Seat schedule.
Can we discuss Hot Topics after "Week 2" of the program?
Yes, your Squad can jump to discussing Hot Topics at any point in the program. If your Squad has a couple of members that need to withdraw from the program, you can replace their Hot Seat weeks with a Hot Topic discussion. Remember, the Squad program is designed to give you time to reflect and tackle your shared (as well as unique) career challenges.
You can find the full list of Hot Topics we've curated here in the Squad Support Center.