Liaison Quality and Compliance Standards
From AFSWiki
The following document was created by the Support Advisory Group for the purpose of outlining a system for liaison selection and a process to increase monthly documentation percentages across all volunteer teams. This document was created from proven practices within volunteer teams and reviewed and accepted by members of the Compliance Advisory and Support Advisory groups. This document has been accepted by the National Council and should be used to establish a uniform procedure within teams to meet compliance and assign the most qualified persons as liaisons and liaison coordinators.It is the hope that this document will lead to improved monthly compliance for student, family and school contacts.
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LIAISON QUALITY & COMPLIANCE STANDARDS
As you begin recruiting volunteers for the role of liaison, please remember: Volunteers are attracted to the liaison role because it is a very direct way of connecting with someone from another culture. This may be the case but it is important to impress upon volunteers that it is a vital role in that liaisons help to keep the organization in compliance (necessary to be able to operate). This role requires training and commitment which ultimately allows for a rewarding intercultural experience for all involved.
- In order to ensure a successful liaison experience for the volunteer, family, and liaison be sure to make clear from the beginning of any conversation about the liaison role that this is an important and vital role within the team as well as the responsibilities of the position and support structure available.
- Share the position description
- Outline the benefits of the positions and the support structure that exists for this role
- Emphasize the importance of and expectation of professional behavior (communicating within the support structure, neutrality, maintaining confidentiality, managing personal biases, etc.)
- Responsibilities include:
- Completion of registration process
- Completion of all mandatory online trainings
- Immediate engagement with host family and student in order to build rapport
- Documentation of contact every month
- Respect for student and host family confidentiality yet being diligent in reporting any and all concerns to the appropriate person (Volunteer Support Coordinator or Staff)
- Becoming familiar with and utilizing available resources provided for this position (handbooks, etc.)
SOME BEST RECRUITMENT PRACTICES
- Consider selecting liaisons who offer more skills than just enthusiasm for the role.
- The liaison role should not be viewed as an entry level role in terms of the degree of responsibility.
- The liaison is the AFS representative to the students and families, the face of AFS.
- This role is for someone who will meet Department of State (DoS) reporting requirements, and understands what the students and host families are experiencing in order to provide effective support and through self-directed performance, preventing burn-out of fellow team members, Liaison/Support Coordinators, etc.
- Select liaison candidates using the following suggested priority ranking :
- Previous liaisons that have done well (ask them to invite a friend also who might enjoy the role)
- Returnees
- Previous host families
- Families of recent returnees (this allows the returnee to be available as a resource and is connected to AFS and the team - register both parent and returnee to operate as a “liaison team”)
- Other volunteers on the Team who know the administrative procedures
- People with other related skills that apply to the AFS experience
- Interested people who are new to the organization
- Groups/Individuals who might also be interested in this role:
- Librarians and/or teachers who fit within the DoS regulations
- Members of special interest groups – Tennis Clubs, Riding clubs, Dance Studios, Sons of Italy, etc.
- Once you begin to identify a few liaisons, ask them for the names of other friends who might be interested
- Ask families who can't host but want to be involved or who aren't quite ready to commit to hosting
- Ask current students, current host families, and current volunteers who they know who would make a good liaison - have them work their networks (sometimes it is easier to ask someone to be a liaison than it is to ask them to host)
Remember: The one-on-one, face-to-face request to others will be the best recruitment tool you have. It is the one-on-one nature of this program that makes it work. Use Global Link: as your main database resource to search for people related to AFS.
BUILDING AND MAINTAINING A STRONG AND COMPLIANT SUPPORT TEAM
- Arrange an in person or conference call training as a supplement to the required On-line Liaison Training
- Provide at least two additional advanced liaison trainings (optional but highly encouraged) during the AFS year:
- Schedule during fall and midyear orientations
- Create teams of liaisons:
- Identify 2 or 3 people who live within a school boundary/district and have them all lined up (on-call) to be liaisons for any student(s) that may be placed in that school
- They can also be back-up for each other
- Liaison In-Training – pair up interested liaison with experienced liaison for a semester - OJT (on the job training) – use these liaisons to replace someone who may have left the role
- Create buddy/mentor system – Experienced liaison with new liaison
- Identify 2 or 3 people who live within a school boundary/district and have them all lined up (on-call) to be liaisons for any student(s) that may be placed in that school
- As a team, determine protocol around replacing a liaison if liaison is not able to fulfill responsibilities:
- Communicate that protocol to all liaisons in a professional and non-threatening manner
- Example: If a liaison fails to enter monthly contacts 2 months in a row even after reminders in person or by email, there should be a process in place by which to address the lack of fulfilling responsibility of liaison
- For more information, please see the AFS-USA Volunteer Management Policy
- School Contact – Liaison should ideally do this contact but it is also viable identifying a team of volunteers who will have sole responsibility of making contact with schools over the year - September, January, May
BUILDING A STRONG REPORTING SYSTEM WITHIN A TEAM
- Identify 2 or 3 individuals (depending upon size of team) to be responsible to ensure monthly contacts happen:
- Identify and communicate alternate method for documenting monthly contacts
- Create calendar for reporting deadlines as follows:
- To satisfy the in-home visit that is required within 30/60 days of arrival, schedule first liaison visit/contact with student in the home with the host parents.
- Liaison coordinator/support coordinator sends personal reminder emails
- Documentation deadlines due by the 15th of the month
- First follow up by the liaison coordinator will be an e-mail by the 18th of the month
- Second follow-up by the liaison coordinator will be a personal call by the 25th of the month
- Additional follow up on the 25th of the month will be an e-mail request to chapter chairs, orientation volunteers, support volunteers, and team leadership to assist with gathering documentation for that month
- Final follow up: Liaison coordinator contacts families and students who need documentations from the 28- 30(1) of the month directly
RETAINING AND RECOGNIZING YOUR TEAM
- Organize activities that encourage liaisons to share their experiences, remember it is important to create camaraderie and connection to the organization:
- Recognize individuals for their work through the year
- Encourage students and host families to recognize their liaisons
- Send thank you notes from students, host families and volunteer leaders
- Provide a newsletter
