National Council Communication - February 2011

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AFS-USA National Council Goal Setting Process and 2010-2011 Goals

The National Council (NC), as the volunteer policy-making body for program operations and volunteer governance of AFS-USA, prioritizes its activities and action plans through a goal setting process which takes place in June of every year. This process involves various group discussions and vision activities as the council strategizes to address the national and organizational problems as well as the external industry relationships. The goal setting process is then followed up by assigning action plans to the drivers of the goals. The designated drivers of the goals could one or many of the following entities: an NC member, an executive staff, a director staff, a standing committee, an advisory group or a task force assigned with a particular goal. The progress tracking of the yearly goals is done in a continuous basis. However, a formal reporting of the goal progress as well as committee and advisory group activity reporting are done quarterly, during the NC’s in-person meetings.

The AFS-USA National Council organizes and prioritizes its yearly organizational leadership activities within the scope of two sets of goals:

1. Yearly goals – set by the NC to drive change according to the national priorities for the upcoming year.
2. Ongoing goals of the NC – to support AFS-USA Business Plan and organizational strategy

The 2010-2011 goals of the National Council are as follows:

i. Clarify and codify the responsibilities of, and the relationships between, the National Council, Board of Directors, National Council Committees and Task Forces, Advisory Groups and the National Volunteer Assembly, and communicate them to our volunteers- due June 2011

STATUS - Leaders: the Nominations and Governance Committees of the both the National Council and the Board have been charged with working together on this goal. The preliminary discussions took place during the October 2010 NC meeting in the presence of the Board representative Damian Pisanelli. The roles and responsibilities discussions will continue until June 2011 and will take place under the leadership of Jose Ruiz-Salas from the NC and Damian Pisanelli from the Board.

ii. Prioritize the development of the Sending Review Project and support volunteer opportunities for engagement – due June 2011.

STATUS – Leaders: Joanne Yokoyama Martin and Esra Kucukciftci. Sending Review Project has led to a new list of Sending priorities in 2011, due to restricted organizational resources. The resulting plan which included a through capacity study and a strategic volunteer resource allocation was put into action in December 2010 with national volunteer communications of the plan. Sending and the Returnee Initiative leadership are working together on a volunteer revitalization project which aims to integrate and engage returnees in roles directly supporting Sending. Currently the plan is expanding to 30-50 returnee leaders across the country and the returnee training and integration of the first group is targeted to be completed in June 2011.

iii. Continue to develop and implement an effective, broad-based communication plan that communicates organizational and National Council priorities to volunteers and other constituencies – due June 2011

STATUS – Leaders: Deb Dahlberg, Al Russell, Marlene Baker and Kerry McCollum. Communications Committee, IT Advisory Group, AFS-USA Marketing and Organizational Development Departments together are identifying and organizing ways to improve communications to and from the National Council. The National Council started to discuss national communications in their January telephonic meeting and will continue to revitalize the roles and responsibilities of various AFS entities in leading the organizational, public relations, brand, and volunteer communications.

iv. Oversee the achievement of 2010-11 Sending and Hosting Goals

STATUS – Leaders: NC Members. National Council and the Hosting Advisory Group took a lead role at the Hosting Conference to establish the distribution of the 2500 Inbound goal. Currently mid-to-long term solutions are in the works to be presented at the 2011 NVA. A cross functional focus group is yet to be established to resolve the issue of how to generate more leads.

v. Foster continued NC Leadership efforts as we move towards a more volunteer empowered organization

STATUS – Leaders: NC Members and Volunteer Structure Committee. The NC currently is assessing and evaluating the Annual Assessment results. The results and consequences of the assessments will be finalized at the NC February meeting and will be communicated at the 2011 NVA, in April. The VSC will be presenting a revision to the volunteer structure at the NVA as well as providing a tool for better assessing team needs and helping the teams with their developmental plans.

vi. Support the Business Plan financial goals

STATUS – Leaders: NC Members. The financial resource initiatives currently are yet to be prioritized and followed through. The NC will establish action plans regarding these items during its Feb NC meeting.

The ongoing goals of the NC as determined in June 2010 are as follows:

i. Building volunteer capacity

ii. Expanding the footprint of AFS-USA

iii. Reducing operating costs

iv. Improving hosting [and compliance] quality

v. Increasing sending participants

vi. Identifying new funding resources

For questions regarding the goals and goals progress of the National Council please contact Esra Kucukciftci at esra.kucukciftci@afsusa.org