Recruiting Sending Leads
From AFSWiki
Recruitment Activities
AFS encourages volunteers to reach out to students in their community and networks to identify potential AFSers. The term 'recruitment' refers to those proactive measures whereby volunteers spread the word about AFS. There are many ways to recruit students, as outlined below.
- * Remember to mention to students that they can save $25 off their pre-application fee by using the volunteer Promo Code VOLd5Xp9632!
School Presentations
School Presentations are a great way to develop a relationship with a school, reach a target group of students, and publicize AFS opportunities. Once you have a presentation scheduled, try to bring along a recent Returnee or a hosted student, and consider showing an AFS video during the presentation.
Other School Related Recruitment Activities
- Participate in high schools' open houses or "back to school nights" that often occur about a month after school starts, each fall. For specific ideas on organizing this, see High School Open House Recruiting.
- Place notices in PTA newsletters.
- Request that school websites link to your team website .
- Speak at local school board meeting.
- Speak at organizational meetings before school starts each year with various target teachers on a system wide basis (examples are foreign language and social students teachers, counselors, and principals).
- Contacting the National Honor Society and Honor Roll students in your local high school is a great way to generate interest in AFS. Offer to do a presentation at their next meeting. If that is not an option, the Faculty Advisor or the Student Club President might be willing to distribute materials or collect names of interested students. Once you’ve identified these interested students, invite them to a recruitment event.
College, Summer Opportunity, Gap-Year and International Fairs
To find out when they will be held, do web research or contact your local high school or college. See recruiting at a fair for more details.
Represent AFS in the Local Community
- Hold a Hello-Goodbye Picnic.
- Working With the Girl Scouts (Boy Scouts work too).
- Participate in a local fair or community event .
- Call all civic groups and get on their speaking agenda for at least once a year.
- Raise awareness of AFS by placing announcements in local organizational newsletters, parent bulletins, community event programs, or school event programs.
- Publicize AFS in flyers for festivals, picnics, street fairs, church banquets, or summer concerts.
Information Events and Open Houses
Information Events and Open Houses are a good way to reach students in the community outside the school setting. Meeting with students in the evening or on weekends also allows you to reach their parents. With advance planning, good publicity, and good follow-up, these events are a good way to recruit.
Increase exposure for AFS in local media
- Using Media Clips to Promote Sending
- Photography Exhibit
- Local TV stations are often eager to do a PSA for AFS
- Write a special story for TV stations in your area and pitch it to them.
- Local ads are more likely to generate results less expensively than a national advertisement campaign. Whether you want to take out an ad that publicizes an event in your area such as an Information Night or Open House, or that builds awareness of AFS in your area, local ads offer you a way to reach a targeted audience easily and inexpensively. Be creative, and don’t be afraid to spend some of your team funds for ads—you’ll be surprised at how well they work! Most Community Calendars offer event announcements for free. Ad slicks are available for your use. Contact your staff contact for sending for assistance.
Post AFS Sending Promotions through Facebook
- Even if you aren't Facebook friends with students, you are probably friends with people that would want to know about AFS Sending Promotions for their children, students, or others in their community. Posting the latest discounts and scholarship opportunities is a great way to remind people about AFS. For details on how to effectively make these posts, please see instructions on How to Post Information about AFS on Your Facebook Page
Girl Scouts
The Girl Scouts is a great organization for us to partner with on a local level. By Working With the Girl Scouts, we get to reach out into the community and help spread the idea of intercultural learning. Not only are the students the right age for their families to consider hosting, but they are also close enough to high school to start thinking about studying abroad with AFS in a few years.
Mini-Promotions
Promoting a few select programs involves planning and is fun. Think of the different groups in your community that would have an interest in specific AFS programs, and plan ways to reach them. For example, the German American Society’s local branch might be very interested in our scholarships for students going to Germany. After you’ve introduced your new group to AFS, keep exposing them to the AFS opportunity, and publicly congratulate the applicants who have been accepted. Be sure to keep notes of your contacts and activities so next year the planning will be even easier.
