Returnee Pre-App Callers Pilot Project
From AFSWiki
This project is an umbrella project on the Returnee Pilot Projects organized by the Outreach Specialist, please click on the link above to get an overview of this and all other projects under its operation.
- The Returnee Mentor Pilot Project is a method of engagement for any Returnee who has come back from their host country in the past five years. The project was created in November of 2010 and was originally advertised to Returnees who participated in Pilot Projects between September '09 to September '10.
- This project consists of a group of Returnees contacting students, via phone, who have submitted a pre-application but who have not yet completed their full-application. The purpose of this is to offer students contact with a Returnee, in addition to the contact from Student Services. The outreach from the Returnee is less about the particulars of the AFS process and more of a “testimonial” from a peer. Feel free to direct any questions, comments, concerns, critiques to the Outreach Specialist in Student Services.
Contents |
The Process
Commitment
- Returnees who agree to participate have to commit to an hour to a two hour-long training. After which they will agree to do this project for a minimum of 6 months but with no particular time required per week. Some Returnees may invest 15 minutes a week to 15 minutes a month in contacting students.
Screening
- As of December 6, 2010 there was no screening done on the Returnees participating since they have already done a Pilot Project. If external sources are advertised to in order to build a stronger Returnee base then screenings will follow.
Training
- After the Returnees have expressed interest in participating they attend a webinar training session. This session is anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours in length. In the training session Returnees will learn how to:
- Call students
- Engage interested students in conversations that will encourage the student to think about studying abroad on a more realistic level
- Adhere to proper phone etiquette
- Answer general questions about: Programs, Requirements, Tuition, Fundraising, Scholarships, Placement, School Credit, and Safety
- Pull Returnees from specific Teams on Global Link
- Create Contact Logs on Global Link
- After they attend the training session the Returnees will receive an email with the following items:
- Instructions on how to obtain a user name and password for Global Link
- Link to the following WIKI pages:
- A document with the correct spelling of the Teams that this project will be calling, the IOC codes and their description, and the PowerPoint that is used in the training
Leads
The Returnees pull students from Global Link that live in the following Teams that are the sending target areas for AFS-USA's NH 2011-2012 cycle:
- Downeast Maine Team
- Massachusetts Bay Team
- Capitol Team
- Carolinas Team
- DelMarPa Team
- New Jersey Team
- East Metro Team
- Greater Chicago Team
- Greater West Metro Team
- Michigan Team
- Milwaukee Team
- World Flags Team
- Colorado Rockies Team
- Columbia Pacific Team
- Grand Canyon Team
- Greater Los Angeles Team
- Greater Puget Sound Team
- San Francisco Bay Team
- South Friends Team
- E-Z Pass Team
The Goal
- While the first project under the Returnee Pilot Projects had been operating there were hopes that one day the involvement of an AFS staff member would lessen. Meaning that Returnees could go into a system and pull information of leads to call rather than waiting to recieve information from the Outreach Specialist who would extract neccessary information from Salesforce then email it to the Returnee. At this time (December of 2010) a volunteer portal to Salesforce is unavailable meaning there is no way to make the involvement less on the Outreach Specialists side.
- Therefore the Returnee Pre-App Callers Pilot Project has been implemented to make this idea a reality. Since Returnees that will participate are registered volunteers and will be calling students who have submitted a preliminary application that means that they can go into Global Link and look up students on their own without any middle-man activities from the Outreach Specialist.
- Hopefully the paths to this project will point to its own self-sustaining existence that needn't any supervision from AFS staff other than to trouble shoot and answer questions from the Returnee volunteers. Ideally, this function of calling pre-applicants who have not filled out their full-application will become a secondary thing to do as an AFS-USA volunteer.
Reactions from Returnees about switching from Spreadsheets to Global Link
- In projects passed, Returnees have received spreadsheets from the Outreach Specialist with student's contact information including their parent(s) names, and city/state the student lived in. This required a lot of time on the AFS staff member's part to go into databases to pull this information. As a result to lessen the time Returnees will now be expected to go into Global Link on their own and pull students to call and make contact logs describing their contact. After training Returnees on these functions they have said many positive things. Most people voiced that it will take awhile to get used to, that it will be difficult at first but that once they get in the groove of doing it that it should be easy/convenient.
Discussion of a goal number to be set for Returnees on how many students to call
- The question had been brought up in the first training session about how many students each Returnee will be required to call. A number had not been set before the training and the Outreach Specialist decided to take this discussion of a goal number to be set to the Returnees who will be and are participating in this project. A goal of how many students should be called and by when will be determined by 12/15/10 by the Outreach Specialist and the Returnees.
Facts/Statistics
- Returnees informed of project: 58
- Returnees who responded with interest: 11
- Current Returnees reviewing PowerPoint: N/A
- Current Returnees calling: 4
Number of Returnees calling pre-apps that went on a:
- Year program are... 4
- Semester program are... 0
- Summer program are... 0
Number of Returnees calling pre-apps reside in the:
- West: 2
- Central: 2
- East: 0
Country Returnee went to : Number of Returnees who went to this country that are calling pre-apps...
- France: 1
- Germany: 1
- Hungary: 1
- Thailand: 1
Log
- 11/17/10: Sent email out to 60 Returnees letting them know about the Pre-App calling Opportunity and to get back to me ASAP if interested to start the training~
- 11/18/10: Received 6 emails from Returnees who said they were interested, 2 of which still need to register. I told them I would wait a few more days to see if I get an email from any other Returnees that I sent it to in order to have a good amount of people attend an online training session~
- 11/29/10: Emailed to a total of 11 Returnees who expressed interest in participating a survey to gather the best times to have a training~
- 12/2/10: Eamiled out to the 11 Returnees the dates and times of the trainings that will be available to them: 12/5,12/7, and 12/8 all at 5 - 7 PM PST ~
- 12/5/10: 12/5 training session was canceled due to no attendees. There are currently 5 signed up for the 12/7 session and 1 for the 12/8 session ~
- 12/7/10: 4/5 Returnees who signed up for 12/7 training attended. It went really well and all of these Returnees have had experience calling students already so it was very smooth. Training on Global Link went well - I have described their reactions to using Global Link above in this page. As well question arose about how many calls should be made by each student and the idea of a goal for the group to work towards sounded good. This is now an open discussion between the Returnees participating and the Outreach Specialist to determine. The deadline for the determined goal is 12/15/10 ~
- 12/8/10: Emailed Returnee who didn't attend yesterday's training to see if they could make it to tonight's~
