Update on AFS-USA Volunteer Development Planning
From AFSWiki
On September 28-30, the Volunteer Development Department, five volunteers from the National Volunteer Development Advisory Group, the AFS-USA training staff, along with staff from AFS International and AFS-Germany met in Portland, OR, to work on a plan to continue our volunteer development efforts over the next two years. This group will be seeking input on the plan ideas drafted at this meeting from volunteers and staff across the organization in the coming weeks. This group would like to emphasize that the Volunteer Development plan is not a plan for just one department or one volunteer advisory group to implement, but rather a recommendation to AFS USA on how we can all move forward to improve and expand our volunteer network in the US.
During the course of the meeting, we created an "impact statement," which outlines the driving concept behind all of our volunteer development work in the next two years. The impact statement is as follows:
"By creating engaged learning communities that inspire empowered, enthusiastic volunteers, AFS-USA will achieve growth and quality in program delivery."
From this impact statement, five key areas were identified, which is how the specific actions being planned will be categorized and measured. Those five key areas are as follows: building communities of volunteers, empowering volunteers, increased enthusiasm and fun for our volunteers, training for our volunteers, and growing the size of our volunteer base.
During the next few weeks, staff from the Volunteer Development Department and volunteers from the Volunteer Development Advisory Group will be facilitating focus group discussions with the National Council, with the sending, hosting, and support advisory groups, with staff in other departments, and with other constituents within AFS-USA, in order to get input and feedback into the Volunteer Development Plan, as it is being created. If you have specific things you would like to see done through AFS-USA's Volunteer Development efforts, please feel free to email your suggestions to Scott Hume, the Director of Volunteer Development. In addition, there will be another, more detailed update, included with the November "Coming Together" newsletter, along with an opportunity for all AFS-USA volunteers to provide input and feedback into the plan that is being developed.
Below, please find a picture of all the meeting participants. Thank you to everyone who participated in this meeting!
