Southwest Conference – Houston, 2015
Notes: Mary Williams –
Opening Session and Leadership Workshop
Ana Smulski and Cinda Clark
Joy Huntington Cinda Clark Charles Bennett and Cinda Clark
Wayne Smith service medal –awarded to Baton Rouge member presented by
President Keith Corkern to Charles Bennett (with Frances – a previous winner)
Ana Smulski
9 year with FFI – from Brazil. Speaks Portuguese, Spanish, English.
Promo movie for FFI. 2 minutes
Leadership – Overview
365 clubs – concentration in US
16,000 members. 5000 travel every year. What are the rest of the people doing? Hosting, other activities with the clubs.
Not as many requests for the US – more domestic, global, themed exchanges here.
Looking at new ways to have exchanges.
In the US there are 97 active clubs, 6031 FF members, Strong field rep system
119 weeks of hosting offered, with 44 requests
Some new exchanges:
Explore India
Explore Taiwan
For this fall – need EDs for these exchanges
Other proposals welcomed – need EDs
SW Conference
10 clubs, 612 members
John Heard field rep; list of field reps in other regions
Field Rep
- Volunteer for experienced FF leader
- Support and assist clubs in the regions with
o Communication with FFI. Clubs
o Exchanges
o Club development – training for clubs and exchange directors
o Regional conferences / president’s meeting
o New ideas
Good leaders propose new ideas - get help from FFI, field reps
How to do various things – budgets, training, etc.
Will set up video calls, for discussion, dialogue
Have videos online available
News from FFI
- New fee for 2016: $10 per night for domestic exchanges
- Developing cruise programs with Grand Circle – river cruises in Europe / educational; FFI may get own cruise ship
- Pioneer Exchanges – with 6 people to explore possibilities
- Discover exchanges (to develop a club; 5 nights in hotel, 2 in homes)
o Want club in Italy; 6-10 people will meet with contacts we already have (who has additional contacts) – in Rome, Milan and Venice
- Anniversary Exchanges
o Ex: 30 year anniversary – invite other clubs we have ties with – visit them
- Language Learning Exchanges
o Guadaloupe – Global exchange in French
o Spanish – Columbia
o Quebec – French
o Home stays for 2-3 weeks
o Want more language opportunities to complement our exchanges
- FFI in Action – service projects/ humanitarian
o Jamaica – more opportunities in June
- New club in Georgetown TX – May 30 kickoff
- New partners:
o Homestay.com – headquarters in Dublin (2 years) 30,000 members
§ Purpose is to Increase host capacity, especially in Europe, bring their members to us
§ Book hotel for extra people who want to go on an exchange – do the day activities
§ With homestay.com – book homestay for you if extra people want to go
§ 52% of requests are to Europe; homestay.com would complement what we offer for extra families
§ Additional fee if they stay with these people; less than hotel, but extra fee
- Vancouver conference – FULL – 400; more capacity may open up
- Board of Directors Nominations (deadline May 15)
- 2015-2018 Strategic Plan (Jan 29)
- Fill the Seat Policy – 100 days out – put under-subscribed exchanges on FFI catalog e-mail
o 9/9 - OK to Somerset and Leuven
o 10/6 - KS to Cairns, North Moreton, Tweed Valley and Melbourne
o Austin to Sao Paulo and Maringa, Brazil
- Vetting Process – not automatic to become member/host – need to interview, recommendations
- New website to take e-memberships
- Vetting committee – Laurie Ann Scott; will report in Vancouver
Brainstorming
Ideas of success from your club
- Chairs for various activities – exchanges, meetings, President only conducts Board meetings
- Membership
o More Presentations, bring a friend
o Membership recruitment
§ Have a meeting with interesting program – invite people to attend.
· Ex: Dr. Matthew Perry – FW. Great-great-grandfather was Matthew Perry who opened up Japan to West. Donations received from interested people to pay for transportation to bring him; sister cities gave him 2 free nights in hotel; home dinner with members; breakfast to member party. Invited those groups – some attended, exposed to FF.
· Bento Box dinner - $5 – Japanese presenter (FW) – invite Japanese/American club
§ Chair should be outgoing, leader, proactive
§ Get information when they visit – send meeting flyer for next 3 months
§ List new members’ info in next newsletter; supplement to yearbook
§ Get them involved soon
§ Have someone take new member or guest around to meet people at meetings
§ New member luncheon-orientation – Dallas / dessert reception KS
· Invite everyone new since last one (one per year in spring)
· Invite new members, interested guests – those who have visited, suggestions of interested people from members
§ Ask people to join
o Travel section announcement of meetings (Dallas)
o Get attention in the newspaper from trips; put contact in newspaper (Dallas)
- Officers recruitment
o Bigger pool of members (DLS)
o Incentives – Farewell dinner for hosts free; gas card to drive to FW (Dallas)
o Ask: How would you like to help out our club? (Dallas)
- Exchange Director recruitment
o Training every few years for being an ED; be an incoming ED before an outbound ED (some experience working with FFI, manuals, forms)
o Reimburse ED (NM - $1500 toward outbound expenses; OK – airfare or inbound – credit for a net fee $500 from club/$250 from ambassadors)
o Domestic exchange with San Francisco Bay Area. Do something different in SF because we have all been there – went to biker bar, Mission District – murals (Dallas)
o Two places back to back: Columbia Cascade and Olympia – 2 weeks; had 20 people for each (Dallas)
- How to get people to go on exchanges:
o Endowment – for a scholarship with some talent – musical, perform, artist, etc. (Baton Rouge)
- Save an Exchange
o Invited Cincinnati who didn’t have an exchange – had only 8 from Australia, added 8 from Cincinnati (Dallas)
o Invited SW clubs – had 8 from SW clubs / 8 from Gold Coast club (Dallas)
What Does FFI Do?
Ana Smulski and Cinda Clark
See handout.
What is FF?
- A philosophy and a way of life
- Network of 365 clubs across 60 years
- Depends on local and central organization
- Clubs are chartered by FF International
- We are all members of FF
- Strong international organization
- Develops, maintains and supports global club system and its exchanges
- Develops new programs
- Conducts partnership programs
- Promotes FF globally
38 years of continuity – Wayne Smith founder
5 presidents
Once up to 25 staff, now 16
FFI structure
- Board of Directors: not a representative body; does not act like a parliament, rather represents the global interests of or ourganization; support politics; don’t represent clubs; continuity, new programs, integrate globally;
- Joy – CEO
Staff list
- Finance – Ebony Rogers, Joy Fitzgerald, Hap Petty
- Programs/planning – most staff
- Communications – Jillian Walters, Maggie Smith
- Conferences – Pallie Savoie
- Clubs - 1980 Clubs, FFI develops, maintains and supports the global club system and its exchanges.
Charter for each club – own officers and activities
- Members
- FF exchanges
- Ambassadors and hosts
- Community at large
- Field Reps
- Regional cooperation
FFI organization
- Supports clubs and partnerships.
- Create more partnerships to grow; make contact with like-minded organizations – increase variety, ability to host, new experiences. Ex: In China, Myanmar FF doesn’t work with culture – have partnerships there.
New clubs:
- newest is Georgetown TX
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Victoria/Vancouver Island
- Sao Luis, Brazil
- Osher Life Long Learning Institute - FL
- Sochi, Russia
Exchanges
- Surveys all clubs
- Exchange matching
- Exchange monitoring / support (dates not established, problems, canceling)
- Techniques to prevent cancellation
- Evaluation - followup
Domestic Exchanges – contact Kristin Harrison to tell you when your exchanges will take place so you can plan when to have domestic exchanges
Communications
- International FFI Staff
- Monthly FFI Communique – feature 4 exchanges
- Exchanges Catalog
- Email alerts
- Club Resource Website– information about clubs
- Social Media
Leadership Development and Training
Participation in National and regional Conferences
Global field rep system:
- Brazil
- Japan
- Europe
- Australia
- NZ
- Canada
- US
Field Rep – volunteer position for experience FF leaders. Each region unique in terms of geographic challenges and number of clubs. Field Rep brings personal strengths and styles to the program to help, support, and assist clubs in their region. No direct link to Board members.
Develop New Programs
- Friendship in Action
- NextGen – younger participants, more freedom
- Pioneer
- Anniversaries
- Leadership – Dave Kalan (how to become leaders, some cultural activities)
- Explore
- Discover
- Language
- Professional – teachers, hospitals – doctors, nurses
Partnership programs
- Cruises
- FF languages
- F in Action
- NextGen Exchanges
- Pioneer
- Leadership
Promotes FF Globally
- Branding and Marketing
- International PaintPals
- Meetup
- Facebook page
- Catalog
- Signup
- Google – help to choose key words to promote FF so when Homestay put into Search – Friendship Force comes up (now it doesn’t or is way back); when we get these inquiries, we don’t know who is applying; we need to get references when someone applies for an exchange
Special Exchanges Panel
edward perez, Dallas Geneva Hancock, Oklahoma Judith Mead, New Mexico
Geneva Hancock – Planning and conducting one – already done one, planning another with one more club
Judith Mead– Considering having one, planning one, and conducting one – for next year
edward perez– participant’s experience in attending one
Types:
- Themed – shared interests, education, humanitarian, language
- Global – specific theme or cultural understanding
- Discovery – short homestay with travel – help to form new club
- Partnership and Contract – cruise, tour, etc.
Participate or have your club do one – reasons:
- Homestays going down, special exchanges going up
- Big revenue getters for FFI
Geneva - Taming America’s Great Plains – overall title
- Unique topic; activities depicted what was happening in early American history; Did one similar in 2013 – but only Omaha in Neb; Won Club of the Year award
- This exchange had an Executive ED – who was in charge of organizing a global themed exchange with 3 states and 4 clubs; each club also had an ED to arrange activities/hosts for that segment.
- Participants in new exchange: 2 clubs in Neb – Omaha and Lincoln, 1 club in OK, 1 club in KS
- Different locations/clubs - topics included:
o OK – Cowboys and Indians
o KS - Home on the Range
o Lincoln – Neb territory, new land, new people
o Omaha – Iron horse on the Plains
“Doubtful Handshake” painting – shows homesteader making friends with Indians who lived there.
- Choose something unique in your area to showcase.
- Very popular – 30 ambassadors and waiting list
- Planning:
o Each club appointed an ED and a treasurer
o Executive Committee treasurer collected exchange fees and distributed money to clubs
o Activities planned early for advertising and avoiding duplication
o One person arranged all bus transportation
o Executive ED represented all ambassadors during exchange
o Opening – ice cream social, cakewalk.
- Successes – Tips
o Began planning early – 1 ½ years
o First night in a hotel in 2013
o Deciding which club would focus on what
o Trains came in to move beef. Cattle drives through Indian Territory – built trains, cattle walked to rail – Abilene KS.
o Start with the trains – Omaha; fly into Omaha.
o Each club had ED and treasurer.
o Stay with theme so activities not repeated in another club.
o Coordinate activities. 4 nights in each club + one extra night on arrival day.
o Advertised exchange at FF Conference
o Sent special invitation via FFI’s e-mail list
o Advertised in Catalogue – 1st of Aug for spring trip Set max # of ambassadors at capacity +2 in case of cancellations - 21 ambassadors
o Treasurer handles all the money in and out. FFI handles all exchange fees.
o Not regular application form – special form sent to ambassadors.
o Follow FFI guidelines; applicants need recommendation from person (usually President) in their club.
o Did not put them on ambassador list until fee paid.
o 300 brochures printed. People took them from Intl Conf and back to clubs.
o Respond promptly to inquiries
o Special invitation on email from FFI – received 39 requests for applications; 5 countries represented: 5; also inquiries from other places.
o Now maximum 20-21 ambassadors booked this year.
o Conference call once a month for clubs involved – every club represented; discuss progress and any problems.
- Difficulties
o Planning 8 months out hard – get it ready for International Conference – necessary.
o Things happen – be Flexible Force.
o Local event changed their date to one week before the exchange started – found comparable replacement.
o Fort Sill – (Geronimo kept there) changed the rules about visiting there – needed special approval for each person. Had to have an application with an original signature – mailed back.
o Treasurer put all budgets together to determine exchange fee.
edward perez – participant in Jamaica Friendship Force in Action service project