Getting Back to the Friendship Force Mission

Several excellent speakers at the recent FFI conference in Washington, DC reminded us of why we exist as an organization and how we can truly be ambassadors in our world. 

Keynote Speaker John M. Suddes, who worked with the Board in strategic planning in 2007, reminded us that having a plan is not enough. He called members to action to promote the mission and achievements of FF. We, as individuals, constitute the whole. Quoting John Ruskin, he said, “What we think or what we know or what we believe, is in the end of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.” 

Key questions facing Friendship Force International are ones we have asked in our own club:
• Will we be relevant 30 years from now?
• What do we need to do to allow the organization to thrive?
• What can we do to recruit more members and leaders? – need to sustain organization

The International organization has made strides in the past few years with:
• Infrastructure development – logo, website (check out the much-improved website), messaging
• Themed Exchanges – attracting a broader and younger range of members
• Email marketing – opening exchanges to more people
• Monthly catalog updates and invitations to join exchanges in order to fill them

Addressing priorities of the organization, he made these suggestions that we as a club might consider:

Priority 1: Attract new members and hosts

1. Be proactive – go get new members 
    a. Don’t wait for them to come to you
    b. Start by finding people who believe in the mission of FFI, not just want to join a club

2. Be open to change
“Insanity – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results“ Einstein
    a. Cultivate, cultivate, cultivate
    b. Attracting new members is a process – not a singular event or invitation
    c. Cultivation is about constant contact:
    d. Forward newsletters to prospective members; forward to your friends with a personal note, such

        as - I thought you might be interested in this exchange, or I’d like to invite you to visit our next

        meeting, etc.
    e. Add prospective members to a newsletter list – e-mail, put unsubscribe button on it
    f. Hold a monthly prospective new member dinne; make it a monthly event; and keep inviting them

3. Cast a wider net
    a. GOAL: Expand the number of prospective members
    b. Ways to accomplish:
        • Partner with organizations –
        • What other groups have similar or complementary interests in your community? Sister cities,

           International visitor councils, foreigh student pgromgrams at local universities
        • What does your club have to offer other organizations in your community? Local expertise in

           how to provide hospitality to international visitor
        • Utilize social media 
           o Social networking use among internet users ages 50-65 grew 88% in the last year – up to

               47%
           o Social networking – 20% use now
           o One in 10 over 50 use Twitter or other
           o You-tube
           o Facebook – be a friend of FF – cultivate friends with video links – can be video to anyone’s

              clubs – use FFI videos, ours
           o Club Websites

Priority 2. Develop and share best practices
    

1. Share with other clubs – best practices / ideas, videos/ pictures, stories
2. Every club has something to offer
3. Experiment – local clubs are our learning lab

4. OK to use examples from other clubs
5. Send your ideas to FFI; they will be compiled and shared: ideas@thefriendshipforce.org 
6. Develop TrailBlazer Project (NEW INITIATIVES)

     FFI is Looking for clubs of the future – up to 20 – or those who aspire to be a club of the future. 

    They are looking for a 3 – year commitment to strong and innovate exchanges, leadership

    development and training; willingness to mentor other clubs, an ambitious plan for membership

    development and accept organizations’ call to action. Candidates will be selected by March 2011.

    Apply to George Brown. Clubs can be any size, now or old, from any region of the world.

Your call to action

Friendship Force and Citizen Diplomacy

Panel moderator : Sherry Mueller.– citizen diplomacy
Panel: Tommy Dortch (FFI Board President) 
Patrick Madden – Sister Cities
Vera De Buchananne – Open World 
Charles (Chick) Dambach, Alliance for Peacebuilding – National Peace Corps.

Sherry Mueller (FFI Board member) – Introduction:

When she went to Europe for the first time as an exchange student for a year, her parents admonished her, “Don’t talk to strangers.” Sherry encouraged us to talk to strangers and tell them about FF; wear your badge; have your “elevator speech” ready (2 line explanation of what FF is). Our friends already know we are in FF and know our story; they are not interested. Talk to new people who share our mission.

When you travel, people make you feel at home; we make connections one friend at a time; it’s personal satisfaction but also, we need this web of human relationships needed to tackle world problems. We are in a race between education and catastrophe. FF is on the side of education. Technology is great, but we are “about to snap.” We are bombarded with techy stuff and need to get back to the people stuff.

FF uses primary sources, first-hand contact with people around the world. We have a fascination and appreciation of cultural differences. We help people see what we all share. There are a set of organizations with an international focus that do this. George Brown sees the big picture, and envisions steps to get there. He wants to get people to do what they didn’t know they wanted to do; he empowers optimism. 

Tommy Dortch (FFI Board President has book on mentoring) – Why are we mentoring? 
Who are we teaching? 

NCIV (National Council for International Visitors) – is a network to promote excellence in citizen diplomacy. The individual citizen has a responsibility to shape foreign relations one handshake at a time. 

Reach out to other organizations. 
• Try accidental citizen diplomacy – we have an opportunity to shape how someone else sees our

   country – when we happen to meet people from other countries, give them a good impression of

   our country, our city.

• Or deliberately planned interactions (with clubs/organizations). There is great potential in purposeful

   planning, expansion, and partnering. Become an active part of networks and programs – seek out

   partnership opportunities. 

  There is a book that lists exchange organizations (in English): International Exchange Locator –

   published by Alliance for Peacebuilding.

• Gain recognition for work already being done – mostly volunteers. 

• Increase the number of people involved, resources involved doing it.

• Volunteers want their children to understand the world. 

• Serve as a diplomat for our country – enhancing the image of our country; it may be economic development, or image

Example: In the days of the Pony Express, their ad to recruit riders emphasized danger, excitement, stepping out into the unknown.
FF: Present our call to new members for those willing to risk, step out, make a difference; idealists preferred.

Vera De Buchananne – Open World

Open World is one of our finest programs.

We say a video about the legislative program linking Russia to the US; it now includes former Soviet Republic countries. Russia and former satellites are a region of rich resources – plutonium and other resources. They have 14% of world’s land mass. They are worth influencing.

The program consists of invited leaders coming to the US as guests of Open World. It has support from congress, groups and individuals. 15,000 people have come so far, with 6,000 hosts.
They see the US from the inside, rather than filtered through their media. They visit our legislative branch of government, industries, media, cultural events, educational programs, etc. Open World provides the meetings with leaders, hospitality, discussions, and cultural events.

Friendship Force clubs are frequently hosts. We are citizen ambassadors who maintain person to person links with these visitors while our governments are at odds. While hosted in the US they may discuss issues across cultures with their hosts – education, business growth, health, law, social issues, culture, etc. Use this networking to foster relationships. 

52 FF clubs have provided hosts for Open World. Some FF members host through other groups also. There is a benefit to all involved; FF members like this experience, those new to hosting find out what we like about it. Alumni of these programs benefit from the experiences when they return to their countries.

Ex: A Pakistani woman saw approaches at a TV broadcasting in the US she could use in her country regarding Internet use. She looked at Anchor positions vs. young newscasters.

We sometimes have an image problem. The name Friendship Force implies we exist to make friends. This is true, but there are many other meanings in our name – force should imply we are a force for peace. Let people know what good we do.

Patrick Madden – Sister Cities Program

Sister Cities program was created in 1956 during the Eisenhower administration. Cities paired up around the world have several programs and activities. Ordinary people go on exchanges and see that we have more in common than we have differences.

Sister cities exist in 136 countries. There are a total of 2000+ clubs -  700 cities in US.
1/3 in Europe, 16% in the Americas; Japan has the most cities - 234. 
More participants are small towns – communities. The smallest has a population of 32 in Gilbert Arkansas – in partnership with a town in Germany .

What they are they doing now? what do partners do?
Activities include people to people exchanges, youth group exchanges and activities, projects, exchanges between municipal leaders, business leaders, educators, trade/economic, municipal, humanitarian, education, arts/culture, etc. Benefits include value for tourism – more people inbound good for tourism. Most exchanges have 21-50 people.

What do they do?
• Events – festivals, performances, building projects, exchanges of youth and adults,
• Training – sports, agriculture, safely, local social organizations, colleges, schools, range of

   institutions
• Projects such as:
   Ex. Africa urban poverty is being addressed with a 7½ million gift from Gates Foundation; 3 yr

   program; 25 cities – to improve water, health, sanitation. Have consultants for cleaning water

   system - have people with expertise paid by Gates.
   Ex. Teaching hospital in Ghana putting in toilets. 
   Ex: Other projects are clinics, water supply, showers, latrines, flush toilets, markets, schools,

   neighborhood centers. 

We can be part of partnerships making a difference abroad by associations with peer organizations in other countries. National twinning societies connecting people, staying in homes, dining together, hosting, working together.

Charles (Chick) Dambach, Alliance for Peacebuilding – National Peace Corps 

Chick has written a book called “Exhaust the Limits.” He has been involved in peace projects as part of his lifetime values. He believes it is not okay to use violence to justify getting what you want. It is just not tolerable. It is better to bring the world together. 

Chick was a Peace Corps volunteer, led groups, formed Peace Corps alumni groups, and played a central role in bringing warring parties together in various regions so that they could choose a different path to resolve differences. 

He also wanted a life of adventure. He wanted to get out and become involved with things – get out of comfort zone – and he recommends we do that. 

He stressed the value of friendship – it is more important than riches. “The more friends you have who are different from you, the richer you are. Learn to respect and love others; then they respect and love you.“

The Peace Corps is now 50 years old. It was a concept of J F Kennedy; he arrived for a speech at U of Michigan late at night, with no speech prepared for thousands of students who met his plane in Ann Arbor. In his off the cuff speech, he challenged students to make a difference in the world. The students said “you create it, we’ll do it.” And the Peace Corp was born. 

200,000 volunteers have lived in villages, learned language, culture and lived as their hosts did. A whole community of people embraced the idea of learning about their host country/people and offering what they could. 

In the 1990s – member organizations were formed of Peace Corps Alumni with names like
“Friends of Colombia,” etc – for most countries. Peace Corps volunteers who served in Iran traveled to Iran 5 years later with Friendship Force as a partner and were well received. There are now also groups of former volunteers in various geographic areas.

Alliance for Peace Building –. Every society wants to live in peace – but we are not there yet. But here is less violence than there used to be. Many organizations are not only advocate, but help build safe, peaceful societies. FF is a part of that trend. It is happening throughout the world and is stronger in certain parts of the world. Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, have backed off of civil war. Chick is working globally to change attitudes and put into place conflict resolution. He himself says he will protect himself and family if threatened, but will not use violent force to advance a cause. He believes this should be the policy of all countries.

He encourages us to get more younger people involved to build a more peaceful world.

Conclusion

Workshop: Information in the Computer Age
New FFI Website

The computer has touched every age. In every area, Information now is in code; we can’t see it. It is used for:
• E-commerce. Amazon is the biggest retailer. Zappo shoes, Zenni optical are the largest in their

  field.
• Business cards now websites. 
• URL is not a physical address.

We are not going back to previous methods of communication. In order to stay current, we must be able to communicate in the language of the public. Younger ages now use all digital communication.

FFI has a new website. The old one was weak and unattractive. The new one is easier to navigate.

Homepage – has blue, green, red sections to appeal to different audiences using the website; 3 constituencies = members/travelers, leaders, new people seeking information about the organization. The sub-bar has categories: 
• FF news 
• who we are 
• FAQs 
• support FFI
• press center 
• contact

Along the left sidebar are items of current interest:
Travel Insurance
2010 Conference
Photo Contest
FFI Store
Get E-mail updates

Friendship Magazine Online – new free online magazine; will be in several languages
• Header – special feature in heading. Featured exchanges, Stories about exchanges. 
   Ex: Adelaide to Outback
• Other stories along the left
• Message from President
• Editor’s desk - letters to editor
• Dispatches – stories submitted
• Leadership – for leaders
• Spotlight – interview with club or person, Ex. Pres of Belahorozonte
• New ideas
• News – not so urgent news
• Signup for email

Blue bar – Welcome (for Members - with a rotating video and many hot links)
• Left column – current new events - Ex. Conference, auction, photo contest, photo gallery, FF logo

  for Facebook, e-mail updates, store, insurance. FF Magazine – ongoing.
• Address to leaders, members, newcomers 
• Awards – recognize people

Red bar – Club Resources (for leaders)
• Left column - late news for club resources – Ex: download ED manual

• Flickr photo gallery - Clubs or individuals can put photos of exchanges on Flickr – all on one site for

  use by all.
• Can look at this section without being a member. But you have to be a member with a username/

  password to upload materials/forms.
• Can write a note to someone with a photo on Flickr. Post comment - Click on

   www.thefriendshipforce.org - click on flickr site icon. A club can have its own site, or post on the FFI

   site.
• Store in Club Resource center – to order pins, DVDs 7 languages, shirts, etc.
• Browse exchanges
• Find a club
• Forms – can send a link to members to print at home (Not completed online and saved. Can do in

  Word, use Replace key, and fill in form, then resave.)
• Brand identity – club logos for every club,
• Communique for club leaders and EDs

Green bar - Experience the World (for inquirers)
• All exchanges listed
• World of Friends Catalog - exchanges we are promoting
   Exchanges listed in the Catalog Exchange don’t require membership in a club to participate. If the
   exchange is listed in the catalog, other people are invited to join the exchange. These clubs have

   an ED willing to take people who are not members; they still have to complete membership form.

   We hope that they do become a member. Suggest people go on no more than 3 exchanges – then