Diversity Committee Proposal -- Motion

Create a standing committee on diversity that will be responsible for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of diversity initiatives across the organization. The committee will focus on diversity of Sending students, Hosting families, and volunteers, as well as the impact of organizational policies and practices on diversity.

Diversity Committee Proposal -- Action Desired from NVA

We request approval from the National Volunteer Assembly for a standing committee on diversity. Understanding that a standing committee can be created by the National Council, the sponsors of this proposal wanted to obtain the largest possible commitment for the creation of this committee.

Diversity Committee Proposal -- Background

AFS-USA is the oldest and largest international high school exchange program in the US. As a “leader in intercultural learning,” with its mission to work “toward a more just and peaceful world,” the question that comes to mind is, does AFS reflect a commitment to the essence of its vision – inclusion? The honest answer is that we don’t know. At best, we could be a diverse organization, but we have no real measure to support such a claim. At worst, we are sorely under representing certain groups, and therefore off-track in the pursuit of our mission. From a business perspective, we could be neglecting opportunities to grow our student and host family numbers, volunteer base, and funding, which are all detriments in the current financial and regulatory environment.

It’s the unfortunate lack of data that makes developing an organizational strategy premature, which is why the sponsors’ view is that the committee initially focus on collecting quantifiable data, examine current practices and explore the communities we do and don’t serve. Once we understand our situation, the committee should move to clearly define diversity, recommend goals, strategies, and objective measures of success.

In the end, AFS-USA needs a diversity strategy that reflects our mission, that sets the example for others to follow, that makes it evident that we are the industry leader, not because we send or host the most students, but because we are true reflection of our society.

Diversity Committee Proposal -- Biggest Advantages of Motion

1. Defines a consistent vision of diversity for AFS-USA
   
2. Takes a deliberate and quantifiable approach to fulfilling the AFS-USA mission of moving toward a more just and peaceful world – setting standards and measures of inclusion
   
3. Provides a program experience that reflects US diversity, for both students hosted in the US, as well as the students we send abroad as ambassadors
   
4. Makes AFS a leader in the industry and across other types of organizations
   
5. Makes stating the case to funders interested in issues of diversity much more concrete, allowing us to retain and gain investors
   
6. Allows access to new communities, increasing the pool of students, families, and volunteers – an opportunity to expand the pie – to resolve our most pressing problems of sending more students, finding more families, and engaging more volunteers
   
7. Informs the development of the lead management processes: volunteer, student, and host family
   
8. Increases cultural competence of AFS staff and volunteers
   
9. Provides AFS-USA quantifiable data on our constituents, which we currently do not have.

Diversity Committee Proposal -- Biggest Disadvantages of Motion

The return on investment is hard to predict, so there may be a perception that given the financial situation of AFS-USA, it would be asking too much from the organization’s resources, both financial and human, to invest in what would be a profound and intensive change in our methods; and therefore taking resources from other more immediate needs.

Diversity Committee Proposal -- Biggest Concerns

1. Without the commitment from all parts of the organization, it is not likely to succeed. There will be a need to engage the National Volunteer Assembly, the board of directors, the National Council, advisory groups, committees, and the general body of volunteers and staff early and often in the process.
   
2. That attempts to define and discuss diversity are limited to sending more, poor minority students abroad. There is a need for AFS-USA stakeholders to engage in a discussion about how to define diversity in a broader sense, which we believe can be driven by a diversity committee.
   
3. Volunteers and staff may be asked to act outside of their comfort zone to engage diverse communities. Although we are an organization that deals with cultural differences on a daily basis, our own experiences aren’t often debriefed for understanding, we aren’t often sitting as students in the orientations. It may be necessary to provide diversity training and not assume it happens through simple exposure to other cultures.
   
4. AFS-USA may not have the capacity to successfully implement the changes recommended by the diversity committee. As an example, we have not shown much skill in integrating new volunteers, or even returnees, into existing units. It is an issue that, in the perception of some, plagues our volunteer development efforts.

Diversity Committee Proposal -- Cost Implications

Possible costs in the initial data collection and research phase could include:

1. an in-person meeting, perhaps to coincide with either the national hosting or sending conference
   
2. integration of data collection process into Global Link, which could incur a cost to design and format online forms to include appropriate questions for students, host families and volunteers
   
3. the cost of a consultant, if the committee recognized a lack of volunteer and staff expertise