Over the weekend of February 8-10, nearly 200 AFS-USA Volunteers and Staff gathered in Dallas, Texas for the AFS-USA Hosting Conference. The conference agenda featured sessions on strategies to enable volunteer teams to reach their hosting placement targets, how AFS-USA can work more effectively with schools, and how AFS-USA can achieve our goal to expand our reach to new communities in the United States. Several sessions on organizational development were also included, and I had the chance to visit a local high school that has hosted over 50 students since 2001! I’m grateful to the Dallas Volunteer Team for arranging the visit and for hosting a great conference!

To kick-off the first full day of the conference, I had the opportunity to kick things off with some remarks around my own appreciation for hosting and the work that goes into this important endeavor. I also spoke about some of my priorities as President of AFS-USA, and, of course, some of my own stories about hosting.

If you weren’t able to attend, I invite you to watch my opening remarks:

While in Dallas, I also had the chance to record my second Fireside Chat – a conversation with Dallas volunteer Rebecca Cartier. Sitting down with Rebecca and hearing her perspective on a number of topics was one of the highlights of the weekend. I hope you’ll take a moment to listen to our conversation and, likewise, do stay tuned for the next Fireside Chat!

I would like to thank all of the AFS-USA Volunteers and Staff who were in attendance at the conference. I hope that it was as motivating for them as it was for me. I feel confident that this hosting recruitment season will be one that is a success and I look forward to working with all AFS-USA Volunteers and Staff on this very important part of our work.