Dear AFS Volunteers,

A strategic plan gives organizations like ours a sense of direction toward achieving our vision for the future of AFS-USA. It also serves as a means by which we can measure our progress. In short, it’s a critical tool for moving any organization forward.

Over the past year, a working group comprised of AFS-USA staff, volunteers, members of the board of directors, and a facilitator from a firm specializing in effective strategic planning have worked together to develop AFS-USA’s Strategic Plan 2.0 (SP2.0), which provides AFS-USA with a vision and sense of direction that will guide us into the first years of the coming decade. SP2.0 was approved by the board at their June 28-29 meeting and was endorsed by the National Council at their June meeting.

I am very proud of what we’ve achieved in the development of this plan. I am also eager to share it with all of you but, before I distribute the document and a deeper context around the plan, I’d like to invite you to join a video chat I had recently with Joan Siegel, the outgoing Chair of the AFS-USA Board of Directors. Joan participated in the development of the Strategic Plan 2.0 and she joins me to give you an overview of the central themes of the plan.

Stay tuned in MyAFS for more information on SP2.0. I will be in touch soon with dates for a webinar on SP2.0 (expected to take place in September), and, of course, the plan itself.

Thank you for all that you do for AFS!

Tara