In response to volunteer feedback, we have added a new School Staff affiliation to MyAFS and Global Link to better keep track of the people with whom we collaborate to place students.  As a reminder, school staff can be easily updated in MyAFS.

Now your options include adding:

• a PAF Receiver
• an AFS Champion
• a School Hosting Contact
• a School Sending Contact
• the World Languages Dept. Chair
• and the Principal.

In some schools, there may be one person you contact about AFS – or 5 different people – or something in between!  We recognize that every school works differently, and we continue to add improvements to better capture the wide variety of AFS school relationships.

As you think about the schools with whom you work, consider the following and add them to MyAFS if needed

• Who are the people in the School or at the District level to whom you send hosted student information in order to get school approval and PAFs (Placement Acceptance Forms) signed?   These are the PAF Receivers.
• Who are the people in the school in charge of exchange students or the people you go to with questions about exchange students?  These are the School Hosting Contacts.
• Who are the people always willing to promote AFS opportunities and advocate for having exchange students and for sending U.S. students abroad?  These are the AFS Champions
• Who are the people you contact to talk about students interested in studying abroad and/or study abroad scholarships?  These are School Sending Contacts

The system will also automatically capture and record people who sign online PAFs, and the name and email address of the most recent PAF Signer cannot be edited in MyAFS.

Again, it is okay if a person wears more than one hat.  Maybe the Principal is the PAF Receiver, the PAF Signer, and the School Hosting Contact.  In other cases, one person needs to be sent the PAF, a second person signs the PAF (maybe even at the School District level), the Principal may have very little to do with exchange students, but the Registrar, or an Assistant Principal, or maybe even a Counselor is the key contact for students once they arrive (and would be considered the School Hosting Contact).  Here is an example of a school with many different contact people:

Of note, the PAF Receiver has also been added to the list of potential recipients when sending a PAF:

We hope these distinctions help make it easier for you to track the unique situations in your schools.  Feel free to reach out to School Partnerships with any questions, concerns, or suggestions.