A report about the chapter visits

Our experience

We had a great time with all the chapters we visited – thanks for hosting us! We had focused sessions with 7 chapters, plus extended freewheeling discussions wherever possible. We also met with folks from 2 other chapters and a few chapter-less and traveling AIDvasis. These engagements allowed us to revive old friendships and build new ones, while allowing us to get a pulse of the hosting chapters.

This was our first ‘tour’ and we weren’t sure how it would go. But from the first evening in Buffalo, the structured sessions and freewheeling discussions went smoothly. Almost everywhere, volunteers expected a talk, causing some confusion in the beginning of each session. But most seemed to enjoy the discussions, games and the focus on interaction.

Though all the games and exercises were fun, we’d like to specifically mention how much we enjoyed the role-play on group dynamics at Duke and Clemson. The volunteers took on their roles with zest and displayed their interpersonal skills as well as their guile and ingenuity. For us, this game illustrated the challenges faced in situations where information is withheld and the skill required to conduct successful negotiations.

We have a lot to learn and hope that you will continue to provide us feedback. There was an almost universal desire for more personal anecdotes and stories. We consciously chose to underplay personal aspects because our experience is not that extensive. Further, it seems to us that we do a lot of storytelling (which is important) in AID, but not as much analysis of the issue before jumping into the funding mode. We have felt the need and are trying to develop analytical frameworks to discuss each of the topics we presented. Personal experiences have played a very strong, though implicit, role in this process. Following the feedback, we see the need to communicate the personal aspects a little more in future sessions.

Lastly, we keenly felt the lack of time. Maybe it was bad planning on our part or just the breadth of the subject matter, but we never managed to wrap up the sessions satisfactorily. We plan to coordinate more such sessions in the future and will have to improve our time-management skills. Also we’ll call them ‘workshops’ so that people are inclined to budget more time 🙂

Our observations

Each chapter has characteristics of its own, but the common challenge that they all seem to face is ‘volunteering pressure’. Raising enough funds to support projects seems to be a primary component of this pressure. Drawing from our experiences, we shared our ideas on fund ownership, joint projects, using the common pool funds etc. to mitigate this pressure. The loss of organizational learning due to volunteer turnover was another shared concern. It is a challenge that we do not have proven answers to. Balancing the need for a chapter identity and vision with the interests of individual volunteers is a related challenge. Taking a second look at chapter activities with a focus on team building would be useful. Some of the activities we suggested include volunteering within the local community as a group and discussion and reading groups relevant to the work we support.

Volunteering pressure affects issue- and learning-centered interactions the most. Individuals appeared to be improving their understanding through their own initiative. But most chapters did not seem to be in a position to develop joint learning plans. We look forward to contribute our bit towards such efforts through sustained engagement with interested volunteers and chapters.

The enthusiasm and interest of the volunteers we met was heartening. We hope this can be channeled in better ways in the future so that AID will be a more effective organization, both for the communities it supports in India and the volunteer base it has generated both in India and the US.