Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Ways of Starting a Friendship Force Club

Friendship Force International is a group that was formed to help build a global community. The idea is to have people traveling throughout the world and staying with a family in another country. This helps them to develop an understanding of other cultures and forms friendships that span the globe. Friendship Force International works through these exchanges to build global goodwill. The basis of Friendship Force International is community based clubs. Becoming involved with a Friendship Force club is more than a hobby, it is a chance to change the world.

Friendship Force International has its main headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 1977 by Wayne Smith, the first president of the organization. Friendship Force International is comprised of almost half a million volunteers called ambassadors and hosts. Ambassadors are the people who stay with a family, the hosts, in a different part of the world from where they live. The organization is made up of individual Friendship Force clubs that arrange hosts and ambassadors from their community to take part in exchanges. The clubs also help each ambassador and host to arrange travel plans. Each ambassador is responsible for their expenses, as are the hosts.

The organization is non-profit and is solely maintained through fees, grants and donations. The work done by Friendship Force international has been recognized by a 1992 nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. The commitment to a global community is still as strong as it was at the beginning. This is simply an exchange program where the goal is for people around the world to make and build lasting friendships. It is the ultimate goal that this network of friendships helps to promote world peace and tolerance.

A person interested in starting a Friendship Force club can be located any where in the world. Clubs are required to follow the official rules and regulations of Friendship Force International. At the main headquarters in Georgia there are staff members who are dedicated to helping new clubs start up. The whole process can be done by working with these staff members.

The first step is finding people who would be interested in joining the club. The person organizing the club should explain about Friendship Force International, including the goals and how the organization is run. A club needs about 50 to 100 people that are interested in becoming hosts or ambassadors. Friendship Force club’s welcome members of all races, ethnicities and ages. There is no discrimination in Friendship Force international. All members are intern\viewed before being excepting into the club, though. This is a way to make sure that clue members will be dedicated to the goal and mission of creating a global community.

Once the members have been found, 5 to 10 people will be needed to form the leadership comity. The leadership comity includes the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. Officers serve a 1 or 2 year term. After the initial term members then vote on new officers.

The Georgia office will then send paperwork that needs to be filled out and submitted to make the club official. Clubs have fees of $10 per member or $15 per family. The fees are gathered by the club and then sent to Georgia with the paperwork. Once a club has been officially recognized they can begin their exchanges and hosting.

To be successful a club should have 100 or more members. The first inbound exchange, or hosting, can be done after a club has 50 members. After that the outbound exchanges, where someone from the club goes to stay with a family, can begin.

Friendship Force clubs are sometimes hard to form. Through help from the headquarters in Georgia, a person should be able to create a diverse and successful club. Friendship Force International is all about making new friends and what better way than to get involved in a local Friendship Force club.

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