A successful EFIL Meeting of staff and volunteers dealing with Organisational Development (OD) took place 13-18 January 2015 in Colle di Val d’Elsa, Italy. The EFIL ODC Meeting is now a fixed and expected feature on the training calendar every other year. This year’s Meeting enjoyed the presence of 21 participants from 19 AFS Partners – mostly from within the European EFIL membership, but also including a representative of AFS Kenya. This number and variety of people was very much appreciated by the group and certainly contributed to the rich discussions and sharing of practices.
The agenda elements included some recurring contents (such as sharing best practices and organisational structures, introduction to European and international AFS structures or connection between Intercultural Learning and OD work), as well as sessions specifically requested by the participating ODCs: modern communication tools, change management, school relations in volunteer development. The group enjoyed also special input delivered by Roberto Ruffino from Intercultura Italy, focused on the 100th Anniversary of American Field Service and our organisation’s history.
The clear satisfaction of the participants should largely be attributed to the excellent team of trainers: Ömer Ongun from AFS Turkey, Katerina Kahanova from AFS Czech Republic, Andrea Franzoi from AFS Italy and Lucas Welter from AFS International, assisted by Izabela Jurczik-Arnold from EFIL. An equally important contribution to the group’s happiness came from the event’s hosts, Intercultura Italy, who showed us the best of the Italian hospitality, friendliness and professionalism.
Thank you all for contributing to this great meeting and see you again in two years!
For more information: izabela.jurczik-arnold@afs.org