AFS Driving and Liaison Policies

[EastMetroAFS]

Good news! We have recently received information that we can change
the driving age for volunteers from 25 to 21. In discussions with our
insurance carrier, it was determined that we could reduce the driving
age without an increase in our premiums. I hope that this helps in our
efforts to get younger volunteers involved as liaisons or in other
roles.

And now that we’re talking about liaisons….
Thanks to everyone for working so hard to get liaisons recruited and
assigned to the students before arrivals. As you know, the Liaison
plays a key role in supporting the AFS student (and their host family)
while they are in the United States and can prevent any support issues
from becoming ERs. For this reason I would like to take this
opportunity to remind you of the policies regarding assigning
liaisons:

AFS Liaison Policies

-All liaisons must be 21 years or older.
-A member of a first time host family who has not previously
volunteered for AFS cannot be assigned as a liaison for another AFS
participant and host family. Members of first time host families for
AFS who have hosted previously for another exchange organization may
be allowed to serve as liaisons with approval by the Regional Director
and the Regional Manager of Participant Support.
-AFS-USA staff may not serve as volunteer liaisons for AFS
participants and host families. Volunteer liaisons must maintain
impartiality to both the student and the host family. No perceived
conflict of interest should exist that might harm their ability to
remain impartial and make effective decisions in the best interest of
all parties.
-Liaisons cannot be relatives or close friends of the host families to
whom they are assigned. (Close friends are considered people with whom
liaisons have a long standing friendship that either began before
their involvement with AFS or that goes beyond just a friendship that
has developed related to their AFS work.).
-Ideally the ratio between host students and liaisons should be one to
one; however liaisons should not be assigned to more than five hosted
participants (and their respective host families and schools) in any
given time