I'm coming to the Source of All Knowledge for help. :) My sister works with a foreign exchange student organization and is looking for a way to sort of advertise for regional coordinators and possible host homes for said students. Maybe some sort of message board or something? They do have a website (don't know what it is, though) so I suggested a mb on there for starters.
Have any of you had any experience with this? Any ideas for her? You can either post here or email me directly (my address isn't munged). TIA!
If the organization is small, not many people will visit an Internet site - nor even know it exists. Advertising needs to be met through other sources: windows in the local business, flyers in the local businesses, announcements in church bulletins, school newspapers. That sort of thing. The Internet is so huge, now, that finding an audience is pretty darned difficult.
Which leads me to: If no one knows about you, they won't find your message board, either. Setting up a message board on your own site can be very difficult unless whoever runs the site is knowledgeable. PHPbb is free, but not for the faint of heart to set up. An alternative is YahooGroups. Message boards are great to get conversations going if your organization is already in gear - but they won't work for getting an organization going.
I'll see what other responses come about in hopes it will trigger my creative answers to your dilemma. :-) Somebody might say something that will lead me in another direction.
These organisations always advertised in the local papers when I used to take them, Joan. Never had any problems, and made some wonderful friends. The organisation used to have classes (hired a hall) most mornings and, of course, arranged suitable outings to London, local places of interest etc - the families entertained them and looked after them the rest of the time.
I dont really know much about this, but how about local churches, synagogues, mosques, etc., of all denominations? I sort of think people who work with these sort of organizations may have lots of useful contacts. HTH.
-- Jim Cripwell. From Canada. Land of the Key Bird. This creature of doom flies over the frozen tundra in winter, shrieking its dreaded call; "Key, Key, Key, Key rist but it's cold!!"
Try contacting area churches/synagogues and having them put something in their bulletins or newsletters. These people are often motivated to help others. Dawne
I thought of some more ideas. Service clubs, like Rotarians, Lions, Rebeccas, etc might be able to help. I was also thinking in terms of what might be called recreational time; sports, etc. Here in Ottawa, the city owns numerous "sports centers", with indoor and outdoor activities. These are hired out to organizations on a routine basis. So there are groups of people who play just about any sort of sport, or other activities, and who might well be prepared to have some visitors to join them. It can be difficult to find out exactly who these people are, but one can think in terms of keep fit classses, pick up games of volleyball, basketball, curling, etc. Another thought; our local theatre groups are always looking for volunteers to do things like making sets, make up, dress making, stage hands etc. I dont know if it is possible for the students to do part time work; this would almost certainly be minimum wage jobs, but there may be supermarkets, restaurants, or whatever. I think where I am going is small local groups who might be quite willing to take on a visitor or two for a short time, particularly if the interests of the two coincided. Foreign students may well have skills or interests that they would be only too happy to use for the right local organization. HTH.
-- Jim Cripwell. From Canada. Land of the Key Bird. This creature of doom flies over the frozen tundra in winter, shrieking its dreaded call; "Key, Key, Key, Key rist but it's cold!!"
The organisation I dealt with were very concerned to find a family with a child/children of similar age and sex as the visiting student, by the way. I was occasionally landed with the "wrong" sex or age in emergency, but it worked out OK. I even had one who came back as an "Au Pair" when she was older - she did a few chores in exchange for improving her English. Unfortunately she sprained her ankle badly while she was here, so we all ended up waiting on her - it was still fun though, and we were very fond of both her and her sister, who came to us later on.
Another one brought her husband back a few years later. It`s surprising how these things end up.
One was sent to the family next door, but spent most of her time with us, as the man of the house tried to get over-familiar with her, poor girl. In future years she came to us, which was a little awkward. Just be prepared for anything!
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