By Julie
We are halfway into the IN year and we thought it be a good moment for a summary of all the changes we made following the results of the survey you filled out last year.
The survey focused on communications, activity groups and IN Day. We learned a lot from your input and made some changes accordingly:
First of all, communications. You told us that you preferred communications by email and would like to see a social media presence. You also stated that the website should be more modern with more information about the organisation, board and volunteer opportunities. All valid points but not an easy task :-).
We continued with our newsletter and the team lead by Jennie and Martha have put in all their effort to fill it with new, interesting and fun articles about our activites, cultural topics and Ann Abor events. It also has a more modern look with easy links to the website.
Our webteam, led by Ava, set up a facebook group to share pictures, short-term announcements and get your feedback. They also started adjustments to the website: adding online registration and activity groups sign-up and adding a page with our volunteer opportunities.
Further plans include an extra page on the board, its members and its working and an overall facelift of the website for a fresher look.
Now, for our activity groups. As we understand you like our activity groups but would like to see more:
This year we added a jewelry group, a yoga group, a foodies group and several conversations group. We also added extra groups for mothers with young children where we provide childcare or where children are welcome, like the arts&crafts class, the home cooking group and the music, mommy and me group.
We are open for more groups, however this very much depends on our volunteers. We are certain there are many talented women in our group and we are open to every suggestion for new activities. We can also help with locations if you cannot organize an activity in your house.
We received lots of remarks on IN Day: in general you like it, but some members, especially new ones, feel lost and have difficulties meeting new people. You would also like to have it more modern with less talk while others preferred presentations:
IN Day is the only moment where all our members can come together and it is impossible to have topics and activities that everybody likes. However, 1 thing all IN Days should have is a sense of belonging or as someone stated “sense of participation is the key”.
To meet this need, we asked the group leaders to organize 4 IN Days and include their members. The other days were organized by our wonderful IN Day team, including some of our classics: Thanksgiving, Line dancing, Thailand IN Day and the plants/small household items exchange.
As for our newcomers, we started our ambassador program. This means that every new member is welcomed personally by a long time member, asking them if they need help, inviting them to IN Day where they will introduce them to new people.
In general we have the feeling we are doing a pretty good job, but as you told us, we need to “freshen up” and move with the times, both in content and look/feel. And we are working hard on it but without losing our identity and core values that IN has had for over 50 years now.
But we don’t know how we are doing without your feedback. And in the end, we do it all for our members and cannot make the right changes without their input. So please do not hesitate to contact me with remarks, suggestions, questions or just for a talk and coffee 🙂 at president@international-neighbors.org. Or join me at any IN Day where all the Board members will gladly take time to listen to you. Your help is much appreciated!