Talking Points & FAQs on NAFSA’s New Expertise Profile:
“Get In It!”
For members of the Leadership Development Committee,
Nominations Committee and Executive Committee (May 2005)
Talking Points
- The Leadership Development Committee was charged with developing
and maintaining a system to identify talent and availability of
members to volunteer for the Association in various roles, including
but not limited to, leadership.
- The goal of the initiative was to create a tool which would
allow more members to voice their interest in serving and identify
their particular areas of expertise.
- It is an important new mechanism to ensure that more members
can take active roles in the work of the association.
- The new Expertise Profile is now on line and demos will be offered
at kiosks in the NAFSA Commons area of the International Education
Expo.
- Every member with an interest in getting involved in NAFSA
activities should input his/her areas of skill and expertise,
through the simple, on-line process at www.nafsa.org/expertise
- In the future, chairs of regions, committees, subcommittees,
knowledge communities, and task forces will be able to request
lists of members interested in serving who have the set of skills
and expertise the chairs seek for appointment to their team, committee,
or task force.
- The Leadership Development Committee will also use data provided
by members in their profiles to help locate potential candidates
for elected positions, to pass to the Nominations Committee for
their search for candidates.
FAQs about the Expertise Profile
1. What is the new Expertise Profile?
Each member of NAFSA is invited to post information about his/her
skills and expertise in an on-line profile in the members-only section
of the NAFSA Web site. The information recorded will be stored in
NAFSA’s membership database (that contains members’
contact information and other demographic information they provide
on line). Although members can view each others’ contact information,
they will not be able to view each others’ Expertise Profiles.
2. Why was the Profile created?
The goal of the project is to provide an open and straight-forward
way for members to make known their interest in serving the association
and their individual skills and expertise, so that leaders of committees,
sub-committees, teams, task forces, and knowledge communities can
identify members with the skills and expertise they need to accomplish
the outcomes assigned to their leadership group.
Individual member profiles are not visible to others on line; they
will be provided to chairs seeking committee, team, or task force
members by staff, who draw lists from the database.
3. How was it created?
NAFSA’s Leadership Development Committee led the process
to identify the particular skills and expertise areas for inclusion
in the profile. They surveyed regional, knowledge community, and
committee chairs to get input on the skill areas that are germane
to the work of their respective committees and teams. A Web developer
was then hired to create the functionality of the site, to make
the user interface simple and straight-forward.
4. How will it be used?
From the database, it will be possible for staff to draw lists
of names of members with specific sets of skill and expertise at
the request of chairs of regions, committees, knowledge communities
and task forces who are looking for individuals to appoint to their
teams. Each chair will then have responsibility for reviewing the
names and notifying the individuals they want to consider for the
open positions. All open positions will have job descriptions, so
that interested members can review what’s required and what
the responsibilities are.
The search process is envisioned as a two-step process: First,
chairs seeking to appoint members to their leadership groups will
request from staff a list of names of members with the skill set
they need. Second, the chairs will review the list and request additional
information from promising candidates.
Working with their staff liaisons, the chairs have the option of
inviting individuals from the list to fill out an on-line application
form for the open position, to help them gather additional information
about the individuals’ leadership history, special interests,
and names of references. Or, chairs may choose to screen applicants
by phone or e-mail.
The Leadership Development Committee will also make use of the
data as it searches for potential candidates to assume elected leadership
positions in the association, and assist the Nominations Committee
by vetting those candidates.
5. How do members “Get In It”?
Click on www.nafsa.org/expertise and click on all the fields in
which you have expertise. Click on “submit” when you
have completed the process.
6. How will the Expertise Profile be announced?
The profile was announced to NAFSA leaders via News for Leaders
on May 18, 2005. It was announced to NAFSA members via NAFSA.news
on May 23.
At the Seattle conference, a flyer on the profile will be distributed
at the NAFSA Commons in the International Education Expo, along
with “Get In It” stickers. Members of the Leadership
Development Committee will talk about the profile at leadership
meetings and throughout the week and distribute the stickers. Members
will be able to view the system and input their data at the NAFSA
Commons kiosk throughout the conference week.
Announcements at the regional conferences and other venues are
planned for next fall, and periodic reminders to members will be
sent via NAFSA.news, e-mail and with membership renewals, to encourage
them to “Get In It.”
As the next nominations and elections cycle begins, members will
be reminded to input their profiles.
Evelyn Levinson, Chair
Leadership Development Committee
levinson@iac.usf.edu
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