If you are currently a Rotarian and have had a passion working with your club as a counselor or club Youth Exchange officer for the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, consider being a local coordinator. 
 
We are looking to gain coverage with our local coordinator team throughout the valley in the Peoria, Anthem, Gilbert, Tempe and Mesa areas. 
 
You will be supported by our district Youth Exchange Committee, and they will be there to help with training and to answer any questions you might have along the way. 
The first responsibility of an area coordinator is dictated by the State Department regulations, which you will review as part of your online local coordinator training. This includes knowing the relevant State Department regulations, and acting in accordance with those regulations. Area Coordinators are primarily responsible for inbound students but will have a role with outbound students also.
 
  • You must visit the home of each prospective host family and file a report online.
    Note: you do not have to take pictures as in the past.  The host family will take the pictures, you will verify those pictures as part of the approval process for the host family. The home visit must be reported on the web portal: http://yehub.net/SNX-portal
  • Sometime BEFORE the student moves in, you must do some orientation of the host family, and document that.  That could be done during the initial home visit, or at a meeting with the counselor and all the host families.
  • You must renew your State Department certification each year. We will remind you.
 
The home inspection visit must be done as part of the vetting process, before the family can know any details about the student. You can tell them we have a girl from Brazil named Leticia, for example, but really nothing beyond that. Only after they have been fully vetted (complete online application, background check, home visit, and reference check), can they be given a copy of the student’s application.
 
The Area Coordinator is the person who ties everything together in a local area
 
  • Inbound Students:
    • Host families:
Before a student can move into their home, the family must be fully vetted.  Area Coordinators must check the status of the family at least two weeks before a scheduled move, and let the Inbound Chair know if they are not yet fully vetted.  When fully vetted they will have a green “Approved” flag in the host families list in YEAH.  (http://www.yehub.net/SNX.php).
  • Schools:
    It is important to develop a relationship early with the schools we use in your area.  We need to get commitments from the schools as early as possible each year, based on our projected exchanges. 
  • Clubs:
    It is important to keep in touch with the clubs that sponsor outbounds and host inbounds in your area.  We need financial commitments each year, based on our projected exchanges. But keep in mind that if a club is willing to host a student, we may find other clubs willing to cover the cost.
  • Counselors:
    Each inbound student must have a counselor (same gender as student is preferred). The counselor should be a member of the host club. The State Department requires that someone other than the person who filed the initial home visit report (normally the Area Coordinator) visit the home shortly after the student moves in with them.
  • Outbound Students:
    • The Area Coordinator is responsible for the initial interview with outbound applicants. A team from the prospective sponsor club can make this an effective interview.
    • The Area Coordinator works with the outbound student to find suitable host families. All prospective host families must complete a Host Family Application, available thru our website, www.rye5495.org. We ask the outbound students to help us find host families, but they are not always successful, and they may find host families in the wrong school district.  We need someone in the local area to take responsibility for recruiting host families and encouraging Rotary clubs to help find host families.  We need three families in the boundaries of the school the student will attend.  (Sometimes families are willing to transport them to a certain school but at least one anchor family should live in the school boundaries.)
 
The next thing that is critically important to the program is to gather all the information required for the Guarantee Form. The information should be filled in on the computer BEFORE we print the Guarantee Form and get all the required signatures. We need the following information:
 
  1. Host club
    1. Club name
    2. President (name, phone, and email)
    3. Secretary or club-level youth exchange officer (name, phone, and email)
  2. Counselor (name, email, physical address, phone numbers)
  3. School
    1. School Name
    2. School Start date
    3. Official who will sign the Guarantee Form (name and email)
  4. First host family
    1. Names of Father & Mother
 
You may notice that this list is shorter than in the past. Much of the data is now in our database, or will be added from the host family application. You can send all that information in an email to rye5495@gmail.com. I will complete the form and email the form to you so you can print three copies of it, then get all the required signatures. It is very important that this be done as soon as possible, but not later than the end of April.  All the signatures must be in BLUE INK.
 
The remaining duty is to repeat the process of vetting each subsequent host family.  They must be vetted BEFORE the student is moved. Move dates must be communicated to the Inbound Chair ahead of time so we can ensure that host families are fully vetted, and so reports can be filed.
 
There may be other duties that we will ask you to do at various times, to help in your local area.  As we learn how to work with the YEAH database we will keep you informed of what you need to do and how to do it.
 
The goal is to have all three of the host families found, vetted and inspected before the student even arrives. They must be vetted BEFORE they have access to the student’s email/application, etc. If you are successful with this, having a pre-arrival meeting with all the host families and the counselor is the goal. At this mini-orientation, the people meet and form a “team” that will work with the student throughout the year. It is important that we document that orientation for each host family.
 
You or the counselor must take the role of “calendar coordinator” to work with the families and decide when moves will happen or when families will “borrow” the student to participate in a family event or travel opportunity. 
 
Questions should be directed to:
Norm Samuelson, rye5495@gmail.com,
Kaley Gilmore, 5495inbounds@gmail.com,
or Donna Goetzenberger, 5495outbounds@gmail.com.