With the through-ticketing travel model for CORE/CBYX participants, AFS-USA projects that Area Teams will choose to run the Host Family Pickup model of Arrival Orientation, with the Orientation being delivered virtually and/or in-person the weekend immediately following the each student’s arrival, instead of conducting the Arrival Orientation immediately upon arrival. Whenever your Area Team chooses to conduct your participants’ Arrival Orientation, it must be within 7 days of a student's arrival date.
Travel Rep and Airport Volunteers
In all cases, in addition to having a Hosting Arrival Orientation Coordinator, each area team must have one volunteer that is affiliated as the Travel Rep. With some teams still having smaller numbers of students, this person may also serve as the Hosting Arrival Orientation Coordinator. Affiliating your Area Team’s Travel Rep(s) in Global Link is essential because it allows staff to easily identify who is responsible for arrivals and notify this person of travel information/delays.
The Travel Rep is responsible for coordinating the pick-up of students at the airport. While the Travel Rep does not have to be at the airport for every single arrival, they will be the main point of contact for the Travel and Logistics team. The Travel Rep will identify which volunteer will meet which students and keep a master list of who is meeting which students. The Travel Rep job description can be found here.
Host Family Pickup
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AFS-USA strongly recommends that a volunteer be at the airport to facilitate the meeting between the host family and the participant and resolve any issues that may arise.
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Our decades of airport pick up experience suggest that it is significantly easier to resolve problems when a volunteer is physically present at the airport for pick-up.
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For example, if the host family is delayed for some reason, and a volunteer is not also scheduled to facilitate the meeting of the host family and the student, the student will be alone.
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- If a volunteer is unable to be at the airport to facilitate the meeting, Area Teams are still responsible for communicating with the host family regarding pick up rules and must also act as the emergency contact for both the host family and the student.
- While AFS-USA provides participants with our emergency contact/duty officer number, should the host family not be at the airport or they cannot find the student, we will contact the Travel Rep and/or the Hosting Arrival Orientation Coordinator to manage and resolve the problem.
- The volunteer at the airport/identified as per the above will be the main contact for the Travel Rep. If there are delays/changes in travel, the Travel and Logistics staff will contact the Travel Rep with updates who, in turn, will coordinate with airport volunteers. Event/Host Families will not be the primary contact for communication regarding students.
- The pick-up must be carried out in compliance with local, state and CDC guidelines regarding social distancing and mask use.
- Please see this article for FAQs regarding Arrivals for CORE/CBYX participants.
In addition, the volunteer meeting the student at the airport must:
- Verify the identity of the Host Parent(s) by checking a form of government-issued photo ID before releasing the student.
- If your Team is conducting a virtual orientation, you may wish to have the volunteer meeting the student at the airport conduct the Travel Documents, Health Form Addendum & ID Card Review at the pickup, instead of at the Arrival Orientation.
The team providing the Arrival Orientation must record it in the Global Link Activity Module, Arrival Orientation shell created by TLC staff.
For questions related to assigning students to the Arrival Orientation activity or recording their attendance, please see the video tutorial and written instructions below:
- Video tutorial (password: XbD+8W7#)
- Written instructions