Ambassador Program

 - from January 2014 Newsletter

by Maureen Martin

The Executive Council’s Outreach committee provided Ambassadors at the I&C in Philadelphia for the second year in a row. We improved our process from last year by having a line on the registration page of the I&C brochure so a new attendee could request an ambassador and having a blurb in the brochure explaining the program. We got contact information from the ambassadees and permission to give this information to the ambassador. We “matched” the pairs, and ambassadees were contacted prior to the conference.  This helped avoid confusion onsite at the conference.

We had sixteen registrants who requested “ambassador” matching and had three other first timers who requested Ambassadors at the Newcomer’s Reception. We had a great response from the Academy members willing to give their “time and talent” as ambassadors. We had three additional Academy volunteers that were available to help for our onsite requests.  One ambassadee from last year was still talking about how much having this helped her acclimate. She and her ambassador have stayed in touch.

As a part of the program we ask the ambassadors to contact their ambassadees about two-three weeks after the conference to check in and answer any questions. We were delighted to get very positive feedback from the new attendees and I wanted to share some of the comments: 

• • “It was great to meet you at AAP and I feel lucky to have been ‘matched’ with you! I couldn’t have had a better or more fun intro to AAP! “
• • “Thanks for so many things, and esp. for being my partner for many dances! Otherwise I think I might have mostly sat in the back!” 
• • One ambassadee told his Ambassador he appreciated the “warm welcome he received from many of us” and that “he had never experienced a group quite like ours.” He then stated that he will be back. 
• • Another ambassadee stated that she “would not have gone to dinner with others, or been brave enough to go to the hospitality suite without knowing the Ambassador would be there.” 
• • Another ambassadee shared with his Ambassador that he was “overwhelmed” by the intensity of his workshops and community meetings, and would not have been able to “take in” as much without her guidance and support.

Our committee is proud to coordinate the provision of this service and we are deeply grateful to our volunteer Ambassadors. We are open to feedback and suggestions and consider this program a “continuing work in progress.”

Maureen Martin, Curt Arey, David Donlon and  Suzanne Timms