EARTHWARD
Affiliation Strategy
Turn your vision earthward –
'Tis we must lend a hand.
Samuel P. Putnam
As an international organization, which endeavors to respond to urgent needs in a timely manner, we require a communication medium that can traverse great distances in a minimum of time. At the same time, we try to minimize our operating expenses, so that as much as possible of donations we receive, may reach the victims for which it is intended. E-mail is therefore our communication medium of choice, in that it meets those requirements very aptly.
The drawback of email, however, is that there are many areas of the world where religious violence is rampant, but email is not easily available to large segments of the population. Our affiliate program is designed to address that drawback. If there is at least one member of an affiliate organization, in such areas, who can keep in contact with us primarily be email, and relay to/from their field personnel, who would act on our behalf in collecting information and distributing aid, by whatever local means of communication are available, the problem is solved. Following is our vision of a typical communication structure within and between EARTHWARD and an affiliate. A detailed explanation follows.
In the above illustration, the orange colored areas represent the leadership of the two organizations. In the case of EARTHWARD, they are elected Directors of the Board. All red lines represent communication links which are almost exclusively implemented by email. The dashed lines are such links that are established specifically by the affiliation agreement, while solid lines represent links that would exist regardless of the existence of an affiliation agreement. The white lines represent local communications that are implemented by whatever means are available and deemed appropriate by the affiliate. While all members of EARTHWARD, including board members, are volunteers, and the same is likely true of most affiliates; for lack of a better term, non-leadership participants in either org are referred to as volunteers in the above.
Following is a detailed description of each participant and his role.
AR (Administrative Representative): This is the person in each organization responsible for negotiating and implementing the affiliation agreement with the AR of the other org. Any later amendments or other communications, between the two organizations, regarding the agreement, itself, are carried out by the ARs. In EARTHWARD's case, the Chair always serves as AR.
HI (EARTHWARD Head of the Intelligence Committee): Receives (and in some cases requests) information from the affiliates region regarding cases of religious violence, for which victims might be eligible for aid from EARTHWARD. May also receive other pertinent info as needed, regarding local customs and laws, for example.
II (Affiliate's Intelligence Interface): Provides the aforementioned info to HI.
HD (EARTHWARD Head of the Distribution Committee): Provides aid to the affiliate, and specifies the intended recipients.
DI (Affiliates Distribution Interface): Receives aid from HD and dispatches it to intended recipients via appropriate personnel in the field.
HO (Heads of Other committees in EARTHWARD): These persons have no direct contact with affiliates.
OO (Other Officials in affiliate org): These persons have no direct contact with EARTHWARD.
V1: EARTHWARD volunteers of some committee not typically associated with region-specific activities.
V2 & V3: EARTHWARD volunteers of the Distribution or Intelligence committee, respectively, often engage in region -specific activities, possibly coinciding with the region covered by an affiliate.
V4: Volunteer of EARTHWARD as well as other organization(s), possibly including an affiliate. From EARTHWARD's perspective, the only restriction is no AR of EARTHWARD may also serve as AR of an affiliated organization.
V5 & V6: Personnel of the affiliate organization engaged in Intelligence and Distribution activity, respectively. Whether and to what degree these activities represent EARTHWARD, is at the discretion of the affiliates leadership. When they do act on EARTHWARD's behalf, however, they are required by the affiliation agreement to uphold the same rules of conduct required of direct EARTHWARD volunteers.
V7: Personnel of the affiliate engaged in activities other than Intelligence and Distribution, and therefore not likely related to EARTHWARD.