Below is an email I have drafted to Edie (per her request) outlining our recruitment process. I wanted you all to look at this first before I send it to her. When we briefly mentioned this to her on our conf. call, she seemed very pleased and impressed. I think this is a great chance to explain in detail how much we put in to this process, but I do want you to sign off on what I have written. I need to send this to her this week, so your quick attention would be really appreciated!

Per your request, I wanted to briefly outline how AFF has approached our recruitment process for new Board members. Over the last few years, this has become a top priority to us based on the annual rotation off of current Board members. On average, we need to fill 2-3 seats each year going forward for awhile and we are truly committed to making this a fair and thorough process. Following is a general overview of the kinds of steps AFF takes as we consider extended family members for Board service:

1) Outreach letter goes out to alll family members ages 25-45 in November/December. A draft of this letter is forthcoming to you this week.

2) Deadline for receiving applications is mid-January. Based on the response we receive, our Nominating Committee will then determine if further outreach is needed (i.e. phone calls).

3) Once we have received a reasonable number of applications, our Chair and/or other members of the Nominating Committee make personal phone calls to each of these applicants to talk in more detail about AFF, board service, the applicant's background, etc.. We are always conscientious to not create a "formal" interview-type process, however, these discussions do lend some insight as to what the person might bring to their Board service.

4) After the completion of the phone calls to all applicants, the Nominating Committee discusses in detail each person and takes into account all of the considerations outlined in the outreach letter. The N.C. then decides on the applicants that they would like to recommend to the Board.

5) Before a recommendation is made, the AFF Chair and/or other N.C. members call these selected candidates individually and go a little deeper in our conversations asking what they hope to gain from AFF service, why they were interested in the Board, etc.. The candidates are not given any indication that they will be possible recommendations to the Board at this time. The purpose of the call is to make certain that the N.C. feels confident in our decision about who it would like to recommend.

6) Once the N.C. finalizes their decision, a recommendation is made to the entire Board at the April Board meeting.

7) Following the April Board meeting, both the AFF Chair and Kelly K. contact the candidates to inform them of their selection. Additionally, every family member that applied who are not being offered seats are contacted directly by phone. We remind this group that there are annual openings on AFF, along with other Andrus Boards, and we strongly encourage them to re-apply in the future.

If you have any questions at all about any of our "steps," please don't hesitate to let me know! We so appreciate the FIC's support.