| About Us
What is the Friendship Force of the National Capital Area (FFNCA)?
- FFNCA was founded in 1980
- Chuck Goldfarb is the current president of FFNCA; read his blog at http://apps.ffnca.org/blog
- We are a chapter of Friendship Force International (FFI), an organization dedicated to increasing understanding among the people of various countries
- Friendship Force motto: It's the faces, not the places.
- George Brown is the current president of FFI.
What does FFNCA do?
- Many club activities are based around incoming and outbound trips or "exchanges"
Hosting Inbound Exchanges
- For incoming exchanges, a group of 20-25 will come to the Washington area, in some cases having already visited another city in the U.S. or Canada.
- Our members host one or more of the members of the group
- Hosting involves providing "room and board" for the guest(s)
- Guests are treated like visiting friends.
- Hosts also provide or assist in arranging transportation to meeting places for group activities (e.g., a tour of Old Town Alexandria).
- If hosts cannot accompany their guest(s) during the day, other members can serve as "day hosts"
- Hosts may have a day during which they are expected to arrange activities for their guest(s), e.g., a trip to some outlying area, or a shopping trip
Traveling on Outbound Exchanges
- For outbound exchanges, we apply to FFI for the countries we would like to visit.
- Once a city is offered, we work with that city to arrange dates.
- We organize a group (20-25 members) from our club or other clubs interested in joining our exchange.
- We stay in homes in the host city.
- We participate in sightseeing and other activities arranged by the host club, similar to what we would do for an inbound exchange.
- Some exchanges include two weeks of home hosting, plus optional extensions for additional travel in the host country (at additional cost)
Other Activities
- Other travel opportunities include Friendship Force Festivals and Conferences, and exchanges arranged by other chapters.
- FFNCA also has social and informational activities for members throughout the year (see the calendar page).
|
