[AfH-Chapters] Update from Germany

Thu Oct 31 13:37:04 CET 2019

Dear Mark, Alex, national chapters,

I would like to send an update on the last 3 month's activities of
Action for Happiness Germany:

  * There are now around 10 courses using our translated materials and
    they all went well, some where really vibrating (Darmstadt had over
    30 participants). This is really a contribution that would not have
    been possible without the work of the translation team! Thanks!
    There was a course in Nürnberg which was thought to be given in
    English, but it did not get enough participants.
  * We printed a new edition (200 books) of course books as we were
    running empty. There were only minor changes to the last edition.
  * We translated the AfH postcard and printed 5000 of them.
    Distribution has not yet started. The online team is thinking of a
    good way to for the interaction.
  * We found a volunteer that is eager to do the shipping of books and
    postcards for us. Really great.
  * A separate team does very constantly do the translation and review
    of the successful calender, including posting on facebook and on the
    website. Thanks!
  * A new member of the core team is Facebook savvy and started daily
    postings of quotes, calendar tasks and funny adoptions of the 10
    keys into something like "Keep calm and do things for others", ...
    We have now over 1500 subscriptions.
    www.facebook.com/actionforhappinessdeutschland
  * The homepage www.actionforhappiness.de has been enriched with
    materials. One text on social change, possibilities to contribute, a
    German version of the "Unhappy?" text, ...
  * We have been  "passed the lamp" from Alex to do the course calls for
    germany and started translating the "how to become a course leader"
    and "course guide" to make it possible to make the whole thing
    available to German course leaders with limited English skills. We
    are taking over the responsibility for the courses in German
    speaking countries more and more.
  * We created monthly newsletters. Again, AfH International supported
    us with mailings to members in Switzerland and Austria.
  * All founding applications we did, were rejected. But we were
    contacted by a foundation and were granted 2000€ for printing of
    books, postcards and organisational meetings.
  * In two cities there are regular gatherings. We have translated some
    of the gathering materials.
  * We had a weekend with 11 contributors and interested people in
    Germany for tuning in, connecting, planning and taking action.

Difficulties:

  * We invite people to contact us if they want to support, and they do.
    But except from "organize a course" (and soon "spread the
    postcards") there is not much we can offer them "out of the box".
    There is a beautiful plenty of things to do, but they involve a lot
    of knowledge and sometime skills. So we - mainly I - do a lot phone
    calls, people are sometimes disappointed, because after a first
    "hello, would you like to give your course, what are your
    interested, join our supporter mailinglist" email they have to wait
    far too long.
  * As many of our team have a lot of other talks, its really a huddle
    to arrange appointments. Not to speak about the difficulties in
    organizing regular tasks (monthly newsletter) or complex tasks
    (setting up the context management system for all kind of purposes).
  * We are still invisible for classical media like magazines, radio,
    TV. We are not experienced in contacting those.

Perhaps you are interested in our basic organisational structure, which
has not changed much:

  * There is a non-profit association with 3 board members that serves
    as the legal foundation, but effectively does nothing.
  * There are now 5 people that committed themselves to participate in
    the organisation for at least 6 months. There are around 10 others
    that participate in separate tasks (translating the monthly
    calendar, ...). We have mailing lists for translators and
    supporters, but the activity here is rather low.
  * Every 6 months, we arrange a real world weekend together, for
    revitalising the contact.
  * Every 3 months, we do a session of review (our past activities, to
    celebrate), retrospective (what has to be changed in our processes)
    and planning (what is the focus of the next 3 months) (adopted from
    Scrum methodology)
  * Every week, we have a 20 minutes zoom webcall with "one good thing",
    "current mood", "celebrate AfH tasks done in the last week", "plans
    for next week", "impediments/difficulties/questions" (adopted from
    Scrum "daily"), with up to 5 members.

Dear national chapters, is there anything to report from you? I would
find it nice, if you all report something about your current
achievements, difficulties, feelings, plans!

Best wishes

  Tobias

-- 
Ich werde versuchen, mehr Glück und weniger Unglück in der Welt um mich herum zu stiften.
(Action for Happiness Deutschland. www.actionforhappiness.de)

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