[AfH-Chapters] How to proceed with Action for Happiness during Covid

[Tobias Polzin]

Hi Mark,

I hope you are doing well.

I would like to give you some updates on recent activities and perhaps
you have some suggestions for us.

*Status:*

Things that continue: We have our weekly check-ins with a group of
volunteers (4-8), monthly newsletter, and great Gunnar posts daily
calendar posts.

Because AfH-UK course support is basically shut down, we set up a
limited German support for lead/leader/join surveys to support two
course requests, one in Germany and one in Vienna. We have 2,8k likes in
facebook, around 2k german email adresses in your database and 4k
addresses in our database (but only 1,5k requested the newsletter, which
is probably not exactly as we intended it).

The course in Germany was cancelled with just two participants, although
the course leaders were very enthusiastic. The course in Vienna started
with 9 participants, but one would like to attend online due to
insecurity about covid.

We submitted "job offers" to volunteering portals, made online calls
introducing AfH to them (and recorded these calls for further use).

*Challenges*:

* I like Martin Seligman´s start of his discussion with Richard Layard:
Speaking about happiness in normal times is routine, but in difficult
times is crucial. Yet, I find it difficult to describe what
ActionForHappiness can offer during the pandemic. It's not scientific to
extrapolate from the one example in Germany, but I guess it will be
difficult to realize courses, even if there are legal and safe measures
to do so. I guess it is a mixture because a) the sensitive people that
are open to courses may be also more sensitive to the insecurity
involved meeting other people in a room, b) what the course offers and
how it is announced is not linked to the covid-situation.

* UK seems to have reasonable success with the online groups (79 online)
and zoom events. (*@Mark,* can you say something, how you experience
this?). I find it hard to copy this. Personally, I find the idea of 10
keys online groups not so appealing (given my 80% online conference
during my working hours). And currently we don't have the experience and
the broad audience to conduct such zoom events.

* The every day tasks (emails, people wanting to contribute, newsletter)
requests some administrative activity. The time for rethinking AfH in
Germany is limited (we will have a strategy weekend in the beginning of
November).

Options:

1) Put AfH-Germany in a less active "preparation mode": Prepare
technical course support (surveys, promotional videos) and course
leaders to start with courses in the beginning of next year, in the hope
that corona will be somehow under control. (This has the disadvantage
that it's a bet on the future and just preparation is not something that
is so attractive from the volunteers´ point of view).

2) Try to enhance the course content and more importantly the /course
communication/ and promotion to link it explicitly to difficulties in
the covid-situation.

3) Mimic other successful UK activity, like trying to set up something
like the 10-days email program in German.

4) Pilot some zoom discussions as in UK, even with not so well known
people and with smaller scale.

5) Do something completely different, like asking ourselves, what would
I personally like to receive as a support for my happiness in these times?

Is there anything you would like to comment on?

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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