Thursday, July 30, 2009

Day One of GHAFES Sessions

After several days of preparation, today we were excited to have our first consulting sessions with the Ghana Fellowship of Evangelical Students (GHAFES) organization. Rev. Emmanuel Alijah, General Secretary for GHAFES, picked us up this morning and drove us to the GHAFES office in downtown Accra. When we arrived at the office, all of the staff were having a morning devotional session, so we joined them for the last few minutes. There is something really comforting about having daily prayer and Bible Study before work each day!

Rev. Alijah asked us to advise GHAFES staff on communications, fundraising and tracking alumni. The sessions we facilitated today focused on helping GHAFES staff analyze their stakeholder groups and develop positioning statements for each group. As a group we brainstormed the stakeholder groups’ needs by adopting their perspectives, rather than the perspective of GHAFES staff. We then discussed how GHAFES might expand its ministry to meet some relatively unmet needs of their key stakeholders. It was the first time the majority of participants had done this type of analysis, so it was a new experience for them. The sessions were very interactive and we shared a lot of new thoughts and ideas. By the end of the day, we had drafts of positioning statements for three key stakeholder groups: students, young alumni (under 40), and older alumni (40+).

It was a highly successful day and we are eager to build on these stakeholder positioning statements tomorrow when we talk about strategies for communications, fundraising, and tracking of alumni.



Rev. Alijah (end of table) addressing the staff



Sam facilitating a session

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3 comments:

  1. Robert13July 30, 2009 at 2:44 PM

    The consulting sessions sound like they've been well-received. I know Kellogg's marketing department would be happy to hear how you are applying the segmenting/positioning/targeting insights into the real world. We are continuing to pray for you guys. Keep up the great work!

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  2. AnonymousJuly 30, 2009 at 4:16 PM

    Would be interested in how you perceive the work ethic of the people you meet. What are their personalities and attitudes, are they happy, energetic? Most likely they are all different personalities but what can you tell us?

    Pat Payne

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  3. Sally IvaskaJuly 30, 2009 at 7:27 PM

    Wow---you're having a packed experience! Dave just finished his 4 days of meetings and I ended a 3-day prayer retreat. So I am now the one who gets to laugh at his (corny) jokes :) I told him in no uncertain terms that he is not to tell any of those jokes at my 45th class reunion on Saturday! We continue to do the Philippians devotions with you and pray for productive sessions with GHAFES tomorrow.

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