14 January 2014, 19:22
93664 |

Google funds Homenetmen with 'Volunteer Assistance Agreement'

Homenetmen announced the first ever Google-backed initiative by an Armenian non-profit organization by signing a Google Volunteer Assistance Agreement. This project will provide Homenetmen a suite of tools that will improve its operational efficiency. Google will provide coaching for Homenetmen for a successful rollout. The project has already begun and the training will last for three months.

The Homenetmen USA Western and Eastern Regions will be the initial hubs for this project.

“As a complex global organization we need to help our staff and our large network of volunteers to work together more effectively and track progress on programs and projects in multiple countries and chapters. With Google Apps, our organization will work smarter, not harder,” said Karnig Megerdichian, Chairman of the Homenetmen Central Executive Board. “Our member database is not in scope; Google will not touch, store, or edit the member database. The Google tools are a productivity suite to help Homenetmen work more efficiently. We are not storing any Homenetmen member information on Google’s servers,” he added.

In September 2011, Homenetmen’s General Assembly Meeting formally announced its strategic planning process. Among many aspects of its strategic planning are process automation and business intelligence improvements. Google will be providing a suite of tools to help Homenetmen achieve the above goals.

“Besides internal operational efficiencies, with the help of Google Apps we will engage our supporters on our new website and will determine our most effective communication ads through AdWords. We will also use Google Analytics to monitor and track the effectiveness of social media” noted Viggen Davidian, the Central Board strategic planning liaison.

Currently five million businesses pay $50 per user per year in order to use Google Apps for their businesses. Google is not only providing the Apps to Homenetmen for free, but is providing three of its employees to spend up to 8 hours per week coaching Homenetmen, for over 12 weeks. “Google will conduct workflow shadowing and train 100 Homenetmen staff and officers on core Google Apps across various Homenetmen chapters and will also provide one-on-one extensive coaching on additional Google tools (AdWords, Analytics, YouTube) for three Homenetmen IT specialists” added Vicken Apelian, Homenetmen Central IT Committee Chair.

“This relationship will have a transformational impact and is a key process for Homenetmen’s culture change from a pure volunteer organization into an efficiently managed global organization,” said Armen Abrahamian, the Chairman of the Homenetmen Strategic Planning Committee.

The Armenian General Athletic Union and Scouts, referred to as Homenetmen, is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization with over 25,000 members worldwide in five continents. Founded in 1918, its mission is to prepare exemplary citizens by providing physical and health education through sports and scouting. Homenetmen currently has 104 Chapters of which 18 chapters, with over 6,800 members, are in the Western USA Region and 10 chapters, with over 2,000 members, are in the Eastern USA Region.

 

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