Questions: What does it take to be a member of the ALFA Team?
What type of coaching should Volunteer Candidates expect to receive?
How much experience is required?
Experienced Volunteers join the ALFA Management Team after a brief orientation session. They are an abundant source of knowledge, guidance and authority. Their remarkable devotion to the ALFA mission is the heartbeat of the organization. They are role models who motivate by example, the benchmarks of professionalism to be studied and followed. They set the tone of our culture based on self-improvement and pride in accomplishments. They mature our recruits to be our home-grown leaders of the future.
Rookie Volunteers are tutored with work-life experiences in the course of performing assigned duties. Real hands-on skills are exercised and sharpened on the job. Our Performance Management and Development Standards cultivates valuable work practices. All training is good for a lifetime of success-oriented work habits. The more committed the Volunteer is to the organization and willing to expend the effort necessary to do the job the more likely he/she will reap the highest rewards.
Apprentice Volunteers are expected to:
- Improve effectiveness, participation and contribution commensurate with advanced training
- Share to the best of their abilities in the realization of the organization’s goals.
- Assist managing others through effective deployment, development and engagement of a range of people inside and outside our organization.
- Improve the organization’s quality of service, productivity, efficiency and safety record.
- Align personal aptitudes with the mission and purpose of the organization. New recruits will be continuously “shadowing” coach during initial training. Volunteers will be exposed to opportunities to:
- Clarify expectations and standards.
- Focus his/her talents and “what you do best” in any given situation.
- Increase level of earned responsibility.
The ALFA Management Team empowers performers to demonstrate their unique competencies and grow their gifts to their full potential. Management provides Volunteers fair and accurate feedback on demonstrated strengths driven to improve performance. Discussing individual or group weaknesses is important with the focus on specific suggestions for significant improvement.
Understanding the Team’s responsibility in fulfilling the organization’s humanitarian goals requires a common vision and clear comprehension of our shared values. Behind every satisfying and meaningful mission there is a strategy, a plan of action, a devoted Manager and an integrated Volunteer accountable for fulfilling clearly defined performance expectations.
ALFA Team Volunteers learn to track individual performance standards that are S.M.A.R.T. – based:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Results-Oriented
- Time-Framed
Our Volunteer Management program prepares future leaders and happier workers who perform their jobs with utmost confidence and satisfaction.
These attributes are directly applicable to any company, team, task, enterprise or organization’s success. Good Volunteers are likely to become better students, team players, employees and managers, more committed, engaged and fulfilled — yielding greater productivity in their chosen occupation.
Question: What type of work do Volunteers do?
Volunteers at ALFA use the phone and email extensively to seek out donated seats and surplus payloads in non-commercial unscheduled flights departing fromSouth Florida. Flight donations benefit US charitable organizations delivering humanitarian aid, development assistance and disaster relief to impoverished populations inLatin Americaand theCaribbean.
ALFA Volunteers facilitate opportunities for pilots and aircraft owners to rise to the challenge. General aviation’s capacity to airlift precious cargo paired withUShumanitarian groups engaged overseas is a win-win combination with amazing results. The Volunteer’s job is to bring it together and make it happen!
ALFA Volunteers play a role in delivering vital donated supplies to help reduce infant mortality, enhance nutrition, generate access to potable water and develop sanitation infrastructure among many others.
ALFA Volunteers build air bridges connecting charitable missions with wings of mercy. Our team matches overseas-bound missionaries and / or cargo with compatible flights, legs and destinations. We are committed to excellence and high performance standards in coordinating safe, secure, efficient and productive flights.
ALFA depends on an all-volunteer workforce and an austere operating budget. We’re a grass-roots team from many parts of the local aviation scene joined by our love of flying and compassion for the poorest of our foreign neighbors.
Volunteer pilots and charitable organizations need ALFA Ground Support Volunteers to:
- Screen passengers or airfreight, weigh boxes, perform mathematical calculations.
- Coordinate missions between pilots and charitable organizations.
- Make and answer phone calls to “spread the word”.
- Deliver cargo to local regional airport’s ramps, hangars, FBOs or aircraft doors.
- Accommodate pilots, Air Crew or missioners flying in or from theSouth Floridaarea regional airports.
- Perform vital administrative office tasks, issue reports, establish facts, and verify information.
- Represent ALFA at industry meetings, make public presentations, help with outreach at aviation events, exhibits, meetings and air shows.
ALFA’s Ground Crew work within the ‘Gateway to the Americas’ at the hub of south Florida’s bustling aviation industry, operating from a donated modern office / warehouse facility just west of MIA’s airfreight ramps, 45 minutes to FXE, 20 minutes to OPF and TMB airports. Our logistics center inMiami, is strategically located for storage, staging, organizing and launching missions.
ALFA Team members are busy reaching out to prospective benefactors seeking funds, resources and donations. Calling on airmen, aircraft operators and the entire GA industry is vital to sustain ongoing demand for free flights. Most needed philanthropic contributions include aircraft hours, pilot hours, FBO services, fuel and oil vouchers, A&P services, parts, avionics, navigation equipment, advertising in leading aviation publications, etc.
ALFA Ground Crews and Flight crews are needed whether FAA current or not current. Apply your skills in management, sales, marketing, advertising, business administration and graphic design. Flexible office hours are from9 amto5 pmM-F though anyone could contribute significantly on select research projects at anytime from their home computer.
Your association with ALFA may be the most rewarding job in public-service aviation you may ever assume. Come aboard and let’s soar together. You are invited to contact me at your earliest convenience for a telephone interview.
Richard (Rick) Sante
Co-Founder