VIA’s Executive Director meets with volunteers and alumni in Vietnam

Meeting current VIA volunteers and alumni one evening during a trip to Asia has been the highlight of my brief time with VIA. At VIA alum Fred Burke’s home in Ho Chi Minh City, 14 VIA alums and volunteers gathered to share VIA memories and talk about its future. We started with wine and a delicious Thai meal. After dinner, I presented the draft VIA Strategic Planning document, outlining some choices for moving ahead. The discussion which followed afterward was extremely rich yet challenging, as many perspectives on VIA’s role in an increasingly complex world were discussed. How VIA works, where we work and whether VIA should be changing too much were all explored. The passion and energy I saw from volunteers and alums that evening were exciting to see, and promises a great future for VIA as it moves ahead.