The Vietnam Education Foundation 2011 Annual Report

Annual Report 2011 Page 31
field. VEF informs Vietnamese academic institutions in Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City about the availability of
these U.S. experts and provides abstracts of their presentations. In turn, the Vietnamese organizations contact
VEF if they are interested, and VEF provides the logistical arrangements.
During the VEF Interview Mission in August 2011, eight (8) American professors, each representing different
U.S. academic institutions, volunteered to give lectures or to conduct scientific or specialized meetings with
faculty members and students at seven (7) host academic institutions or organizations in Vietnam (Appendix 32:
Capacity Building Activities of U.S. Professors/Interviewers in Vietnam). The activities took place in Hanoi and
Ho Chi Minh City, which were the city venues for the VEF Fellowship interviews. VEF coordinated closely with
the National Academies, who had organized the 2011 interviews, to inform the professors in advance of the
opportunities to lecture and to secure their willingness to participate in order to assure the success of the Lecture
Program.
SUMMARY
VEF capacity building efforts build the relationship between U.S. and Vietnamese institutions and government
entities and strengthen the foundations in Vietnam for the return of VEF Fellows and Visiting Scholars to their
home country of Vietnam.
MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
VEF Headquarters office is located in the United States, and the VEF Field Office is in Vietnam. The U.S.
Headquarters is fully responsible for all VEF activities. The U.S. office staff members are U.S. Federal
Government employees while the Vietnam office staff are employed by a Vietnamese human resources contractor
that seconds the Vietnamese employees to VEF. As a U.S. Federal Government agency, VEF can only hire U.S.
citizens in permanent positions. To assist VEF with hiring and salary/benefits payments, the Vietnamese human
resource company is responsible for arranging payments to the VEF Vietnamese staff for salary, awards, and
other benefits and is responsible for ensuring there is compliance with the Vietnam Labor Law and with VEF
internal regulations as stated in the VEF Staff Handbook for the Hanoi office. To maintain a strong, cooperative,
effective staff, a staff retreat is held annually in Vietnam to bring together the staff of both offices for training that
includes sessions on communications, cross-cultural differences, ethics, and leadership.
U.S. HEADQUARTERS OFFICE
Located in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area as mandated by the VEF legislation, the VEF U.S.
Headquarters Office is located in offices within an executive office suite in Arlington, Virginia. With the VEF
office in Virginia, the location allows easy access to congressional and cabinet level members of the VEF Board
of Directors and to other significant entities located in the U.S. Capitol.
Staff continuity is important in meeting VEF’s mission and goals and in assuring the success of VEF programs
and operations. To that end, VEF ensures that roles and responsibilities are backed up by cross-tasking and crosstraining
of staff, by inclusive communications and team work, and by assuring that personnel within VEF or in
external organizations contracted by VEF are capable of covering necessary activities in the absence of critical
staff. As is usual in any organization, personnel changes occur for a variety of reasons. During this reporting