Pros
None- this organization is a front for a Chinese businessman laundering money into the US.
Cons
There are so many I do not know where to begin. 1. You will be micromanaged into an inch of your life for in the most simple tasks. 2. There are no basic organizational structures that exist in every other orgs in the US. For example Ameson lacks the following departments: finance (including payroll), HR, operations, development, and communications. I am amazed anything gets done. 3. Decisions are bottlenecked as one "board member" has final say so on all organization decisions. He is the lone funder of the organization and is a businessman in China. The organization is front for his endeavors in the US. 4. Overall the organization fails to understand the business and non-profit practices for dealing with employees. Paychecks are often late, employees have been underpaid despite contracts, benefits are woefully below industry standards (eg. no health care savings accounts or retirement), and there are virtually no holidays. Employees have been asked to work on weekends with the promise of "comp" time; however, the comp time must be approved to begin with (not to use but that you are allowed to have). Essentially you are treated as if you should be grateful to have a job. Leadership (if they can be called that) has stated that all salaried employees can be replaced with unpaid interns as they are the same. 5. They use Ghali's name as CEO and leader, he has never been involved with the organization. He had an honorary titled and has never been to the DC office and never knew what was happening under his name. Since he has passed, his name has been further exploited. 6. I believe this organization will go under in a year or two. Overall, this is a miserable place to work. The work itself is terrible as well. The programs could be great if the leadership would get out of the way and with the times. Instead the leadership treat the participants of the programs as a means to make money rather than a resource of citizen diplomacy. This place should be investigated by the IRS for violations of non-profit tax laws and the leadership should take classes in management and decision making.
