NPCA Regional Meetings

This spring the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) held two regional meetings for member affiliates, one in Atlanta, the other in Seattle. We were fortunate to be represented at each. LGBT Steering Committee Member, Suzanne Marks was our voice at the Atlanta meeting. Bob Findlay, LGBT RPCV member and NPCA Board Member represented us in Seattle. Their reports follow.

The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) and affiliated groups located in Atlanta and the Southeast region met on Saturday, March 29. Kevin Quigley, president, Anne Baker, Vice President, and Bruce Anderson, treasurer, represented NPCA. Nine others, including me as an LGBT RPCV Steering Committee member, attended for their respective groups (the Atlanta Area RPCVs, Tennessee RPCVs, Friends of Burkina, Ghana, Macedonia, and Sierra Leone). Each group representative described group activities, plans, and challenges.

For LGBT RPCVs, I highlighted our mentoring program, newsletter (often including articles by current PCVs), and project funding. I also described our recent change to nearly exclusive electronic distribution of our newsletter and decision to charge no membership fee. Among challenges, I mentioned the difficulty in finding projects to fund that meet our mission of promoting the legal, political and social rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people around the world.

There was considerable interest in our mentoring program and how it works. I explained that applicants usually find LGBT RPCVs prior to service either through a recruiter or on their own, then are connected with mentors, LGBT RPCV members or others on our listserv, including current volunteers. NPCA is planning to start a mentoring program in select geographic areas to pair newly returned RPCVs with RPCVs who have been back for some time. However, this might be problematic since for the past four years Peace Corps hasn't provided NPCA with a list of close-of-service PCVs who are willing to share their information, citing technical difficulties. Once the problems are resolved, NPCA hopes to improve communication with PCVs prior to their close of service via online platforms, which will allow NPCA and affiliated groups to connect with recent RPCVs, potentially expanding members and their involvement in the organizations upon their return to the U.S.

LGBT RPCVs was asked how the new "no dues" membership is working. I said that this policy was just enacted and that we are planning to monitor any changes in membership and fund-raising over the coming year. NPCA, as well as other affiliated groups, are interested in this policy, now that most newsletters and other group products are available electronically, which reduces the need for membership fees to cover the costs of printing and mailing. The benefits of having an expanded membership list need to be balanced with the costs of a potential for reduced revenue. If NPCA keeps its membership fee, and affiliates don’t charge, it raises a possible disincentive for groups to join NPCA.

When asked whether LGBT RPCVs partners with external organizations, I responded that it currently does not formally partner with any group, but mentioned that LGBT RPCVs recently reported on a publication by Cary Johnson (RPCV, Zaire) of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Committee who wrote about the need to promote human rights for men-who-have-sex-with-men and women-who-have-sex with-women in Africa to aid in HIV prevention. Although not mentioned at the meeting, LGBT RPCVs could also partner with the Sexual and Gender Minorities Work Group of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote HIV prevention activities and other activities related to LGBT health and safety.

Kevin Quigley talked about the unique role and timely opportunity for NPCA to advocate for Peace Corps funding and activities. He is optimistic that a new administration will be supportive of Peace Corps, since all the leading presidential candidates support expanded opportunities for service to the country. He also discussed plans for the Peace Corps 50th anniversary in 2011 and a Peace Corps commemorative near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. NPCA also plans to create a new RPCV directory that will have electronic capacity to share stories, photos, videos, etc.

At the end of the meeting, I noted that the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage and its federal benefits only for opposite sex couples, currently prevents LGBT couples from being placed together as PCVs for their Peace Corps service, which is different from what happens for opposite sex married couples. I noted that LGBT RPCVs advocates for nondiscrimination in this case.

Our Information Package was distributed at the Peace Corps expo on the following day.

You can reach Suzanne Marks by emailing lgbrpcv-news@lgbrpcv.org

NPCA leaders followed a similar format as at the Atlanta meeting with introductions and concerns by the representatives of several geographic and COS groups, a review of NPCA initiatives of interest to groups and a group capacity building session based on those initiatives. Twenty plus people attended representing Friends of the Dominican Republic and Turkey; U.S. geographic groups from Central Texas, Sacramento, Eugene, Spokane, Seattle and Olympia; and our national LGBT group.

Not unlike the NPCA experience of having a large electronic address list, many fewer active participants, even fewer paid memberships, and even smaller number of willing leaders, group leaders lamented the difficulties of maintaining membership and transitions in leadership. This pyramid of engagement is common within organizations and is further divided by members who are affiliators and others who might be described as achievers who do not want the bureaucracy but want to get something done.

Understanding the diversity of interests and reasons for joining groups; that vary by age group, household characteristics, time since close of service, and factors noted above suggests the need to provide a variety of social and service activities. One group noted that the local LGBT members tended to separate themselves from the larger group, and that they need to make the effort to be meaningfully engaged in the larger group activities. A suggestion for avoiding leadership burnout is efficiency achieved by partnering with other groups who do the logistics of service projects and only need volunteer labor, and efficiency by utilizing trusted in-country agencies to handle PCV project funding. Collaborative leadership with limited and defined responsibilities is used successfully in some groups.

Why join the Peace Corps, NPCA or a local RPCV group? Kennedy’s vision to broaden Americans’ world view and to globalize the good qualities of Americans has become even more needed with the apparent loss of civic engagement and the increasingly exclusive character of America. The LGBT RPCV community could teach about that experience. NPCA distributed our Information Package at the PC Expo attended by six hundred attendees the following day