Step # 3 Ten Steps For The Next Peace Corps Director To Take To Save Money, Improve The Agency, and Make All PCVs & RPCVs Happy!
Larry--I thinking changing the way we recruit PCVs is an institutional change for the agency, and as we see from…
Step # 3 The Peace Corps: A World of Volunteer Service
Sponsor and support–with funding!–a series of local events organized by RPCVs groups at the city and state level. Named this national effort for the 50th Anniversary: The Peace Corps: A World of Volunteer Service
Develop a Public Relations campaign–with the pro-bono help of a major PR firm– that has the Director of the Peace Corps on television in every local station in America. Crisscross the country in 2011 telling the Peace Corps story. Work with the National Library Association to sponsor readings at libraries in America where RPCVs come and read their letters home from overseas. Work with national civic groups in a like fashion.
Using World Wise School connections tap into the resources of middle schools and high schools in America. Local RPCVs visit the school during Peace Corps Week, yes, but also visit high school during Career Day at the school and talk about the Peace Corps being the first step to an international career.
Former Congressman Tim O’Neil is right in saying that all politics is local. So is recruiting for the Peace Corps. Involve RPCVs who are home in America raising families. Develop a recruiting effort with them in town, cities, on campuses, and in cities, using the framework of the 130+ RPCV groups that are already in existence. Link these groups with a national office in HQ. With 90%+ using the Internet to apply, use the Internet and email to connect the applicant to an RPCV on campus or down the street. Instead of half a dozen area offices, use the 130+ RPCVs groups already organized.
And to organize, promote, and direct the effort hire Matt Losak (Lesotho 1985-88) a former Recruiter and Public Affairs person at the local and national level. Turn Matt loose in America and watch the Apps come in!
I’m all for celebrating the 50th and improving recruitment but I’m waiting to see you tell us how the Peace Corps institutionally should change.
Larry–I thinking changing the way we recruit PCVs is an institutional change for the agency, and as we see from the comments, not everyone thinks the Peace Corps should change at age 50 or in the middle of the stream. We’ll see if any of these recruitment ideas have support once a Director is appointed.
I will tell you now that I do not want to change the mission of the Peace Corps, make it more or less a development agency, or more or less like AID.
When it comes to how, what, where Peace Corps Volunteers should be in the world, it is like the story of the dog walking on its hind legs. The marvel is that it can walk at all.