The Peace Corps Wants You!

According to Alice Lipowicz, the Peace Corps is assembling a database of former volunteers. They are seeking a contractor to be hired to compile a list for 50th anniversary celebration.

She writes in the Federal Computer Week newsletter: The federal government wants former Peace Corps members to volunteer their current e-mail and home addresses.

In anticipation of the program’s 50th anniversary celebration next year, the Peace Corps is compiling a list of current mailing addresses and e-mail addresses for as many of the nearly 200,000 former volunteers as it can locate.

The agency recently posted a request for proposals to hire a small business to obtain and validate all the addresses within 30 days and store them in a secure, encrypted database, according to a notice published on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site April 22.

The payment will be based on the number of validated addresses the contractor obtains. The total estimated value of the contract was not disclosed.

The Peace Corps maintains a list of former volunteers but has not updated it in 10 years, the notice states. The contractor also will prepare a list of deceased volunteers.

The Peace Corps was established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to encourage young Americans to volunteer in developing areas of the world. The length of assignment is two years.

As part of the anniversary event, the Peace Corps is collecting photographs and other digital materials for its online digital library.