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Email Newsletter for September 2009Greetings from the West Cascade Peace Corps Association!
In this edition of our electronic newsletter, you'll find:
October 7 - 9: UO Street Faire's Peace Corps Booth (More info below)
October 9: WCPCA Fall Welcome Potluck (More info below)
October 10: Food for Lane County's Empty Bowls fundraiser (More info below)
Fall Welcome Activities: an Overview
WCPCA coordinates fall activities with the U of O Peace Corps
recruiting office so that we can extend an enthusiastic welcome to
newly returning volunteers who often enroll as graduate students at
the U of O and also meet current students who are aspiring
volunteers.
Coming up Wednesday through Saturday, October 7-10, are the
following activities with details following the listing. Please join
us to contribute your time and networking skills to extend a fall
welcome to the local Peace Corps community.
Wednesday through Friday, October 7-9, 10 am through 4 pm,
volunteer opportunities at the PC booth in the U of O Street Faire
on campus. Friday, 10/9, 6:00 pm, regular potluck dinner at the Many Nations
Longhouse, U of O campus, 1630 Columbia. Students are especially welcome and are exempt from bringing a dish. Program
by a newly returned volunteer from Jordan. Saturday, 10/10, 8:30-10:30 pm, volunteer opportunities with Food
for Lane Country as part of the clean up crew for that
organization's Empty Bowls fundraiser at 770 Bailey Hill Road.
U of O Street Faire
Volunteers needed! Share your Peace Corps stories and talk to an
entering generation of Peace Corps applicants. The UO Street Faire
takes place October 7-9, Wednesday through Friday, and offers
students the opportunity to speak directly with RPCVs.
Email Justin Overdevest, the UO Peace Corps representative, at
pcorps@uoregon.edu to sign up for a 2 hour volunteer time block.
Blocks run from Wednesday the 7th thru Friday the 9th. 10am-12pm,
12pm-2pm, 2pm-4pm.
Justin will offer a briefing on current PC activities to all who
take part. Regular October potluck
Our regular potluck will be on Friday, October 9th, and will
conclude the several days of Peace Corps outreach at the U of O.
We'll be on campus at the Many Nations Longhouse. Students are
exempt from bringing a dish. We ask other WCPCA members to bring
either a salad or a desert. The organization will contribute pizza.
An eclectic dinner!
Our program will be the following:
Justin will give a brief overview of current Peace Corps
activities. We'll announce the organization's creation of an endowed fund,
"The Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund," with the Oregon Community
Foundation and explain what this will mean for our ability to
support humanitarian projects in the future.
This fund represents an investment of $25,000 most of which was
donated to WCPCA by friends and family of Beryl Brinkman who was a
founding member of the organization. Beryl served in Afghanistan
(1967-69) in a small pox eradication project and from
that time dedicated her life to combating poverty and war. Beryl was
active in WCPCA from the beginning in the 80s and also
served on the board of the National Peace Corps Association. Jaxon Love, a member of WCPCA and and RPCV from Jordan
(2006-2008), will give us a power point presentation to describe his
project. It will be interesting for us to learn about the situation
of the Peace Corps in one of the two primarily Muslim countries where it
has existed for decades. (Morocco is the other country.) Jaxon is
currently a graduate student in the School of Business at the U of O.
Volunteer work for Food for Lane County
Saturday, October 10th, Food for Lane County hosts its annual Empty
Bowls fundraiser and silent auction at the warehouse on 770 Bailey
Hill Road. WCPCA has participated in helping to clean up after the event for
several years now and the time has come once again to recruit volunteers.
Join us at 8:30 pm, share a bite to eat provided by the caterers,
and then get ready to clean so that the warehouse can be fully
operational on Monday. Dress
comfortably and stay as long as you can. There is no limit to the
number of volunteers needed...the more the better!
Please RSVP by October 1st by emailing Shannon Micheel at
smicheel@gmail.com. Additional Grants to Humanitarian Projects
Early this year WCPCA awarded two grants of $500 each to Peace Corps
Partnership Projects: a community library in Guatemala and medical
staff housing for a village dispensary in Tanzania. The board has
allocated another $1,000 to make one or more additional grants and
will select the recipients at the next board meeting on October
15th. The board invites members to contribute suggestions regarding
projects to fund.
Potential recipients of our grants must be humanitarian programs in
other countries that have 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS. We have
preferred Peace Corps Partnership Projects in which PCVs from Oregon
are involved. But we can also consider other programs that fit these
criteria.
The board invites the WCPCA membership to suggest areas of the
world, types of project, or specific projects for us to consider.
Interested members will find a list of current PC Partnership
Projects in need of funds on the PC website. If you have ideas to
share, please contact a board member directly or send an email to
info@westcascadepca.org.
Since WCPCA awarded its first grant in 1986 we've distributed a
total of approximately $30,000 in grants. You'll find a list of
these awards on the website. We hope to continue and possibly expand
this important commitment. Report of the nominating committee
Jim Beyer was the nominating committee that put together a slate of
nominees for the 2010 WCPCA board. The names of the nominees are
listed below. More biographical information will be in the October
newsletter.
The election of the new board will take place at the November
potluck which is also our annual meeting. Most nominees will be at
the October potluck. They will want to meet any new members and
greet old friends in the membership. Please note that the board
meets monthly. Board meetings are listed on the website calendar and
are open to all members.
Officers:
President: James Cloutier (Kenya, 1964-66)
Vice President: Dorothy Soper (Ghana, 1963-65)
Treasurer: Jack Meacham (Turkey, 1967-69)
Secretary: Geoff Walser (India, 1967-69)
Communications Coordinator: Felicia Kenny (Benin, 2003-04)
U of O Recruiter: Justin Overdevest (Dominican Republic, 2002-2004
and Peru, 2004-2005)
Board Members-at-Large:
John Hofer (Morocco, 1968-70)
George Jeffcott (India, 1966-69)
Maggie Keenan (Philippines, 1987-90)
Michael Kresko (Seychelles, 1994-95 and Russia, 1995-97)
Shannon Micheel (Dominican Republic, 1995-97)
Evangelina Sundgrenz (Uzbekistan, 2000-2001)
Rolly Thompson (Peru, 1964-66)
Wayne Thompson (Peru, 1964-66)
Bob Watada (Peru, 1964-66)
This slate includes members who have joined at many different
periods in the organization's history and who bring a wide variety
of backgrounds and interests to our business activities. It includes
founding members (Rolly, Wayne, and James), longtime members
(Dorothy, John, George, Maggie, Michael, and Shannon), and
relatively new members (Felicia, Evangelina, Jack, Geoff, Justin,
and Bob). We're all looking forward to serving the organization and
invite members to contact us with ideas, questions, or concerns
about WCPCA's business or social activities. Eugene Celebration:
For at least the twentieth year in a row WCPCA took part in the
Eugene Celebration, September 5-6, marching in the parade and
staffing a booth. Despite the rainy Saturday, twenty stalwart souls
represented us in the parade carrying flags of PC countries of
service and propelling our invincible taxi. We were very well
received by spectators.
At the booth on Saturday and Sunday we answered questions about the
Peace Corps and WCPCA, handed out the recent PC literature, and sold
calendars and shirts. The balance sheet looks good. We paid $130 to
take part and netted $230 in sales receipts.
The board thanks all those who marched and helped organize our
participation. The latter group includes James Cloutier, Benj
Epstein, Maggie Kennan, Sarah and Donald Klinghammer, Julie Olsen,
Dustin Overdevest, Rosa Sakanishi, Dorothy Soper, Artis Spriggs, and
Bob Watada.
The full text of the minutes is available on the website.
The board meeting was held at Jack Meacham's home. Minutes of the
pervious meeting had been circulated and approved via email.
Attending: Bob and Rosa Watada, Jack Meacham, Michael Kresko, James
Cloutier, John Hofer, Felicia Kenney, Dorothy Soper. James presided
at the meeting.
The board reconfirmed its earlier decision to establish an
endowed fund to be called "The Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund" with
the Oregon Community Foundation. The $25,000 to be used for this
purpose came largely from gifts to WCPCA from Tricia Tate, Natalie
Brinkman, and Tami Beach. We'll complete the paper work within the
next two weeks. We discussed the organization of our potlucks. The board agreed
to talk further about which nights to schedule the potlucks
including the possibility of their being on alternating Friday and
Sunday nights, and their frequency at the October board meeting. The board reviewed and accepted the treasurer's report. Current
assets are the following:
OCCU general fund accounts (checking and savings), $4,918
OCCU, Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund account, approx. $672
Edward Jones, Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund, $26,479
Total assets: approx. $32,069 The board decided to award $1,000 in grants to one or more
humanitarian projects this fall. We have already made two $500
grants to Peace Corps Partnership projects this year. We'll ask to
Shannon to identify 3 or 4 PC Partnership projects for us to
consider at the next board meeting. Other projects can be suggested
by board members or the general membership. We'll also ask for
suggestions from the general membership in the next newsletter. We have approximately 116 members; there were four renewals in
August and September and nine people signed up to learn more about
WCPCA at the Saturday Market and the Eugene Celebration. The board debriefed the organization's having a booth for two
weekends in August at the Saturday Market and our participation in
the Eugene Celebration.
Saturday Market: We had a booth to distribute information about the
PC and WCPCA and to sell calendars and shirts. A few people signed
up to learn more about WCPCA. We earned $51 in sales and a donation.
There was no cost for the booth space.
Eugene Celebration: We took part in both the parade and in the
nonprofit booth area. About 20 people participated in the parade.
Those watching the parade received the group very well. We had a
booth in the non-profit area where we distributed PC literature and
sold calendars and shirts. The cost of our participation in the Eugene Celebration was $130. We
sold $233 worth of merchandise.
The board felt that both activities were good community outreach
efforts and thus a worthwhile investment of our time. We liked that
fact that we earned enough to cover our expenses and may have
recruited new members. Bob Watada reported on a conference that he attended on September
10th on behalf of the organization, "Making the Case for Endowment,"
presented by the Oregon Community Foundation. He gave us an overview
of how OCF works and the fact that it encourages those who have
funds with it to do further fundraising to augment their funds. We discussed in detail our activities to welcome newly returned
PCVs and other students by participation in three activities in
early October: U of O Street Faire, regular potluck at the Longhouse
on the U of O campus, and the Empty Bowls fundraiser sponsored by
Food or Lane County. Details about these events are elsewhere in the
newsletter. The board accepted with gratitude the report of Jim Beyer for
nominating committee for a slate of officers for the 2010 board. The
slate is listed elsewhere in the newsletter. The board agreed to discuss organizing a fall fundraiser at the
October meeting.
The next board meeting will be on Thursday, October 15th, 7:00 pm.
Place to be determined.
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