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Email Newsletter for February 2008

West Cascade Peace Corps Association

Email Newsletter for February 2008

Greetings from the West Cascade Peace Corps Association!

In this edition of our electronic newsletter, you'll find:

  • notices about upcoming events
  • a summary of the board meeting written by our secretary, Dorothy Soper
  • a sale on calendars
  • links to some interesting stories online
  • plus a few other updates

This version of the newsletter is in plain text format. You can also find it on our webpage. If you don't want to be on the WCPCA mailing list, please let me know at info@westcascadepca.org.

Upcoming Events

  • Carnaval Brasil. Saturday, March 1, 2008, 7 PM at the WOW Hall

    This benefit is a fundraiser for Students Helping Street Kids International, an organization founded by former Peace Corps volunteer Bob Crites in Brazil in 1997 to help children, giving them a life of opportunities without the tragedies of drugs, crime, poverty, abuse and indifference. More information

  • Board Meeting. Thursday, March 13, 2008, 7:15 PM at 2080 Friendly Street.

  • Bimonthly Potluck. Friday, March 14, 2008, 6 PM (also) at 2080 Friendly Street.

    Come join us for the spring potluck! We are planning on having a presentation by the parents of a PCV in Mongolia. For more information, see the link to the article in the Register Guard at the bottom of this newsletter.

  • Nomination Party. Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 5 - 7 PM at the Many Nations Longhouse on the U of O campus.

    Join us to help celebrate the nominations of future Peace Corps volunteers! This celebration includes a potluck by the WCPCA. More information is in the summary of the board meeting.

  • Sri Lanka Reunion. Saturday, July 19, 2008

    For all and every Sri Lanka RPCV: A reunion on Saturday, July 19th, 2008. Enna, enna. By the sea at beautiful Alderbrook Inn, two hours from Seattle, WA. Spend the day connecting with old batch mates, Peace Corps staff, meeting other Sri Lanka RPCVs and exploring the stunning natural wonders of the Puget Sound. Please sign the online Sri Lanka RPCV address book and get lodging, transportation and other details on the web at http://www.Serendipity2008.com.

Summary of the board minutes for the meeting of 2/21/08

James Cloutier, the new WCPCA president, presided at the meeting. He appointed Rolly Thompson as the new vice president. Rolly had previously been an at-large board member. The board is looking for new at-large members. If you are interested, please contact James.

Our previous president, Dustin Johnson, resigned after taking a new job and moving to Portland. The board expressed its appreciation to him for 18 months of service and wished him well in his new situation.

Evangelina Sundgrenz gave the treasurer's report. The WCPCA has approximately $7,000 in its business checking and savings accounts at the Oregon Community Credit Union. The board would like to invest $2,500 of this amount in a 3 month CD since there is no immediate need for the funds. Evangelina will work on this.

The balance in Beryl's Memorial Fund is approximately $22,570. The board accepted a proposal for the investment these funds submitted by Rick Karr of Edward Jones Investments and endorsed by Jim Beyer of our organization. Evangelina will work on this.

Felicia Kenney gave the Communication Coordinator's report. She will be working with James to arrange for the organization's website to allow for the purchase of our merchandise using PayPal. She has completed the database in which our membership data is recorded and has added a new section to the website for projects that the WCPCA has supported. Members are encouraged to consult the website to renew their membership, look up historical information, and for updates on the organization's activities including coming events.

Brett Holt, the PC recruiter on the U of O campus, explained his plans for the NOM party to celebrate the new local PCVs who have just received their invitations to training programs. The event will be on Tuesday, April 22nd, in the Many Nations Longhouse, 6:00 to 8:00 pm, 1630 Columbia, on the U of O campus. The longhouse is behind the law school, near Hayward Field. There will be a potluck dinner provided by members of WCPCA followed by musical entertainment and (short) talks by interesting people. We encourage members of WCPCA to come to meet the prospective volunteers and their families and share some of their RPCV experience and perspective. We should give these new recruits a festive farewell!

Announcements and Requests

We have five of the beautiful 2008 RPCV International Calendars left, and since the year is already one sixth over, we have discounted these calendars to $10. If you'd like one, please contact info@westcascadepca.org or leave a message at (541) 607-4140.

Speaking of leaving a message, we now have an answering service! So, if you need to know where the next potluck is or want to get in touch with the board (perhaps to volunteer), you can now leave a message for us at (541) 607-4140.

We have 65 paid members right now, which is pretty darn good. That is only 16% of our mailing list, though. If you would like to join, we've made it a little easier by adding payment via Paypal to our website. Paypal, for those who aren't sure, is a service that allows you to pay for things online via credit card or directly from your bank account. To pay for a membership online, go to our membership form. If you'd like to pay for a membership this way but aren't sure how to use Paypal, feel free to send me an email at info@westcascadepca.org, and I'll help you out.

Regardless of whether you are a member or not, we'd like to keep in touch with you. This means that we need your updated contact information. If you haven't updated your contact information with us recently, please do so at our contact information update form. On the other hand, if you would like to be taken off our mailing list and out of our database, all you need to do is let me know (once again, info@westcascadepca.org).

Links to Information of Interest

The Register Guard recently ran a story on Hannah Klausman, a PCV in Mongolia who is from Eugene. Her mother will be speaking at the next potluck. The story can be found at: At Home A World Away

Volunteers and RPCVs often bemoan the lack of information on other projects. Often, we feel like we are constantly reinventing the wheel. Well, using the technology behind Wikipedia, which allows anyone to add a page or edit an entry in an encyclopedia-like collection of information, there is now a Peace Corps Wiki. You are encouraged to create a page about yourself and the projects you worked on. You can also update information on your country of service and find other volunteers. As with all wikis, this site will only thrive if people get involved and add information. I always feel a bit sheepish editing pages if I'm not an expert on that subject. However, with this wiki, you can be guaranteed to be an expert on at least one subject: your project! The Peace Corps wiki is located at: http://www.peacecorpswiki.com

The WCPCA has a long tradition of charitable giving, and now you can see a little more of where that money goes. We have started putting up pages that show the projects that West Cascade has been involved in. The first is a well project in Cameroon (be sure to check out their website - it has some really great photos). We hope to get more pages up in the near future. If you were involved with any project over the years that the WCPCA helped out with, please let me know. It doesn't have to be recent to be interesting.