Following is the message from Dane Smith, President of the NPCA rescheduling the Peace Corps 40th for June 21 - 23, 2002.

Dear Friend:

I want to thank you for your gracious understanding of our postponement of the National Peace Corps Association’s (NPCA) Conference, the culmination of our 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Peace Corps. It was not an easy decision, but any event billed as a ‘celebration’ would of course have been inappropriate following the September 11 tragedy. Even a toned-down conference would have been logistically difficult to host as the security perimeter around the White House widened to include the Hotel Washington, (where many of our Conference registrants had booked rooms) and the area on and around The National Mall where the conference activities were scheduled.

Despite the need to postpone these events, the planning team felt it was important to go ahead with Volunteer Day on Saturday, September 22, 2001, and fulfilled our promise of upgrading a park for children in Anacostia, in Southeast Washington, DC. We then gathered that evening at the Reflecting Pool by the Lincoln Memorial for a Peace Corps family vigil. Those of you who were there will long remember the remarks of Sargent Shriver, who inspired the audience once again with his enthusiastic repetition of what has become his mantra for the Peace Corps: “Serve! Serve! Serve!”

The 40th Anniversary Celebration was months in the making. All of that planning will be used to launch the rescheduled “40th-Plus-One” Anniversary Celebration set for June 21-23, 2002 in Washington, DC. Please mark your calendars now! I also encourage you to visit our website at www.rpcv.org <http://www.rpcv.org/> to find out more about our plans as they develop.

In the aftermath of this national tragedy, it is difficult, but necessary to deal with the mundane details caused by the change in plans. As you can imagine, we had to cancel or put on hold all of the contracts for food, chairs, stages, tents, security, sound equipment, first aid, entertainment and the other trappings of the conference. While we were able to prevent many expenses, some costs were inevitably incurred.

As we have been devising our communication strategy to inform you of your options on how to handle your registration fees, a number of individuals have contacted us to ask us to keep their registration fees as a donation. We are very grateful for this generosity. These funds will help us meet non-recoverable expenses associated with the conference as originally scheduled, and will also help us continue certain programs that are at the core of NPCA’s work but whose funding had been budgeted from conference proceeds. On the other hand, we know that some people will need a refund on their registration fees and we wish to honor that decision as well.

The NPCA offers you three choices with respect to your conference registration fees. First, you can donate the full amount or a partial amount to help off set the unrecoverable costs of the conference (excluding your membership fee if applicable) as a tax-deductible gift; second, you may ask us to apply the fee and lunch fees towards our rescheduled conference in 2002; and third, you may ask for a full refund of your conference fee and lunch fees (excluding your membership fee if applicable).

Please fill out the enclosed form, and return it to us so we know how to handle your registration fees. If we haven’t heard from you by November 30, 2001, we will apply your fees to the 2002 conference. Please note that all refunds will be made by check, even if you paid by credit card.

Thank you for your support of the NPCA. We appreciate your patience and understanding during these difficult times. Please contact the NPCA at 202-293-7728 ext 24 if you have any questions.

Sincerely


Dane F. Smith
President
Ethiopia/Eritrea 63-65

By Admin1 (admin) on Monday, November 05, 2001 - 10:19 pm: Edit Post

The date for the 40 +1 celebration is June 20-23, 2002 not as you have reported in your online news.

Please make the correction.

Sincerely,
40+1 Coordinator
Cori Welbourn Bassett