About a month ago (see: "Casa de Grapas" post) I mentioned that I had entered the Presidential race for the Volunteer Advocacy Council. Well, I'm thrilled to announce that I won and swore-in last Friday to serve the volunteer community until September of 2010.
The Volunteer Advocacy Council, or 'VAC', represents the 180 Peace Corps Volunteers in Guatemala in new policy decisions at the country level and helps boost morale by organizing events like the annual 4th of July party and regional welcome parties for new volunteers. It consists of eight volunteers: one representative from each of the seven regions where volunteers serve in Guatemala, plus the president. In the 90s, VAC had a reputation of being just the party-throwing committee and didn't garner a lot of respect from the Peace Corps administration, but has really changed its image and function in the last ten years for the better. The Council is tapped every time volunteer input is needed at the administrative level and is the voice of the volunteer community for issues ranging from Living Allowances to relationships between volunteers and Project Directors. For example, the Asst Director of Peace Corps Guatemala will be making revisions to the Volunteer Handbook, (our manual on codes of conduct etc.) before the new year and has asked the VAC to be an instrumental part of the process in which the revisions that will be made. So it's a considerable responsibility as President to lead the VAC, but I'm really excited and it should be fun.
A couple of the things that we have discussed initially as a group are establishing a peer review board to hear cases that could result in the expulsion of a volunteer, improving volunteer/staff relations, making it better known which volunteers are where and what their strengths are, continuing the campaign to increase the volunteer living allowance, and keeping the tradition of throwing a rockin' 4th of July party.
Our first meeting is this Friday. We will establish our goals and objectives for the year as well as assign people to the various services that VAC provides (such as merchandise, cook book, survival guide, and calendar to name a few).
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