Cyber-Reunion Tips

If you are interested in creating a cyber-reunion for your Peace Corps group, here are a few random tips that might help you start.

1.  Training Roster Book

Hopefully you have saved a copy of your group's training roster. This book will have the names of everyone in your group, the schools they attended, their age and their last residence before they entered the Peace Corps.  If you do not have the roster, then your goal will be to find someone in your group that has it.  In either case, go to step 2.

2.  Locating your group members.

A.  Directory of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

The "Directory of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff " is published by The National Peace Corps Association with the Harris Publishing Company every couple of years.  This directory contains the names of approximately 58,000 of the 166,000 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.  I have also noticed that copies of the these directory are sometimes available at abebooks.com.  You can enter "peace corps directory" as the keywords and then contact the used book store by email.  Last I looked, the used directories were about $20, which is far less than I paid several years ago.

There is also a directory called "Who's Who in the Peace Corps" by Reference Press. 

B. "Friends of Country" web page

Check your "Friends of Country" web page.  If you do not know if the RPCVs from your host country have created a web page, check the National Peace Corps Association web page  or the Peace Corps Online web page.  You may find that in some cases, such as for Brazil, Gabon or Nigeria, they have already been successful in locating many of their RPCVs.

C.   National Peace Corps Association web page

The National Peace Corps Association web page also has an email directory in their Members Only section.  A password is required to enter the Members Only section and this password is published in their quarterly newsletter, 3/1/61. Currently, there are 9200 names in this email directory.  They also have a Bulletin Board where you can post a "Seeking" announcement.   You may also submit a "Seeking" announcement in the quarterly newsletter.

D.  Peace Corps Online

The Peace Corps Online is an independent web site.  In addition to the list of "Friends of" web pages, you can find a free, older version of the email directory and also a place to submit a "Seeking" announcement.  They also have saved an article on how the RPCVs of Liberia Group 28 organized a reunion several years ago. 

E.  People Search 

There are many different People Search sites on the internet, such as the one on Yahoo.  US Search also has a useful site, where in most cases, the persons age will also be given.  In the past, you were given ten free searches a day on US Search.

F.  Alumni Organizations

Each alumni organization is different, but often they will pass on your message to their alumni if they have their current address.  The web pages of the alumni associations can easily be found on Google and from there you can find the alumni association's email address.

3.  The Cyber-Reunion

How you organize your cyber-reunion is up to you.  In our Liberia 23 Cyber-Reunion, we have decided to use only first names and we only include our member's email address if they want it on the web page.  I do not want to be responsible for people getting any more Spam than they already receive.   Yahoo! GeoCities hosts the site for free.