July Monthly Newsletter

SEAPAX Annual Board Elections and Open Positions

Would you like to get more involved with SEAPAX and with our local RPCV community? There is no better way to do this than to serve on our Board, and our annual Board elections are right around the corner!

Voting will begin on September 2^nd and run through the end of the month for the following 2020 Board positions:

• President
• Vice President
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Director-At-Large (up to six)

If you are interested in any of these elected positions or would like to nominate someone, please submit the following to us by no later than August 24^th: nominee’s name, position of interest, and brief biography of nominee (examples of biographies can be found here).

We also would like to immediately fill the non-elected board positions of Events Co-Chair and Speakers’ Bureau Co-Chair, in addition to someone to chair our Book Club beginning in 2020.    

If you’d like to learn more about any of these positions, please email us. We also encourage you to attend the next board meeting:
Date: July 14, 2019
Time: 2:00 - 4:30 P.M.
Location: Antioch University, 202 A & B, 2400 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98121

Message from the SEAPAX President

Hello SEAPAXers!

It is with great excitement that I am able to announce that Seattle has been chosen host city for the Peace Corps Connect 2020 Conference (PCC2020 Conference)!

We are in the early phases of planning, so many of the details are still being worked out, but the conference will be held in the summer of 2020. The overarching conference theme will be Cultivating Connections. We plan to spotlight topics that relate to immigrants/refugees, indigenous peoples, and girls’ education. Many other topics will likely be covered as well, ranging from global health to the environment to interests of recently Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (e.g. career development and graduate school). We will pass along more details as soon as they become available.

This event will provide a great opportunity for individuals to network with a national Returned Peace Corps audience. Our goal is to attract 500 attendees. We also plan to provide opportunities to interact with local and national organizations whose interests align with the values of Peace Corps.

To put together the best possible program, one that is engaging, inspiring, informative, and educational, and one that is accessible, we would like to reach out to you and everyone in our community for help. Please let us know if you can contribute in any of the following ways:

• PCC2020 Conference Planning Committee Join our team! We are looking for additional help from motivated and committed individuals. 
• Sponsors Provide us with the name of any organization that you think would be a willing sponsor and to which you have connections. The more money we raise through sponsorships, the lower the registration costs.
• Speakers/Topic Experts Provide us with the name of any person to whom you have connections who could be a speaker/presenter on one of our spotlighted topics (immigrants/refugees, indigenous peoples, and girls’ education) or other topics that our RPCV community would potentially be interested in (i.e. global health, international development, the environment, and career development for young professionals).
• Exhibitors Provide us with the name of any organization that you think would be interested in being an exhibitor and who would want to interact with RPCVs, and vice-versa, to which you have connections (e.g. UW Global Health Department, PATH, Health Alliance International).
• Housing Let us know if you’d be willing to host an out-of-town RPCV during the conference (~Thursday – Sunday).

Responses can be directed to me, along with any other general comments or suggestions about the PCC2020 Conference, via email. We would love to hear about any ideas or things you’d like to see at next year’s conference.

We are looking forward putting together a great PCC2020 Conference program!

Warm regards,
Brad Cleveland, SEAPAX President
South Africa 2006-2008