We certainly had a terrific time at our meeting hosted by Jane and Moohan Thapa. Our thanks to you both. Our time was enhanced by laughter, good food, drink and being together with the fine members of this Returned Peace Corps Volunteers group.

Bonnie Beard gave us a thorough overview of her organization, the International Center of the Capital Region and projects which she has spearheaded over numerous years, first as a Board member and now as Executive Director. Diane Peapus will do justice to her talk in her notes that will be sent out this weekend.

John and Barbara have kindly offered to host our next meeting on March 3, where they will give us a presentation on their recent trip throughout India. Barbara didn't want to leave, and looked so well after their exciting journey, as did John.

Many thanks to everyone for their contributions to this delightful meeting and to Bonnie for her thoughtful and evocative presentation.

Best, Augusta

Thanks to Jane & Moohan Thapa, for opening their home to John, Barbara, Bob, Lydia, Van, Sue, Diane, Dave, Harriet, Yvonne, Augusta, Steve, Jeanette and our presenter, Bonnie.

We learned that Lydia is a Jr at Averill Park, something that Bob already knew... but did he know that her interests are art, photography and kids???  

Unknown to us (or to Sue) Van wrote a book about his hitchhiking trip to California in 1973.  


Patricia Sears Doherty's book, My Mom Is Positive, is an enlightening account of teens coping with an HIV-positive mother.  

Refugees are resettled through the US Dept of Health & Human Services office in Albany. 

Moohan has been helping families settle in, but there is always the need to drive people to appointments, shopping and other errands.  If you can help out, contact Jane at jthapa@nycap.rr.com

John & Barbara Flynn continue to volunteer - teaching English to refugees.  Last year they were also gathering donations of winter clothing.  If you have donations, contact them at BFlynn5@nycap.rr.com

Jeanette Gottlieb gave her monthly "State of the Gang" address.  

• We have $2093.   Checks to AOET and Friends of Akuffo Tom School Complex have cleared.  The Check to the Refuge Center hasn't.

• We have both hard copy and CD of the NPCA's directory of volunteers.  Diane will see if she can create a new member list from the electronic form.  

• Jeanette threw an unadvertised half-priced sale on 9 calendars and she'll order 100 of next year's.  

A lot of interest has been passed around via email about this project.  We really don't want to drop it, but we need someone to pick up the ball.

Diane knows a woman who worked with oral histories for WW2 Vets who will speak at a meeting - hopefully in April.  She works with a youth group in a service learning model and there may be a donation to the youth group to have them help put the audio and visuals together into a final product.  

Pat Doherty volunteered to be the interviewer.

Barbara & John Flynn will talk about their recent trip to India at our March meeting.  Diane will invite a presenter to talk about her work with oral histories in April.  

Our next meeting is Tuesday, March 3th at 6pm the Flynns's

Bonnie Beard gave us an overview of the history of the International Center of the Capital Region, her involvement with it and their current mission and programs.  We discussed whether there may be places where we, as a group, might be able to take a role.  <http://www.ICCRAlbany.org>

The Center started in 1957, when the Blackburns opened their home to international visitors, and morphed into a service provider for Vietnamese refugees in the 1960's.  Over the years, the Center increased support and advocacy work with refugees and moved away from direct work with visitors.  After September 11, 2001, the funding for refugee worked waned and by 2003 the US government took over direct services to refugees.  But the Center had a full history of connections with visitors, and steered back toward service to international visitors.  Bonnie was on the Board, but resigned to become the Executive Director.  

There are 93 Centers for International Visitors (CIV's) in the US, 5 of them are in NY.  One program within the umbrella of the CIV's is the International Visitor Leadership Program, which services 4000 people in 850 programs.  The primary objective is to promote US policy, and programs originate in the US Embassies overseas.  An Embassy will identify leaders and sponsor their visits to the US, and the CIV's will host their visits, providing hospitality and orientation services, and running professional programs in the US.  

Typically, the ICCR works with two visitor groups in Albany each month.  

This year's program focus is education - particularly religious based.  

Bonnie provided this bio and overview:

Bonnie Beard is a private consultant dedicated to facilitating understanding across cultural divides. Working with both business, nonprofits and private individuals, she designs and implements experiential opportunities that help participants achieve personal and professional cross cultural objectives. She is currently the Director of the International Visitor Leadership Program of the International Center of the Capital Region where she previously served as board member and past president. She has long been associated with the Albany County League of Women Voters, the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program and the regional United Nations Association. She continues to work abroad where she has completed 16 missions as an international elections official in Eastern Europe over the past 10 years. Her academic background is in Cultural Anthropology, multicultural communication, and forgiveness. The International Center of the Capital Region (ICCR) is a regional not-for-profit organization that began hosting international tourists in 1957. A designated “Council for International Visitors” (CIV) by the US Department of State since 1960, the ICCR works with the National Council for International Visitors (http://www.nciv.org/index.asp), and the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (http://exchanges.state.gov/education/ivp/) in crafting professional and cultural programs that maximize one-on-one interaction and understanding between visitor and host. With this region’s increasing participation on the global stage, the ICCR is proud to be expanding initiatives and programs that foster ‘citizen diplomacy’ (http://www.citizen-diplomacy.org/) and global engagement at all levels. Bringing international visitors into our offices, classrooms and homes has proven to be very effect at promoting global community while strengthening national relations – ‘one handshake at a time’. You can learn more at www.iccralbany.org.