Peace Corps Comments on Planned Office Closings

Today, the National Peace Corps Association contacted Peace Corps requesting more information on reports of the proposed closing of the Minneapolis and Denver Regional Recruitment Offices and potential impacts on Peace Corps recruitment.  The following response was received this afternoon from the Press Office:

Thank you for providing the Peace Corps an opportunity to explain the office mergers.

The Peace Corps Office of Volunteer Recruitment and Selection (VRS) is proposing to merge the Minneapolis regional office with the Chicago regional office and to merge the Denver regional office with the Dallas regional office, by January 1, 2009.  I assure you that any changes the Peace Corps makes to its recruitment structure will in no way have a negative impact on the agency's ability to recruit and that all decisions have been made carefully and after thoughtful consideration.

The merger will move more recruiters into the field with a field-based recruiting model, providing more direct and personal access to applicants.  As the majority of Peace Corps recruiters spend significant time out of the office traveling throughout their regions, the agency has determined that streamlining and decentralizing its operations will enable recruiters to visit campuses and other potential recruiting sites more frequently. We expect the merger will promote better recruitment strategies and will increase the number of recruited applicants. The merger will also provide a significant cost savings to the Peace Corps and create more efficiencies.

Fourteen staff members will be affected by the merger, and the Peace Corps will give priority placement consideration to them within VRS or provide the employees with outplacement assistance from the office of Human Resource Management.

We are committed to a smooth transition for both the applicants and the affected employees.

Comments

[Jonathan Pearson]

To clarify the above comment, the link to the Durango newspaper indicates the attendee will be a member of the Colorado office staff. A member of the Colorado RPCVs indicates this individual is a member of the recruiting team, not necessarily the Colorado Sate Director.

[DC]

Colorado RPCVs are having a picnic on the 27th too and the Director will be in attendance.

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