After last year's election to reduce the size of the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) board, all members of the board have to stand for re-election, including Friends of Ecuador's President Josh Busby. Josh was elected to the board about a year ago as the America's regional representative. In the only contested election of the year, Josh bested veteran NPCA member Maury Sterns. In this year's election, Josh also has an opponent in Patricia Wand, another long-time member who was nominated by Friends of Colombia. If you are a paid member of NPCA, you should have already received a vote ballot with a code that allows you to vote on-line here. Josh would very much appreciate your support. For a description of the candidates, go here. Voting continues until June 15, 2005.

Josh recently sent out this e-mail to America's region groups which describes his goals and reasons for running...

Greetings,

As you may know, the NPCA Board elections are now open (until June 15th), and I'm running for re-election as the America's rep in a contested race (there are 5 contested races this year!). I would appreciate your support and outreach to your members on my behalf. I've been on the board for less than a year, and I'd like to continue with the project of strengthening the NPCA. I have already participated on two working groups, the first on conference proposals and the second on-going working group on membership. We have our work cut out for us. The organization is fragile and in need of energy and ideas. I believe I provide both and hope you will support my candidacy.

My main concern has been trying to encourage NPCA to provide more support for affiliate groups, particularly in terms of an on-line electronic architecture for affiliates. I've been developing a model through my own affiliate Friends of Ecuador. Friends of Ecuador's webportal, http://www.friendsofecuador.org, is a multi-functional website that includes:

- Connections to Peace Corps Volunteers in the field
- Secure on-line and tax deductible credit card transaction capability to support grassroots development in Ecuador
- "Find Friends" searchable database to find e-mail addresses of Friends of Ecuador members. All members need to know is one of the following: name, year of service, province of service, program of service, or current state location
- On-line discussion forums

I've been working with the NPCA to encourage conversations with different potential vendors who might be able to offer a standardized template that many or all affiliate groups could have. Those affiliate group websites would be synced with the NPCA database and make all of our lives a lot easier.

In addition, my main priority is buttressing our advocacy capability. I probably wouldn't be involved with NPCA if I didn't think we had great potential to be agents of change on core issues of development like HIV/AIDS in Africa, the crisis in Darfur, and trade relationships with poor countries. I'm heartened by the efforts of NPCA on this front to partner with more established groups like Oxfam on the new trade justice initiative related to cotton subsidies. If re-elected, our advocacy capacity, along with the internet architecture, would be my highest priorities.

Feel free to forward this e-mail on to your members. Thanks much for your support,and do not hesitate to contact me at joshua_busby@harvard.edu if you have any questions.

Best,
Josh Busby
President, Friends of Ecuador
NPCA Board Representative, Americas Region