The Saga of Certicates of Service, Continued

3/6/10

Upon cleaning house, Mary discovered she had received a Certificate of Service along with a nice letter from President George W. Bush.

Meanwhile I got the following email:

"Dear Nick,

Pardon my delay in responding, I have been out of the office several times on leave and am catching up with several weeks worth of emails. Please note that I will be mailing the Certificates of Service at the end of June. Your certificate should arrive around the first week of July with consideration of the July 4th holiday.

Due to the temporary closure of a couple of Peace Corps countries in 2009 from civil unrest, we had to issue more Director Tschetter/President Bush COS certificates then we anticipated to those who choose to COS early as oppose to reassignment. As a result, we ran out of these certificates to fulfill the December 2008 quarter mailings. In anticipation of a new President and politically appointed director of the Peace Corps, our Director’s Office made the decision to wait for our new appointed director under the Obama administration to order the new certificates in bulk. Moreover, we were waiting for clearance from the White House to get approval for the new certificates with President Obama’s signature.

This long process for approval was finally granted two months ago. We have received two complaints of the 4,050 RPCVs we will send the certificates to who COSed from December 1, 2008 until May 31, 2010. Please rest assured that we take great pride in the service of our Volunteers. We made the decision to delay the certificate mailings so that they are consistent with past certificates with both the Peace Corps Director’s and the President’s signatures. We hope you understand and will enjoy your certificate when it arrives in July.

If you have further questions Nick, please feel free to call me at 202-692-1462.

All the best,Vivian Vivian Nguyên • Program Specialist • Third Goal & Peace Corps WeekPeace Corps 1111 20th St. NW Washington, DC 20526 202.692.1462 Peace Corps Volunteer, Niger, 2003-2005 "