United Through the Wire – Our Organization Thrives in a Digital World
February 2, 2014 Leave a comment
– Kevin H. Souza, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Malawi
The key to maintaining volunteer organizations is creating self-sustaining practices and this has been the approach of the LGBT Peace Corps group for the last few years, particularly in the area of communication. Our communication strategy consist of a wordpress website, a discussion group hosted by Yahoo Groups, a Facebook group and a Twitter account.
Website LGBRPCV
We have had a web presence since the mid-1990s and have published hundreds of stories from queer volunteers and their friends about the countries where they serve, about what life is like back in the states or about new adventures since the Peace Corps. Our website is hosted at http://www.lgbrpcv.org and currently contains almost 200 timely articles from 48 countries ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe. You can follow new publications on our website and we welcome comments online. If you follow your news on a blog reader (RSS) the newsfeed URL for our website is http://lgbrpcv.org/feed/.
The website averages about 100 visits a day from almost every country in the world. Our most popular articles of all time are:
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The Life of a Transgender PCV: Are you a Boy or a Girl by Bryce Wolfe
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Open Secrets – Serving Queer in Paraguay – Compiled and Edited by Manuel Colón and Fiona Martin
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Building My Own Closet in Paraguay – by Fiona Martin
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Is There Gay Life in Benin? – by a former volunteer
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It’s Not That Bad in Paraguay – by Manuel Colón
Online Discussion Group at Yahoo! Groups
Our Yahoo! Groups listserv at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/lgbrpcv/ has attracted 655 members since January 27, 1999 and inspired 4192 messages. It is one of the richest sources of information on queer issues in Peace Corps service and the full archive is easily searchable. In the archive you will find 170 postings on Malawi, 145 on Russia, 126 on China, and 79 on Mongolia – just to scratch the surface. To search the archives or join the conversation you can subscribe at lgbrpcv-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Our fastest growing community is found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/lgbrpcv/ with more than 145 members and growing daily. Discussions similar to our Yahoo! Groups are found here with postings from potential applicants, recently placed applicants and former volunteers sharing advice and stories about life as a queer volunteer in the Peace Corps. Recent discussions have included service in Columbia, Uganda, and Russia. You will also find information on Peace Corps events and interesting polls from our members. Boasting active members of Peace Corps it is also a great place to track new policy, advocacy and opportunity.
Finally, our group has a presence on Twitter. You can follow us at https://twitter.com/LGBT_RPCV. Like Facebook, our Twitter community is growing fast with over 145 followers and posts that encourage local get-togethers, highlight volunteers and queer Peace Corps employees around the country.
The easiest way to be a part of our community is join in the discussion. You have many options depending on your favored way of communicating. Lets us hear from you.
For questions or comments about our communications strategies contact kevin.souza@gmail.com
About LGBT RPCV