Retirement and Easter and the application process

Retirement ?


Friday was my last day at work – so I’m officially retired for six weeks until I head off to Ghana.
Yesterday the local Peace Corps staff put on a picnic for applicants, nominees, invitees, and RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers).  The picnic was a great with about 30 people – mainly FPCVs (Future Peace Corps Volunteer in the stage of applicant, nominee, or invitee).  I forgot about taking pictures. Hmm, in the future I’ll try to remember stuff like that. 

Anyway, I am taking my next steps to get myself ready for service during this six week “retirement”.  My time will be spent getting my house and myself ready and visiting my family and Theresa’s family.  I’m getting stuff collected for packing and I’ll provide the required “packing list post” in the near future hopefully before departure.  I’ll land in Ghana on June 4th – about 45 days away.  Wow.

Happy Easter


Happy Easter to my family and friends – I miss you today and will miss you more next year about this time.


Thoughts on the Peace Corps Application Process


While at the picnic I talked with the recruiters and others about making the process easier on the applicants.  My hardest time was the “radio silence” between medical/legal preclearance and getting the invitation.

My suggestion was that the Peace Corps should periodically send an email out to remind the person waiting that they have not been forgotten.  Someone responded that the Peace Corps is hard and those who don’t have the patience and endurance to survive the “radio silence” would likely drop out early (the official term is early terminate or ET).  The person thought that making the process easier would lead to a greater percent of people who ET during pre-service training (PST – the approximately 2.5 months of training before service) or ET early in service.

I don’t know if this is true, but I will say to all those waiting for their invitation:
“You have not been forgotten and thanks for your patience.”

I also want to thank the placement office for all their hard work.  The volunteers realize it is not an easy job, even if we are not always the most patient people.

Another person, who would know, mentioned that a substantial number of people turn down their invite.  Obviously life goes on during the six to eight months people wait between nomination and invitation.  There must be a way to suspend or withdrawal the application, but since I never considered that I have no idea how that would be done.  I guess other reasons to turn down an invite are because someone is unhappy with where they will be serving or what they will be doing.  I said “anywhere, anything, and anytime” figuring God, the universe, and the federal government has more information to make the decision than I.

The person then went on to say that the Peace Corps is working to reduce the time from application to deployment to about six months.  I agreed that the Peace Corps might be able to reduce some of the processing time – for example that amount of time from interview to nomination or the amount of time for final medical clearance after all the tasks are submitted.  However, the process is basically a queuing problem with service times, arrival rates, and queue waits.  I replied that the Peace Corps CANNOT reduce the entire process to six months given the current rate of applicants and the number of volunteer positions open.

Caution, math stuff ahead.


I don’t think the Peace Corps has a lot of control over the length of time from application to departure.  The overall time is based primarily on the number and arrival rate of people coming into the system and the number and departure schedule of placement positions in the host countries.

There are tons of factors that complicate things.  Programs may open and close due to stability and safety issues in countries so the number of placement positions may change at the last minute.  The number of volunteers deployed could increase or decrease based on funding increases or decreases.  The economy and advertisement may increase or decrease the number of applications.  All these factors drive the total time from application to deployment.

There are some internal “service times” – scheduling the interview, completing the nomination, placement evaluation, medical evaluation, and such.  In total all this time, plus the amount of time for the invitee to complete medical tasks and answer other questions likely could be done in less than 6 months, is currently likely done is less than 6 months.  A few weeks could likely be trimmed off with better automation and process efficiency.  However, any reduction in these service times will make little different with the overall time between application and departure.

The overall time from application to deployment depends on those service times and the “queue wait” times.

The wait time is determined by the number of people applying which is generally beyond the control of the Peace Corps.  If a lot of people apply then people will tend to wait longer than if fewer people apply, much like people waiting in line at the post office or a deli.

For example: the total length of time from application to departure has recently been averaging about one year based on an unscientific survey (scanning blogs like crazy and facebook discussions). Some people take longer for medical and other reasons, married couples tend to wait longer and some people have a shorter wait because of some special qualification or a lot of luck.  But the general recent average is just about a year.

Some of the major stages after the application are the interview, nomination, pre-clearances, invitation and departure.  My time from application through pre-clearances was fast – 54 days versus a recent average of 137 days or 83 days faster than average.  However, my time to between pre-clearances and invitation was long, and including the shutdown, 162 days versus a recent average of 83 days, or 79 days longer than average.  My time from invite to departure was about average, 150 days versus average of 144 days.  My total time from application to departure has been about average, almost exactly one year.

I don’t think that my longer time from pre-clearance to invitation was due to some “slowness” in the placement office.  The placement office works very hard of course and was NOT slow with my invite, but they can only place so many people based on departure times.  I think that even if there was no government shutdown my wait would have been about the same length of time.  I was nominated for a June departure and most people are invited between three and six months of departure.  I am sure that my application was sitting in a queue with nothing happening for most of those 162 days.  As long as the number of new applications continue at the current rate those “wait” times should OVERALL be about the same for most people.

This is not anyone’s fault – but just the way it works.

Most of this is just my inference based on information reported by recent FPCVs and PCVs.  I don’t have any official stats or inside information.  And of course this is simplified and generalized.  People with special medical situations or high demand skills or whatever may take much longer or shorter.

Bottom line, my opinion, is the entire process is moving as fast as it can based on the number of people “in the queue”.  A longer wait is a good thing because it means that more people are volunteering.  Let me know if I have any errors or misperceptions in this post.

Dear applicant and nominee:
I know it can be hard but please practice patience during the process.  Rely on the support of family and others.  Facebook is a great source to talk about the process.  We’ve all been or are going through it.


Dear friend, please support the Peace Corps.  (Again – this blog and my views are not official and do not reflect the views of the Peace Corps or other organizations – and this is not a paid political announcement)

I would encourage everyone to write or call their elected officials to increase funding so we can increase the number of volunteers and the work to bring peace and security to the world and thereby to our country and our families.  Peace Corps is a great investment.  According to queuing theory if we can increase the number of placements for volunteers each year by increasing funding then the wait time from application to departure will reduce (for the math purists (and I’m not one): this presumes no change in the arrival rate).


Thanks…

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