April 13, 2004

NPCA 2003 Newsletter Award Committee

1990 L St NW Suite 205

Washington, DC20036

Dear Ms Goldberg,Awards Committee Chair;

It is my pleasure to submit to you the Friends of Morocco newsletter for consideration in the 2004 Country of Service content and design competition.

As required, enclosed please find four copies each of our last four FOM Newsletters all published within the last 12 months. Kathleen Trayte is our Newsletter editor.

Below is some information not readily apparent in the newsletters that you might find useful in your consideration of our nomination.

These four newsletters had hard copy press runs of 800 (Spring 2003); 2400 (Summer 2003) and 700 (Winter 2004 and Spring 2004) copies. Additionally, the last ten Newsletters are also available for download from our web site as PDF files. We do not have data on how many people read from the web or download copies. All the Newsletters (and the rest of the FOM web site) are searchable using our site-specific Google search. We alert members and non-members of Newsletter web availability by email and listserve. We mail copies under our non-profit 501C3 bulk-mailing permit to members and recently lapsed members in our database. The database of 3150 has about 2150 valid addresses of the approximately 4000 volunteers and staff who served in Peace Corps Morocco since 1963. Annually we mail the Newsletter to all valid addresses, which we will do for our summer 2004 issue. All Newsletters are tagged “Change Service Requested” which allows us to keep the address database current through postal returns.

At Friends of Morocco expense, M’hamed El Kadi, the librarian at Peace Corps/Morocco and the Friends of Morocco liaison in Morocco reproduces the Newsletter and using the volunteer mailboxes at Peace Corps/Morocco distributes the Newsletter to each of the 150 volunteers currently serving. He also handles the distribution of the Newsletter to members resident in Morocco saving us international postage. He provides to us the volunteer’s monthly newsletter called “Peace Works” which provides excellent source material and information from Morocco. M’hamed also produces the weekly “News in Review” that is emailed to serving volunteers, sent out on our listserve and posted each Saturday to the Friends of Morocco web site (See

We have a number of features in our newsletter that might be worthy of calling to the attention of other Country of Service groups.

One of our most popular features is “Ash Khabarna”, Moroccan dialectical Arabic for “What’s the news with us?”. While we get some voluntary and solicited contributions, most of the news is gleaned from the membership applications and renewals, particularly answers in response to the questions “Briefly, what have you done since leaving Peace Corps?” and “What are you doing now?”. We use the Newsletter as the primary record and alert to all members of the activities of the Friends of Morocco.

We strive to include articles featuring many facets of Morocco, including rugs, crafts and art, recipes, book reviews, travel stories and politics as well as the activities in the US and overseas of Friends of Morocco members. “Morocco in the Movies” is a regular column, written by RPCV Dan Cahill, which discusses and analyzes films made in or placed in Morocco. We also have a series “Our Man in Morocco” tracking the adventures of a serving volunteer. The number of articles submitted by Friends of Morocco members has increased dramatically to the point that we cannot include all of them in any one issue and must sometimes postpone their publication to the next issue.

To maintain membership we insert in every issue a membership application/renewal form. The form has a place for “Additional contribution to Friends of Morocco” and we attempt in each issue to recognize those people making extra contributions beyond membership. On the mailing label we include membership status noting “Time to join FOM” or, for example, “FOM to 8/03”.

Our electronic newsletter on our web site complements the hard copy newsletter. In addition to PDF versions of the hard copy newsletter, the electronic newsletter provides additional information of potential interest to our members. Included is over four years of weekly “News in Review” compiled by M’hamed El Kadi and a rolling Monthly Newsletter with links to articles posted on the web related to Morocco. As a courtesy to Friends of Tunisia, which lacks our electronic capabilities, we post their almost monthly electronic newsletter to our web site. Finally, at the bottom of the newsletter web page, we have compiled a series of links to the commercial news services providing additional current information about Morocco.

We appreciate the opportunity to submit our experience for consideration. We have benefited from the review process and our review of the other Group Newsletters deemed exemplary by NPCA.

Tim Resch, President

Friends of Morocco

6713 Beddoo St

Alexandria, VA 22306-6607

H 703 660 9292

W 202 712 4453

F 202 216 3171

C 703 470 3166

/ Friends of Morocco
PO Box 2579
Washington, DC 20013-2579
703 660 9292