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Office of National Service - FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] Status [2]: [Memo to POTUS 1,000 Points of Light and Mission #1 Yes to America 3/8/89]
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Office of National Service - FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] Status [2]: [Memo to POTUS 1,000 Points of Light and Mission #1 Yes to America 3/8/89]
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FOIA Number: 2013-0661-F (3)
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This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
Presidential Library Staff.
Collection/Record Group: Clinton Presidential Records
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Marvin Krislov
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Folder Title:
Office of National Service FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] Status [2]: [Memo to POTUS: 1,000
Points of Light & Mission #1 Yes to America 3/8/89]
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113
3
3
2
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR.
3/7/89
Noon
March 8, 1989
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH: STEVEN STUDDERT
FROM: GREGG PETERSMEYER
SUBJECT: THE THOUSAND POINTS OF LIGHT
and MISSION #1: YES TO AMERICA
Now we should move with a couple of bold strokes. If we do this
in the early days of your Presidency, when the country feels that
once-in-a-Presidency sense of freshness, national renewal and
hope that your personal leadership will make a difference, we can
begin to reform the way America envisions her future and the
strategy and resources to make the future work.
In the process, if we bring outstanding people in as additional
leaders of the effort, the metaphor of "a thousand points of
light" will be made more powerful by their energy, credibility
and confidence. Their commitment will help it take root and grow
in the public domain, rather than allow it to atrophy and die.
Here are some of the ways that I believe we should now move
forward:
1. We should not pull any punches. We should be clear
philosophically and publicly on several points that put service
to others in the right context:
A. God-awful problems now exist in certain areas of
American life.
B. Many of the problems have simply overwhelmed the
resources of government, which are critical but
insufficient for the work that needs to be done in
America.
C. At the center of most domestic problems (e.g., drug
abuse, teenage pregnancy, drop-outs, illiteracy, and
homelessness) are good people who are totally disconnected
from a healthy, close-knit, caring, strong and supportive
community (including a family). At the heart of the
problems, in fact, are disintegrated communities where
individuals are left alone, alienated, disoriented,
powerless, unloved, unhappy and without self-esteem.
D. Little is left for the nation to do now except have its
citizens with their own resources become get heavily
involved. These are no longer government problems just
requiring Federal money. These are national problems
Every Sector of society a serious responsibility
what is happenin now
PHOTOCOPY
BUSH
LIBRAR
requiring national as opposed to Federal resources. In
particular, they call for a dramatic increase in the scale
and effectiveness of the Americans people working on them
outside of government. Young people must be a major part
of this effort.
E. You come at this national situation with deeply
held conviction about how communities should work which
you have clearly expressed in your own life, in your
Inaugural Address and elsewhere. You have set out how you
intend to lead the nation in this regard (Attachment A).
F. Although this is a very long term national strategy, we
must now begin to lead people and groups to actually re-
weave and, if necessary, the invent new communities (which
is being done in many places with wonderful success)
If the nation succeeds at this, many other problems will
take care of themselves.
relavid reievent
2. Bring together a group of very independent, serious, hard-
driving, creative and respected individuals, many of whom are
dealing with some of the most awful community problems in the
country, and who have never come together for one effort. Ray
Chambers and I have developed a recommended list (Attachment B).
3. Ask them to form a Working Group, under the direction of the
Office of National Service, to make a recommendation to you
within 45 days of the best way to establish a private-public
foundation of which you would be the Chairman. The foundation's
objective would be to focus national resources (with special
emphasis on young people initially) on causing a new engagement
in the lives of other people. The purpose of people's engagement
in one another's lives is to actually re-weave the fabric of
communities or invent new communities. Issues to be addressed by
the Working Group and the perspective of the Office of National
Service on the Yes to America initiative which should be
considered are contained in Attachments C and D, respectively.
4. Shortly after the report of the Working Group, we recommend
that you create the Yes to America Foundation by signing an
Executive Order (a draft of an Executive Order is at Attachment
E). This is how the Peace Corps was formed. It is a tactic that
would allow us to somewhat leap-frog in public perception the
national service initiatives on the Hill (various proposals are
summarized at Attachment F) In any case, we want to begin
working with the Hill to outline the philosophy of national
service from your perspective and to line-up support.
5. We recommend that a central organizing theme of your first
year in office be your personal mission to empower individuals
and groups (with special focus initially on young people) to
aggressively re-weave the fabric of their own communities. We
would propose an integrated communication and legislative
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
the and mer
strategy (a first draft of which is at Attachment G) that would
engage the Bush family, young people, community groups, prominent
citizens, members of the Executive Branch, Congress, state and
local government officials, and others. Activities would run
between now and January, 1990 with the most intense and highest
level of activity running from September 1st through January.
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR.
ATTACHMENT A
THE PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE
The President believes that a "new engagement in the lives of
others" is now critical to America's future. More importantly,
time and time again, the President has said that this is the only
right way to behave or live. In St. Louis recently (2/17/89), he
said it rather forcefully: "From now on in America, any
definition of a successful life must include serving others -- in
a child care center, the corporate boardroom, in the Rotary, or
Little League, or a tutoring program, or a church or a
synagogue.
On January 20th, 1989, service to others was a basic organizing
theme and in many respects the moral center of gravity of the
Presidents Inaugural Address to the nation:
Excerpts From the President's Inaugural Address:
My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are
not the measure of our lives. In our hearts we know what
matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car,
a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what
it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who
leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he found
it.
And what do we want the men and women who work with us to
say when we are no longer there? That we were more driven to
succeed than anyone around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a
sick child had gotten better, and stayed a moment there to trade
a word of friendship?
No president, no government, can teach us to remember what
is best in what we are. But if the man you have chosen to lead
this government can help make a difference; if he can celebrate
the quieter, deeper successes that are not of gold and silk, but
of better hearts and finer souls; if he can do these things, then
he must.
America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in
high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today.
It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face
of the world.
My friends, we have work to do. There are the homeless,
lost and roaming, there are the children who have nothing -- no
love and no normalcy -- there are those who cannot free
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR.
Bold
themselves of enslavement to whatever addiction -- drugs,
welfare, the demoralization that rules the slums. There is crime
to be conquered, the rough crime of the streets. There are young
women to be helped who are about to become mothers of children
they can't care for and might not love. They need our care, our
guidance, and our education, though we bless them for choosing
life.
The old solution, the old way, was to think that public
money alone could end these problems. But we have learned that
that is not SO. And in any case, our funds are low. We have a
deficit to bring down. We have more will then wallet, but will
is what we need.
We will make the hard choices, looking at what we have and
perhaps allocating it differently, making our decisions based on
honest need and prudent safety.
And then we will do the wisest thing of all -- we will turn
to the only resource we have that in times of need always grows:
the goodness and the courage of the American people.
And I am speaking of a new engagement in the lives of others
-- a new activism, hands-on and involved, that gets the job done.
We must bring in the generations, harnessing the unused talent of
the elderly and the unfocused energy of the young. For not only
leadership is passed from generation to generation, but so is
stewardship. And the generation born after the Second World War
has "come of age.
I have spoken of a thousand points of light -- of all the
community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the
nation, doing good.
We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading,
sometimes being led, rewarding. We will work on this in the
White House, in the Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people
and the programs that are the brighter points of light, and I'll
ask every member of my government to become involved.
The old ideas are new again because they are not old, they
are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that
finds its expression in taking part and pitching in.
George Burn
dtr
title
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR.
College-Cen Delve
- Disabled
- Hispanic
- youth
- women ATTACHMENT B
INITIAL WORKING GROUP (12 PEOPLE)
dELIX lower
Gregg Petersmeyer
Volunters RESCEID
Ray Chambers
Girl Scort I
Jim Rouse, Enterprise Foundation
(Housing for the poor)
Millard Fuller, Habitat for Humanity
(housing for the poor)
ILinda ???
Jim Robinson, Chief Executive Officer,
American Express
(United Way, New York Partnership)
Governor Thomas H. Kean, New Jersey
Edward J. Bloustein
President, Rutgers University
Father Bruce Ritter, Covenant House
David Kearns Chief Executive Officer
Xerox Corporation
John Raynolds, Author of Beyond Success and
?
President of Outward Bound
Ross Perot
?
Peter Flanigan, Dillon-Read
Sybil Mobley, President, !!
School of Business & Industry
Florida A&M University
Robert Baldwin, Chairman mayan stanly
Cities in Schools
7
Governor Robert Casey, Pennsylvania
Governor Rudy Perpich, Minnesota
?
7
Robert Winters, Chairman
Prudential Insurance Company
Jeremiah Millbank
Chairman, Boys Clubs of America
Marua Collins
cisneros
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
Loret Ruppe
Former Director of Peace Corps
Brian Rosborough, President
Earthwatch
Bill Milliken
Cities in Schools
Bud Sheble
California Conservation Corps
Bobby Heard
University of Texas
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
ATTACHMENT C
WORKING GROUP ISSUES
1.
Legal Structure
a.
Private-public partnership incorporated through a
non-profit corporation
2.
Organizational Structure
a.
National Board of Directors
b.
National Board of Advisors
C.
National Office - Staffing
d.
State Boards of Advisors
e.
Regional, State and Local Offices
Would the local offices have separate boards of
directors and advisors. 0
3.
Capitalization
a.
Initially from the private sector
b.
Ultimately from private and public sources
C.
How to make entity economically self-sufficient
4.
Legislative Requirements
make 50 was octive today
a.
Minimum community service time for employees
b.
Required community service for high school diploma
C.
Credit toward college degree for community service
d.
Requirement for Social Security and welfare
recipients
e.
Issue of compensation
5.
One-year and five-year plans for movement
a.
Financial
b.
Specific Objectives
6.
Programs of Substance
a.
Youth tutoring and mentoring
b.
Housing for those without
C.
Converting non-productive human resources to
productive
7.
Data Base
a.
Identifying existing, qualified organizations and
the need for volunteers
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
b.
Identifying potential volunteers and organizations
with which they desire to work
C.
Guidelines of operation and behavior for both
organizations and individuals
d.
Training of organizations as well as people
How to setup whin types of successful
8.
Marketing and Recommendations
a.
How is the program going to be marketed to produce
the maximum results?
b.
How to capitalize on the "magic" of the program?
C.
How to recognize people and organizations for
their service?
- Awards
- Celebrity supported social events and fund-
raising events
- Newsletter
- Telethons and walkathons
- T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps
d.
Opportunity for volunteers and beneficiaries to
own capital
9.
How to fully integrate the volunteers, beneficiaries
and each community?
10. Should the Foundation include all age groups, all
economic levels, etc.
11. How to structure an effective multi-layered base of
communication so that everybody participating feels
that all of his suggestions are being heard.
Conclusion
The Committee will present a written report to the President
within 45 days relating to its conclusions and
recommendations.
The Committee will be guided by the Office of National
Service on behalf of the President over the 45-day period.
The Office will direct the work of the Foundation once
established
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
ATTACHMENT D
OFFICE OF NATIONAL SERVICE
PERSPECTIVE ON YES TO AMERICA FOUNDATION
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the foundation is to focus the country on the next
generation and on constructive activities in which young people
are engaged or should be engaged in solving problems in their own
communities.
At the individual level, people need to gain and enjoy a measure
of respect for helping other people. The President should us his
office to give value to this whole notion of individuals being
outer-directed. The President will recognize, honor; and
encourage young people, adults and communities where service to
others is noteworthy. More specific objectives include:
1. Increase scale and effectiveness of youth contribution
2. Make tangible progress on certain problems
3. Actually re-weave communities or invent new ones
4. Habituate service in the lives of young people
Scale and Effectiveness
The primary objective of Yes to America is to substantially
increase the scale and effectiveness of young American's
contribution to specific community problem-solving activities.
Importantly, this requires a community environment in which every
young person is viewed as having something of value to give to
the community and a willingness on the part of the adults to seek
and accept those gifts eagerly.
Tangible Progress
A second objective is to make tangible progress nationally among
some of the most pressing domestic problems. This means we will
focus some attention on encouraging young people to become
engaged in community projects that may be small but have a proven
track-record of successfully achieving measurable objectives (see
section entitled "Inventing Communities").
Re-weaving Communities
A third objective is for Yes to America itself cause community
leaders to try to work together in different ways than in the
past for the good of the community. In large part, the fabric of
many communities is disintegrating simply because adults who
control various and critical resources within the community have
not found compelling reasons to closely work together.
PHOTOCOPY - bush LIBRAR.
Habituating Behavior
A final objective is to cause young people to get into the habit
of serving their communities. Many adults who today are among
the most valued contributors to the work of their communities
will tell you that it was at a young age that they learned the
importance of service by serving.
in atteast
THE CALL TO ACTION
The President will challenge all young people regardless of age
to engage two (2) hours per week in community service. Young
people of junior high school age and older would be challenged to
contribute time in the community actually doing work. Young
people of elementary school age would be challenged to do
classroom work for the benefit of the community (e.g., write
letters or draw pictures for those in nursing homes) or perhaps
on some occasions embark on useful trips within the community
(e.g., visit the elderly citizens in retirement or nursing homes
where they might use some cheering-up).
Assuming that the nation's approximately 40,000,000 young people
were to accept the President's challenge to devote 2 hours per
week to community service, it would be equivalent of adding
2,000,000 full-time workers to community service. This does not
include, of course, the incremental community service being
provided by new Mentors to the young community workers.
Istmation
The call to action needs to come from many quarters in order for
it to be effectively heard. The President must lead the effort.
But other members of the Administration and leaders within
Congress, as well as government leaders at the state and local
level would be included. A wide variety of other leaders from
various parts of society (e.g., entertainers, sports figures,
corporate leaders, educators, etc.) would be expected to call the
various participants to action.
COMPENSATION
The indisputable fact is that the principal compensation for
community service is the personal satisfaction of helping other
people cope with their important problems. In fact, the
foundation believes that the greatest needs of those who should
want to be engaged in community service are to be led, directed,
challenged and satisfied, not paid.
Having said this, the foundation will not in any way discourage
individuals engaged in community service programs that provide
compensation. Indeed, every effort will be made to find ways of
? "tilting" or directing youth funds currently allocated by
government at various levels toward service compensation for
community service activities.
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
While the foundation itself will not utilize its own resources to
financially compensate individuals for community service, it will
seek to establish a wide variety of other forms of
"compensation." Institutions that will be expected to
"compensate" participants will be:
1. Schools and Universities
2. Youth Groups
3. Corporations
4. Government and Non-Profit Groups
Schools and Universities
The compensation will be promotion. Elementary, junior and
senior high school, and college and university students would be
required to dedicate between 60 and 100 hours per year (including
summer work) in order to be promoted to the next grade. High
school, college and university students would also be given
credit toward their degrees for community service within
prescribed programs determined by the institutions themselves.
Youth Groups
The compensation will be recognition and promotion (where
and
applicable). In Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA, etc., award programs
will be instituted by each organization for community service.
Where the youth group has a program that involves promotion
through various ranks, the young person would be required to
dedicate between 60 and 100 hours per year effectively (including
summer work) in order to be promoted. Obviously, work done in
connection with a school community service objective would count
in this regard. The purpose of this objective within youth
groups independent of the schools is to attempt to pick-up young
people who may not be enrolled in school.
Corporations
Corporations and other businesses will compensate employees with
awards and, perhaps more importantly, inclusion of community
service involvement on their formal promotion evaluation reports.
Individual businesses could mandate that each employee volunteer
two hours per week as a Mentor in the Youth Challenge. Perhaps
half of the time would be on the company and half during the
employee's free time. Recognition incentive awards would be
offered to and by the employers.
Government and Non-Profit Groups
Government entities, including the military forces, as well as
the non-profit groups would have similar compensation
requirements in terms of awards and incentives for promotion for
their own participants serving as Mentors. Perhaps engagement in
community service as Mentors will be mandated to extend to
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR.
include recipients of social security, unemployment and other
entitlement benefits as well.
ELIGIBILITY
1. All young people
2. Schools, youth groups and churches
3. Potential mentors from every institution
4. Community-based service organizations
All Young People
All young people will be equally welcome and strongly encouraged
to engage in the Youth Challenge. This means students, drop-
outs, minorities, disabled and delinquent. Special emphasis will
be on students of high school and junior high schooł age. But
young people from first grade through graduate school will be
asked to engage themselves in the process.
Schools, Youth Groups and Churches
All schools and other major collecting points for young people
(e.g., Boys Clubs, YMCA and other youth group locations) will be
invited to be a central role in the Youth Challenge. For those
of junior and senior high school ages, these locations will be
the basic sourcing points for Mentors to become engaged with
young people and to determine jointly the most appropriate
community service opportunity. For those of younger ages, it
will be the point of origin for community service ideas and
project implementation. (For additional information about the
role of schools, see section entitled "Points of Access").
Mentors From Everywhere
Young people will asked to be or in other ways be linked to
either their older peers, their parents or in most cases other
adults from a wide assortment of community institutions. Mentors
who will provide "permanent" guidance and involvement will be
actively sought from every segment of the community, including:
- Students and Youth Groups
- Parents and Parent Groups
- Corporations/Business Groups
- Teachers/Educational Groups
- Religious Institutions
- Professional Groups (e.g., Lawyers, Athletes)
- Communication/Media Groups
- Government Entities
- Military Service Groups
- Social/Civic/Not-for-Profit Groups
- Senior Citizen Groups
- Citizen/Community Groups
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR.
Just as young people of all backgrounds and circumstances will be
equally welcome and encouraged to participate simply because each
has something to give to their community, all adults of every
background and circumstances will be treated the same way. This
means that even those who have significant problems will be asked
to lead. For example, existing welfare legislation, which
already provides for volunteer service by its beneficiaries,
would be expanded to include serving as a "mentor" to a young
person engaged in community service.
Community Service Organizations
Community-based service organizations that satisfy certain
criteria that the foundation regards as key factors for success
in program design and implementation. These will involve
adequate training capabilities within the organization, the
ability to integrate volunteers into the organization and treat
volunteers as employees in terms of responsibilities, and
accountability. We must be careful that young people, as a
result of the President's initiative, do not wind up exerting
efforts and providing service to entities which are shams.
POINTS OF ACCESS
1. Schools and Youth Groups
2. Community View of Youth
3. Information and Sanctions
Schools and Youth Groups
For youth service to take hold, places where young people
naturally congregate need to be one of the center-pieces of the
effort. The schools and formal youth groups at all levels need
to do two things. First, the schools and youth groups need to
weave the notion and logic of community service into their
curriculum and philosophy of learning. We would expect to
contribute for this purpose Community Service Teaching
Supplements for various academic levels. Second, they need to
help find ways to actively engage young people in community
service projects.
Community View of Youth
It is important that a community's young people be
enthusiastically invited to contribute to the work of the
community. This means that community service groups must be
prepared to accept into meaningful roles the new, young workers.
In order to make the community service undertaking satisfying to
the volunteer, there should be some guidelines issued to the
community service organizations suggesting what type of work the
volunteers could do, how many hours per week, how they should be
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
trained and supervised and how the effort can be made as
interesting and potentially rewarding as possible.
Other Information and Sanctions
The foundation will develop a data bank which will refer
interested mentors and young people to qualified organizations in
their local geographic area. A screening process will exist to
verify the authenticity of each organization. We believe that
with presently available data and certain existing screening
organizations, data of this nature could be assembled in short
order.
We would also propose to have a guide book for potential
volunteers suggesting mode of behavior, what to expect, how to
avoid certain problems, how to get the most out of volunteer
service and other "do's" and "don'ts." This guide book be
incorporated into one of the Community Service Teaching
Supplements for schools as well as be available outside of the
schools.
MENTORS, PEER GROUPS AND INDIVIDUAL YOUTH
One of the basic objectives of the Yes to America Foundation is
to significantly enlarge the contribution that young Americans
make to the work of existing community-based service
organizations. In the end, many of the new participants, both
mentors and young workers, will engage themselves in community
work through these existing organizations.
But the supply of mentors and young people will be too great for
the existing organizations to absorb alone. Moreover, some young
people, like elementary school students, will need to improvise
their community engagement under the direction of their teachers.
And countless other mentors and young will want to find their own
special ways to give service to their communities. All of this
will be equally welcomed.
INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS AND TANGIBLE RESULTS
The foundation will also focus on several exciting and innovative
national programs with which the young people can identify and
that set them apart from anything that has been done before. The
objective will be to dramatically improve the quality of life in
America. The areas of concentration will be the education of our
urban children in a way that helps solve the drug problem and
housing for those without. With some programs we can begin high
on the learning curve to execute these programs with complete
national support.
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
1. Education and Drugs
2. Housing for Those Without Homes
Education and Drugs
It is clear that with the United States education system lagging
behind other countries, one of our greatest needs is to improve
the quality of education, particularly among the less
economically fortunate. Better education will mean a more
effective labor force, which in turn will cause the United States
to be more productive. This process will reduce the number of
people dependent upon government support and, at the same time,
increase national revenues as a result of the enhancement of
productivity.
With the President's focus on education and Mrs. Bush's
commitment to literacy, we should create and mobilize a volunteer
service force dedicated to enhancing the education of the
disadvantaged. Through mentoring and tutoring by volunteers of
all ages, it is clear that inner city and other unfortunate
students would significantly improve their academic performance.
The ultimate goal would be to achieve a "one on one" volunteer to
student relationship. So many of our inner city minority youth
fail because there is no one to express caring or concern about
their schooling results. That mentor or "big brother" or "big
sister" would have a dramatic impact on the values and ethics of
each youth. Undoubtedly a significant by-product of this
relationship would be a major contribution to solving the drug
problem.
Housing for Those Without
It is clear that the ownership of housing is the dream of all
Americans and the opportunity for shelter the right of all of our
citizens.
If we could organize a volunteer force around Jim Rouse's
Enterprise Foundation and Millard Fuller's Habitat for Humanity,
we would no doubt have the most effective group dedicated to
solving the problem of housing for the poor. With Enterprise's
technical expertise and Habitat's ability to attract and organize
volunteers, we would begin with a strong nucleus.
For volunteers of different ages, helping with the acquisition of
property, the financing for development and the actual
construction on a community and neighborhood level can be a very
satisfying form of community service. This initiative would be
coordinated with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR.
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR SUCCESS
1. Young People
2. Mentors and Peer Groups
3. Service Organizations
Three groups share responsibility for the success of the Youth
Challenge. Young people have to accept the challenge and
seriously commit themselves to the 2 hours per week objective.
The mentors must shoulder the responsibility for ensuring that
the willing young people find a suitable outlet for his or her
commitment even if that requires more than one attempt. Finally,
the community service organizations have a responsibility to
respond aggressively to the President's challenge by finding ways
to make their organizations eager partners of young people in
this effort to significantly increase the scale and effectiveness
of their contribution to community service.
FOUNDATION STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION
1. Capitalization
2. Organizational structure
3. Planning
4. Pilot program
Capitalization
The foundation will be capitalized with $50 million for the first
year beginning July 1, 1989 and ending June 30, 1990. The source
of the funds will be $25 million coming from the private sector
and $25 million from the Federal Government.
To facilitate the most rapid program, an interim budget for the
foundation between now and June 30, 1989 could be financed with
private sector funds. With the initial contributions coming from
individuals and/or corporations, the Congress should regard this
positively. Normally initiative need the government's money
first.
Organization
The President will be Chairman of the Foundation and Chairman of
the Board of Trustees. The Deputy Assistant to the President for
National Service will be Deputy Chairman. The foundation's Board
of Directors will have an Executive Committee of Co-Chairmen for
the Private Sector, Youth, Education, Churches, Service Groups
and Government. The foundation will have a President and an
Executive Director.
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
National Board of Directors
The Board of Directors will be the board of authority. The
personalities and chemistry of the group an exciting one when it
meets. The board should have other attributes, e.g.
- Shirt-sleeve, working board
- Lots of new faces
- Young, under fifty primarily (e.g. Bill Gates)
- Fired-up about changing things
- Builders, not planners (e.g. Jim Rouse)
- Leaders, not managers (e.g. Bill Clinton)
The board should changed frequently enough to have it remain
energetic (e.g. perhaps a two year term) There should be
continuity also (e.g. at retirement, a board member makes 3
successor recommendations). Each board member would receive a
Presidential certificate at retirement.
The board will have a number of responsibilities, e.g.
- Set the path for the organization
- Select the Chairman of the State Boards
- Determine what kinds of people should be on the State
Boards
- Establish measurable goals for the State Boards
- Determine the budgets
- Provide matching funds for the State Boards
- Provide states with seed money to raise award funds
locally
National Advisory Board
The President will appoint a National Advisory Board. The
foundation's community, state and regional leaders should
comprise the National Board of Advisors. The Board of Advisors
role should be one of suggesting and counseling to the executive
staff and the Board of Trustees but not have authority.
Encouraging advice and ideas, as well as criticism from every
local volunteer makes the Board of Advisors position crucial to
effective and reciprocal communication with the millions of
volunteers. This bilateral communication may well be one of the
keys to the success of the foundation.
The Board will consist of leaders from the various sectors whose
commitment is critical to the engagement of large parts of
American society in this effort.
- Business and Professional Leaders
- Educational Leaders
- Religious Leaders
PHOTOCOPY - BUSH LIBRAR
- Labor Leaders
- Government Leaders
- Youth Leaders
- Service Group and Not-for-Profit leaders
National State Advisory Boards
Each state will have a National State Advisory Board. Part of
the agenda of their meetings will be set by the National Board.
Membership can be between 7 and 17 members. Members are to be
selected by the individual Chairmen of the State Board. The
State Chairmen are to be selected by the National Board. The
National Executive Committee will submit to the Board two choices
and one recommendation and the full Board will select.
Meetings
Annual Meeting: 1 to include National and State Boards
(will include some award presentations)
National Board: 4 meetings including annual meeting
(at White House and in country)
National Advisory Board: 2 meetings including annual
meeting
State Boards: 4 meetings including annual meeting
National Office Staff
- President of foundation
- Executive Director
- Training Director and Staff
- Advertising Director and Staff
- Promotional Director and Staff
- Information Director and Staff
- Budget Director and Staff
- Management Information System
Planning
The foundation will immediately develop a one-year plan and a
five-year plan that would incorporate not only financial data but
also specific objectives with respect to employment of
volunteers, programs initiated and beneficiaries helped.