Encampment for Citizenship Alumni Association

Welcome to the Encampment for Citizenship Alumni Association!

Current planning and activities

The EFC Board of Directors and committee members will convene with a retreat over Memorial Day weekend in the New York City area to plan our next moves in bringing the EFC back to life. Watch this space for updates on plans and activities!

The 2012 EFC retreat will take place over Memorial Day weekend (Friday, May 25-Sunday, May 27, 2012) at Stony Point Center, north of NYC (http://www.stonypointcenter.org/). We hope to see many old friends at this important event.

Plans are to discuss where we want to go and how we will get there. Each committee – and the board – will do some preparatory work before the meeting and actual planning during the meeting. Committee information will be posted here shortly so you can join whichever one interests you most.

We already have completed the important step of incorporating the EFC in California!

Early discussions focused on leaving the 2012 EFC retreat with:
a) a clear idea of where we will might get the money to do what needs to be done
b) agreement on the organizing educational philosophy guiding the EFC
c) identification of organizations/agencies that have connections to youth from which we can recruit young people to participate
d) long-term plans for bringing us into the 21st century technologically
e) a timeline and action plan for re-establishing the EFC (recruiting new board members, recruiting youth, fundraising, program development, etc.)

Dear Alum/Friend of the Encampment for Citizenship (EFC):
CALL TO ACTION! We're serious about re-establishing the EFC! Please join us!
The word “encampment” is back. From Wall Street to Main Street, citizens are banding together and engaging in conversation that is participatory and inclusive. People are looking for a way to change the world and are, once again, standing up for what matters to them. Standing up for a better world is precisely what the Encampment for Citizenship encourages people to do. You can participate in making it happen for today’s youth. Our goal is to run a pilot program for youth in 2013 in Richmond, VA.
Since May 2011:

• We have filed articles of incorporation in California and submitted the federal paperwork for tax-exempt, non-profit status.
• Your fellow alums have been working on program development, alumni outreach and fundraising in anticipation of this revival.
• Regionally based alumni groups have been forming and will be contacting you soon.
• Our partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University, the caretakers of the EFC Archives, continues to deepen.

We have accomplished a great deal with volunteer time and money, but the EFC needs your help. Together, we can reach the goal of youth summer programming a great deal faster. There’s a place and a role for everyone in this process.

Here’s how you can help.

1. Stand up and be counted.

• Join us on Facebook and share your Encampment story.
• Complete the online survey for alumni (found at www.EFCalumni.com).
• Reach out to other alums. Point them to this web page and tell them what's going on!
  
• Join one of the working committees -- see below.

2.    Contribute a gift to the Encampment for Citizenship (see below for methods of payment).

• Donate $25 or more.
• Pledge a monthly contribution to help cover fixed expenses.

OUR GOAL IS TO RAISE $30,000 by April 2012, and that's just the beginning.
With this money, we will:

• Sponsor young people in the 2013 pilot Encampment program.
• Continue to build our organizational infrastructure and plan programming.
• Continue to build the EFC archive at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
• Build a new, comprehensive and interactive website to showcase our place in American history and provide a virtual home for the EFC family.

We plan to bring back the magic of EFC, but we need your help. Join us!
If you would like a tax deduction for your contribution, please make out your check to “BOSS” (Berkeley Oakland Support Services, our fiscal sponsor) and write “EFC” on the notation line. You will receive a statement with the total amount of your annual donation at the end of the year for income tax purposes. If you do not need a tax donation, just address the check to the EFC and send it to EFC, PO Box 1210, Aptos, CA 95001-1210.
To donate online, go to: 
https://www.wepay.com/x16812z/donate/11715

Thank you for whatever you are moved to contribute!

In peace and gratitude,
Encampment for Citizenship Board of Directors
Chair, Ada Deer (1956, New York)
Vice Chair, Margot Gibney (1971, Montana)
Secretary, Beth Daniels (1970, White Plains)
Treasurer, Steve Leibman (1969, Montana)
Mirian Chavis (1982, New Mexico)
Jim Elam (1957, New York, 1966 staff)
Tanya Espy-Disparti (1989, California)
Jackie Frank (1971, Arizona)
Bob Hirsch (1970, Montana)
Terrence Jones (1981, Washington, DC)
Dyanne London (1981, Washington, DC staff)
Bob Lubetsky (1976-1982, staff)
Nancy Marr (1950, New York)
David Sandoval (1966, Washington, DC, 1968 staff)

EFC Committees
ALL COMMITTEES NEED YOUR INVOLVEMENT! For more information, use the Contact button.

• Alumni/Outreach Committee
• Communication Committee
• Finance Committee
• Program Committee

Current contact info
We have new contact information. Just click on the Contact button at left for details.

If you would to contribute to this important effort, just click on the Donate button at left.

Building an archive and historical record
There’s more to the preservation and promulgation of the legacy of the Encampment for Citizenship (EFC) than just donating money. Dr. Edward H. Peeples (NY’57, KY’66) has established an archival repository for the Encampment in the Special Collections and Archives Department of the James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond. If you have any materials from your EFC days and beyond and want to be part of EFC history-making, click on the “Archives” button at left for information.

Relive and revive the EFC!
Participating in the Encampment for Citizenship was a life-changing experience for students, staff and faculty. Several Encampers and staff members who valued that experience have come together to create the EFC Alumni Association as a way of remembering and reconnecting with our friends from those days. The EFC Alumni Association has held reunion events and is holding a new event this coming spring to look at bringing the EFC back into being (see above). Come and add your voice to the process!

To join the EFC Alumni Association, just click here for a membership form. Thanks!

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A 2011 gathering - EFC revival effort is underway
In May 2011, EFC alumni came together for inspiring annual event in Charlotte

The third annual Encampment for Citizenship (EFC) Alumni Association event, held in Charlotte, NC, over the 2011 Memorial Day weekend, included substantive discussion of how we envision the EFC, along with a Cultural Night and an educational session focusing on civil and human rights issues.

Alumni represented six decades of encampments held around the country from 1946–1990 and enjoyed a weekend of reminiscences, discussions of social justice issues, and planning to revive the EFC in the 21st century.

The event opened with a presentation by Mirian Chavis on social justice issues affecting the North Carolina-based Lumbee Tribe, of which she is a member. It was a vivid reminder of similarly lively — and sometimes contentious — discussions at Encampments past.

The activity-packed weekend included a tour of the nearby Levine Museum of the New South; an evening sing-along to Chavis’s guitar; a poetry reading by LaVerne Byrd Smith (’47); and poetry and a fancy shawl dance by Mabel Picotte (’92) (photos are on Facebook).

Remembering experiences in Encampments across the country, from New York City to the Marin Headlands near San Francisco, the 21 alumni shared the importance of the EFC in their lives and committed to making sure that the youth of today have a similar opportunity to learn from people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Seeking Social Justice: The Lumbee Tribe
Presented by Mirian Chavis
“Despite being the largest Indian tribe east of the Mississippi River and one of the largest tribes in the nation, and more than 125 years of petitioning every branch of government in every form conceivable, the Lumbee Tribe remains the largest tribe in the United States without federal recognition as an Indian Tribe. Why does the federal government continue to deny the tribe’s petitions for recognition? Because it can!

“There will be no ‘Brown v. Board of Education’-like liberation with this issue. The Supreme Court decided long ago that the Constitution gives the legislative branch sole jurisdiction over such matters. Therefore, Constitutional protections such as ‘similarly situatedpeople should be treated similarly’ provided through the Equal Protection under the Law clause are not available to redress the obvious dismissal of legitimate claims regarding recognition of Indian tribes. The only solution for the Lumbee tribe is legislation.

“While Congress delegated recognition duties to the Executive Branch, a 1956 law recognizing the tribe as an Indian tribe but specifically excluding the tribe from any monetary entitlement pre-empts administrative recognition. The president of the United States cannot undo something Congress did, at least not without some legal wiggle room.

“It’s very difficult for a group of 60,000 to matter to a nation of more than 300 million, and rightfully so. How much squeak could one group possibly muster? That’s why we have Constitutional protections — to make sure the masses do not mistreat small groups.

“This issue is not just about the Lumbee Indian Tribe. It’s about social justice and holding government accountable for authoritative allocation of public goods and services. Holding government accountable for authoritative allocation of public goods and services is a duty of citizenship. Vigilance is the price of democracy. And this is why some really brave and prescient people started the Encampment for Citizenship in 1946.”

After Chavis’s presentation, the planning process began for re-establishing the next Encampment. The EFC Alumni Association took the first steps toward revival of the Encampment for Citizenship with the goal of holding the first new “mini” Encampment of one to two weeks in summer 2013.

The 21 former campers and leaders — including at least one alumnus from each of the five decades EFC operated — agreed that the new EFC will have to be developed in stages. The first stage will be bringing youth to Charlotte over Memorial Day weekend 2012 for an abbreviated program related to social justice and a focus group to prepare for summer 2013. Please save the date for the next EFCAA meeting in Charlotte, NC, the last weekend in May 2012.

Why revive the EFC?
At the heart of the 2011 alumni discussions was the belief that the Encampment can and must live again because it was a life-changing experience like no other, and the world is every bit as fraught with injustice now as it was in 1946, when the EFC began as Work Camps for Democracy. Indeed, alumni both at the 2011 event and in other communications through its Facebook page said the Encampment remained a major influence throughout their lives.

Some of the ways that EFC alumni say they changed during their Encampment summers:
• developed powerful relationships
• saw the power of individual action
• gained understanding of those with different backgrounds
• increased confidence
• developed leadership skills
• learned to accept feedback and to listen to others
• experienced democracy first-hand and
• learned about working with activist groups.

A new EFC mission statement
The first decision of the many, large and small, to be made was adopting a new EFC mission statement that incorporates both the origins of the Encampment in the 1940s and where it is headed in the 21st century:
            The EFC prepares young people to be informed, responsible and effective global
            citizens through experiential learning and living in a diverse, democratic community.

EFC committees
The group agreed that five committees would have specific goals for the coming year in the areas of fundraising, outreach to alumni for their participation, program development, communications, and planning next year's program and focus groups. Committee chairs will report on their progress through the year.

To get the EFC renewal off the ground, each participating alum made a financial pledge. Several other alumni who were unable to attend this year’s EFCAA event have also made pledges to support these efforts.

Initial questions and challenges
Participants in the 2011 EFCAA event identified a number of important questions and challenges to address in reestablishing the EFC.
* How do life experiences of youth today inform what the new EFC should look like?
* What are the potential issues the EFC youth program could address? Initial suggestions were immigration, social justice, international issues and youth participation in politics.
* What EFC goals would appeal today? leadership, experience in democratic living, benefits and challenges of living and working with peers from different socioeconomic, geographic and racial/religious/ethnic backgrounds — and, certainly, fun.
* How the EFC can appeal to youth through choice of Encampment location, potential for college or high-school grade or community-service credit, and support from school groups and leadership organizations.
* What would be the appropriate age of campers — high school or college? Factors to be discussed include different levels of EFC responsibility to younger vs. older campers and whether the EFC would appeal to college students pressed to pay school costs.

The alumni gathered in Charlotte in 2011 shared a powerful reminder of the experience that changed their lives and enlivened the social justice movements and organizations they have participated in for decades. Now they are forming the foundation for, once again, offering this unique experiment in social justice and democratic living to today’s youth. Now, more than ever, young people need an opportunity to live and learn in communities whose focus is critical thinking and social justice action. A revived EFC can provide that opportunity.

Join us by contacting the Encampment for Citizenship Alumni Association! Our website is www.efcalumni.com and our Facebook group is at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2381986793?ap=1.

Our thanks to the Dan Lucas Memorial Fund for its support of the 2010 EFC Reunion Cultural Night.

The 2010 EFC Alumni Reunion
About three dozen EFC alumni had a great time at the second annual EFC Alumni Reunion in May 2011 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture (NYSEC) in New York City. Building on the energy and participation of that event, we are planning a 2011 Encampment program; details to come! In the meantime, here are some scenes from the 2010 EFC Alumni Reunion.

About the EFC Alumni Association
Since the 2009 EFC alumni reunion, about a dozen participants and other alumni have been meeting regularly by conference call to create an EFC Alumni Association and work to secure the legacy of the Encampment. To date, the group has found a home for the EFC archives at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), created this website, held two reunions (see above), held an online survey for EFC participants, participates in a Facebook page, established a local address and checking account, and begun fundraising efforts.

Come back here regularly to see what we’re up to.

The 2009 EFC Alumni Reunion group.