RSVP & EICAP

A VERY logical question is: "How did RSVP wind up under the EICAP umbrella?"

To answer this question, we must first look at the birth of RSVPs. RSVPs are modeled on a small social experiment that took place in Upstate New York in the late 1960's. Someone in Congress latched onto the concept and idea and pushed legislation to create yet another federal bureaucracy to propagate the concept nationwide. Lo and behold, the House & Senate passed a bill creating RSVP and guess who signed it? Richard M. Nixon! Yep, Tricky Dick signed RSVP into law in 1972. Well, in those heady early days, there were vast sums of money available with very little strings attached. The gubmint wanted to get RSVPs up and running everywhere all at once. The legislation as written by Congress mandated that every RSVP have a "sponsor."
RSVPs couldn't be creatures out on their own. The fear was back then RSVPs might become "loose cannons" if they were on their own with no oversight or overhead. Congress eliminated that fear by tying all RSVP's into a sponsor relationship. No sponsor--no RSVP.

As a result, it was up to each local area or community as to how and who might step into the vacuum and attempt to become an RSVP sponsor. Bear in mind that in those days, no one really even knew what an RSVP was supposed to be. All they generally knew that there was money available and it was fairly easy to get. It was the proverbial brass ring. As a result, community organizations by the hundreds rushed forward to grab the brass ring and get themselves an RSVP. At that time EISSA was newly minted and barely 4 years old. This whole "RSVP thing" seemed too good to be true--getting money to help match up volunteers with organizations who needed their help. What a great idea!

However, this is STILL Eastern Idaho and so EISSA wasn't quite as quick on the draw as many other people in America. While many RSVP were formed in 1972-73, this one didn't come into being until 1974. Nevertheless, that's pretty fast for Eastern Idaho in the early 1970's!

For the bulk of its early existence, RSVP and EISSA were a great match with one hand helping the other hand. This was long before many other of today's programs had been added to the marque. This was also when there was a general outpouring of popular support for community volunteerism. People were coming forth in droves wondering where and how they could volunteer. It was the dawn of a whole new era in the World of Volunteerism.

As a side note here, you have to bear in mind that prior to the early 1970's, there were few, if any, institutionalized ways to volunteer. RSVP was the classic "better mousetrap" when it first came into existence. The early 1970's represented a real sea change in how American non-profits and government agencies looked at volunteerism.

Take the Forest Service, for example. Prior to 1972, the Forest Service didn't even have a legal way for people to volunteer for that agency! It took an entire body of law, passed and signed also in 1972, to legalize volunteering for the Forest Service. We tend to assume today that institutionalized volunteering has always been around. It hasn't. It's relatively new in the grand scheme of things. So, please realize that RSVP was welcomed with open arms and enjoyed huge success in its early days.

Back when it first became part of EISSA, RSVP was a fundamental part of assisting the delivery of program services. I'd guess that's its budget was also a significant percentage of EISSA's overall budget. Today, nothing could be farther from the truth.

RSVP's budget today represents perhaps one half of a percent of EICAP's overall budget. Today, RSVP has little or no role in EICAP's stated mission. Today, RSVP is a dangling appendage with little or no real purpose in EICAP's day-to-day operations. Only a small percentage of EICAP staff have any idea whatsoever what RSVP does. The shifting sands of time have relegated RSVP to a dusty corner in the EICAP structure.

As EICAP evolved, the Area VI Agency on Aging became a large part of EICAP's bag of tricks.
RSVP was conveniently swept into the AAA corner and is now mostly out-of-sight and out-of-mind. It's easy to get the idea that RSVP is more of a nuisance to EICAP than anything else.

Many people in EICAP think that all RSVP's are sponsored by Community Action Partnerships.
That's far from true. It's estimated that as few as 10% and as many as 20% of nationwide RSVPs are sponsored by CAP's. The huge prevailing majority of RSVPs are sponsored by vibrant non-profits and government agencies. RSVP really has nowhere to go in EICAP and no real way to progress and prosper. RSVP is a functional subjugate of EICAP and it has been held onto (as far as I can discern) simply for the prestige of the logo and a few passing "talking points."
EICAP has no real purpose for hanging onto the RSVP but, by the same token, it will never let it go. It's unthinkable that a bureaucracy would voluntarily let go of one of its programs. It goes against the whole concept of "agency turf."

RSVP is totally mismatched now with EICAP as a partner. We will discuss that in much more detail in subsequent blog posts. Suffice to say there's nothing you can do about what we've identified here. You are stuck with it and they with you. Your challenge is to make the best of it within the institutional constraints that you face. It's a tall challenge, there's no doubt about that!