Last Thursday evening I attended an event at Rutgers University, a reception to honor the first Peace Corps volunteers. Now in their seventies, these men were in their twenties when they answered President Kennedy’s call for young people to serve their country to perpetuate peace through living and working in developing nations. Nicknamed “Colombia 1” for their service destination, the men (all men at that time) trained for three months at Rutgers University in the summer of 1961.

Thirty-five of the original 62 volunteers returned to the place where their life-altering journey started. Rutgers was honored to have them return.

I was in Rome this past week for a conference. Alone on the Spanish Steps, waiting to meet friends for dinner, I watched a group of T-shirt clad American study-abroad students struggling with limited Italian, a shared Fodor’s guide, and a map.

Watching the new batch of study abroad students getting comfortable on the marble steps of Rome’s lap, my first surge of emotions was pure jealousy.

Seductive Rome was starting to flirt. Twenty-three short years ago, the Eternal City was flirting with me -- in the exact same place.

Are you a member of a global team or leading a global team? If so you may be interested in this FREE webcast I will be conducting for the Human Capital Institute on the influence of cultural differences on the productivity of global teams.

The webcast is live this September 30th at noon (EDT) but will be recast on October 1, 3, or 4.

If you are interested, please register directly through the Human Capital Institute.

Paula

Wiley Publishers just sent me an advanced copy of a professional trade book I wrote with my colleagues Dave Lepak and Jaime Bonache entitled Managing the Global Workforce. The primary audiences for the book are Human Resource (HR) professionals and students in HR courses. (My Rutgers Master of HRM students who have already graduated just breathed a collective sigh of relief. Could you hear it?)

Here's an amusing publishing question for you: How could a book that has not yet been released be available to purchase "used" from Amazon.com? Talk about an industry with a short life span. Yeesh.