The National Council for International Visitors (NCIV) was incorporated in the District of Columbia in 1961. Initially known as COSERV (Community Services to International Visitors), its name was changed to the National Council for International Visitors in 1982. NCIV is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to expanding opportunities for citizen diplomats and providing services to members that help them be more effective citizen diplomats.
It is governed by a 16-member Board of Directors nominated by NCIV members and elected by the Board after recommendations are made by the Nominating and Leadership Development Committee.
NCIV has since grown to include 90 private, non-profit organizations around the country, representing communities in 43 states, as well as 7 program agencies, 27 associate members and numerous individual and corporate members. The NCIV network of citizen diplomats is strengthened by its reliance on dedicated community volunteers committed to increasing international understanding by opening their homes, schools, businesses, local government, and nonprofit agencies to leaders from abroad. Each year more than 80,000 volunteers working with the NCIV's program agency and community members provide short-term professional and cultural programs for visitors from around the world--prominent leaders in business, academia, the arts, science, agriculture, politics, and the media. In 2001, Senator Arlen Specter nominated these volunteer citizen diplomats for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The International Visitors served by the NCIV network are participants in the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program, other international exchange programs, and guests of local governments, corporations, universities, medical and research centers, and other professional organizations.
For more than 60 years, the International Visitor Leadership Program has brought foreign leaders and specialists to the United States for firsthand exposure to their professional counterparts and U.S. society. It is described by U.S. Ambassadors as one of the most effective foreign policy tools of American diplomacy. The Program's distinguished alumni include such individuals as Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Anwar Sadat, Giscard D'Estaing, Indira Gandhi, Julius Nyerere, Oscar Arias, and F.W. deKlerk. NCIV members have served as the U.S. Department of State's private sector partners since the inception of the International Visitor Leadership Program.
NCIV Southern Regional Meeting - August 6-8, 2008 - 
