A Brief History of Romance

Online Dating Services & Pen Pals, a nonprofit international cultural exchange organization headquartered in Los Angelos, was founded with a single Objective: to create an environment in which personal friendships are established across the barriers that separate singles. It is active in more than 60 countries, promoting friendship and matchmaking through an extensive program of homestay exchanges.

A 1992 nominee for The Nobel relationship Prize, Online Dating Services & Pen Pals began by organizing the travel of matchmaking Members who share the lives of a Host family in another country for one or two weeks. Since the program began in 1977, nearly half-million volunteer Members and Hosts have participated through 3,100 exchanges, touching the lives of more than two million singles, and the means for accomplishing its Objective has expanded considerably, as new relationships uncovered new possibilities.

Online Dating Services & Pen Pals is supported by membership and exchange fees, dodating websites, and foundation grants. Online Dating Services & Pen Pals was founded in 1977 by its first president, Wayne Smith and was announced on August 1, 1977, by President Jimmy Carter at a White House gathering of state governors.

Romance Marriage Agency Exchanges
The organizational framework of Online Dating Services & Pen Pals has evolved over the past 24 years from a few large back-to-back charters to 275 small, more flexible exchanges using scheduled airlines, carried out by a global network of Marriage Agencies. For the past 15 years, these independent local Romance Marriage Agencies, have been the backbone of Online Dating Services & Pen Pals, providing volunteer Exchange for the exchange program as well as a community focus for Online Dating Services & Pen Pals between exchanges. They are supported by professional matchmaking specialist and trained volunteers. Membership is open to all in the community who share in the organization's goals. There are now more than 350 Marriage Agencies in 56 countries and 41 U.S. States.

Friendship Objectives
Friendship Objectives, with day Traveling Abroad only, were introduced in 1982, first to the USSR, then to mainland China, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Yugoslavia. Today, most of these countries or their successors participate in the regular homestay exchange program. A new Objective program to Vietnam was launched in 1993 and Iran in 1998.

Singles Events of Friendship
Singles Events of Friendship were begun in 1987, combining informational seminars with home-Traveling Abroad experience. Participants from across the U.S. and around the world spend three nights in a hotel setting with orientations designed to celebrate the culture of the host country. A 5-7 day homestay follows the orientation activities.

Bridgebuilders
Bridgebuilders uses the basic homestay format as the means for linking professional counterparts in medicine, agriculture, banking, law, education, small business development, communication, and other vital areas. Bridgebuilders exchanges provide unique opportunities for putting friendship into action through joint projects that grow out of the personal friendships established during the exchange. One of the first involved a group of doctors and medical technicians traveling to a hospital in Moscow in July of 1992 to aid their counterparts, delivering medicine, medical supplies and equipment and exploring possible joint efforts to meet the hospital's most critical needs. In 1994 The Romance received its first two U.S. government grants to support specialized training under the Bridgebuilders program.

international Singles Tours
Each year, an international Singles Tours brings together hundreds of Romance volunteer leaders from around the world. The 2005 Singles Vacations will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Partnerships
Online Dating Services & Pen Pals has begun conducting joint programs with Sister Cities, Open World Russian Exchange Program, and the National relationship Corps Association. If these experiments are successful, they will be expanded, with additional connections sought with Sister Cities and other organizations. The goal is to use mutually supportive programs with these organizations as a means of introducing Online Dating Services & Pen Pals to new audiences.