From manski at greens.org Wed Aug 2 19:00:42 2006 From: manski at greens.org (Ben Manski) Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2006 19:00:42 -0500 Subject: [Corporations] Job with Progressive Dane in Madison, Wisconsin Message-ID: <44D13CAA.4010202@greens.org> ATTN - Looking for an organizing job in Madison, Wisconsin? This one might be for you! http://www.ProDane.org * * * * The position is about 25 hours/week, $10.25 - $12.00 per hour, with paid sick leave and a possible health insurance package. The deadline for applications is Tuesday, August 15 at noon. Interested parties should send cover letters and resumes to: Progressive Dane P.O. Box 1222 Madison, WI 53701 or E-mail applications materials (as Word Document attachments) to: office at prodane.org *Progressive Dane Organizer Job Description * June 2006 The organizer is Progressive Dane?s only paid staff. The position focuses on recruiting new members, retaining current members and getting them involved in the work of the organization, and office management. Attendance at various meetings is required. To recruit and retain members, the staff person must have a passionate belief in progressive third-party politics; share the values that underlie Progressive Dane?s work; have the skills to communicate our values and work to others; and the ability to persuade them to join the party. The staff person must be able to work on his or her own, be flexible, possess and ably use discretion, have good interpersonal skills, be creative and have a sense of humor. Basic knowledge of word processing, database and email programs is required, and some knowledge of website maintenance and graphic design is preferred. The position is budgeted for 25 hours per week. Additional hours are possible in the future if the staff person is successful in recruiting more members for the organization. Evening and weekend work is occasionally required. The staff person is supervised by the Co-Chairs of the Party and other interested Steering Committee members who join the Personnel Committee. The Personnel Committee meets bi-weekly with the staff person. The staff person does not work on any electoral campaigns. (We do this to avoid cumbersome campaign reporting requirements and because we have plenty of volunteers for this kind of work.) Any electoral activities in which the staff person participates must be done on his or her own time and are strictly voluntary. Except as directed by the Personnel Committee, the staff person also does not participate in the work of Progressive Dane committees, with the exception of the Organizing Committee. The staff person may be an active member of any committee she or he wishes, but this activity is strictly voluntary. The position pays $10.25 to $12 per hour, depending on experience. With only one staff person, Progressive Dane cannot offer group health insurance. However, the staff person may be able to negotiate some kind of benefits package with the Personnel Committee. The staff person works out details for vacation and sick days with the Personnel Committee. The staff person does not work more than 25 hours per week ? this really is a part-time job and extra work is not expected. The duties of the staff person are: */New Member Recruitment/Retention (55% of time)/* The primary task of the staff person is to bring new members into Progressive Dane. The staff person should have the ability to: ? identify new sources of members; ? design and implement strategies for contacting potential members; and ? persuade potential members to actually join. In the past, Progressive Dane has had great success in recruiting new members through various techniques, including mass mailings, house parties, door-to-door canvassing and speaking to sympathetic groups. However, the staff person has great discretion in how to pursue new members. The staff person will be required to develop a one-year work plan that will provide the context in which the staff person and Personnel Committee will evaluate the weekly work of the staff person. In addition, the staff person is responsible for getting current members to renew their annual memberships and for upgrading annual members to monthly sustainers. This is currently done on a quarterly basis and involves a mailing to members followed by reminder phone calls. This requires putting together a mailing and several phone banks. The staff person does not do all of this work, but is responsible for recruiting and supervising volunteers to do these tasks. */ /* */Coordinating Volunteers (15% of time)/* The staff person is also responsible for organizing our monthly volunteer night and periodic membership-related phone banks. At the monthly volunteer night, volunteers assemble the mailing of our newsletter and do other light work. (The staff person is not responsible for the newsletter, but is responsible for getting volunteers for this event.) The staff person must identify tasks suitable for volunteers of varying skill levels and supervise the work of those volunteers. Progressive Dane also has volunteers who commit to working substantial, regular hours of work. Examples are someone that maintains our database or interns from the University or from MATC. The staff person is responsible for identifying tasks suitable for these volunteers and for supervising their work. */Office Management (20% of time)/* The staff person is the first person to read our mail and email and to answer the phone. The staff person does not need to respond to all of this material, and indeed should not. But the staff person must be able to decide who should respond and get the material to the appropriate person. The staff person is responsible for maintaining our database and is the keeper of a Progressive Dane mailing list. In general, the staff person should not do those tasks that volunteers are able to do. The staff person may be under some pressure to undertake work on behalf of Progressive Dane committees and may be distracted by the minutia of office management. The staff person must have the ability to say no to any tasks that are not approved by the Personnel Committee and to forward to others those office management tasks that fall outside the staff person?s duties. The staff person should have a greater focus on recruiting and retaining members, and less focus on office management. */Meetings (10% of time)/* The staff person must attend certain meetings. Attendance at these meetings is considered part of the job and is paid. Attendance at all other meetings is strictly voluntary (and therefore unpaid) unless approved by the supervisory committee. The meetings the staff person must attend are: ? Personnel Committee (bi-weekly on weeks when there are not Steering Committee or General Membership Meetings); ? Steering Committee (second Wednesday of each month in the evening); and ? General Membership Meetings (fourth Wednesday of each month in the evening) Organizing Committee (first Monday of each month in the evening) -- Ben Manski Co-Secretary, Four Lakes Green Party of Dane County http://www.FourLakesGreenParty.org "We, the generation that faces the next century, can add the solemn injunction 'If we don't do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable'." ~ Petra Kelly See also: Wisconsin Green Party http://www.WisconsinGreenParty.org Green Party of the United States http://www.GP.org Liberty Tree http://www.LibertyTreeFDR.org From manski at greens.org Fri Aug 11 18:32:04 2006 From: manski at greens.org (Ben Manski) Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:32:04 -0500 Subject: [Corporations] [DEN] National Higher Ed Strategy Meeting - NOTICE & APPLICATION (Extended Deadline - August 25th) Message-ID: <44DD1374.8070009@greens.org> calling students, faculty, and campus workers . . . (Extended Deadline for applications - August 25th) NATIONAL MEETING FOR CAMPUS ORGANIZERS DEMOCRATIZING EDUCATION NETWORK SEPT 22-24, 2006, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Greetings, Two months from now, over the weekend of Sept 20-22, 2006, we will gather in Chicago some 40-60 campus organizers from a score U.S. colleges universities, to compare experiences, recent advances and setbacks, and to plan coordinated action for the coming year. You, or people you work with on your campus, could be among those organizers. Please take five minutes to read through this invitation. Contents include information regarding the Democratizing Education Network and Liberty Tree, an initial meeting agenda, initial travel and lodging logistics, and so on. At the end is a short application due August 1st. Lodging is covered, and we hope to be able to help with transportation (donations for transportation scholarships gratefully accepted). Please call or email immediately with any questions. We are looking for participants from many campuses. Maybe you, or some people you work with, would be ideal for this meeting. We are looking for participation from diverse campus communities, including especially communities of color, undergrads and grads, and staff and faculty. Gender balance is also a priority. The idea is to bring the campus communities together, and get ready to fight for higher education, and a democratic society, in '06-'07. For Education for Democracy! Carl Williams, Ben Manski, Pabitra Benjamin Liberty Tree Fellows ~ Democratizing Education Program Education at LibertyTreeFDR.org 608 257 1606 p.s. ~ The next Democratizing Education Convention - less oriented to planning actions, and more oriented to networking, skills, and issues workshops, will occur in the Spring. - - - A. ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIZING EDUCATION NETWORK On October 20, 2005, several hundred undergraduate, graduate, campus labor, faculty, and community organizers, hailing from nine states and two Canadian provinces, met at the first Democratizing Education Convention at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. In addition to holding skills workshops, policy briefings, and comparing notes, the convention created a new network of higher education organizers, the Democratizing Education Network (DEN). Since that convention, the DEN has served as a resource for campus organizing drives across the country, and has inspired a series of new student union organizing drives, campus solidarity actions, and a renewed Tent State University movement. The Democratizing Education Network accepts as its constituent organizations any campus or community organizations dedicated to the complete fulfillment of the goals detailed in the Democratic Higher Education Charter. Democratizing Education Network: http://www.libertytreefdr.org/event.php?event_id=95 http://www.DemocratizingEducation.org Liberty Tree's Democratizing Education Program: http://www.libertytreefdr.org/democratizingEducation.php B. ABOUT LIBERTY TREE The Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution is a non-profit organization rooted in the belief that the American Revolution is a living tradition whose greatest promise is democracy. Our central purpose is to build on the accomplishments of earlier American movements by launching a new stage in the struggle for democracy. Among our three chief program areas is our Democratizing Education Program. For more information, see: http://www.LibertyTreeFDR.org/ C. MEETING AGENDA Friday, Sept 22 4pm ? Check-In 6pm ? Dinner 7:30pm ? Campus Reports & Discussion Saturday, Sept 22 8:00am ? Breakfast 9:00am ? Organizing Updates & Discussions: Militarization Affirmative action Student unionism Campus labor Tent States Academic freedom Internationalism in education activism The GATS and higher ed Noon ? Lunch 2:00pm ? Coordination for the Coming Year: The Network Survey of upcoming crises, events Coordinated action(s) 7:00pm ? Dinner 9:00pm ? Social Sunday, Sept 23 9:00am ? Breakfast 10:00am ? The Democratizing Education Convention 1:00pm ? Goodbyes and Check-Out D. LODGING We will be staying at a conference center in Chicago. The facilities are dorms, and we will be meeting on-site. Lodging will be covered for retreat participants; however, should you or your organization be able to pay for your lodging, we can apply the savings toward travel scholarships for others. E. TRANSPORTATION Liberty Tree is prepared to provide some limited transportation assistance for participants who need this assistance. If you or your organization is able to make a contribution to help others attend the meeting, that would help a great deal. - - - - APPLICATION ? CHICAGO DEN MEETING PARTICIPATION Return to Carl Williams at Williams at LibertyTreeFDR.org by Aug 25th. NAME: EMAIL: PHONE: ADDRESS: CAMPUS: STUDENT/STAFF/FACULTY/UNION: AFFILIATIONS: PLEASE PROVIDE BRIEF ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: 1. Why do you want to participate? 2. What is your campus organizing and other organizing background? 3. What will your participation add to the retreat? 4. Will you be on campus next year? From manski at greens.org Fri Aug 11 19:33:28 2006 From: manski at greens.org (Ben Manski) Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 19:33:28 -0500 Subject: [Corporations] Register Now! 2006 LOCAL DEMOCRACY CONVENTION Message-ID: <44DD21D8.1040301@greens.org> Registration is open now for the . . . LOCAL DEMOCRACY CONVENTION: The Community Power Road to Democracy REGISTER NOW: http://www.LocalDemocracy.org Where: Madison, Wisconsin When: September 28-October 1, 2006 What: What: Maybe you've heard the news: The 2006 Local Democracy Convention is the next stop on the road to democracy in the USA! The Local Democracy Convention will feature some of the most cutting-edge local democracy organizing going on in the US and around the world. Convention participants will have opportunity to attend plenaries, panels, skills-building workshops, strategy sessions, and a party or two. Featuring presenters from around the US and the world, including Uruguay, Brazil, UK, Philippines, and the mayor of Caracas, Venezuela, Juan Barreto. Why: The US President says he's the decider. Congress and the Federal courts seem generally to agree. US military forces occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, among other countries. A national police state keeps watch on tens of millions of Americans. As the Federal government consolidates power further and further away from the people of the United States, now is a moment that evermore, to borrow from Thomas Paine, tries our souls. Across the United States, and around the world, the verdict is coming in: People are choosing local democracy over global oligarchy. The local alternative is becoming a movement: Did you know that . . . * Voters in 40 Vermont towns and 24 Wisconsin municipalities have put their communities on record for immediate withdrawal from Iraq? And that the war and presidential impeachment will be on the ballot nationwide come November? * The people of Humboldt County, California, as well as several Pennsylvania townships, have ruled corporate personhood unconstitutional? * The people of Venezuela have established direct economic aid programs for a growing number of major US cities? * The "Participatory Budgeting" process developed in Brazil is now on the agenda for community organizers across the US? * Voting rights advocates nationwide have succeeded in implementing Instant Runoff Voting, public financing of elections, and non-US-citizen voting rights in local elections? * US cities, large and small, have reinvested in public power, community cable, wireless, and cooperative development? * Local democracy initiatives have taken root across the globe, offering models for democratization here in the US? --> REGISTER NOW: http://www.LocalDemocracy.org * * * Join Liberty Tree today! Sign up online at http://www.LibertyTreeFDR.org REMEMBER: If someone forward this message to you, you are likely not subscribed to the Liberty Tree News service. In order to receive the Liberty Tree News, you must subscribe at: http://www.libertytreefdr.org/mailSubscribe.php