Job title: SENIOR MENTOR-ORGANIZER

Organization: LGBT MENTORING PROJECT

 

Background on the organization

The LGBT Mentoring Project provides mentoring, coaching, training, and support to LGBT and allied political leaders who are committed to building larger, stronger, much more effective organizations working to secure LGBT rights.

A senior mentor-organizer works side-by-side with established leaders, new potential leaders, and leadership teams.Partner organizations in the past year have included the Vote for Equality Project of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, Equality Maine, and Ask Cleveland.

The Mentoring Project provides consistent, frequent, face-to-face, one-on-one, on-site mentoring. We believe this type of mentoring is essential to identify and develop great leaders and teams. The Mentoring Project is a pilot—an experiment—to test this hypothesis, and to see if this form of intensive mentoring produces measurable results in organizational growth, strength, and productivity. The experiment has shown enough promise to date that we’ve expanded it each year over the last three years.

 

Description of the position

The Mentoring Project would prefer to hire a full-time senior mentor-organizer based in Los Angeles who would both work closely with Vote for Equality and also with a small number of other organizations, some in California, some around the country. We would also consider hiring a part-time senior mentor-organizer not based in Los Angeles,with the understanding that a significant part of the work would require travel to Los Angeles.

A strong candidate for senior mentor-organizer must already be a terrific organizer. You can’t teach it if you haven’t done it. You must have practical experience taking initiative, and recruiting a team to take action with you. You must be terrific at:

• making a strong ask – a strong ask is one where, face-to-face, you ask people to make a specific commitment to get active in a campaign, and they make a commitment, and then they show up and live up to that commitment;
  
• doing a 1-on-1—that means talking with a volunteer face-to-face, identifying their self-interest in getting involved, and recruiting them to take on a job that excites them, plays to their strengths, and moves the campaign forward;
  
• recruiting large numbers of volunteers face-to-face and on the phone, and motivating them so they actually get involved doing political work;
  
• teaching practical political skills and problem-solving; and
  
• increasing the number of volunteers who become leaders.
  

Experience organizing on LGBT community issues is a plus.

Experience working to defeat an anti-gay ballot measure is a big plus.

Fluency in Spanish is a plus.

Experience organizing in communities of color is a plus.

Experience building a strong LGBT political organization or campaign is a plus.

Experience as a mentor is crucial. As part of your organizing, you should have gained experience not only motivating others to do their best, but also motivating others to reexamine their habits and assumptions; to be open to new ideas; to experiment with new forms of action, even when that means going outside of their comfort zone. You need to challenge and agitate leaders to do better thinking – leaders whose current habits and assumptions need to be better to meet the challenges they and their organization are facing.

At the same time, you must be the kind of person from whom others want to receive coaching and mentoring. You’ve got to be interesting, smart, and kind. You need both a sense of humor, and a deep and abiding interest in the people you’re working with. You have to have respect and curiosity about people, whether they are new volunteers or old-timers, whether they rank high in the organization or not. You have to communicate that respect, and the joy you find in your public relationships.

The two most important aspects of this are:

1. You have to enjoy catching people doing something right and, when you do, you have to enjoy praising them for what they’ve done; and
   
2. You have to notice when people do something wrong and, when you do, you have to embrace the necessity of giving them clear, specific criticism in a humane way. As much as you need people to like you, you have to regularly take the risk of being disliked. You need to be far more direct and honest than the norm – and you have to offer your critique with genuine kindness.
   

You must be outstanding at listening, observing, and asking questions, and at least reasonably good at speaking, reading, and writing. Excellence in this entire range of communications skills is a big plus.

Finally, in our experience,you must be self-critical. That means: even when you do something well, you’re intensely curious about how you can do it better next time. You push yourself to aim higher. You regularly seek out advice and ideas from others, not to substitute for your own judgment, but to augment and challenge it.

Supervisor: Dave Fleischer, Director of the Project

Compensation: Equivalent to an annual, full-time salary of $50,000 - $80,000, depending upon experience and capability.

Start date: February 21, 2010

To apply, please send a cover letter and your resume to jobs@lgbtmentoring. org.

The LGBT Mentoring Project is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. We particularly encourage applications from women and people of color.

The process of achieving your goals, dreams and aspirations is tough. So why do some people succeed while others don't? Are those people lazy and if so why? Author and media personality Herndon Davis explores the topic of lazy people in his video commentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIn1qgpcgio

From: Elk Whistle <elk.whistle@...>
Subject: Fwd: M.Borne's Swan Lake - 12/27/2009,.....
To: "Damon Murphy" <drdjm2010@...>, elkwhistle2010@..., "Elk Whistle" <elkwhistle2005@...>
Date: Sunday, December 27, 2009, 9:14 AM

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elk Whistle <elk.whistle@...>
Date: Sun, Dec 27, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Subject: M.Borne's Swan Lake - 12/27/2009,.....
To: darrell.hill@..., "A.L." <anthonylucas2@...>, C & G <CMLeard@...>, Courtney Williams <courtney.williams@...>, "D.B." <db3_dc@...>, DJ Erin <DJERIN2K@...>, Flying Thunder Cloud <maudehills@...>, "M. Deal" <africanhdd@...>, "M.F." <marlyforde@...>, "M.M." <amadjn@...>, Qwo-Li Driskill <qwo-li@...>, "R. Davis" <droptop411@...>, Phoenix Tremaine <auditionmail@...>, Will-BmoreBaker <wsm3000@...>, "mdmwalkersbraids@..." <mdmwlkrsbraids@...>, mj <maryjack@...>, "P.B." <spcgrad@...>

Please check out Matthew Borne's Swan Lake, the one that the "Billy Elliot" story was based upon. I saw the rehearsals in London with a friend of mine Edward who performed in it and it was awesome.

 

http://www.musicomh.com/theatre/swan-lake.htm

--
"Do Na Da Gahvoni Wado" - Cherokee Language for Goodbye

"TEAM WORK, MAKES THE DREAM WORK"!
Elk Whistle

--
"Do Na Da Gahvoni Wado" - Cherokee Language for Goodbye

"TEAM WORK, MAKES THE DREAM WORK"!
Elk Whistle

DLUV

From: President Barack Obama <info@...>
Subject: A historic moment
To: "DARREN WRIGHT" <dbw45us@...>
Date: Thursday, December 24, 2009, 11:25 AM

DARREN -- Although it's Christmas Eve, I wanted to share some exciting news: The Senate just passed a historic health reform bill. In all the back and forth, it's easy to lose sight of what this incredible breakthrough really means. But consider this: This Christmas, there are millions of Americans without health insurance who risk losing everything if they get sick. There are mothers and fathers who wonder how they'll provide for their children because an illness has wiped out their savings. There are small business owners who worry that they'll have to lay off a long-time employee because the cost of insurance is rapidly rising. If we finish the job, all this can change. We will have beaten back the special interests who have for so long perpetuated the status quo. We will have enacted the most important piece of social policy since the Social Security Act in the 1930s, and the most important health reform since Medicare in the 1960s. In Decembers to come, millions more will have access to affordable coverage. Parents will have the security and stability of knowing their insurance can't be revoked at a moment's notice. And the skyrocketing costs plaguing our small businesses will be brought under control. When you make calls, write letters, organize, this is the change you're making -- a better life for your family and for men and women in every state. There is still more to do before I can sign reform into law -- a last round of negotiations and final votes in the Senate and the House -- and I'm counting on your help every step of the way. But for now, I hope that as you celebrate this holiday season, you remember that the work you are doing is making our union more perfect, one step at a time. For that, I am grateful to you. Merry Christmas and happy holidays, President Barack Obama P.S. -- Organizing for America supporters are signing a note of appreciation to all the senators who have worked so hard to make this possible. I hope you'll join them: http://my.barackobama.com/SenateLetter

Paid for by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee -- 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. This email was sent to: dbw45us@... Change Email Address | Unsubscribe

From: WB <mruniverse08@...>
Subject: [BlackGayChristian] Inspiration: "Savor the Challenge"
To: "WB" <mruniverse08@...>
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 8:30 AM

 

Let’s face it…life can truly be difficult.  There’s no getting around it.

 

So, the question becomes…”Do we shy away from hardship or do we face it head on?”

 

We must learn to savor every challenge in life.  God allows certain things in order to draw us closer into his loving arms.  So don’t focus merely on the difficulty…but take keen notice of why the challenge has come.  A different perspective will always give you a renewed outlook.

 

Have a great Tuesday!

 

Will

From: WB <mruniverse08@...>
Subject: RE: [BlackGayChristian] Re: Grading Barak
To: BlackGayChristian@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 4:30 PM

 

This has definitely been an interesting read.

 

I am a Barack Obama supporter.  While I am wishing him and his administration all the best, I believe that he should not have given himself a grade…whether it would have been an A or an F.  My reasoning is that he is in the middle of his test.  Someone used the analogy of school.  You don’t grade yourself at the beginning.  You grade yourself at the end of the exam.  As someone else stated, we cannot expect him to accomplish everything that needs to be done in a mere eleven months.

 

We tend to focus on the bad things over the past eight years of Bush, but there was much more crazy stuff done during Clinton, Bush 41, Reagan and so on.  The financial mess didn’t start with Bush…Clinton and Larry Summers were the one who allowed the banks to get to the place that they are today.

 

Barack has not instituted much change within the first year either…he has continued with Bush policies of executive privilege for his social secretary when she failed to perform her duties because she wanted to be at the party; he is continuing with warrantless wiretapping; he is continuing with rendition and continued jail sentences for those in Cuba; the list goes on.

 

Do I blame him for not getting things turned around immediately…No.  Do I believe that he has changed a lot…No, not as of yet.

 

He doesn’t deserve a B or an F right now.  Neither does he deserve an incomplete.  He’s still in the midst of the class, the test, the whatever you wish to call it.

 

And I agree..we should make our voices more heard.  Evidence shows that we are not really doing that as a whole.

 

I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread.

 

Will

 

From: BlackGayChristian@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:BlackGayChr istian@yahoogrou ps.com] On Behalf Of Royce B. Smith
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 2:30 PM
To: BlackGayChristian@ yahoogroups. com
Subject: Re: [BlackGayChristian] Re: Grading Barak

 

 

Herndon, After being a seventh grade teacher for several years, Obama, like my students, often would see themselves in places where they wished to be when they reached a particular place. In other words, I often had children when asked: "Where do you feel that you stand in this class up to this point?" Whereas their response would be "I feel that I am an A" student or "B" student. Judging thier work and progress sometimes I could agree while at other times I smiled and in my own mind would say: "Keep dreaming but I shall not deter you." So, sometimes, Herndon, is it wise to destroy a person's dream of themselves when we are only at the beginning? Giving yet another analogy, I've seen plenty of football games played whereas it seemed that Team A would loose because Team B had a greater score in the beginning of the game... however at the end of the game, Team A wins. I just believe that Obama is Team A and began with major set backs that plagues his adminsitration. Personally, I think he scored himself too low because no other President with the exception of Kennedy managed to help to bring change so quickly within this country. What more do we expect during the course of change? Did we think that change was supposed to be something easy? What more do we want? Yes, the economy is terrible! Nevertheless, have you considered this one thing... What are the consequences of withdrawing the troops from everywhere? Are we prepared to face the challenges of bringing that many more soldiers back to a place where there is NO employment for them after they leave the military? Economically, if we look at it, has Obama not insisted on job stability for at least one sector of the country... the military? How many times have the Veterans Adminsitration been visited recently by people who say that Obama is so horrible for calling upon more troops? Just how do we as Americans treat our Veterans? Are the Veterans from the Persian Gulf employable or being employed? Are the Veterans from the Iraq Conflict being employed after their time is up? Have we, people who claim we want so many liberties, truly looked at the big picture? If I were an advisor to Obama, and the nation needs to thank god that I am not, I would advise him this... Give the people what they want! Withdraw troops from EVERY base out there... Leave nothing unturned... bring everyone home! Since we have become so smug in our ideas, withdraw from everywhere and bring all of the soldiers home. Then, decrease the military! Demand complete payment from all bailouts within a year. If this isn't accomplished, take over the banks. Forget universal healthcare all together. Who cares if we are supposed to be a new age country. If you get sick and can't afford it... oh well! Pray that someone has pity on you!   Then, yes, one should truly be amazed that the President gave himself a grade of B+ because then we would give him an A+ because at that point he would be exactly like his predecessors! But if that is what you want out of him, remember, he can always oblige you and give you what you ask for. But what we are asking for takes times. Allow him to grade himself however he wants to, TIME tells the true story exactly like my seventh graders who were asked the same question. Is it achievable? Indeed it is. Because if we turn the equation around and ask "How do you grade yourself?" Just how owuld you grade you? I really pray that you would not grade yourself an "F" when, like you, like me, like everyone else, it just takes time to achieve the "A" and a "B+" should be how highly everyone thinks of themselves.  "To thine own self be true" - William Shakespeare Royce Bryant Smith --- On Wed, 12/16/09, herndon@herndondavi s.com <herndon@herndondavi s.com> wrote: From: herndon@herndondavi s.com <herndon@herndondavi s.com> Subject: Re: [BlackGayChristian] Re: Grading Barak To: BlackGayChristian@ yahoogroups. com Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 1:21 PM   Royce and Terrance   On the surface your arguments make sense and I would initially be inclined to agree with you until Pres. Barack Obama himself found it within his infinite wisdom to grade himself a B+ on Oprah's Christrmas special on Sunday!?!?!    After 8 years of George W. chaos and the clean up that has to happen plus the aftermath of the AIG mess; the continued bank bailout where money goes in to help banks but no loans go out to help small businesses; and the huge multimillion dollar payouts to a few employee while the averge joe and his family goes homeless.   Meanwhile unemployment continues to jump into double digits across the nation and now Obama escalates the war in Afghanistan further with another $15-30B expense.  So if his grade is really an Incomplete and really should take 3 years to measure why can't the president himself see this and fess up as such on Oprah???  Instead he lavishes himself with a B+   http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=EQZYTfzGgMA ____________ _________ _________ ______ www.herndondavis. com The Herndon Davis Diversity Reports Cultural diversity that inspires, entertains and enlightens.. . --- On Wed, 12/16/09, Terrance Miller <terrance_miller@ sbcglobal. net> wrote: From: Terrance Miller <terrance_miller@ sbcglobal. net> Subject: [BlackGayChristian] Re: Grading Barak To: BlackGayChristian@ yahoogroups. com Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 1:15 PM   Royce I agree wholeheartedly with you.   It would be s naive of us to think that Barrack can go into office and make the African Americans his first agenda item... not.   Even though he's the president he still has to play the game.   The amount of time  he has been in office he has done more than many presidents that proceeded him.    I don't think he's not concern with the major issue.  I believe he has to be strategic in what he does.  Lets see how things look in two years to see where he's going.  We have to give him time.  We also have to utilize our voice, as we're doing here, to let him know how we feel.      Terrance Miller

 

DLUV

From: National Black Justice Coalition <c+nbjc@...>
Subject: Tom Joyner Morning Show talks about Homophobia in the Black Community
To: dbw45us@...
Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 4:53 PM

Jeff Johnson's Truth on TJMS If you are having difficulty hearing the audio, please click here to use a more compatible file format. We'd like to call your attention to a commentary from yesterday's Tom Joyner Morning Show, from regular TJMS commentator Jeff Johnson. This brief clip includes commentary on the great lengths some factions went to in trying (unsuccessfully) to prevent Houston's election of an openly lesbian mayor, which leads Jeff Johnson to call out what he sees as a crisis caused by the African American community's unwillingness to be honest about its own homophobia.  The clip is less than six minutes long, but in that time Jeff speaks an awful lot of truth to those that may not always want to hear it. For those that don't know his work, Jeff Johnson is a Washington, DC based journalist, activist and commentator.  He is the author of Everything I'm Not Made Me Everything I Am: Discovering Your Personal BEST and is chief correspondent for talk show The Truth With Jeff Johnson. This clip is an example of the type of dialogue we need - open and honest, and a call to action asking the Black community to "stop being afraid, and start being willing to understand."  His willingness and courage in speaking truth to those who may not want to hear it is inspirational, energizing and deserving of our praise. To stop receiving email from National Black Justice Coalition, click here.