Job Opening - American Federation of Teachers - Texas 

Below is information regarding a great job opportunity for the American Federation of Teachers here in Texas (T-AFT).

For those individuals interested in political work and who got their start block-walking and phonebanking for President Obama's campaign, it could be a good way to expand your skills and enhance your resume. 

Temporary Political Assistant: Texas AFT

Position: Temporary Political Assistant $2,600/Monthly Position runs from hire date to November 3rd, 2010.

Position Summary: Under the supervision of the Texas AFT Director of Legislative and Political Mobilization, Tanya Tarr, the Temporary Assistant will focus on running successful member-to-member mobilization campaigns in his or her assigned region, including but not limited to: volunteer recruitment, organizing and running daily phone banks, and organizing and implementing door-to-door canvassing. All work will be focused on communicating with membership, their families, and public school employees in support of the November 2010 elections.
 

Position Responsibilities and Requirements:

•    Oversee the day-to-day implementation of grassroots activities in support of the union's political programs, including daily phone banking and door-to-door canvassing, twice per month.
•    Provide daily and weekly political reports, including number of volunteers scheduled, number of dial attempts done through the phone bank, number of Identifications (IDs) for endorsed candidates of Texas AFT and local affiliates, and number of IDs and attempts from canvassing.
•    ID and recruit volunteers from Texas AFT membership; build volunteer lists and upload data daily to VAN and My Campaigns.
•    Other duties as assigned.
•    Must be willing to work weekends and irregular hours.
•    Must possess a car, car insurance and a valid driver's license.

Primary Knowledge and Skills
•    Must have at least one year of field campaign experience.
•    Must be a team-oriented individual
•    Must have excellent communication skills, with experience speaking to, training and working with diverse groups.
•    Familiarity with online programs such as VAN is helpful.

Additional Knowledge and Skills
• • •
 

Labor union experience helpful. Bilingual (Spanish-English) ability a plus. Knowledge of public education also a plus.

The difference between this job and working on a campaign is that folks would be working directly with our members: teachers, school clerical staff, bus drivers, school nurses and public school employees across Texas.  We'll be supporting all endorsed statewide races, as well as critical house races and a few local school board races, educating our members on what's at stake and directly supporting races that have a huge impact on our members.
 
The campaign techniques are the same - but the work we do this and every other campaign season not only helps get our endorsed candidates elected, but directly builds our union.  The temporary political assistant's impact stretches far beyond this fall.
 
For anyone interested in the Labor Movement, this job can be an excellent resume builder.
 
Regions I'm still hiring for include:
Austin
Dallas
El Paso
Houston Suburbs (Fort Bend, Cypress-Fairbanks)
San Antonio

Please email resume directly to Tanya Tarr, ttarr@texasaft.org.

Democratically Yours,

Melanie Aranda
President
Texas Young Democrats