About Organizing
METRO INDUSTRIAL AREAS FOUNDATION
ORGANIZER RECRUITMENT
STRATEGY
GOAL
The Industrial Areas Foundation organizations in the northeast, southeast, and midwest are seeking to recruit, train, and develop a new generation of organizers to work in one of the groups that already exist and to assist in new strategies and targeted campaigns. Metro IAF is seeking women and men from colleges, graduate programs, seminaries, business and law schools, the military, political campaigns, social change, and other professions who are interested in exploring careers in organizing.
To succeed in this effort, a network of talent scouts is critical – professors, deans, human resources professionals, and other recruiters, who meet large numbers of engaged and curious people who have an appetite for power and a commitment to create social change.
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
The basic qualities that we look for in potential organizers are:
NATIVE INTELLIGENCE – not necessarily degrees, but the ability to think, reflect, communicate, challenge the conventional wisdom, make judgments in complicated situations, and show flexibility.
- ANGER AND EDGE – not temper, not ideological fervor, not an abstract commitment to “the people,” but a clear sense of what’s wrong, impatience in the face of that wrong, and a drive to address it.
- A WILLINGNESS TO CROSS RACE AND CULTURE – to be willing to work with people unlike oneself, people of other races, classes, orientations, faiths.
- A TRACK RECORD – some evidence, in high school, college, the local community, the workplace of attempting to relate to people and to respond to situations that seemed to demand responses; and some success in whatever field or career or endeavor has occupied the individual’s time.
WHAT IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE?
Review the IAF Organizer Recruitment Brochure and Complete & Return a One-Page Organizer Prospect Profile.
